Velasquez-Manoff is interested in racial attitudes because he comes from a mixed background, with a Jewish father and Puerto Rican mother. While researching he met Dr. Pauker who did extensive research in this field. Dr. Pauker had a study of how young kids saw racism. Children in Hawaii did not see the color of each other’s skin, the white children did not see the people of color as different. He was inspired by this study to go to Hawaii because he asks the question “Could Hawaii show us another way forward?” He was also motivated by his personal interest in this topic because he is from mixed background.
