In addition to offering their usual free hugs and smiles each Friday in front of Marsh Plaza, Boston University student group Hug Don’t Hate offered students the chance to see their own face transformed into six different races last week at the Howard Thurman Center.
Hug Don’t Hate collaborated with the Thurman Center to present the five-day long Human Race Machine, drawing almost 500 people.
The project was meant to promote respect and understanding of race and culture, Hug Don’t Hate president and event coordinator Bruna Maia said.
‘Our inspiration was to make people think and step outside how they see their own and other races in order to realize that there is really only one race, the human race,’ Maia, a College of Arts and Sciences senior, said.
Students used the Human Race Machine to see how they would look as different races. The photo booth-style machine took portraits of faces and morphed them, allowing participants to see themselves with’ Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Asian, African, White and Indian facial characteristics.
‘It was an easy event for people to come and get involved with since it’s fast and easy,’ Elena Acuna, director of Urban Smiles, the community service branch of Hug Don’t Hate, said. ‘But it still brings up important issues that we are still facing today.’
Their project was supposed to prove that humanity should feel united because nothing intrinsic keeps people from being one race or another, she said.
‘The machine shows that there are no genetics to race,’ she said. ‘The idea is that we should all approach people with compassion and love no matter what their race is.’
Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore led a closing discussion before about 40 students on Friday. Students openly discussed how they feel about such issues as racism and cultural identity, sharing their own personal experiences and talking about how they identify with the world.
‘It’s great, we can talk about these issues openly without being upset with each other,’ Elmore said. ‘We are living the dream right now: post-racial America.’
School of Management freshman Ana Aguilera said she thinks the Human Race Machine promotes cultural awareness but also brings up the question of how important cultural identity really is.
‘We should embrace who we are,’ she said. ‘I love it when people ask me about my background and I look forward to explaining my heritage.’
Maia said discussion is the best way to find a solution between different opinions and the discussion this program promoted is a step toward an understanding towards different cultures.
‘We become open-minded, listen to these controversial comments and try to understand them,’ she said. ‘That’s acceptance.’
The event successfully left students with a new sense of cultural awareness, organizers said.
‘This project was about unity, respect, compassion, common ground and, most importantly, finding happiness in all of those,’ Maia said. ‘We know all this can’t be achieved in one event, but we should try to live by these principles every single day.’
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