Last weekend, I got to see a Jamaican reggae band, a Samoan hula troupe, a Japanese Taiko drumming group, a Brazilian steel drum band, and a Kenyan soloist. All at Biola, I might add.
That's because last weekend was the SCORR conference (Student Congress on Racial Reconciliation), and about 200 non-Biolans converged on campus to learn about the issue.
To be completely honest, seeing SCORR advertised around campus almost turned me off to the whole idea. I lumped it in with all those idealistic, cheesy "cultural" events that cities seem to fill their calendars with around this time of year, expecting a few low-quality "music and dance from around the world" segments and some platitudes about embracing diversity.
Yawn. I could go to the public library for that.
But out of curiosity, or rather, a lack of excitement on a Friday night, I decided to check out an event dubbed "Worship Mosaic." And because it apparently appealed to few others, I went alone.
Three hours later, I'm leaving Sutherland Auditorium completely jazzed about the whole thing. The music was beautiful and first rate, and almost every performer got the crowd on their feet singing along in Swahili or full-out dancing. I personally let loose and betrayed my shoddy sense of rhythm. But with everyone doing hip-hop moves to lyrics like "read ya Bible, preach da gospel" it didn't seem to matter. There really is so much joy in being a Christian, and in worship music from around the globe, it finally had an outlet.
What surprised me is how professional the whole event was. I didn't have to force myself and chant "love diversity, love diversity, love diversity." That profound appreciation for other cultures came on its own. The music and testimonies spoke for themselves, and were so well done that nobody in their right mind could have left Sutherland without thinking how great our God is and how his name is praised the world over.
Next year, I want to invite all my friends to experience the amazing Worship Mosaic. I'm just hoping that more people will care about things like this. I think Biola is putting more concerted effort into increasing diversity, but I'm pretty sure the student body is not really on board when it comes to fixing problems related to race.
I know this because I'm working on an article series for the Chimes about Black History Month and Biola's past regarding the issue. Coming from a girl who was fed up with the contrived Black History Month emphases that public schools like to force-feed students, this is fascinating to me. I've put in a crazy amount of hours researching and interviewing and getting enough fodder for four weeks of 1,000 word features.
But sadly, I've only heard one person refer to the series. It was my journalism teacher, who approached me to say, "Way to knock the socks off the school!" and told me how people high-up were taking notice.
If that's true, then why has he been the only one? I don't want to fish for compliments, but not even my editors have mentioned the pieces to me. I honestly think the student body has completely bypassed the whole thing.
Racial issues are so subtle nowadays. Yet they are so gutting and they haven't gone away. Just because Watts isn't up in flames and the Montgomery bus boycott is over doesn't mean people aren't slurred, slighted, fired, or even killed because they look different.
I won't throw the first stone, because before this article series, I laughed at Black History Month as cheesy and overdone. But as someone who now understands what our personal cultural prejudices have undermined, my only hope is that people will start to care. Even if it's just a little.
0 comments:
Post a Comment