Kyle Wiebers | Contributing Writer

Race has always been a touchy subject in our Nation and world. Especially now after recent developments, in politics and current events. The Race Experience that was brought to campus by Melt and Student Activities Board, was to help bring awareness and new perspectives of this idea to Buena Vista’s campus.

The booth sat outside of the serve the week of November 14-19, and was always on and available for students to enter and experience race in a way they never had before. Students were able to sit down and see their face manipulated to reflect the common features and skin tones of races other than their own, and we able to see how similar we all are as humans.

Freshman Natalie Brewer talked about what she took from the experience.

“I took from this that many people view things differently. Just because you’re a different race doesn’t make you different. As human beings, we are all more alike than we are different, regardless of the color of our skin. You’re still human. There’s only one race, the human race,” said Brewer.

The booth enabled students to see their face as a different race, and to break down the walls of the discrimination. Brewer also mentioned what she learned about discrimination from the experience.

“With this experience, I learned that people stereotype and classify race based on physical traits. [There] was some stereotyping involved, but that’s what people see when they define a person’s race. We may not always be able to define race or we can’t always tell race when we see it. People of all racial identities deserve to feel pleased with who they are and deserve respect, including self-respect,” said Brewer.

The Race Experience was a great way to submerge students into a topic that might be uncomfortable to discuss or hard to approach.

“The experience overall was great. It made me think a little more about race than usual,” said Brewer.

Maybe that’s something we could all do: think a little more about things that are similar within all of us, and be positive with one another.

Photo by Kyle Wiebers