Just shy of 50 Bradley students braved the cold weather to trek to Marty Theatre Thursday night for Dialogues on Diversity, an event hosted by the Activities Council of Bradley University (ACBU).<\/p>\n
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Ron Jones, an EMMY award-winning improvist, hosted the program that was designed to tie historical events to today\u2019s society with a dash of humor sprinkled throughout to keep students interested.<\/p>\n
Instead, profanity-laced statements and prizes for participation that ranged from Pringles to Pop-Tarts seemed to confuse more students than it informed.<\/p>\n
One student, sophomore Briana Mathews, said she was expecting a group discussion, which was what posters for the event promoted. Instead, Jones did most of the talking to a small number of students who participated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what I expected,\u201d Mathews said. \u201cI thought it would be more engaging, more peer-to-peer [which would] allow us to pick each other\u2019s brains to allow us to get to the hard-hitting problems here at Bradley and in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it may not have been done how Mathews preferred, Jones did discuss problems that were going on in the world.
\nAfter showing students photos of various protests throughout history and asking students to identify what the were, Jones offered a solution of sorts to students on how to make people take notice of an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless people care, they won\u2019t care,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHow do you make people care? I\u2019ve shown you a bunch of examples: you put your body where the problem is. That\u2019s what I\u2019m asking you to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones also touched on how he believes most younger people are unwilling to attend events such as Dialogues on Diversity, despite the technology they possess that makes it easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the most interconnected generation in the history of the world,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou have the ability to connect with everyone on this campus with the touch of a few buttons, yet the only people that show up at the events are the ones who give a s**t.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rather prophetic statement, given what ACBU event coordinator Mackenzie Clauss said when asked how the event went.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for our first time we wanted to promote it and get people interested,\u201d Clauss said. \u201cWe talked about how hard it was to sometimes get people to come to these events. It\u2019s not just a boring lecture, it\u2019s very exciting and upbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
That may be the case, but students like Mathews who attended were not looking for an \u201cexciting and upbeat\u201d discussion. Instead, Mathews suggested switching the format to better fit what she believed the event was going to be like to begin with.<\/p>\n
\u201cChange the speaker, change the content, more peer-to-peer engagement,\u201d Mathews said. \u201cHe [Jones] spent so much time talking about pictures and posters that the conversation didn\u2019t really get to the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information on Jones and his show \u201cThe Black-Jew Dialogues,\u201d visit www.theblackjewdialogues.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n A more detailed\u00a0look at the presentation, including photos from the event itself, can be found in the\u00a0audio slideshow below.<\/p>\n