Oral History Interview, Chinar Raul (1561)

Abstract

In her 2016 interview with Samantha Abrams, Chinar Raul speaks about her evolving identity throughout her time spent as an undergraduate at UW-Madison, and details her role in forming TheRealUW Project on campus. Chinar shares the complexities of identifying both as Indian and American and how this affects how others perceive and treat her. She shares some instances of microaggressions and overt intolerance she experienced on campus, the importance of ethnic studies courses, and the necessity of education and open dialog to promote cultural competency. In her Latino Urbanism course, inspiration from other schools’ student movements combined with a group project, and led to the creation of TheRealUW, a social media initiative where UW students were able to share different marginalizing experiences that happened to them. Chinar was happy with how successful the project was, and this made her realize she wanted to stay involved in activism after graduating. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Archives and Records Management Oral History Program as part of TheRealUW Project.