Growing up in a small town, I was not exposed to much ethnic or cultural diversity. Most people were Caucasian or African-American. I knew one Korean family and one Chinese family at my high school and that’s about it as far as ethnic diversity goes. I had never personally known any people from Middle-Eastern descent. I had never even met someone who identified as a practicing Muslim. Coming to college, I was very excited for the diversity that I knew I would experience. And attending Arab Night Event at the Ohio Union on March 3rd from 6-8:30 (Non-IA) was one of those perspective-changing experiences.

I attended the event alone—the rest of my friends found other events to go to earlier in the month. Initially, I felt so out of place. Everyone around me was dressed up, with beautiful outfits and perfect tan skin. However, as the event began, those feelings washed away. The introduction was amazing. Individual countries were represented through various types of music playing and dancing in, with the country’s flag held by several people. The countries represented included: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraw, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirartes, and Yemen. I honestly had not even heard of some of these countries, which made me realize how little I actually knew about the Arab nations and how I really would like to learn more in the near future.

The whole event was put on to show unity among the Arab countries, but there was so much more woven in that really opened my eyes. For example, speakers brought up how the Union has a multicultural center; however, there is a cultural specialist for every ethnicity except one for the Middle East/North African region. The theme of the event heavily revolved around “we exist” because they have felt so forgotten by society in America. Many forms on the common application or scholarship applications ask you to identify as “white” or “other”, which unfortunately leaves those of other backgrounds at a disadvantage because they cannot track their progress and change in education. Not to mention, the other category is dehumanizing in and of itself.

One performance especially moved me. It was by a female who rapped about her childhood growing up post-9/11. She was very talented and she explained all types of discrimination growing up that had seemed so far-fetched to me because I have never witnessed it. She talked about wishing she could choose her race growing up. She never let her immigrant father come to any school events because she did not want to be embarrassed. She hated her name and tried to change it in school so that people would not know her ethnicity, yet the teachers forced her to go by her full name. She tried to change her natural hair and frequently would be called a terrorist to her face. One line that really stuck with me was, “Hush little baby don’t say a word, even if you speak you’ll remain unheard” which really just blew my mind trying to fathom that so many people my own age have been discriminated against so terribly just because of the way that they look or because of the God that they pray to.

This event has not exactly changed my mind on anything specifically, but more drastically opened my eyes. The world I see around me could be so different than the world others’ see just because of DNA and heritage—uncontrollable things. This experience has really caused me to want to be more involved in raising awareness for unjustices that minorities face, and I think that hopefully as an RA next year, I’ll be able to host dorm-wide events educating others about these issues.