We were lucky to have Ariela Keysar speak with us about racism that evening. I really liked the atmosphere of the room–it was really open and suitable for sharing our experiences without having to feel judged. I think the problem with that, though, is that everyone has so much to share that it becomes a jumbled mess. I felt like the experiences we shared at the beginning had some similar content, but as the conversation deepened, more people were sharing many different things and it was hard to follow. Maybe if there was more time to talk about everything, it would feel a little more comfortable. Racism is a really big topic to talk about, and I find that it may be easier to focus more on one aspect of the topic throughout the entire conversation rather than having it deviate.

I also thought the conversation was biased based on the demographic of the people who attended the event, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just shows that the racist events are most prevalent among certain types of people. I noticed there were a lot more comments concerning the racism towards Hispanic Americans and African Americans, and there weren’t as many incidents pertaining to Asian Americans. I also found it pretty interesting that Ms. Keysar differentiated the racism between “complimentary” phrases and “negative” phrases. Some of the racist comments seemed to come off as a compliment while others came off as negative. Although I think there wasn’t enough time to discuss all the things I felt like could be discussed, I did enjoy hearing everyone speak about their experiences.