Emory Hillel and Emory’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter came together Wednesday evening to share personal experiences and better understand each other in an open dialogue that discussed the issue of identity.

“I sometimes envy my friends that they can only run so far from their black identity,” College sophomore Ben Shnider said.

Several Hillel students said they wanted to express what they saw as a vital part of their identity, while NAACP students said they felt constrained by a preconceived identity.

“That’s our chains because we can’t escape the sterotypes,” said Sophia Hall, College junior and vice president of Emory NAACP. “How much easier would life be if they didn’t know I was black or I was a minority.”

Shnider and other students said they struggled to assert an identity that they were very proud of.

College sophomore Stanton Abramson shared with the participants a story that his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, told him. He described the first time she met a black man when she standing in a stairway with other young girls during the war.

Abramson, also a Wheel columnist, said the man picked up his grandmother and “pointed to the flag and pointed to himself and said ‘American,’ and she knew the war was over.”

Abramson’s story was one of many anecdotes of deeper identification that the students shared in the Dobbs University Center room.

College sophomore Danny Turton said that being from a half-Jewish family split his identity in many ways.

“People would say, ‘if your mom is Jewish, you definitely are,’” he said.

Students listed challenges they felt they faced as either black students or Jewish students, including having few ways to be openly identified as Jewish, educating people on Judaism and overcoming an overly politically correct society that constantly uses the phrase “African-American.”

“You are assuming that their family is from Africa,” College sophomore Sara Lenowitz said.

When the event ended, students questioned what could come of this dialogue. Some students answered that the dialogue could allow for friendship, real and frank discussions, and reaching the larger Emory community by inviting others to join in.

“The people here tonight expressed a lot of honesty and hope,” Turton said. “It speaks to the kind of community we have at Emory.”

Students reacted positively to the discussions of identity and connection of and between the communities.

“I think this is a wonderful stepping stone to going to a better place,” Hall said.

— Contact Susan Barkley