MLK Week Promotes Diversity at UNC-Chapel Hill
January 24, 2012
BY: SARAH RUTHERFORD
In keeping with its mission to advocate and promote diversity among UNC-Chapel Hill students and the local community, the Chancellor’s Committee for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration held a Unity Dinner on Jan. 16 to both honor King’s work and create dialogue on social justice issues.
The Mu Zeta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity invited students to break bread, build bonds and be a part of engaging conversation. Focused on advancing the principles of peace and equality, the dinner began with a video which showcased images reflecting the work of Dr. King and interlaced audio of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Once the food was served, students were encouraged to discuss topics such as education, diversity in business and the future of the United States of America.
First-time attendee and junior Ebony Shamberger found the dinner eye-opening.
“We tend to forget that diversity also includes different opinions, backgrounds, emotions and more,” Shamberger said. “It’s so easy for us to base it off of things that we can see, such as skin color, instead of the things that we can’t see, like someone’s mind. We must stop overlooking things that present true diversity.”
While it lasted only a few hours, the dinner provided a key forum for starting dialogue about social justice issues facing UNC today.
“Those in attendance may not realize this, but they were able to make a valuable contribution to this university,” Shamberger said. “By coming together in this way to share their experiences, they have taken a step to make UNC a more diverse and accepting environment.”
The Unity Dinner, however, was only one of the events planned by the committee to celebrate MLK week. A panel discussion on popular movements brought in dozens more students on Jan. 19 as well.
First-year Cora Went, who currently serves as one of the Campus Y’s First-Year Members-at-Large, helped to organize both events.
“[King would] still be fighting injustices if he were alive today,” she said.
Reflecting back on the week’s events, Went finds that the committee largely achieved its goals of starting a dialogue.
“The honesty of the conversations this week surprised and pleased me,” Went said. “People like to champion MLK, and champion civil rights in the United States, but this week people willingly acknowledged that we still have work to do.”
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