An interesting collection of stories from the race card project. This will be a nice addition to the “coffee table” to spark discussions of race in America.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great and important book. I started this ebook in January and DNF'd it, but it was awesome as an audiobook. Different voices for each story gave a complete picture of how each person thinks about race in America. We often think about the big structural consequences of race theory, but this broke down the simple day-to-day issues. Informative and emotional.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

Michele Norris, Washington Post journalist and former host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" radio show, has assembled a thought-provoking and comprehensive collection of American voices reflecting on race, ethnicity, and identity. These stories represent the culmination of The Race Card Project, begun in 2010, when Norris asked respondents to voice their hopes, dreams, frustrations, challenges, and observations in a pithy 6 word comment. I like how Norris not only includes the 6 word cards, but also provides in-depth, detailed profiles of some of her respondents. A timely read!

This is an emotional read and a very important and a great book to give insight into conversations of importance this author did a great job writing this? I was unaware of the red card postcard before reading this. Which I thought was a great idea.
This book would make a great book club pick because your probably going to want to discuss this book after reading it.

Wow. I loved OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS by Michele Norris. The prompt of "Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send." was so brilliant. I was fascinated to read how the responses grew and how Norris began processing the results. I could not put down this book.

A deep, timely, and thought-provoking book, Our Hidden Conversations is a must-read. Well-known former NPR commentator Michele Norris began The Race Project years ago, first leaving postcards for the taking and completing.

The cards read:
“Race, Your Thoughts, 6 Words. Please Send."

Response was overwhelming. People submitted six-word opinions, autobiographies, histories, secrets, wishes, dreams. The submissions, the honest, the heartbreaking, the angry— continue even to the present, now online. Over half a million have commented.

Meanwhile, Norris analyzed, organized, reached out to many for details, photos, backstories. The resulting book is monumental, not always easy to read or identify with, but always eye-opening and immensely important.

Our Hidden Conversations What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity by Michele Norris

528 Pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: January 16, 2024

Nonfiction (Adult), Essays, Collections, Multicultural Interest, Racism

The Race Card Project started with postcards. The message was: Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send. This book is a compilation of results the author received. She left postcards all over the country and asked people for their honest thoughts. The submissions were made over a period of twenty years. They are personal and written with passion. I think the stories that touched me the most were why Black children cost less to adopt.

I must admit the book was an emotional read and I had to take breaks between chapters. If you are interested in learning what others feel/believe about race, you will learn a lot reading this book. I highly recommend it to everyone with an open mind.

Our Hidden Conversations by Michele Norris is a unique read that prompts reflection and pause. I was not familiar with the scope of the Race Card Project which provides a timely sharing of the personal stories submitted. It started with a request for a post card with six words about race. This led to a massive response of six words that reflected personal experiences that also led to deeper storytelling by participants. It is amazing how powerful some of the six word phrases can be. Storytelling is the fabric of our life experiences so those shared in this work will impact the reader in many ways. This collection of thoughts allows the reader a view of how race plays, played, and continues to play a role in people's lives. I consider this to be an important read for all. Thank you to NetGalley for advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This would be a great book for a book club to discuss or to use quotes from in a display. However the formatting of the ebook version of this advance copy really hindered my ability to get a full appreciation of the book.

Absolutely loving this book! Starting with 6 word stories and then getting more information/more indepth stories along the way. It really rips open the talk about racism and how everyone perceives it. It gives everyone a voice, even those that might not deserve a big platform, but everyone is seen and heard and that is huge. I cant wait to read more from the author. There's no shying away from what is being said in the book, you can't tell someone they're wrong when they give their perspective on life.

A fascinating idea the race card project ,in six words write what you think about race.The responses are so varied so eye opening this is an important revelatory study and Michele Norris has done a brilliant job reporting on it.#netgalley #simon&schuster

The Race Card Project: In six words share thoughts on race or cultural identity. It was expanded by a two word phrase: Anything else? The world understood the assignment and the responses exceeded expectations. The author has done a masterful job of organizing and presenting the replies into an offering that reflects views and experiences from multiple countries, ethnicities, ages, genders, socio-economic conditions, and training and education, etc. One thing is clear - many of the submissions referenced pain (often repressed and unspoken until prompted by this project) and despite our differences pain is common, nondiscriminating and universal. It manifests in the carefully selected (and extremely personal) stories to share how fear, anger, hatred, ignorance, and bigotry have destroyed families and caused irrevocable damage to innocents (especially the children). The stories are visceral – some reaching to the reader’s core – anyone with an ounce of compassion should be able to empathize and sympathize.

This offering is another that would be great for book clubs and group discussions. The conversations can beget understanding and hopefully some sort of healing, if possible.

Thanks to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

This true story of the Race Card Project The six word phrases collected took my breathe away and offered a whole lot to think about. There were some that made me sad, some that made me happy, and some that made me angry. All said and done, this is so worth a read!

This book is a revelation -- it surfaces the unspoken thoughts and feelings about race, feeling different, feeling unseen and unheard and highlights the importance of giving space for people to tell their stories. This book is based on a project called "The Race Card" where the author wanted to flip the idea of "playing the race card" on its head so she printed 200 blank postcards and left them around public spaces. On the card it simply said "Race. Your thoughts. 6 words. Please Send." The response was overwhelming and has since expanded to include a website where people can submit their stories and 6 words. In many cases, the author uses the 6 words as a departure point and follows up with individuals to hear their story. This is a profound and beautiful book and addresses race, class, immigration. I hope this book will spark conversations and uncover the deep truth that there is still a lot of work to be done. But if we all have the courage to listen and learn from each other, I have hope we can make the world a much more inclusive place.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS by Michele Norris, an award-winning journalist, offers an excellent and fascinating look at "What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity." As described in this Washington Post article, she began The Race Card Project several years ago, using postcards to collect people's 6 word comments on race. Her book is filled with those statements, often with accompanying stories, background context, and photos; at one point, she refers to it as a scrapbook. Some content will seem familiar, perhaps, and other chapters will surprise, maybe even shock, readers. As Norris writes, "the people who spend time with The Race Card Project might not find common ground, but they are exposed to new ideas and worlds beyond their realms." Due to the uniqueness of each contributor's experience and the willingness to show vulnerability, OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS is inspiring, honest, and thought-provoking. One of the most haunting comments: "after all, if you've paid any attention to how minorities have been treated in this country over centuries, you might reasonably be concerned about becoming one." OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS received a starred review from Booklist ("an eye-opening read and .... wide-angle look at others' thoughts on race"). Very highly recommended.

Norris points out that she is compiling a piece of the American story that we normally don't get to hear; in addition to her amazing book, you can hear and see more on NPR's special series site from roughly ten years ago. And, for those intrigued by Norris' postcard project, Six Word Memoirs have been with us from Not Quite What I was Planning (2008) to I Can't Keep My Own Secrets (from teens in 2009) to A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year (filled with pandemic reflections in 2021). Concise yet clever opportunities for reflection.

PLEASE NOTE: Michele Norris will be speaking on January 19 at 11:30 Central time on Washington Post Live. More details are available at this link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2024/01/19/michele-norris-our-hidden-conversations-about-race-identity/

This book was amazing. In six words, people were asked to address their relationship with race. And then the author put them together into themed chapters. Some of them kind of made me angry, some of them were incredibly insightful, some of them I couldn’t relate to at all which is great because that’s how you learn, And some of them were a gut punch. I highly recommend this for anybody acquiring an anti-racist education because it is real people talking about their own real experiences.

This book was tough to read. It felt longer than it needed to be, needed some additional editing, and included an overwhelming amount of commentary from white people showing how they believe themselves to be the biggest victims of racism. Of course, I knew many people felt this way, but to see so many pieces from that perspective alongside ones from those who are harmed the most by racism and white supremacy felt insulting. However, I do still find this book to be important and worthwhile. I learned some new information, gained insight into various experiences, and appreciated the pieces from white people who do recognize the injustice and want to do better. There were a few stories that will stick with me: powerful accounts of how racism has affected different individuals and families. It is important to witness their experiences and think about how we can do better. I commend the author for the incredible amount of time and emotional labor that went into this project and book to better understand how countries like the U.S. are fraught with injustice/inequality, and how we can work together toward change.

This book is such an interesting read. It’s not academic in the sense I was expecting; instead, it addresses issues of race and intersectionality in an almost exclusively anecdotal way.

One huge note: this book is NOT designed to be read digitally (which is how I read it 😅). It’s heavy on images and formatting, and to miss out on that would be to miss a huge aspect of what makes it so interesting. I had to read it on two devices and trust me, while it was worth the effort, this would be better as a physical read, if possible.

I guarantee that there is something in this book that will be eye-opening to you, regardless of your experience. One thing I found so compelling is that many of the cards and their explanations are presented without commentary. The reader is left to decide how they feel about the messages. The longer passages go a bit more in-depth, but this isn’t some dense treatise on race. It’s an assortment of personal stories arranged in such a way that they present an incredibly nuanced picture of what race, ethnicity, and heritage mean in the US. This is the kind of book I’d love to discuss with a group. It’s the sort of book that will spark conversations. I’ve been reading a lot more nonfiction lately, and most of the books I’ve been reading have an obvious focus. A clear message or call to action. When talking about race and history on a grand scale, it’s necessary to make certain generalizations. Our Hidden Conversations, on the other hand, asks us to take a step back and consider that movements and events are the collective experience of many *individuals.* I hope that it will allow people to think about how to move forward *as individuals* interacting with each other as we work toward a future that will require active changes and course corrections.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

A timely, thoughtful and candid collection of essays and writings on race in America. I particularly appreciated Michele Norris’s journalistic acumen; these stories are impeccably curated to reflect the nuances of race and racism. This collection is a great guidebook for any American who wishes to engage more deeply with America’s painful, racist history and forge a path of understanding for the future.

I was totally enthralled throughout the book! I wasn't aware of the race card project, and the premise was really fascinating and reading the different perspectives (even the ones that elicited a strong emotional reaction in me) kept me engaged. I hope this becomes a book that sparks even more conversations about race.