“Your true colors have nothing to do with skin.” This motto is the foundation for the new Center of Science and Industry, or COSI, exhibit entitled Race: Are WE So Different?
The exhibit, which opened Jan. 28, is giving patrons the opportunity to explore the idea of race and the similarities and differences among people. This offer is now extended specially to Capital students through a cosponsored trip through the Multicultural Affairs Office (MAO) and the Student Involvement Office (SIO).
The trip this Saturday, Feb. 18, will offer students the chance to tour the exhibit and then gather for a group discussion led by Dr. Eva George, Assistant Professor of History and Dr. Beckett Broh, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology.
“We think that this is a great way for us to begin to explore some of the topics of race and multiculturalism here,” Cynthia Duncan Joseph, the Director of Multicultural Affairs, said. “A lot of times, students talk about these issues in class, however, by taking these co-curricular trips we can begin to apply what we learn by looking at it through art. Through various art exhibits that we see in these museums and then it gives us a chance to begin some of these conversations on the campus.”
The exhibit will present race to patrons in several ways: through examples of everyday experience, its history, interactive components, historical artifacts, photographs, presentations and iconic objects, according to www.understandingrace.org.
“Developed by the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, RACE is the first nationally traveling exhibition to tell the stories of race from the biological, cultural, and historical points of view,” the website states. “Combining these perspectives offers an unprecedented look at race and racism in the United States.”
Joseph said that she believes this exhibit will give the Capital community the chance to explore similarities and offer students a chance to share their personal cultural stories.
“We tend to think of race as one way to define people, but really race is a socially ascribed characteristic,” Joseph said. “It doesn’t mean anything. So you can look one way and I can look another […] but there are much more in-depth similarities between us.”
Students interested in attending this program, the cost is $5 and there is a waitlist. There is a sign-up sheet in the MAO, located in the Campus Center. The exhibit is available to the public through the month of May, and Joseph stated that if there is more interest in this program, another trip may be planned for the future.
“Especially since we are headed into our bicentennial year here in Columbus, I think this is a great time to figure-out “who are we?” as a community and what are our similarities and our differences,” Joseph said. “Who are we called to be? And part of figuring out who we’re called to be is finding out what are our similarities and differences, and the only way we can do that is to engage in dialogue.
“We hope that this trip initiates some of that dialogue.”
This trip is one of many events that the MAO has planned for this semester. Weekly study time and study breaks, including Zumba, Monday evenings is offered for students as well as Friday “pizza and paper” discussions about weekly current events. March 9 will bring “why both men and women need feminism” to kick-off women’s history month. A Native American Pow-wow has also been planned.
A trip to the National Underground Freedom Center in Cincinnati March 17 will be co-sponsored again by the MAO and the SIO. The Freedom Center brings light to the history of the Underground Railroad and also focuses on current human enslavement, such as with sex trafficking, according to the website www.freedomcenter.org.
“Multicultural Affairs embraces all students and is dedicated to your academic and social wellness on this campus,” Joseph said.
