Travis Vail/Roundup
The Pierce Diversity Committee celebrated Black History Month Feb. 25 with an event in The Great Hall titled, “Revolutions and Evolutions: Body, Mind, and Soul.”
The event featured film screenings contributed to African-American artists, a live performance, a poetry jam and a speech by sociology professor James McKeever.
McKeever presented his speech, “From Haiti to Obama; Black History is All Our History,” to a multicultural group of approximately 65 students who actively participated in the presentation.
McKeever sought to clarify the common misconception that oppression refers only to slavery, stating that, “what it does is it embeds oppression in distant history, which causes people to overlook more recent examples of oppression.”
“I like the way he put the Jim Crow Laws into perspective,” said Roland Sneed, freshman Valley College student. “Seeing photos of people celebrating over murdered Americans was shocking,”
In addition to African-Americans, McKeever examined other groups that have been subjected to persecution in America, such as Latinos, Muslims, and gays.
“I’m glad that he included Muslims in his speech because they have endured oppression too,” said Tannaz Noori, a third year student.
When asked about the importance of viewing equality as a unified cause, McKeever said, “There’s strength in numbers. Also, if we don’t support all oppressed groups we become hypocrites.”
“I really like that he pointed out the hypocracy of picking and choosing whom to oppress. I didn’t know that so many African Americans were in favor of Prop 8,” said Tina Posner, third year student.
In addition to McKeever’s speech, the event also played host to a live performance by Phil Bell, a singer-songwriter and actor, and the Student Poetry Jam.
First prize in the poetry contest was split between its only two contestants, Joseph Kurpjuweit and Lubna Mohammad.
“The event was very well organized and entertaining,” said Herman Mana, Pierce freshman. “I usually get bored at [school events], but today was interesting.”
The Pierce Diversity Committee plans to celebrate the Persian New Year with another event on March 18th.
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