The African Student Union (ASU) hosted a hot topic session on Oct. 21 called RAW, an open-panel discussion on love, sex, and culture. The turn out for this discussion was very good. ASU’s president, Rachel Ezieme, and the board came together to ask questions about the three topics, and separated the audience into three groups. The groups came alive as they discussed each topic. There was a lot of diverse thinking and understanding of each specific topic. Of course, the big double-standards for men and women came up. In addition to discussing these topics, a video was shown of other college students’ thoughts about love, sex, and culture.
ASU as a collective group felt that love, sex, and culture are three topics that college students deal with on a regular basis and don’t really get the chance to express their thoughts and feeling about. Tracy Ramos, ASU Outreach Coordinator, was very happy with the outcome of the event.
“I wanted people to walk out of there more liberated and hear and see what our peers have to go through. It’s always good to hear people’s take on those three subjects because everyone is from different backgrounds.”
“The event in itself went well. I was so surprised with the outcome. It shows that students are interested in those three subjects,” said Ramos.
RAW wasn’t just a time to express your feelings about love, sex, and culture, but it was also a time to learn about others and their perspectives. Many people spoke about the environment that they grew up in and how that effected their view on these topics. Some even talked about their religious perspective and whether or not they go along with them. Others talked about how these topics were a common thing that they talked about with their families.
The African Student Union is not just for students of the African culture, they welcome all students of all cultures to come and join them every other Friday at 2 p.m. on the third Floor Campus Center RM 3115 (the glass conference rooms in the back). Tracy also shares with us that there will be a RAW part 2 in Feb. 2015.