On Wednesday, my school put on their Tunnel of Oppression. I’m not sure if every college does it, but it’s very informative and a good experience for every college student. Basically, the Tunnel of Oppression features various forms of oppression experienced by millions and billions of people in the world (if not everyone at some point in their life). My school featured the Holocaust, racism, Native American oppression, homophobia, domestic abuse, sexual assault/rape, human trafficking, mental illness, disability oppression, eating disorder and image oppression, slavery, and immigrant oppression. Around each corner of the large room was a different “tunnel”, in a sense.
You walk through the Tunnel with a guide who leads you and a group of 10-15 people through the entire experience, giving you facts now and then (in addition to the facts written on the walls). I didn’t know anyone in my group because I signed up to go alone and didn’t know exactly what to expect. After walking through the Tunnel, there was discussion time within the group, facilitated by two faculty/staff members of the university. It was great to hear how the Tunnel really affected people and changed the way they think about others. Many people said they were shocked mostly by the statistics of human trafficking and rape. A guy in my group even opened up about having a close friend who was raped in the fall, and you could just see and feel the pain and anger on his face. I think the fact that people were really struck by these issues shows that this is a growing problem that is affecting more people, and we need to start paying more attention to what’s going on in our communities, our nation. With more people speaking up about these issues, it’s becoming harder to ignore.
After this experience, I hope that this gives people the desire to speak up, to participate in more open discussions about these issues. Just because it may not have happened to you personally doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care when it happens to another person. We should grow the courage to confront people when we witness/hear them doing or saying something wrong. We as people, especially young college students who are the leaders of tomorrow, need to facilitate justice for all and protect our fellow brothers and sisters in this world from all levels of wrongdoing.
