A member of the Black Student Association reenacts a hanging during the SGA-sponsored Tunnel of Oppression Monday. Photo by Tommy Penick

by DEEANNA HANEY
Intern Lifestyles Reporter

The walls echoed with derogatory words, racial slurs and symbols of hate. 

Students witnessed acts of violence, degradation, pain, poverty and loneliness.

The Tunnel of Oppression, an annual event sponsored by the Student Government Association, is organized to reveal the oppression that occurs in society every day.

It was presented in Plemmons Student Union Monday.

“It brings to light these issues that we might consider politically incorrect or taboo to talk about in public,” Rachel L. Little, SGA director of diversity and sophomore anthropology major said.

SGA collaborated with several clubs, including Hillel, transACTION, the Minority Women’s Leadership Circle and Black Student Association (BSA) to organize the event.

As students were led by flashlights through the darkness of a makeshift tunnel, they encountered a series of skits performed by members of each club.

Subjects performed included religion, body image, HIV/AIDS and domestic violence.

Hillel members sent students back in time by performing an interactive skit set at a concentration camp. Performers yelled for the audience to separate by gender, explaining the scene was similar to the experiences of millions of Jews who died in gas chambers during World War II.

A siren wailed as one actor talked about the poverty that is present in the United States, and according to statistics from feedingamerica.org, 39.8 million people, or 13.2 percent of the population, live in poverty.

The final skit, performed by BSA members, consisted of a man hanging by a noose, with a choir singing in the background.

Because of the history the noose represents, Little considered it the most impactful skit of all.

She said the performance “sent chills” to viewers.

Amy E. Cole, senior communication studies major, has been to the tunnel three times.

“Obviously, you’re going to see things that are hard to see,” she said. “I still cried this time. It’s hard to see what other people go through.”

Gus E. Pena, assistant director of multicultural education, was a group facilitator at the end of the event. He gathered students to discuss scenes from the tunnel and how they felt about them.

“I think, generally, we don’t like discussing our social problems or how we mistreat each other,” Pena said. “For some participants, the tunnel serves as a reminder that suffering and discrimination isn’t nearly as distant from us as we’d like for it to be or we pretend that it is.”

Pena said students must decide how they see people who are different and, also, if their values are congruent with the way they would like to be treated.

Although solemn for many viewers, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Facilitators told viewers they had a choice: they could repress the things they learned or they could try to do something about it.

“Instead of trying to change other people, we need to make the change in ourselves and be more accepting and more understanding of people and their decisions to live the way they do and make a more comfortable atmosphere, specifically here at Appalachian,” Little said.

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