VIDEO: Students Put Through ‘Disturbing Sensory Experiences’ To Cleanse Themselves Of Racism

In what is one of the most bizarre exercises carried out on a college campus to date, students at San Diego State University put together a series of “sensory experiences,” designed to cleanse participants of their racism.  

College Fix reports:

The annual workshop, “Journey to a Shared Humanity,” is described on the university’s website as a way for organizers to get students to “step outside their comfort zone and into the shoes of those who are struggling with oppressive circumstances.”

“Let’s go! Face the wall! Don’t look at me,” the performer yelled as if he was a drill instructor commanding recruits. Then he went on.

“First they came for the Native Americans, but I’m not Native American, so I did not speak up. Then they came for the Jews, but I’m not a Jew so I did not speak up. Then they came for the gays, but I am not gay so I did not speak up. Next they came for the crippled, but I’m not crippled, so I did not speak up. Turn around. What do you see? What do you see?

“There’s one light left?” one student offered.

“One light. One life. My life, and when they came for me there was no one else to speak up,” the performer concluded.

In 2014, the workshop was described as a “Journey striv[ing] to give people a way to experience oppression in a hands-on way. By engaging emotions of the participants, it allows for the accounts in the program to be truly effective.”

“It is our sincere hope that by exposing students to the oppressive systems in society they’ll take a look at how we all participate in these systems and hopefully commit to changing oppressive patterns and behaviors,” The College Fix says Ray Savage, the leadership coordinator for the program, told SDSU’s News Center in 2014.

 

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