Engaging the Human Race

The antidiscrimination group Hug Don’t Hate, formed at the start of the fall semester, has had a successful year by any standards — it already has more than 200 members working to create “a beacon of peace” at Boston University, says founder Sidney Efromovich (CAS’09). But the challenge isn’t engaging the people who already take an interest in diversity on campus. It’s finding those who don’t.

“Achieving our goals with an active audience is very easy,” Efromovich says. “They’ll buy our peace T-shirts, come to meetings. The idea is to reach out to the passive audience, people who haven’t discussed race and might have prejudgments about it.”

To attract that audience, Hug Don’t Hate has brought the Human Race Machine to campus this week. Modeled after a photo booth, the machine takes a picture of each user and then modifies the image so the person appears as Asian, black, Hispanic, Indian, Middle Eastern, or white.

The machine will be outside BU Central in the George Sherman Union each day until March 5, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The idea, says Efromovich, is to get people to think of themselves as one person belonging to the human race, rather than as a member of a specific racial group. If the experience makes people uncomfortable, it’s all to the benefit of starting a discussion. “We want an experience that’s strong enough to turn something that wasn’t discussed before, like race, into something that’s on people’s minds,” says Efromovich.

Multimedia artist Nancy Burson developed the Human Race Machine after learning that the genetic differences between any two human beings account for less than .03 percent of a person’s DNA — indicating that physical differences are a product of environment, not origin. Mindy Stroh, the director of the Student Activities Office, had seen the machine at other institutions and thought it was a good way for Hug Don’t Hate to launch a campus-wide dialogue.

“The division of student affairs has been meeting about race and diversity issues on campus, and Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore encouraged all of us to have these conversations with students,” says Stroh. “In talking with Sid, I’ve learned how passionate Hug Don’t Hate is about diversity issues.”

The Human Race Machine will kick off a monthlong series of race and diversity forums at BU, organized by Hug Don’t Hate and the Office of the Dean of Students. On Friday, March 2, at 3 p.m. Elmore’s Coffee and Conversation series at the Howard Thurman Center will focus on the validity of stereotypes, and the three-part film series Race: The Power of an Illusion will be shown on March 6, March 20, and March 27 at 7 p.m. in Room 102 of the Kenmore Classroom Building, followed by discussions on genetics, affirmative action, and racism. Hug Don’t Hate will end the month with a 48-hour campaign, titled Warren Towers United, to display the Hug Don’t Hate logo in every window of Warren Towers from March 26 to 28.

Efromovich founded Hug Don’t Hate through his membership in The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) Youth Assembly, a nongovernmental organization affiliated with the United Nations that seeks to mobilize students to action on global discrimination issues. BU’s Hug Don’t Hate is the first in the country; Efromovich hopes that the University will become a model for other schools interested in joining the discussion.

“We want to show the world that in our community, where most religions, ethnicities, skin colors, and cultures are represented, we stand united,” he says. “We are part of something unique and something that we want to spread to other communities.”

Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.