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| Attendance Lower, But Discussion Still Strong at "Not in Our Town" |
The attendance might have been lower than in past years, but the message wasn't muted: hate crimes and racism don't have a place in our town.
That was one of the points of the annual "Not in Our Town" discussion put on by the City of Galesburg's Human Relations Commission Tuesday night. Theatre students from Carl Sandburg College performed a series of skits that organizers say represented "misguided" thinking, with group discussions on them following. One skit dealt the development of an ad campaign of a fictional luxury airline, and how after some disagreement about how the campaign would go, a change in direction was made.
The point, they say, was that just because it looked new, didn't make it new. And one of the students told the group that wasn't the only thing he found wrong with the skit. "Luxury is only certain type of people, and that really doesn't make sense," the student said. "Anybody can be on any type of an airline. And (another misconception) is that rich people are snooty. That's just another stereotype, because someone who isn't rich can be snooty, and it doesn't matter at all."
Some of the discussion centered around the fact that people often have biases that are deep-seeded, and how many stereotypes about other races still exist.
At least one participant said that sometimes people get such biases because they can easily be manipulated by facts or others' thoughts.
(Galesburg Mayor Sal Garza, standing to the right, speaks at the "Not in Our Town" discussion Tuesday night at the Galesburg Community Center while Bob Clark, Galesburg Human Relations Commission Chairperson, watches.)
(Carl Sandburg College students perform one of three skits during the discussion.)
(Groups discussed each skit performed. WGIL News Story and Photos by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 10 07 09 by Newsroom |
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