If you were in the Campus Center on Nov. 14, you would have been greeted by the sight of students dressed up in traditional clothing from Morocco, India, Thailand, Peru, Mexico, China and Germany. They were participating in a multi-cultural fashion show as part of the SAEC’s third annual World Wide Enlightenment Week.
The fashion show was also a quiz, where onlookers guessed which costumes matched which country. In one instance, a lot of students persisted in guessing that an Asian student’s outfit was from Asia, although it was really from Africa. As senior anthropology major Izzy Pulido pointed out, “I think people really need to be mindful. You really need to be conscious of the world around you because a lot of people […] made a lot of stereotypical assumptions.” Their error illustrates the purpose behind the World Wide Enlightenment week: to help students here at UMass Boston look past what they are seeing and appreciate the diversity which surrounds them.
