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ELENA ALBERTI: In
thinking about what

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was the most impactful
takeaway from this course,

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I really realized that the
most important part for me

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was the self-reflection,
and kind of delving

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into what I thought my
racial identity was,

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as I am multiracial.

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So I just kind of identify
with different things

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at different times, and
seeing how that actually

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fits my personality and
what that means for myself.

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What about you guys?

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DANA VIGUE: Yeah,
going off of that,

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as another multiracial
person, I started

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to realize as we engaged with
the social scientific theory

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behind the way
people code-switch,

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that there is a
science behind it.

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And it's not arbitrary.

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It's not chaotic.

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It's part of a
larger social system

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with institutionalized
expectations for the way people

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engage with one another and
other institutions in place.

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And understanding
that we're sort

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of following by an unspoken
set, and occasionally very

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vehemently spoken
set of rules, when

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we do that-- when we
identify differently

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in different circumstances--
was something I hadn't actually

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explicitly realized.

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ELENA ALBERTI: Mhm.

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LORRAINE WONG: I agree
that the self-exploration

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and the self-reflection was
the most important takeaway,

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I think, that I could get
personally from the course,

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in addition to all the
academic readings that we did--

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all of the engagement with
the outside world that we did.

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I think, in order to be
able to change the world,

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first we have to
understand ourselves.

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And it helped me do all of
that, and navigate the tensions

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between how I am
read and how I am,

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and trying to figure
out those differences.

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COLIN GODWIN: I think
what I most enjoyed

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about the class was, outside
of the self-awareness,

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increasingly reading
into the patterns

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that we see in
society, and how that

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influences how we see others.

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A really impactful
part was when we

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delved into why creole and
other developing languages

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are considered to
be lesser languages.

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And how there wasn't really
much science behind that.

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It was more just
cultural leading

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of whites being
superior to blacks

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and the preservation of
slavery through another form--

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through both the disparagement
of Creole and African-American

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English.

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ELENA ALBERTI: Bouncing
off that as well, I

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think another
important part was,

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I mentioned before,
the multiracial aspect.

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But in class, Dana.

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You were talking about how one
of the more ant parts was also

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talking about how historically
under-represented groups or--

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I forgot the exact
terminology you used--

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can form alliances.

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And how there are similarities,
but also dissimilarities

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between how the groups work.

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And I think classes
like these allow

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you to discuss people in general
who are in those situations,

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but also allows you delve
into the nitty-gritty

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like you're talking
about with Creole.

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DANA VIGUE: Yeah,
I was surprised

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how much a class
entitled Black Matters

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dealt with things that
you would never identify

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as a specifically black issue.

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And we ended up talking about
populations that are not read,

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or may not identify, as black.

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And that was relevant.

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These were not tangentially
related political issues

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or social issues or
economic injustices.

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And I started to see how
black issues and black matters

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and black experiences are
really not something that

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can be studied in
isolation, and play

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into larger global networks.

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ELENA ALBERTI: Mhm.

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COLIN GODWIN: Yeah, because
a lot of themes in the course

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were centered around the
mechanisms of oppression

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instead of what the oppression
of a particular group.

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So it was really nice
having those case studies

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inside of immigrant populations
and American populations

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as well.