Multicultural sorority addresses issues on hate
Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority has a goal to end hate and promote tolerance.
To get closer to this goal, the sorority has designated this week to be Hate-Free Week.
Susiane Siulua, president of Theta Nu Xi, said Hate-Free Week, in its second year, has been organized “to raise awareness that hate does exist.”
On Tuesday afternoon the sorority held a discussion panel in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium to bring issues on hate, racism and the value of diversity to the table. Around 15 students and community members attended the panel.
“The only way to help is to educate,” Siulua said.
Theta Nu Xi’s philanthropy affiliation is The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), an organization aimed at ending racism and bias and promoting the value of diversity.
“They fight bigotry and hate,” Siulua said. This week, she said, is to bring awareness about the issues NCCJ promotes.
“We strive to hopefully help other people realize the importance of hate-free values – just hate-free attitudes in everything,” she said.
After a brief introduction, she introduced Iris Sanchez and Katrina Loken, both members of Theta Nu Xi, to speak about their personal experiences with hate.
Sanchez was born in Mexico City, then moved to California and then to Logan in the middle of her high school sophomore year. She said in while in California she was very active in the school and had a 4.0 grade point average and loved the community she was in. There she had many friends of all races and no one looked at her differently.
That all changed, she said, when she first stepped into Logan High School.
On first day of school her math teacher asked her if she was planning on coming to class and on time and she remembers the teacher saying “Your kind of people don’t like to come to class.”
“I didn’t get an opportunity to feel at home,” she said. School was always important, but she felt like the doors of opportunity were shut.
“So from that day, I pretty much became the name they gave me in the beginning,” she said.
Her grades fell and she began to miss school – something she blames on the cultural divide and neglect from the community.
She said there were 30 Hispanic student seniors and only five graduated and, as far as she knows, she’s the only one who continued on to college.
“It is very important for us to open our heart – to look beyond what is color,” she said. “Be more aware. Be more open to people around you.”
Now an active student at Utah State University, she said her troubles in high school were a mix of biases of others and her young age. She now says she respects all others and understands that others might not know what they are doing or if they are offending someone, but the best way to fight racism is acceptance and education.
After questions from the audience, the time was then turned over to Loken, who had a different story to tell.
Loken grew up in Vidor, Texas, a town 40 miles from Jasper in Southeast Texas with a population of around 12,000, who Loken said were mostly caucasian.
A billboard in the town once read “All people of minority are not welcome,” Loken said.
The public school system in Vidor began accepting students from the lower-income projects surrounding her town. Many of the students were of color and the residents disapproved the intrusion of other races.
This eventually led to a Klu Klux Klan march through her town, she said.
It wasn’t until Loken moved up to USU and into the dorms that she dealt with the issue of racism herself.
“I was surrounded by multicultural students that were involved with the multicultural clubs,” she said. “And, I became really good friends with them.”
She then joined Theta Nu Xi, but struggled with her past.
“I was trying to make an understanding of where I had come from – a culture that I had recognized, which was a white supremacist background – and trying to integrate that into a world I felt was right, which was multicultural and respecting all people.”
The first step in getting over hate is recognizing it, she said. “I was prejudicial. To some degree, I was racist. I also had to accept the fact that my community was that way. And, I had to recognize the potential for change.”
She said the sorority has given her an opportunity to educate others as well to learn more about herself.
“Ultimately, we want to better the community. We need to be unified,” she said.
After Loken spoke Lindsey Wells, also a Theta Nu Xi member, talked about the current hate-crime legislation that Utah is currently dealing with.
This is specifically Utah State Legislation House Bill 50, which is a criminal penalty amendment that enhances the penalty for hate crimes, which Wells defined as a crime against a specific community of people. She said if this bill is passed, it will lessen these crimes in the state and will create dialogue on bigotry and hate.
To see the actual bill, go to http://le.utah.gov/ and type 50 in the Quick Bill Search.
Theta Nu Xi will be showing a documentary, “Journey to a Hate Free Millennium,” at 11 a.m. and again at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the TSC Sunburst Lounge. The sorority will also be hosting Hate-Free Week’s “One Love Dance” Friday evening in the TSC Ballroom.
-joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu