Let\u2019s face it \u2014 some things are hard to talk about. Topics like race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and cultural differences can be real conversation stoppers. That\u2019s where Maryville\u2019s Multicultural Scholars Peer Educators Series comes in.<\/p>\n
Peer educators are seniors in the Multicultural Scholars Program, which provides scholarships to students from diverse backgrounds. Each peer educator is specially trained to engage and participate in difficult conversations. They illustrate their training by developing workshops around social justice, diversity and inclusion and deliver them to the Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵAPPcommunity.<\/p>\n
The workshop \u201cCultural Appropriation & Cultural Appreciation\u201d was presented by peer educators Ulices Zuniga and Austin Davis. The pair used a multimedia approach including PowerPoint, YouTube and audience interaction to break down barriers and encourage conversation. \u201cOur goal was for people to walk away from the presentation being more comfortable with the topic,\u201d said Davis, a communication student.<\/p>\n
Davis and Zuniga began by defining cultural appropriation as the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing you understand or respect that culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about Cinco de Mayo,\u201d Zuniga said, a criminal justice student from Mexico. \u201cIn the U.S., it\u2019s a day to get drunk. But in Mexico, it celebrates the Battle of Puebla in 1862, in which Mexicans defeated the French. They were not supposed to win. Cinco de Mayo honors the people who died in battle and the soldiers who went back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Examples of cultural appropriation abound in American culture, and Davis and Zuniga discussed many of them, including the controversy surrounding a children\u2019s costume based off the Disney film \u201cMoana.\u201d The costume represented the demigod Maui, the fictional character played by Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, and was a brown skin bodysuit adorned with Polynesian tattoos and a faux-leaf skirt. Disney pulled the costume off shelves after the item sparked outrage.<\/p>\n
Davis and Zuniga asked audience members to team up and discuss the \u201cMoana\u201d controversy. One person was to argue that the costume appropriates the culture of the Maui people by mimicking their body tattoos, while the other person argued against the idea of cultural appropriation. It quickly became clear why conversations like these are so difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing we hope people realized was that there was a lot of gray area,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThey may have started the conversation being very passionate about their point of view, but the more they heard others\u2019 viewpoints, the more we hope they saw it\u2019s not as simple as they originally thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zuniga agreed. \u201cË¿¹ÏÊÓƵAPP has people from different parts of Missouri, different countries and even different parts of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was interesting to see how everyone brought something new to the conversation and offered many different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like all peer educators, Davis and Zuniga were well prepared to facilitate their workshop. Becoming a peer educator is the final step in the four-year Multicultural Scholars Program. When students enter as freshmen, they spend a year mastering self-awareness including their individual talents and strengths. In the next year, they develop social awareness of their peers and examine their own beliefs in relation to their peers. As juniors, they learn how to talk about differences before finally developing their presentations and preparing to be peer educators as seniors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about changing minds, it\u2019s about starting conversations,\u201d said Ashley Storman, program coordinator for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. That\u2019s a big step for an initiative that started less than 10 years ago to recruit and retain diverse students. The Multicultural Scholars Program now seeks to build a more welcoming and inclusive campus environment for people with different physical abilities, gender identifications, sexual preferences, religions and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll take our message into any space on campus, whether it\u2019s athletics, the library or for another student organization,\u201d Storman said. \u201cWe want people to know that promoting diversity and inclusion is not just our job \u2014 it\u2019s everyone\u2019s job.\u201d<\/p>\n