Students of all races and backgrounds acknowledged the complexities of interracial relationships at "Interracial Life," a discussion on the struggles that exist in today's racially diverse world, at AU Monday night.
In honor of Black History Month, the Black Student Alliance, AU's NAACP chapter, the Latin American Student Organization and the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority's Omicron Phi chapter co-sponsored a presentation and open dialogue on multi-racial culture and interracial relations.
Gary Weaver, a School of International Service professor who moderated the event, began the discussion with his own interracial dating experiences and discussed the universality of the topic.
"You can go anywhere in the world and there are interracial relationships," he said. "You may not think race effects relationships, but it does."
The event included movie, news and poetry clips pertaining to interracial dating as a way to guide the conversation. Students responded to the clips such as a scene from the movie "Save the Last Dance," but also naturally fed off each other's comments as well as brought up topics on their own such as what it means to be of a "mixed" race.
"We decided to make it more like a panel discussion where we show clips and use [the clips] to insight discussion but not have the discussion only about the clips," said Ashley Le'Nay, president of NAACP's AU chapter and a senior in the School of International Service.
Sharnell Bryan, an assistant in AU's media relations office and the graduate adviser to Sigma Gamma Rho's Omicron Phi chapter, said since black history is such a large topic, she was glad to focus specifically on interracial relationships which she felt was especially well suited for discussion.
Le'Nay said she felt the discussion was especially timely as interracial culture is becoming "a hot topic" and stressed how interracial issues pertain to all races.
"Interracial dating always comes to black and white and that is not necessarily true at all," she said. "Interracial dating doesn't just affect blacks or whites, it affects everyone."
Megan Jarrett, a freshman in SPA and a member of the Black Student Alliance, said she came to the event because she is in an interracial relationship and wanted to hear other points of view on the topic.
"I don't think interracial relationships should be an issue, but they are," she said. "You don't think you will face discrimination, but you do."
Black Student Alliance President Brandi Mirzakhani, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he wanted the event to yield a better understanding of interracial relationships in general as well as what propels the conflicts surrounding the topic.
Bryan said she was hopeful of the lasting effects of the event.
"I hope students walked away more open-minded than when they came," she said.
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