By: Dianah Hidzir
Getting involved in social justice can be overwhelming, especially in a college environment. There are so many causes that one can get into, varieties of movements, tricky vocabulary words and facts to identify— and that can make it difficult to know where to start. Throughout the whole duration of the Spring semester, the Center for Multicultural Education (CME) had planned a bi-weekly lecture series called ‘Social Justice Institute,’ which is to help students take their first step in fighting for social justice.
The main organizer—also the person who delivers the lectures—is Missouri Western’s Multicultural Education Director, Latoya Fitzpatrick. She believes that college students nowadays cannot only aim to excel in their academic courses, but they must also be engaged in learning about the concept of diversity and inclusion.
“It is very important for college students to understand certain terms regarding religion, because a lot of them originated way before time in history,” Fitzpatrick said. “This could specifically help them understand why some policies exist, and why certain do not.”
Two of the main topics that were covered in the lecture series are ‘Classism’ and ‘Religious Oppression’. In the first presentation given by Fitzpatrick, a total of twenty students attended. Just as targeted, the audience who were present during the lecture came from an array of races: African Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Native, Latino, Hispanics, White and Caucasian.
Alexis Williams, one of the program assistants at the CME, said that the center had put together the lecture series since last semester. She and the other CME staff were very happy with the turn out for each session.
“We’re very glad with how people came out to hear the lectures,” Williams said. “Especially for college students, because a lot of us are not familiar with various different terms when it comes to fighting against social justice. To add on, having the residential meeting room as the location for the sessions, a lot of the students who live on campus are able to come and attend with no hassle whatsoever.”
Mon’tra Qualls Woods, one of the students who attended the lecture covering ‘Religious Oppression,’ gained various new insights regarding the topic that was discussed.
“I actually learnt so much more than what I thought I would,” Qualls Woods said. “I got to know about the history behind religious oppression in this country, which makes me realize how important ‘inclusiveness’ is, so that we won’t repeat the same history again.”
According to the data collected from the post-surveys that were answered by the audience, around 70 percent of the people who attended one of the lectures strongly agreed that the presentation inspired them to fight for social justice, inspired them to create change at Missouri Western and encouraged them to learn more about other social injustices. Qualls Woods, again, says that he looks forward to joining more programs that relate to diversity and inclusion in the future.
“I’ll definitely attend a talk like this again,” Qualls Woods said. “Because of the time limit today, we had to skip a few sections of the topic; but next time, I hope we’ll get to cover everything from start to finish.”