Author: Valerie

For this project, Diversity UP will be exploring the presence (or lack there of) of diversity on the University of Portland campus. We will be exploring this topic through the lens of institutional racism in the education system and its adverse effects on the student population’s education experience. The evidence that we will be gathering will be, statistics from admissions, interviews on campus, and scholastic evidence surrounding this topic. An understanding of this topic is important to the greater understanding of diversity on college campuses and why it is important to have a well-rounded education available to all people.

Members: Aine Brooks, Adam Brizzolara, Colin Guzman, Caameron Nakasane

http://youtu.be/ZFbHoxooSMA

In our video project we will be critically examining the paradigm of Colorblindness within social institutions, particularly the University of Portland, as a solution for remedying racial inequality. We will be conducting interviews with a sample of students, faculty, and administrators about Colorblindness and alternative solutions for fixing race relations. Based on prior research, we believe that Colorblindness is not a viable solution for fixing racial tensions and inequalities in the United States because it ignores the experiences of people of color and assumes whiteness as the norm. Colorblindness perpetuates institutional racism and ignores the importance of race as an essential facet of one’s identity.

Members:

• Anne Marie Rogers

• Natasha McGlaun

• Samuel Kingsbury

• Emily Liger

• Kevin Bailey

Our goal for this project is to examine the prevalence of microaggressions at the campus of University of Portland. We will interview UP students, primarily white, and ask them if they are aware of what microaggressions are and whether or not they occur on campus. We will give them examples of microaggressions, and then ask whether or not they think it’s offensive–and why. We will also research and explain some of the studied effects of microaggressions on people of color.

Members: Karina Gallo, Halle Sheehan, Kelley Mitchell, Melissa Aguilar

The topic of our presentation is the historical production of whiteness and how it has affected race relations in the U.S. The problem that we have observed through our interactions with other people and in the readings we have done for this class, is that people are unaware of how history has led to race relations, more specifically whiteness in the U.S. With this presentation, we wish to educate people on the misconceptions about our history of race relations that institutions have instilled in our society. We hope using the creative medium as our approach to exposing this material will be a rather easy outlet for people to understand complex ideas. Whiteness has caused unequal advantages for certain people and by acknowledging what has led to Whiteness our society will get one step closer to resolving the issue.

Members: William Lawson, Jennifer Besaw, Lindsey Casian

We will be looking into the gap between immigrant groups and their American-born children in terms of generation, culture, values, and goals to see the effects of this gap on the children’s identity construction and their ability to assimilate into mainstream American society. Just as there is segmented assimilation between immigrant groups of different national origin, there is also segmented assimilation between an immigrant group and the children they are raising in America.  Everyone experiences integration differently based off of group factors and critical sites. Racial stratification also creates obstacles for racial groups, especially immigrants. It is essential to recognize these mechanisms to better understand immigrant group values and identity within American society.

Members: Sharon Cortez, Geleen Abenoja, Christine Nguyen, Estefany Ramos

Our goal is to create a short video that breaks down the definition of whiteness according to how people experience it. We’ll be focusing on the UP campus, but will be drawing from external research to ground a series of interviews. By identifying whiteness and challenging its invisibility, we hope to bring awareness to how whiteness influences UP’s racial climate. We hope that through awareness, we can start a discussion and empower people to identify how whiteness influences the institutions and behaviors of those at UP, and possibly challenge injustices that scrutiny reveals. Discrimination or prejudice that is invisible can be the most powerful, because it’s difficult to identify. It’s important to name and understand whiteness on our campus so injustices are confronted rather than perpetuated.

Members: Tori Pinto, Melissa Hager, Nastacia Voisin, Monique Woodward

http://instagram.com/pilotsdefinelines

Gender and violence is an issue that is prevalent on college campuses all over the nation. Our group created a Instagram page to give a space for discussion about power based personal violence on the UP campus. The power point provides background information about gender and violence. Here is a link to the final presentation.