Posted on 02/08/2006 10:15:10 AM PST by Patriot62
The Tunnel of Oppression -- an event to raise awareness about oppression in America -- was showcased in the University of Washington's student union building (HUB).
Sponsored by Housing and Food Services, the project was put together by resident advisors, resident directors and other student leaders dedicated to making oppression a known issue.
"I hope it opens up people's minds to realizing that these things do exist," said senior Kelly Ronan, project chair and resident advisor (RA).
RAs were in charge of putting together the nine rooms that exhibited various types of oppression, including educational disparities and disabilities.
Many of them felt strongly about raising awareness within the community.
"I hope that people start wanting to talk about it and think about it," said RA Kali Jensen, a junior. "I think that's the most important thing, even if we don't change their opinions."
Exhibits displayed posters with comments often heard by the oppressed group.
Large signs with statements, such as "No tears for queers" and "Thank God for AIDS," were featured in the homophobia display while "Welcome to America, now speak English" was written on the wall of the linguistics oppression room.
Other exhibits incorporated multimedia presentations including the white privilege room, which played the 2005 film Crash.
"I like how they integrated media," said Laura Knudsen, a junior. "It made it more interactive."
Others expressed their hope for change through the project.
"I think everyone should walk through the Tunnel of Oppression and maybe there will be some changes in the community and around school," said freshman Erinn Unger. "Hopefully someday there won't be a need for a Tunnel of Oppression."
The project takes place at campuses across the country, but this is its fourth year at the UW.
Though the exhibit only stands for one day, those involved said the day was an important step in changing perspectives of oppression.
"Having one day to catch a glimpse of lives of those different than us is better than not understanding difference at all," said Sarah Auditore, a junior who helped with the disabilities display.
"We need to go to the Swiss system, where immigrants get kicked out if they can't learn the local language in a reasonable amount of time (conversational, not necessarily fluent)."
Heck, we need to go to the Swiss system of a federal government, too.
In other words, an anti white hate day.
Bratklopt (sp?) - I followed this guy's cart all around the square. "More bratklopt, please?" (don't sprechen Deutsche...)
I'm not sure what that is.
Klopt is a Dutch word that means correct, or it is correct.
While Brat is a German word meaning roast.
He could have been saying buy my correct roast or more literaly, I have the good sausage/food. Buy my bratklopt.
Otherwise I'm not familiar with that term or food.
Fascinating bio,radiohead.
I grew up in an all white suburban California world and my first interactions with "Negroes",as we called them at the time,were with the radical militant Afrocentrists on the college campuses at the time.I know that segment of the black community is much scorned here and in many ways deservedly so,but I learned a lot from them.Unlike many of todays"playas"and greed hustlers,they were passionate and cared about more than looking fly and getting their hook up on.
I will never forget the black conservative young man who was debating this bearded white liberal in Union Square in San Francisco back in 1968 and absolutely ripped his arguments to shreds.Till that time I had never met a black conservative and was way more left leaning myself. Yet that black man really got me to think out of the box that day and that unknown individual still often circulates through my mind when people try to box the black population into the liberal trap.
I am grateful for both my conservative upbringing AND all the time I spent"in the hood".I feel comfortable in both environments and this cultural shape-shifting has allowed me to intermingle in circles I would have otherwise been excluded from.
And you mentioned white feminists and I pose the question-Have you EVER seen a car with"I Believe You,Anita"driven by a black woman?
Me neither!
Riverman
Re: "Bratklopt" -
It looked like sausage patties - I assumed it to be mangled wurst cooked as patties. All I know is that it was really good... But thanks for trying to decipher my mangled verbiage.
Not always true. German schools and German speaking enclaves existed in this country from the colonial period until WWI and the anti-German hysteria.
Most Italian and Polish immigrants settled in ethnic ghettos where the first generation only associated with their own countrymen and spoke their languages. My great-grandmother never learned more than a few words of English. None of my grandparents learned English until they went to public school.
This "we're all Americans" stuff is a product of WWII.
We must be careful before we idealize the past. It was World War II that assimilated the European ethnics, and made them realize they were Americans. Then came the red scare of post-WWII in which to be "foreign" was to be suspect. The "everyone wants to be American" concept is largely a product of postwar America.
In any event, it doesn't matter, every child of Colombian, Cuban, Cambodian, and Korean immigrants I have met speaks English better than their parent's language.
"No tears for queers"
Well, why would I cry for a homo who got AIDS by sodomizing someone??
I'm fully aware that there as Hispanics, Asians, and others who are assimilating quite well into American society and wants to be American and I'm more than happy to have that sort of immigrant enter the United States. Regardless of where it started or how well it worked in the past in the United States, the "Melting Pot" was an admirable goal and far more sustainable than the multicultural ideals being preached by many academics. I'm by no means anti-immigration. I'm anti-multiculturalism to, the extent that many multiculturalists want to take it, and think America needs a single official language. If the people of India can understand the benefits of using English as an official language, despite it being almost nobody's native language in India, why can't Americans grasp the same benefits.
My grandfather, who is now in his mid 90s, came over to Jersey City from Eastern Europe when he was a young boy. If he'd stayed in Russia, his town would have been overrun within a week of Operation Barbarossa starting and he and his family would have been killed. Here, he raised a family and did very well for himself, growing up speaking English and working with all types of people.
You'd expect him to be as grateful to be an American as I am, given this record, but when I talked about it with him a few months ago he sounded like he was still a guest in this country and he didn't particularly feel like an American. Identifying with America, thinking about what it stands for etc. just wasn't relevant to him. Of course, he isn't Russian either, nor is he religious. He just is.
I've spent alot of time speaking with older relatives. Despite the differing ethnicities (Polish on my father's side, Italian on my mother's), a common thread was that the first generation who came to this country never considered themselves "American", while their children largely became Americanized through popular culture and military service. After all, even though the second generation was born here, they nevertheless stayed in the neighborhood and played with other kids of their ethnic and religious background.
I think that popular culture, which is stronger than ever as an influence, position or negative, on today's youth, is the key factor in spreading English and American mores on the children of immigrants. Little Juan, Kim, Vladmir, or Joao may speak the language of their parents at home, but through watching television, going to the movies, listening to the radio, and hanging out in the school yard, they pick up the language very rapidly, despite the multiculturalist propaganda.
My belief is that America does have a unified culture, which is effective on both the conscious and subconscious level. Underneath that culture, there are many subcultures that are related to ethnicity, religion, region, etc. That's the way it always has been and always will be.
As for assimilation, I agree with Clemenza for the most part. I'm fully aware that most ethnicities still assimilate within two or three generations. My concern is with ethnic ghettos that get large enough that they can drop out of American society indefinitely. You see that with Muslim immigrant neighborhoods in Europe and I think it's been happening in some Hispanic neighborhoods in the US, and I'm concerned about children who are taught in school in a language other than English so they never have any need to learn it.
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