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St. Cloud State University
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Diversity conference educates
By Cory Fechtelkotter
Published:
Monday, April 7, 2003
Media Credit: scott theisen
Owen Zimpel, Director of Student Disability Services, speaks about dealing with disability issues on campus as part of the Diversity Conference. The all day conference sponsored by MnSCU took place in Atwood Friday.
"We need to understand each other," said Tou Ger Xiong, the keynote speaker of the third annual Minnesota State Colleges and Universities diversity conference, held Friday in Atwood Memorial Center.
The conference, themed "Weaving Minnesota's Rich Tapestry," was hosted for people from area colleges and universities, non profit organizations, businesses and other groups to listen to nationally known speakers such as Xiong and to hold discussions on the topic of diversity. Throughout the day, various presentations were given on various topics such as white privilege and racism.
Graduate student Soraya Hernandez was one of many people hoping to learn at the conference.
"I'm coming from the office of Multi Cultural Affairs and looking to see what we can do in our office to work fairly with everyone and how can we work with people of different cultures," Hernandez said.
Many attending and working at the conference had high expectations of what might be accomplished.
"My hope is that we have an opportunity to have more discussion about the topic of diversity, and people who are looking for ways to change their organizations can attend some of the sessions, listen to the speakers and take some information back and adopt some of those principles and creative ideas," director of Multicultural Student Services, Shazad Ahmad said.
"Diversity is really important to us at St. Cloud State and we are at the forefront of taking this topic very seriously and dealing with issues in all sincerity to make things better here," he added.
Highlighting the day's events was lunch with keynote speaker Tou Ger Xiong, who described himself as a comedic character complete with several different personalities.
"The person that invited me said 'we want a person that will talk about diversity in a way that's not so textbook, but add some humor to it. We want something enlightening, fun, interactive,'" he said. "I have found that humor, through hip-hop, through storytelling, through comedy, we can start to talk about things. We can build bridges instead of burn them."
Xiong has been speaking on the topic of diversity for years, mostly to junior highs and high schools until recently.
"This is a message that not only young people need to hear about, but in general, a lot of people in corporate America, professionals, need in terms of diversity."
Xiong strongly believes in the use of humor and other forms of entertainment, such as hip-hop music to educate and break down stereotypes.
"A Hmong rap artist can be like a Norwegian shaman, it doesn't go together." Xiong said. "I want to go in there and say I'm Asian, but my style's different. I think through laughter we can talk about anything and deal with any situation if two people laugh together. And when you talk about racism, it's not the easiest thing to talk about. A lot of people are defensive, it's very controversial, it's a hot button issue."
The main goal of Xiong and the conference was to change how people think.
"If anything, I want each audience member to walk away with a more enlightened attitude about differences, I want them to walk away with a less fearful attitude when they see someone different," Xiong said. "I want them to walk away with a less threatening view of the world. So when they see someone from a different culture they start to see that, as much as different, we're alike in many ways."
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