Featuring speed dating, free cupcakes and a co-programmed dance, this year’s Loving Week, hosted by the Association of Mixed Students, kicked off Monday in commemoration of the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia.

The group organized a week’s worth of activities to celebrate the case, which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Mixed decided to hold the event in proximity to Valentine’s Day because it fit in well with the themes of love and acceptance.

Mary Richardson | Student Life

Two students hold a button promoting interracial relationships as part of this year’s Loving Week. Several events including a speed dating event in Ursa’s aim to promote interracial relationship on campus.

Students in Mixed feel that it is especially important to celebrate the individuality and uniqueness of mixed-race students at Washington University.

“One of things that I think is really unique about Mixed is that everyone coming to the table has a unique experience, and our shared experience is the fact that we all have unique experiences,” junior and Mixed President Kellie Wilson said.

On Monday, the club gave out free cupcakes and buttons in the Danforth University Center with “mixed” puns and statements, such as the slogan “friendship is mixed” and pictures of sporks.

On Tuesday, the group held a discussion titled, “The Black and White Divide: Where Does ‘Mixed’ Fit?” At the event, the group discussed how mixed identities fit into racial justice questions and considered whether racial issues are often discussed from a mono-racial standpoint. Attendees also discussed the Black Anthology performance from last week, which included a character of mixed racial identity, but overall, the event was not well attended.

On Wednesday, the group played a “Jeopardy”-style game that dealt with mixed-race representation in television, film and media.

Friday’s event will finish the week off with a dance co-hosted by Ashoka and the Association of Latin American Students in the Mallinckrodt Multipurpose Room.

“It gives us a chance to reach out to the other cultural groups,” junior and Mixed Vice President Natalie Kirchhoff said of the dance. “I feel like it’s a good opportunity for us to co-program with them because when people think of the cultural groups on campus I don’t think Mixed is something that necessarily is one of the first groups that they would think of.”

After it was a success last year, Kirchhoff said that the group decided to host the dance again. Thursday’s “mixer” will also include dinner and dessert.

“It also is a really good opportunity for us to let the rest of campus know we are available as a group and we’re here to have these conversations,” Kirchhoff said. “Our events in general [include] people with very different backgrounds coming together, but there is something to being mixed that people like having other people to talk to about it. Because a lot of time people feel like their situations are unique, which [they are], or they don’t have someone to relate to, so even being a group of people with very different backgrounds but shar[ing] that mixed factor really helps people work through their own identit[ies].”