Latino Project Seeks to Move Richmond Beyond Black and White

Article by Michael Paul Williams
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The region's growing diversity has not stripped us of our inclination to paint Richmond in broad strokes of black and white, excluding the rest of our ethnic palette.

University of Richmond professor Laura Browder gives one local example: “An Indian-American student had a black student take him aside and say, ‘I know you’re Indian-American, but I really think of you as black. And he had a white friend take him aside and say, ‘I know you’re Indian-American, but I think of you as white.’”

Browder and UR colleagues Patricia Herrera and Lázaro Lima, through the power of art and dialogue, are attempting to change this pattern through a project “to account for the rich and varied presence of Latinos in Richmond and the state of Virginia.”