With digital morphing technology, an anti-discrimination group is trying to show that Boston University students all belong to the same race — the human race.
Students in Hug Don’t Hate have been letting others use The Human Race Machine in the George Sherman Union’s BU Central since Tuesday to show what their faces would look like in six races — Asian, black, Hispanic, Indian, white and Middle Eastern.
Featured on “Oprah” in 2006, The Human Race Machine is supposed to demonstrate the concept that race is social, not genetic, according to the machine’s website.
“Race is a socially constructed phenomenon,” said Hug Don’t Hate President Sid Efromovich, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore. “People see themselves as an ethnicity before they see themselves as human. We want people to reconsider this and be more open to the scientifically proven idea that there are no multiple human races.”
More than 200 students have used the machine since last Tuesday at BU Central, where it will remain until next Tuesday. It operates similar to a photo booth, capturing images and using different programs to apply changes, Efromovich said.
“We all descended from the same race,” said Hug Don’t Hate Treasurer Ricken Gala. “We went to different countries, and our features changed. This led to the common belief of different races.”
Artist Nancy Burson thought up the concept of The Human Race Machine and pioneered morphing technology in the 1980s that enhances the human face to show aging. This technology is currently used by law enforcement officials to project images of missing children and adults years after their disappearances.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Morgan Jordan, who used the machine and said the Indian version of him was most similar to what he looks like, said the machine shows students that “who you are isn’t defined by what race you are.”
“I think [the machine] intends to teach people that their preconceived notions of what group they identify with is not so limited and that they are part of a larger group — the human race,” he said.
Other Hug Don’t Hate campaigns include offering free hugs at public locations and selling T-shirts with the word “peace” written in 108 different languages in the shape of a dove.
Hug Don’t Hate representatives said they are working with the Warren Towers Residence Hall Association to put up large posters with their logo on every Warren window March 27.
“It will be the greatest beacon of peace this university, city and country has ever seen,” Efromovich said. “It’s to show that in Warren Towers, where 1,800 kids from different countries, religions and cultures live, we stand united as one community where discrimination is not present.”