with video: NPR's Michele Norris visits University of Michigan and asks students to submit '6-word truths' on race

By Kellie Woodhouse Higher education reporter

Posted on Tue, Mar 12, 2013 : 2:54 p.m.

Previous story: 6 words to describe race: U-M is first campus in U.S. to join Michele Norris' Race Card Project

If someone asked you to summarize your thoughts on race in six words, what would you say?

Michele Norris, a correspondent who has worked with NPR, "Meet the Press" and ABC News, visited University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus Tuesday and did exactly that.

Norris walked through the Michigan Union and the Diag approaching students and encouraging them to submit a six-word statement on race. The statement is part of Norris' race card project, which she is bringing to U-M this semester.

Michele Norris hit the Diag at the University of Michigan on Tuesday to encourage students to write six-word statements about race.

Kellie Woodhouse | AnnArbor.com

It's her project's first partnership with a university.

Norris, who spoke at U-M during a Martin Luther King Jr. symposium last year, was invited by the college to bring her race card project to Ann Arbor. The project is one of many events occurring this semester under U-M's "understanding race" theme.

"It grew out of a family memoir I wrote. It was my way to try to ease conversations about race," Norris said of the race card project.

"The university approached me because they were doing this campus-wide examination of race in an attempt to help people understand each other better. I thought it was a perfect partnership because that's what I try to do with the race card project: allow people to learn what life is like as lived by someone else," Norris continued, calling the statements "six-word truths as to what life is like."

Norris met U-M President Mary Sue Coleman and other administrators this morning and discussed the project. The administrators crafted their own six-word truths on race.

Sterling Christopher Sherman, a senior informatics major, was approached by Norris on the Diag. On his card, he wrote: "Not a biological construct. Social construct."

Sherman said the project raises awareness about issues of race.

"We should really be looking at people, more than just skin color," he said. "I think this project is really something that is trying to push that positive effort forward."

Norris plans to return to Ann Arbor on April 18 for a town hall-style discussion on race. On that day, the completed race cards will be collected and displayed on the Diag.

A sampling of race card entries from Ann Arbor:

Stereotypes shape expectations, destroys self-image

I am not my hair #India.Arie

Double consciousness hinders minority progression worldwide

Race/Ethnicity does not equal Nationality

Race means acceptance of our differences

Better than before, but not good

We are all a little racist

Everywhere, yet not even skin deep