Students confront their own stereotypes

At first, the members of the Interact Theater Company faced a cool, heavy silence from audience members as last night's "Conversation About Race" opened. As the discussion progressed, however, the atmosphere in DuBois College House grew almost uncomfortably warm. Over 70 students registered to participate in the discussion, initiated by Afi Roberson of the African American Resource Center as part of a national "Campus Week of Dialogue." The discussion developed in several stages, each of which encouraged students to ease an awkward silence by relating to others' experiences of prejudice on a different level. At first, actors David Bollar, Bridget Jones and Neill Hartley of the Interact Theater group, presented a series of monologues that verbalized many forms of prejudice and stereotypes. The monologues touched on issues of race, religion and sexual orientation. The theater group, which performs for elementary, middle and high schools, as well as universities throughout the city, manipulated the audience's comfort level gradually. Bollar, sensing that some black students were "hesitant to open up" in the discussion, brought up his own memory of the first time a racial slur was directed against him. Bollar told of his experiences as the only black student at an all-white school. Once, he was called a "nigger" by a group of fellow students. It was the first time he had heard the slur directed at him. And Hartley, during a monologue, portrayed the caricature of a sleazy guy when he said: "If she doesn't want to get come onto, she should go off and join a convent or something." In an exercise, participants were paired with someone they did not know and told to study their facial features. While some saw this exercise as a way for the diverse crowd to recognize common traits among all participants, others emphasized that without recognizing physical differences one cannot really "see himself." As the volume of students decreased, the discussion became more heated. The next component of the dialogue asked students to relate a personal experience of feeling either prejudice toward others or acts of prejudice against themselves. These stories, which were acted out, were one of the most sensitive facets of the evening. The skits touched on topics ranging from racial profiling to issues pertinent on campus. The event was sponsored by the African American Resource Center, the Penn Women's Center, Greenfield Intercultural Center, Pan Asian American Community House and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center. This effort was "a model for intercultural collaboration," said Greenfield Intercultural Center Director Valerie DeCruz, and succeeded in bringing a diverse crowd to DuBois. "This was an absolutely necessary thing to bring to campus," said College senior Danielle Floyd, a member of Alliance and Understanding, which works to build dialogue between blacks and Jews.