Connecticut College students have never been known to shy away from problems in our society. It seems that for almost every issue imaginable there is a group on campus ready and willing to better our community. Kristina Toro ’17 is a woman of color hailing from Brooklyn, New York who has recently started a blog to document the struggles of people who are oppressed due to their race. This blog, “What Should We Call A Post-Racial Society?”, aims to give people a space to discuss moments in which they’ve felt oppressed. Using photos and longer narratives, she hopes to spark discussion as to why, in 2013, people are still looked down upon based on their race.
The College Voice: What inspired you to create this blog?
Toro: Well, the first post that I wrote about was where a couple was being kind of racist towards me on the train. After I had written my Facebook status about it, I realized that it’s so easy to write a Facebook status. It’s so easy to text someone and complain about it and then kind of put it aside, whereas I think that we should start talking about it more. I think it needs to be really obvious that this is still a problem, and not just on Facebook and not just in a text message. I think it needs to be taken somewhere.
TCV: How has feedback been on the blog so far?
Toro: It’s been really good. I’ve sent it out to teachers in my high school and some Conn professors, and people have come to me if they see me around to tell me they like it. It’s been pretty good in person, but I’ve only gotten negative responses online, which is weird.
TCV: How often do you think about the blog and work on it?
Toro: I think about it all the time. Just because I want to make sure I have enough to write about. But I spend about an hour every day actively typing and then periodically throughout the day I’ll check Tumblr.
TCV: Is this topic of racism in today’s society something that you’re interested in pursuing in your classes at Conn, or is this more of an outside personal interest?
Toro: Both. In high school I had a lot of experiences with racism and felt a lot of oppression, but I never really learned about it in an academic setting. In some of my classes here, it’s been a side feature, something we talk about for a week or two. But I think I’d be interested in studying it in certain classes.
TCV: The title of your blog is “What Should We Call A Post-Racial Society?” – what do you think is the definition of a “post-racial society?”
Toro: I don’t know if there is one. Part of my definition of a post-racial society is an honest society, and one that bucks up and admits that we’re not okay. One that doesn’t just try and color-blind everything. We need to acknowledge the fact that we’re still in a bad place. Not everyone, of course, but there are still bad things that happen in this world and we need to acknowledge that and talk about it and prevent it in the future. I think that’s all we can really do.
TCV: Do you think there’s a connection between online activism and eradicating racism in society?
Toro: I think that technology has kind of taken over life, so it makes sense that online activism is going to be the next step. And I think that there’s a lot of power in technology. I know that, personally speaking, I check Instagram, Facebook and Twitter multiple times throughout the day. And there’s something that we can do through these outlets. Some people spend their entire lives on Tumblr, and one day they’re going to stumble across this blog. There’s a lot we can do and we need to start utilizing that.
TCV: Most of what has been posted so far has been photos, .gif sets and personal narratives. These personal narratives seem to be what you’re most interested in posting. What do you believe is the strength of a personal narrative versus facts and numbers?
Toro: I think facts and numbers make it easy to distance yourself from the problem. It makes it easy to look at it just as a set of statistics, whereas if you have a personal story, it’s a personal story. It makes it easier for different people to relate to it. In my stories, I don’t really specify so much my personal race, or names or ages, because I want these stories to be universal. I want a lot of people to relate to them, and I think that having a personal story makes it easier than having numbers. And also just the fact that my goal with this blog is to get a lot of submissions, because that’s the power of it, to get a lot of people together. That’s what I want to do.
TCV: How do you think the atmosphere is at Conn concerning racism and diversity?
Toro: I can sense that there’s tension, just from the older students of color that I’m friends with. But I, personally, haven’t experienced it as much. I try to keep to myself, which I guess is not that good, but I’m sure that as I get older I’ll experience some things. And I’m sure I’ll have great times too.
TCV: What kind of direction do you think Conn should be going in concerning race and diversity?
Toro: I think the affinity groups can make their presence more known on campus. There are events that go on that I would like to go to that I don’t really know about until I see a poster at the last minute. Maybe that’s just me being more unaware than I should be. There should just be more attention paid to underrepresented groups.
TCV: You mentioned earlier that you’re getting good feedback in person, but that online the feedback has been negative. How do you deal with this anonymous hate?
Toro: I haven’t gotten any messages that have been too nasty yet, so it hasn’t been that emotionally affecting. When I get a mean message, it kind of just makes me want to look at it and reply to it in a way that’s constructive, so I can make the person rethink the argument they were trying to make and start thinking about things in a different way.
TCV: If you could see the blog going anywhere, where would that be?
Toro: Like I said, to get more submissions, because that just keeps it alive for its own sake. I think that there’s value in simply having something you can read. But I would like to make it more of an academic base. One of my teachers from high school told me that she would put me in contact with different scholars that I could interview and I think that would be really cool to get older generations’ perspectives as well. That’s what I’m looking into right now, and I also just want to get art submissions. Things like that are very important to me because I want to see how people express themselves.
The blog can be accessed at: whatshouldwecallaprsociety.tumblr.com. •
