In conjunction with Diversity week at SU/ESF the Office of Residence Life put on a program called "The Tunnel of Oppression". My advisor got tickets and I hesitantly signed up to go. I've heard it all before,ya know? How could I learn anything--it's probably the same message I have heard over and over. We met on campus and walked over to SU's student center and waited our turn.
I cannot describe what the tunnel of oppression is--I can only say that it had a profound effect on my own counsciousness in dealing with others. The group was taken though the presentation by a guide, who stopped us at various points to witness powerful scenes acted out by students, or seen on video screens. I am not usually effected by such things, but it rendered each of us speechless.The thing that got me about those portrayed in the monologues was that each one felt totally alone in the situations that they were stuck in--each lacked the hope (or maybe the energy) to fight, probably because it was sucked out of them. I guess it makes me see how more and more people need God's love, as cheesy as that sounds. They need unconditional love to be real in their lives; I need it to be real in mine. Dunno...still processing. I highly recommend it to anyone who can go. Afterwards a few of us went down to Marshall St. for pizza, and got to talking about how we were raised, what we were taught, etc. I realize more and more how vastly different those raised in NY are from myself, raised in a family that believes itself to be much farther south than it currently is geographically. A surprising day that brought more thought at its end then seemed possible at its beginning.
