Experimonth: Race, a social media experiment by the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, will shed light on race relations in the Triangle. The month-long participatory project, which begins on November 1, encourages members of the community to take part in one of many activities and to document their experiences through the Experimonth Facebook page.
“We want to connect citizens, scientists and artists through social media to discuss how race impacts our community and for people to realize there is no way to genetically distinguish between ethnicities. According to scientific research, there is only one race, the human race,” comments Beck Tench, Experimonth lead organizer and the director for innovation and digital engagement at the Museum of Life and Science.
There are several Experimonth: Race activities to choose from including the Facebook game “Smart, Hot, Honest or Not?” which encourages participants to upload a photo of themselves to see how others rate their intelligence, attractiveness and trustworthiness as their own race and as a completely different race through the use of a facial morphing tool. Other activities include polling friends and family every day with a different race-related question, visiting news websites to see how race impacts how information is reported, snapping photos of things that portray ethnicity or racial stereotypes and more.
According to Tench, the Experimonth: Race experience is enhanced when you know others that are playing. “We encourage your group, school, church, class or business to play along,” said Tench.
If you would like to participate in Experimonth: Race, visit experimonth.lifeandscience.org/race to sign-up.