Our project began one cold Saturday morning in the basement of Carman, where 14 Jewish students and 17 students of color made small talk around a table of bagels, fruit platters, and juice. The diversity of this group was no coincidence—these students, mostly strangers, had been chosen through an application process to participate in a semester-long social justice project sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Hillel.
Although many think of us solely as an alternative spring break trip to New Orleans, our participants spent the first six weeks of the semester engaging in diversity training and weekly workshops spanning issues of identity, race, religion, and class. These programs provided a forum for students to present themselves on their own terms and to hear others do the same. Trust is not usually quick to form, yet out of these programs emerged a community that welcomed honest dialogue and fostered balanced cross-cultural exchange.
Unlike other isolated attempts at multicultural programming at Columbia, where one community plans an event and later asks another to attend, there was a genuine desire for understanding and a commitment to growth. We took risks in conversation with each other, asked questions we would never consider asking elsewhere, and practiced generosity in understanding that multicultural work is often difficult and uncomfortable. As a result, strong relationships developed, and we had a solid foundation with which to start our work in New Orleans.
Our first day in New Orleans began early, at 5:45 a.m. Most members of our group were running on less than three hours of sleep, nervous about the week to come. The safe space we had created within the walls of the Kraft Center and the IRC would be tested, as we were taken out of our comfort zones to face the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. To our surprise, the ever-present destruction only made our group stronger and our discussions more personal. New Orleans today is the perfect example of a culture built on credit and capitalism and divided along lines of race and class. Images of these entangled forces faced us at every turn, proving especially evident in the broken houses engulfed in mold and moss that remain empty, spanning across neighborhoods once known for their vibrant African-American communities.
As luck would have it, this year’s spring break spanned both Purim and Easter, and some of the most memorable aspects of the trip involved these festive holidays. Our distance from New York City and Columbia allowed members of the trip to explore cultural customs and religious traditions that they were unfamiliar with and would not likely investigate otherwise.
The first holiday we celebrated together was Purim. In addition to attending services at a local synagogue and throwing ourselves a costume party (as per Jewish tradition), our diverse group of students could be found dancing circles in the middle of the street, hands joined, while a costumed band encouraged our frolicking with lively music. Several days later, we celebrated Easter a day early, as we spent most of Sunday traveling back to New York. In the same manner that students of color participated and enjoyed Purim, interested Jewish students of all levels of observance traipsed through the overgrown bushes surrounding our hostel in search of hidden eggs, and attended Easter mass Saturday evening at nearby Protestant and Catholic churches.
Now ask yourself: do these types of interactions occur with any regularity on Columbia’s campus? Since returning from New Orleans, we’ve realized that the answer to this question is a resounding no. Hopefully, however, this will not always be the case. The social-justice-themed “Dinner for Doers,” hosted on March 29, proved that there is still much to do in order to foster healthy dialogue on this campus. Most of the students of color present at the event were members our trip, who may not have attended had it not been organized by another of our participants. The event, which had as its focus culturally encompassing social activism, was meant to reach beyond the Jewish population. Nevertheless, the majority of students in attendance was still Jewish.
Shared experience is a powerful tool when developing cross-cultural coalitions, and such coalitions are necessary if we wish to impact social or institutional change. Months of programming and a week-long service trip emboldened us to enter communities foreign to us and approach them as allies. Yet such extensive preparation is not imperative. The only way we can overcome stereotypes and misunderstanding is to foster communication between, across, and among cultural groups. So next time you part ways with a friend who is running off to a cultural meeting, think twice and perhaps tag along. Small efforts such as these can help us build real friendships and maybe one day prevent the terrible bias incidents we all witnessed this past year at our University.
Alison Silveira is a Barnard College sophomore majoring in political science and human rights. Nicole Velázquez is a Barnard College junior majoring in English.
