The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Students gathered last Thursday night in the Anheuser-Busch Auditorium for one of several events of Cultural Diversity Month. For this event, the Filipino Student Organization held an open forum on ethnicity in the United States called "Identify, Discover, Define." "I feel that diversity is something that's not well-promoted. There's a lot of barriers at SLU. This is the first step in breaking them down," said Filipino Student Association President Chris Viernes. The forum began with a short skit that demonstrated the common stereotypes and misconceptions about many different ethnic groups. The audience, including the students involved in the skit, was then broken down into smaller groups in order to discuss the issues brought about in the skit. One of the issues at hand was the origin of stereotypes. Some students contended that stereotypes arise from a lack of knowledge of other cultures, while others believed that they developed from racism. The consensus was that all groups have stereotypes, that they are not all linked to race and that they include gender and sexual orientation. "You all have your different stereotypes-sexual preference, whether you grew up in the city or the country," said discussion moderator Beth Andrus. Another issue discussed was that many "good stereotypes" with positive connotations exist. Several students agreed that positive stereotypes can put unnecessary pressure on groups within that stereotype to do well in certain areas, therefore having negative consequences. Participants shared their own experiences of dealing with stereotypes and coming to terms with their own identities. One key concept that everyone took from the forum is that, in order to promote diversity, everyone must be willing to dig under the surface and discover the true person beneath. "People see it as associating diversity with color and physical appearance rather than who you are on the inside," said senior Chad Nobel-Tabiolo. Overall, the participants and leaders of this forum were impressed with the outcome and felt that everyone gained something valuable from the experience. "I was really impressed by the diverse group of people that came out," said junior Katrina Impelido. Other student organizations involved in this event included the Muslim Student Association, Black Student Alliance, the Irish Guild, the Italian Club, Asian Students in Action, the International Student Federation and the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. "We worked hard to talk to the different groups on campus. We wanted to hear from everyone," Impelido said.

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