MLK chat focuses on diversity
HELENA PAYNE
Assistant News Editor
Students and administrators revealed many unspoken issues regarding race Monday night during a fireside chat in Coleman Morse Center, one of the week's events honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Though the group consisted of less than 40 people, many opened up about the difficulties of developing friends across racial lines and considered ways to break the existing barriers at Notre Dame.
The student panel consisted of seniors Charisse Candler, Kelechi Ndukwe and Demetra Smith; junior Shamus Rohn; sophomores Denise de la Rosa and Joshikka Outlaw and Ometeotl Acosta.
"Hate doesn't make you see things clearly," said junior Kat Walsh, the coordinator of the fireside chat.
Walsh said on campus she has dealt with many assumptions that people have made after looking at her fair skin without knowing that she grew up speaking Spanish in her home in Brownsville, Texas.
"It was so hard to try to prove to everyone that I don't hate," said Walsh.
In her second year as the coordinator for the Martin Luther King discussion along with junior Ken Seifert, Walsh said she preferred the fireside chat because it was more intimate and prompted better discussion.
"Last year, [the student panel] was on a stage and beautiful things were said, [but] I felt more things came out tonight because more people got involved," said Walsh.
Much of the discussion, moderated by junior Joyce De Leon, centered on cross-cultural interaction among students.
Several minority students said they felt obligated to be more outgoing at Notre Dame to dispel stereotypes and make people feel comfortable.
Junior Darnell Jackson said he will often sit in his classes and wait for about five minutes for the students that sit next to him to speak. If they don't, then he introduces himself.
"I find too often that I have to do that to meet people of other races," said Jackson. Otherwise, Jackson said, the students usually do not speak to him.
"I don't think I should have to change anything to let those people know I'm a black guy and I'm nice," he said.
A member of the student panel, sophomore de la Rosa said people should take more active roles in educating people about their ethniciis our duty to educate," said de la Rosa, the co-president of the Filipino American Student Organization. "People fear what they don't understand."
The debate soon turned to getting "majority" students involved in multicultural events, which prompted sophomore Dan Murphy to say that it is difficult for some majority students as well as some minority students to take the steps necessary to meet people outside of their race.
"Nobody likes to go outside their comfort zone — whether it's racial or not," Murphy said referring to the example of when students, including himself, eat at the dining hall with people from their dorm.
Walsh raised the point that people need to stop thinking about each other in terms of "us" and "them" and just think of individuals.
"There are a lot of people who really want to learn," she said.
Chandra Johnson, assistant to President Edward Malloy, said she has seen more majority students get involved with multicultural events, but that it has been mainly for entertainment events that are easier to attend "because you don't have to talk."
Iris Outlaw, who has been at the University since 1991, said she has also seen improvement in cultural awareness, but wants to see more.
"Don't let the fact of the group sponsoring it be a deterrent for you to attend," said Outlaw.
She went on to encourage students to learn about as many different cultures as possible during their years at Notre Dame.
"Why get a cheeseburger education if you're paying Big Mac dollars?" she asked.
All News Stories for Thursday, January 24, 2002
