The Journal

Issue date: 4/28/05 Section: Opinion/Editorial

Evan Sweetman

The multicultural events at Webster University are missing a pretty big mark by running with the generic African-Latin-Asian event. A few belly dancers spiced things up, but it's getting to the point where it feels as though European culture doesn't matter.

I've heard the argument that sometimes they aren't represented because people are already exposed so heavily to those cultures. My only response is that is complete bollocks.

And if you feel you understand European culture well enough, then you should know "bollocks" is British slang. This isn't too great of an expectation of someone who claims they understand European culture, because language is one of the primary aspects of culture.

During the International Week last November, there were representatives from Norway and Albania, which is certainly a start, but falls short of the point. I begin to wonder why we can't start representing the cultures surrounding our worldly campuses.

Why not have an event that, among other things, brings in representations of England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Thailand, Japan and China? It might be interesting for students to get even a little experience of what the cultures would be like where they could be studying.

Certainly there are differences in all these cultures, and not everyone has experienced them. It might be worthwhile giving students an opportunity to find out what culture makes up the different countries they might be studying in.

It would be great to see some Morris dancers at one of these events. Sure even I've been guilty of chuckling at these bell-clad characters hoping about tapping sticks together, but its part of English culture, and probably something many students haven't even heard of before.

I'm certainly in no position to take a holier-than-thou stance on the subject, I'm just saying as a casual observer, the multicultural events have been lacking true diversity.

And it might behoove the university to try coordinating an event with the Office of Study Abroad and the Multicultural Center. The Multicultural Center could get more people interested in their events, and Study Abroad could sit back and recruit.

Not to say that the cultures of African, Latin America and Asia are inferior to cultures of Europe, but that they should all be represented in some way.

It's probably just the Irish blood boiling inside of me when I feel like my heritage isn't being represented at a cultural event. While I appreciate all the hard work that goes into these events, I'd like to see some attention paid to European cultures as well.



Evan Sweetman, a sophomore journalism major, is a staff writer for The Journal.

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