OCR Text |
Show 10 WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7, 2016 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 By EZEKIEL LEE News Editor Karen: If you’re from Africa, why are you white? Gretchen: Oh my God, Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white. This iconic scene from “Mean Girls” makes me laugh and feel sorry for Karen’s ignorance. Karen is just a character, of course, but she represents a demographic that has been in the news more and more: the uninformed. Lately, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has given the uninformed a platform for their lack of knowledge through a steady stream of bigoted and contemptuous remarks. Not understanding a person’s ethnic background — or not even wanting to — has become a socially acceptable practice in the United States. I see bigotry on a daily basis — mainly toward those of Mexican decent — including toward myself. Ezekiel Lee embraces his multiculturality as a white Mexican. Often when I arrive at the checkout line after shopping skinned than I, but does her me begin to make derogatory with my mother, we are met having a different skin color jokes against Hispanics — more with the same question: “Are change the fact that she’s my specifically, Mexicans. you paying together or sepa- mother? These jokes are only funny rately?” There have been awkward to those who believe the inYes, my mother is darker occasions where people around correct stereotypes of who EMILY CROOKS | The Signpost Mexicans are. Are all Mexicans criminals and rapists? No. Mexicans have contributed and continue to contribute to society in countless ways, often beyond the awareness of the general public. Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu entertain audiences through their films, Cesar Millan helps us to train our dogs, Carlos Slim is the richest man in the world, Louis C.K. makes us laugh harder than we want to. The list goes on. “Here’s the thing that people don’t understand,” Louis C.K. said, “Mexico is just like America; it’s made up of some black people, some white people and brown people, the difference is they didn’t genocide their Indians as well as we did … You meet Mexicans that look like me all the time, but you don’t know they’re Mexican when you meet them.” Undoing the stereotypes that society has created takes time, but it must begin. We can’t allow roaring demagogues to decide how we view others, especially how we view our friends and colleagues. Don’t let fear hamper what we know to be correct. We can’t afford to build walls around communities that have given us so much. I am of Mexican heritage. I speak the language of Cervantes, García Márquez and Paz. I too am an American. Comment on this column at signpost.mywebermedia.com Tees tell the tale of domestic violence By RACHEL BADALI News Correspondent Dozens of T-shirts are hanging on clotheslines in the Shepherd Union Atrium and Stewart Wasatch Hall, each painted with a message to honor survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The string of clothing is the Women’s Center’s way of commemorating Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which is observed throughout October. The exhibit is part of a nationwide program called The Clothesline Project, an initiative that aims to raise awareness about violence and its survivors. The project uses clothing as a canvas for any- one affected by personal abuse to share his or her story. “Usually, people feel in situations of domestic violence or sexual assault feel like they were silenced,” said Lara Vo, Women’s Center strategic initiatives and social media coordinator. “They feel like they weren’t allowed to have a voice. Giving them this pathway for them to not only be heard but have control of what they’re saying, makes a huge difference.” In the weeks leading up to the exhibit, students had the opportunity to contribute to the project by depicting their experiences with violence or abuse on shirts. Participants decorated T-shirts with words like “We believe you,” and “Stop violence against women.” Some shirts are painted with pictures instead of words, including one featuring an image of a volcano, which the artist described as a volcano of emotions. In addition to the healing element the project can provide to survivors, Vo said she wants people to feel like they can talk about the taboo subjects of violence and abuse. “Domestic violence and sexual assault are these subjects that are really hard to talk about, and so it can be kept kind of quiet,” Vo said. “It’s still a very huge problem. The reason we have hung the shirts up in such a public place is to be able to start a conversation in EMILY CROOKS | The Signpost more people’s realm.” The Clothesline Project is hanging in places that students often pass through or walk by, and Vo said she hopes this will help the campus community’s willingness to rectify change. Selma Melero, the Women’s Center art gallery coordinator, said college campuses can become saturated by statistics and numbers that represent those who are affected by sexual violence. But she said numbers can sometimes fail to convey true meaning. This is where The Clothesline Project differentiates itself, and Melero said the personalization of the project makes it more powerful. “A lot of these stories are first-hand experience,” she said. “It’s not a statistic. It’s someone’s voice and experience.” The shirts will serve as a reminder of the effects of personal violence until the exhibit is taken down on Oct. 15. But Katie Byrd, the Women’s Center operations coordinator, said she hopes the project will leave a lasting impact. “I think a lot of people don’t know a whole lot about the Women’s Center and don’t know a whole lot about the issue of domestic violence,” Byrd said. “We just really want to empower students and empower survivors to get the help that they need or be able to support other people.” Comment on this story at signpost.mywebermedia.com EMILY CROOKS | The Signpost Painted T-shirts addressing violence against women hang along a clothesline above the Shepherd Union atrium. The shirts were made for The Clothesline Project, hosted by Weber State University’s Women’s Center. |