A month-long exhibit and campus wide forum mobilized to combat prejudice and bring the Skyline community together, will be open to all students and faculty on the Skyline Campus beginning October 1.
     The event, entitled Common Grounds, was conceived after a male student, who remains anonymous, overheard some other students using derogatory words to defame gays and lesbians, within immediate earshot while he was waiting in line inside the Admissions office last semester.
     Fearful that he was being singled out and that the remarks would escalate and perhaps become violent, the student brought it to the attention of the Gay Straight Alliance due to the inflammatory nature of the defamation. Later it was subsequently addressed by campus faculty for intervention.
     Rosemary Bell, professor of history, said “They [students] were using words such as faggot and queer and he was frightened and upset when he came to the club because he didn’t know how to respond.” Bell, who is one of the faculty advisors for the GSA, realized prejudice comes in many formsand felt it was important to address this issue in an open forum setting.
     “I want to make this clear right from the beginning, this is not a gay issue, it is not a racial issue, it is not a gender issue…it is a human issue.”
     Bell, after many meetings with Lori Slicton, professor of anthropology, decided to seek the artistic skill and talents of Bridget Fisher, professor of art and director of the gallery theater to combine and create “Common Ground,” to educate and enlighten the Skyline community and address the embodiments of prejudice in it’s many forms.
     Slicton feels that it is her duty to respond, in some form, to any student who advises her that they are uncomfortable or threatened in some way and that many issues have long been ignored, not just at Skyline.
     “Part of the purpose of this is to let it be known in a public way that everyone should feel safe here,” said Slicton.
     “The gallery theater is going to have some images that are upsetting; they are not nice, but they are things from our history and events from our present that will inform who we are as a community and in some way will describe us as a people.The question is, do we like what we see?” said Slicton.
     “Common Grounds” was initially the brainchild of these three professors hoping to make a difference at Skyline. The program has since expanded to include five guest speakers and includes the month-long visual presentation at the Gallery Theater. The visual presentation is an exhibition of words that wound people that have been used including derogatory slurs, all of which have been painted on walls in graffiti fashion. Additionally, there will be a collection of approximately 80 diverse, offending images displayed all around the theater. There will be a reaction wall where students and faculty can post their responses to the images and words.
     The guest speakers are scheduled to appear in a forum entitled, “I Can’t Believe You Said That!” located in the main theater on Friday October 17, 2003 during the hours of 12:15pm-2:30pm and will engage in a deep and lively discussion on the words that wound and why we say them.
     The panel consists of:
     James Wong, professor of history at Skyline College; Alma Sisco-Smith, director of the Work-Life Center at University of California San Francisco;Harriet Carrion, MSW and instructor at Skyline College;Gilda Guerrero, Independent Living Services; and John Elia, lecturer for Departments of Human Sexuality Studies, Health Education, and Psychology at San Francisco State University.
     When asked about homophobia, Wong said, “Just like anywhere else, there is a pecking order among some of the students at Skyline. Guys who perpetuate homophobia have problems with their own masculinity.”
     Beyond sexual orientation, there are many other words that hurt different groups of people. Although there is an issue of freedom of speech, Wong noted that certain words can end up being fighting words that invoke violence. Certain words have a long history of social and historical connotation.
     “It has to do with power, for example, in the South during the civil rights movement and the use of the word ‘boy’ to dis-empower African-Americans, or ‘china-men’ to dehumanize the Chinese in the early part of the 20th century.” said Wong
     “Background, semantics, usage [of words], and how they play a part in our culture-you should be aware of the semantics, even if you are joking. Some people use this as a way of being a timid bigot.”
     Regarding the idea of common ground, Hamish Kumaran, a psychology major at Skyline said, “I like it because its an open forum to get everything out in the open. It’s a way for everyone to say what’s on their mind, for having some form of say and support”
     “I don’t find too much discrimination on Skyline. It’s very diverse here,” Kumaran said.
     There is no charge for this event, and was fully funded by the contributions of the Skyline College President’s Innovation Fund, a private organization.
     A reception will open the exhibit on October 7, from 6:30pm-8pm.