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Juanita Boyd: I grew up around black folks and Hispanics and Asians. [Before I moved to St. Paul] I never thought there were that many white people in the world ... I was scared.

Colin Schumacher: [The] media was my first exposure to other races.

Wilson: When and where did you first learn about racism?

Christina Buckles: At home ... my mom had good intentions, but she was the epitome of naĢve. She thought everyone should just be happy.

Boyd: I learned early in life. It’s different to know what race and racism are than it is to encounter it.

Schumacher: [I figured out that] my friend’s father had something against the Hmong immigrants. He shot a BB-gun at the house next door [where a Hmong family lived]. I didn’t have the courage to stand up against it.

Ramchandani: I was aware that people look different. I didn’t really understand it until I got to the U.S. and particularly [from talking to] Javier [Gutierrez]. [In the U.K.] I was exoticised for being Indian; there were blatant questions, like “Do you have an elephant at home?”

Buckles: I had the option to not think about it, so I don’t think I did. I would hear derogatory terms thrown around, and I would think “What does this mean?” Where have I been? College is the first time you have meaningful discussions with people where you realize that people lived different lives.

Wilson: When did you first identify yourself as part of a particular racial group?

Ramchandani: I grew up knowing I was Indian. When I got to the United States, I learned that Indians are grouped in as Asians. I got followed around when I went shopping ... and I rationalized it away.

Smith: I used to rationalize. Our society is racist and sexist and homophobic. Everything is built around that.

Boyd: We all knew that we were of different races but that it didn’t matter because we were friends ... but when that black girl got beat up by that white girl, we all knew which group we had to stand behind.

Wilson: What did you learn in school about race?

Smith: In high school I learned nothing about race. We learned about slavery one day.

Buckles: We had one club called the Multicultural Club. Most of the people in it were Hmong, so there wasn’t a whole lot of “multi” going on.

Boyd: We had a little bit more people of color but it was still predominantly white. Outside the classroom was pretty good, [but] inside the classroom, it was pretty up in the air. It depended on what classes you took.

Schumacher: We had a speaker; [he] talked about hate in general, like there’s hate “out there,” but its not about us.

Ramchandani: I learned it as outside of me, if I even learned about it. Still, in India when they think about America, there are all those hyphenated terms, [but] the term “American” is still owned by white Americans.

Wilson: How do your conceptions of race differ from your siblings’ or your parents’?

Buckles: [My brother] is a typical Midwest American boy č you don’t want anybody to get riled up about this, don’t talk about anything controversial.

Boyd: My parents lived during a lot of the blatant racism. My siblings have become more complacent about it.

Wilson: How has your racial identity changed at Hamline? How has Hamline prepared you for the real world multicultural environment?

Smith: Hamline University, by and large, has not prepared me for the real world. If not for the student organizations, I wouldn’t know anything.

Boyd: It’s kind of disappointing; you would think that at a liberal arts college, you would be prepared to work through [racism] rather than have to live it. I think that Hamline is slowly starting to improve, but I hate saying that because I’m afraid that maybe if they hear that they’re gonna think things will just improve on their own. Hamline forced me to teach myself a lot of things.

Buckles: Anything I’ve gotten that has to deal with challenging things has come from the MISA Office, student orgs, Carlos [Sneed], or Javier. It’s obviously not the job of faculty of color to teach me how to be a white person.

Smith: Hamline does reflect the real world; this is what we’re dealing with. I don’t know that that is necessarily what Hamline is aiming for.

Ramchandani: I was lucky enough to be exposed to those people, Carlos, Javier, Sharonda [Pugh]. I have been challenged on each and every one of my preconceptions. Hamline has a long way to go. I’m sad that only students of color get challenged [this way].

Wilson: Any words of wisdom for younger generations?

Smith: Choose your battles; choose them wisely.

Ramchandani: Challenge yourself, [and] try to change the system from within. Question your professors, challenge your student government, [and] through them, challenge the administration.

Schumacher: Document what you do, put your proposals in writing, and set deadlines.

Boyd: Never stop trying. [Sometimes] you get frustrated, but stay focused on your goal. Everyone comes from different walks of life; you can’t force people to discover things at the same time you did.

Buckles: You’re gonna be wrong, but that’s the point. You have to be okay with that.

The MISA Office is sponsoring one final conversation on Thursday, April 28, in Giddens Learning Center 1S at 11:30 a.m., on the Native American perspective on race.