For her Omnibus lecture, journalist and author Michele Norris spoke about her book, the lessons she’s learned from her family history and the meaning of activism.
The book, “The Grace of Silence,” is a family memoir and delves into the “confederacy of silence” that took place among family members. At first, many of them were reluctant to speak about the past.
“I would respectfully wait people out … respectfully keep knocking on the door,” said Norris. “Eventually, they did tell their stories.”
“People do want to tell their story,” she added. “That’s part of who we are as humans.”
Norris also shared what she has learned about the soft power of activism.
“I thought that activism was something that was almost pugilistic,” she said. “Sometimes activism whispers.”
At the end of the lecture, Norris invited the audience to participate in her “Race Card” project. Black post cards asking people to write their thoughts about race in six words will be available. When Norris first started this project, she printed 200 cards and received 30 percent of them back. Now, she prints them by the thousands and receives them from around the world.
“It’s like eavesdropping on a conversation that you never hear,” she said.
Norris picked the name Race Card for her project to turn the phrase into something more positive. “I’ve always hated that term,” she said. Instead of using it to shut down a conversation, she wanted to stoke one.
“What I’m going to do with it, I don’t know,” said Norris. However, she asks people to go to her website and read them aloud.
“To speak someone else’s truth is so powerful,” Norris said.
Norris’s lecture took place at 7 p.m. in the Rhinehart Center.
Updates to follow.
