Ethan Anderson
LV Life Editor
Ableism and classism were the topics of Wednesday’s “Belongingness” lecture event coordinated by the University’s Center for Multicultural Services.
Fourteen community members attended the midday event in the Ludwick Center, which also offered engaging activities.
The event was headed by senior biology major Jenieva Black and senior criminology major Malcom Jones. Black covered ableism, and Jones considered classism.
“In general, we in society don’t really have open and honest conversations anymore, or we don’t really penetrate the surface,” Black said. “All of the issues that we talk about in these lectures are super important and relevant to all of us.”
Student participants reflected on these social issues, first by doing a visual exercise to determine what daily activity they enjoy the most. Then they visualized what their lives would look like if they did not have the attributes that allow them to do the daily actions.
Black said activities like opening doors, climbing stairs, and verbally communicating, can all be taken from able-bodied people in an instant.
These conversations do not always happen, let alone in a formal, academic setting.
“I hope that that makes people more aware of the issues and more comfortable discussing them because this type of dialogue is necessary in society,” Black said.
Students were then given statements surrounding the theme of ableism and students moved from the “agree” side of the room to “disagree” based on their answers to the statements.
Statements and questions like “I think of disabilities on a daily basis,” “someone close to me has a disability,” and “I’ve teased someone before.”
This engaging activity had everyone involved and students were given the opportunity after each question to make comments, which made for a very impactful dialogue. Students looked inward for their answers, creating a more introspective lecture.
“It was really interactive, which I was thinking it was going to be because Alesha is a part of it,” freshman business administration major Remynyse Gilliam said. “She always makes the setting very engaging.”
The speakers encouraged these perhaps uncomfortable conversations and during the classism part of the lecture, students were randomly split up into three groups: working class, middle class, and upper class.
Each class was represented by posters with a small list of factors of each class. For example, the middle class poster had a “stable caregiver,” representing the middle class’s ability to provide, although not always comfortably.
“I think conversations about class are important and it’s something we don’t really talk about a whole lot in America, and it’s something that gets oversimplified,” Jones said. “It’s a conversation a lot of people aren’t necessarily comfortable having on a grand scale, and I think that’s something that should probably change.”
The last portion of the lecture involved students walking over and standing next to the class they think best answers the question.
Malcolm prompted them to go to the neighborhood they felt the most safe in. Every student of color moved to the working/middle class, and every white student was standing under the upper class poster. When the statement was flipped, so did the students to the opposite side.
“I feel like these are conversations that cause division, but in an academic setting you’re able to take away your feelings and really dissect what’s going on,” Ahsha Jones, sophomore psychology major, said.
Ethan Anderson can be reached at ethan.anderson@laverne.edu.
Ethan Anderson is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations. He is the LV Life editor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times, and a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine. He has previously been a staff writer for the Campus Times. As a lifelong student-athlete, he has picked up valuable skills that he seeks to apply in his career in public relations, and ultimately make an impact.
Jai'la Counts is a freshman communications major with a concentration in public relations. She is a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine.
