JagBytes

Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: College News

Media Credit: Denis Jimenez Alexis Motton expresses her opinion during LSAs and BSU's "Black and Brown Get Down" event hosted Wednesday night. The event brought the two communities together to discuss and debate the similarities, differences and prejudices that each have.

Media Credit: Denis Jimenez Nate Williams speaks about the impact of racial slurs on the black community.

Media Credit: Denis Jimenez After some heated debates, IUPUI students and staff ate some traditional food before dancing

The smell of Latin cuisine and the sound of hip-hop dominated University College last Wednesday when the Black Student Union and the Latino Student Association joined forces for "Black & Brown Get Down," which touched on sensitive issues and answered cultural questions.

A panel, formed by members of each group, answered questions submitted by students to Josh Manlove, student advocate program coordinator, who was also the mediator of the night.

"Our mission is to educate and promote cultural awareness in the IUPUI campus," said Hilda Rojas, president of LSA. "There have always been differences between cultures and there will always be. The trick is learning to live our everyday lives embracing everything around us."

Topics included the reasons Latinos celebrate everything with parties and dancing, which Latino panelists answered, "We're happy people, we like to have fun."

Females from the BSU gave everyone present a lesson on why they must wrap their hair at night: "to keep moisture in order to maintain hair healthy, in the morning we unwrap it, and [there will be] no kinks or split ends in the morning."

The discussion heated up when different panel members and the audience talked about the proper or improper use of terms. "If you are going to use a term, you better know the true meaning because it may be offensive to someone," said a panelist from the BSU side.

Both groups shared food, cut a cake, and danced to Bachata and hip-hop.

"It is very rewarding to see people leave an event happy because they learned something or were finally able to understand something they didn't before," said Rojas about the success of the night.

"If you disagree or wonder about why someone is the way they are, the best thing to do is to try [to] understand that other person," she said. "Many times this is simply solved by learning about why they are the way they are. Who knew education could do so much right!"

Contact Tania Banegas at tbanegas@iupui.edu.

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