Students will come together tonight to battle prejudices and encourage peaceful coexistence among people of all backgrounds.
Student organizations representing different minorities will show short films in hopes of helping other students break stereotypes at 6:30 tonight at the Muslim Student Association’s “Peace Not Prejudice” film festival in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.
The idea for the festival came from a national MSA event. MSA leaders at OU decided to expand the event to include all campus groups.
“The main purpose of this event is to unite the campus,” said Saira Ali, MSA public relations manager and international and area studies and political science senior. “It’s also an opportunity for the different organizations to connect with and understand one another.”
Some participants hope the screening will make members of the OU community more aware of how what some view as a joke really can be a hurtful comment.
Nabeel Khan, political science sophomore, said it’s important for students to understand though people often make racial jokes, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish where the line should be drawn. He said his South Asian fraternity, Beta Chi Theta, and sister sorority, Delta Phi Omega, hope to send this message through the film they made about individuals of South Asian ethnicity.
But racial minorities won’t be the only participants in the festival. An OU sexual minority organization will show their film to help members of the community better understand their group.
Jessie St. Amand, English sophomore, said Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Friends hopes to dispel the stereotype that those with other sexual orientations are promiscuous and incapable of maintaining happy, monogamous relationships.
Amand, president of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Friends, said OU still has a long way to go in creating a comfortable environment for individuals of various sexual orientations.
“In light of the recent election, we’ve seen some sympathy from people who think this minority needs protection,” she said. “Our video will show students who we really are.”
“Peace Not Prejudice” will also feature groups trying to break stereotypes about non-profit organizations.
Facilitating African Rehabilitation will show a video focusing on the work it does with non-profit organizations in Africa, and what other groups are doing to help, too, said Mark Nehrenz, journalism senior. Nehrenz is coordinating the group’s video for the event.
“If there’s a stereotype we’re trying to break, it’s the idea that America is the only one trying to solve all of Africa’s problems,” said Nehrenz, former Daily columnist. “We just want to focus on the non-profits already working hard there.”
The American Indian, American Asian and Black Student Associations, Hillel Jewish Student Organization and Campus Crusade for Christ will show their films also.
A panel of OU professors and faculty will judge the films, and give prizes to the top three videos.
Anum Syed, MSA president, said MSA has high hopes to turn the festival into an annual event, but that would depend on student turnout.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Syed, zoology and psychology junior. “The films are entertaining and creative, and it’s the one time out of the year all these organizations are united together, breaking down stereotypes and connecting with each other.”
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eightbitgirl 3 years, 1 month ago
Careful, mustafa. Your white straight male privilege is showing as usual.
JJanowiak 3 years, 1 month ago
That's being a little charitable. More like mustafa's pervasive mental illness is showing as usual.
briareus 3 years, 1 month ago
Human beings are very adept at solving problems that no longer exist.
JJanowiak 3 years, 1 month ago
Umm...
mustafa 3 years, 1 month ago
What a crock. I want to know. When was the last time anyone heard a racist joke? They certainly haven’t heard any on television or in movies, where? Look what happened to the guy, who played Kramer on Seinfeld. He tried to claim he was joking but was told that it made no difference.
How many people would tolerate a racist joke being told in their presence? Would you? Yet we are told this is a pervasive problem? Where are their sources?
Perhaps there are some sleazy dives in south OKC where some throw-backs feel comfortable telling racist jokes but otherwise such jokes have long since disappeared from even most private conversations. ...mom-jokes maybe, but not racist jokes, and certainly not on a major university campus.
This conference is about keeping alive the myth that the US is a racist nation and that racial prejudice among whites continues to be a pervasive even though there is never any sign of it.(skin head web site not included)
The other main point of this forum will most likely be to advance the canard that homosexual’s value monogamy and fidelity just as much as heterosexuals. They don’t, and many of them take umbrage that they even should.
It may be politically advantageous, at this point in the struggle, to pretend otherwise but homosexuality is as distinctly different in it culture as individuals are in their orientation.
It should be pointed out that there are two types of stereotypes, un-fair and fair. When nine out of ten members of a group share the same behavior, then that is a fair stereotype.