Should Students Fight for a Multi-cultural Center?

It's been a looooooong while since I last spoke with you all. I'm sorry, it's just that a brotha has been SWAMPED! But I'm sure this next topic is likely to make up for my absence.

A couple of years ago, a small minority of Chapman students launched a massive movement to secure a multi-cultural center for our students. The result was a big fat NO from the administration believing that establishing such a center would serve to divide the campus more than bring it together.

As you can imagine there have been swarms of people to disagree with this stance since many students, especially those within our school's ethnic organizations, believe that our campus is culturally divided already.

As president of the Black Student Union at Chapman and newly appointed Director of Multicultural Awareness I have been subject to a lot of perspectives on the viability of a multi-cultural center on our campus and have been involved in several social justice circles which have voiced the need to resurrect a movement to re-address this issue.

Although I am unsure as to whether or not a physical building is necessary to address multi-cultural awareness issues, I do believe that our administration must take a necessary step in engaging students of color. What I mean by this is NOT that our school doesn't provide opportunities for students of color to freely express themselves and their diverse cultural experiences, but that our school is too heavily reliant on organizations such as BSU, MECHA, API, Hawaii Club, and SASO to both integrate diverse students into our campus environment and promote multi-cultural awareness.

For that reason, I don't necessarily advocate a physical building to appease our thriving hunger for diversity and multi-cultural awareness. I do, however, believe our students must fight for a center or space on campus staffed by our students and directed by a hired official under the Dean of Students or Student L.E.A.D. Center. The purpose of this space would be to, among other things, provide students of color with internship opportunities specific to their cultural background, inform these students about off-campus resources such as barbershops and hair salons, non-profit organizations and cultural alliance networks, be a space where these organizations meet separately and collectively, and provide these students with a sense that the campus they've invested heavily in desires to make a heavier investment in broadening their humanity and horizons.

Among other things, investment in a multi-cultural center or multi-cultural awareness could lead to grander endeavors such as the establishment of ethnic studies programs like African American Studies or Chicano Studies or a large-scale art exhibit where we feature the oppressions of each culture and the triumphs of each culture.

As I conclude, I believe that if we can make space for a Holocaust remembrance museum than we should have no problem distinguishing ourselves by making a space for our students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Please, let me know what you think!

Vagina Revolution!

Before I begin I want to point out, due to the sensitive nature of the topic, that this post in no way meant to be disrespectful or offensive to anyone.

That being said, it's V-Day so let's talk about what a vagina revolution looks like.


This past Saturday I had the pleasure of seeing Chapman's version of the Vagina Monologues. For those of you that may not know, the Vagina Monologues were derived from a series of interviews with over 200 women about their memories and experiences of sexuality.

This was my second time going to the play so I was definitely not a virgin to V-Day. Also, my girlfriend was performing so I had some extra motivation to attend. From the first act, the audience was completely taken off guard by the serveral (and most times ludicrous) names, of which I will not begin to mention, given to a woman's treasure box. If their vagina could talk there were various things that it would say like "slow down" or things that it would wear like "diamonds", "pink boas", "something machine washable", and "leather jackets".

During the more substantive portions of the show, there was a woman who became romantically fond of women after several sexually abusive moments with men during her childhood. There was a woman who stopped having sex because she had fears left over from a previous sexual experience. There were women whose vaginas were celebrated and valued and others whose vaginas were scared and exploited. I'm sure, watching it, many fellas felt very uncomfortable and shocked at some of the testimonies and memories the women shared. However, I took from the show that women were synonymous with their vaginas. Which means, they were happy when their vaginas were, scared when their vaginas were, devalued when their vaginas were, and celebrated when their vaginas were. The monologues, at best, were about the spiritual uplift of women everywhere letting them know that they are invaluable beings and deserve to be treated with love, dignity, and equality.

If you feel what I'm sayin' you have just joined the Vagina Revolution!--where we are taking the world back for women, one vagina at a time!

Black History Month vs. an El Ranchito Waitress

Well, as many of you know (or should know), February is Black History Month. A time when we commemorate the successes and struggles of those African American individuals that made possible much of the civil liberties we now actualize.

With that in mind, check this story out. So, I was out dining lavishly with my fraternity brothers. We were out on a Friday night about a couple of weeks ago for our preference night dinner, which is an occasion that better allows us to evaluate prospective pledge members. Typically, we go out to VERY nice restaurants like Citirus City Grill or the Old Spaghetti Factory but this time we, because of late planning, were forced to go to this kind of raggedy restaurant in Santa Ana called El Ranchito. Keep in mind that we are all dressed to impress and we walked into a Mexican family restaurant that's several levels beneath an El Torito or Aculpulco and was borderline tacky. Anyways, we are sitting at our tables just chillin' and having a good time. I begin to notice that the food is being served buffet style ONE TABLE AT A TIME. This is a huge disappointment because I am at one of the last two tables which equals last to get served. I immediately knew something had to be done. So, the very kind and young waitress, approached the last two tables and said, "Gosh, I wonder who I'm going to serve first?" Everyone at the other table said that they should be served first for this reason and that reason and blah, blah, blah. I on the other hand whip an excuse right out of nowhere. I told our waitress, "Since it is Black History Month, I feel that my table should be served first." At that moment, every table in the area bursted out in uncontrollable laughter. Keep in mind, my fraternity is mostly white, our waitress is a white young lady, and I am a charismatic African American male. The guys are used to me joking about my color and race issues altogether but the waitress was CLEARLY in a dilemma and did not know what to do. On one hand, I'm sure she thought that she could serve the other table first since they are technically before us, on the other hand, if she served them first she would be looked at as a possible racist and being inconsiderate to such an invaluable cause. Left with no alternative, she allowed my table to be served first. While I stuffed my face with the delicious food before me I wondered if it was okay to use my race to my advantage during a month that professes the liberty from such trains of thought? Were my actions justified or do I need a reality check?

P.S. By the way, that was the first time in my life that I blatantly used my race as an excuse to get certain benefits.