Tunnel exhibits oppression

By Harold Gwin

The goal is to raise awareness of the level of intolerance found in the world.

YOUNGSTOWN — They call it “The Tunnel of Oppression,” and a walk through it is both a somber and sobering experience.

Hurtful and hateful words, both written and spoken, assault the eyes and burn the ears as one makes his or her way through a series of rooms depicting various types of intolerance.

It’s designed to raise awareness of what underrepresented groups of people go through on a daily basis, said Scott Patton, a graduate assistant for Housing and Residence Life at Youngstown State University and coordinator of this year’s tunnel set up in the Presidential Suites on the second floor of Kilcawley Center.

It works, said Lauren McComas, a freshman from Marion, Ohio, and Abi Seguin, a sophomore from Salem, who walked through the exhibit Monday afternoon.

Both said they were most affected by the replica tombstones found in the room dealing with homophobic hate crimes and the victims who have died as a result of them.

“That’s the one that shocked me the most,” McComas said.

Seguin considers herself to be open and accepting to everyone but said she was shocked by the level of hatred and intolerance displayed in the exhibit.

“It’s very deep,” she said.

“It’s moving and it opens your eyes, even if you are not racist ...,” McComas said.

This is the third year the Tunnel of Oppression has been offered, and it will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both today and Wednesday. Anyone can visit and more than 80 toured the exhibit Monday, Patton said.

Discrimination continues to affect you long after it happens, and you never stop wondering when it will happen again, he said, explaining that the exhibit shows what one might experience daily as an “underrepresented” person.

“We are pushing for acceptance,” he said.

Patton said that most walking through the tunnel are affected by the electronic audio and visual presentations as well as some of the still photographs.

It gets to them emotionally, he said, adding that the heterosexism, genocide, sexism and ableism rooms (the latter because many people don’t think of disabled people as being oppressed) seem to have the most effect on people.

Many of those going through the exhibit are college students who may have had little experience with diversity and oppression in their lives.

“I just had no idea that this was happening,” is a common response from people exiting the exhibit, Patton said.

Raising that awareness means the Tunnel of Oppression is achieving its goal, Patton said.

gwin@vindy.com