SLU Community Invited to Participate in Race Card Project

The Saint Louis University community is invited to share their thoughts and experiences on race, identity, and culture as part of the Race Card Project. 

In 2010, journalist Michele Norris founded the Race Card Project, inviting people to condense their thoughts on the word race to only six words. More than 500,000 personal narratives from all 50 states and 96 countries have been collected today.

Norris is an opinion columnist for the Washington Post and a former host of NPR’s afternoon magazine show, All Things Considered. She also served as a special correspondent for NPR on race and identity in America.

Norris will bring her Race Card Project to campus on Tuesday, April 4. Submissions to the online form will be anonymously read by students from the Fine and Performing Arts Department from 12-1 p.m. at the Clocktower.

Katrina Moore, Ph.D., associate professor of African American studies and history and associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion and engagement for the College of Arts and Sciences, reflected on her six words.

"So proud, and yet so tired,” Moore said. “Michele Norris has started such a simple idea that has the potential to manifest into dynamic conversations.”

Moore says we are currently experiencing a problematic time in our society and that these short phrases can transform society.

“The Race Card Project is not simply asking for a list of your racial, gender, and political identities, but instead, it forces us to think about our cultural identity and its relationship with experiences and to create a concise yet complex phrase of six words or less that describes who we are at this moment in time,” Moore said. 

Norris’ lecture on “The Race Card Project: Eavesdropping on America's Conversation on Race” will be held at 7 p.m. in the St. Louis Room (BSC 300) at SLU’s Busch Student Center.

The event is sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Communication and the Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement. Students who are interested in joining Michele Norris for a roundtable discussion about the Race Card Project are encouraged to contact CASDEI@slu.edu. Spots for the event are limited. 

The talk is free and open to the public. To ensure a spot at the event, register in advance.

Register to Attend

About Saint Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 13,500 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.