Winthrop has claimed to be diverse and the home for inclusion and diversity, but where has that been seen?
This issue has brought about many concerns of the smaller minority groups on campus. Culture Club’s mission has been trying to bring representation to all of Winthrop’s students. Winthrop has a diverse student population, however, they are not often provided the opportunity to represent themselves.
There are large organizations on campus, but the events and programs that they have are not catered to representing the smaller minority groups on campus. Shivani Dahya, the president of Culture Club, helped revamp the organization during her freshman year. “When I first attended Winthrop, I was looking for the diversity that drew me into applying to the school; however, I found none. I found Culture Club during my freshman year, but because of COVID-19, the organization was not as active as it once was,” Dahya says of her experience with the Culture Club. “My main goal as President was to build our organization back up and be able to provide all students the opportunity to share their culture. Through our organization, many cultural organizations were able to be showcased as well as new organizations regarding the precise culture and ethnicity were able to be built upon ours.”
Different cultures on campus such as Middle Eastern, Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and North Asian, Pacific Islander and Hispanic are smaller minority groups that make up less than ten percent of the student body population. These groups have been provided little to no representation on Winthrop’s campus. Due to this, Culture Club plans on creating more events highlighting cultures that are not given that space or opportunity to represent themselves. Culture Club takes pride in their connections with different cultures and curating the knowledge about each.
Culture Club takes pride in not just talking about the basic and surface levels of cultures, but informing Winthrop’s students about culture on a deeper and personal level. They provide opportunities for students of that specific culture to come and speak, rather than have someone who is not a part of that culture speak about that ethnic group. The Culture Club also believes having individuals who are not a part of those cultures speak about them is tone deaf and continues to instill the systematic underrepresentation that these cultures have faced for many years now. That is one of the biggest concerns that these students have with Winthrop.
Many large organizations host events where individuals who are American speak about different ethnic countries or cultures that they are not a part of, which makes many of our ethnic students feel unheard, misunderstood, and fear that their cultures are becoming appropriated.
This is where Culture Club steps in to ensure that these students are provided spaces where their voice and truths can be heard and recognized.
In 2022, Culture Club held many events in order to achieve this goal. They partnered with the Spanish Club to host a Latinx Dance Night to celebrate Latin Heritage Month. In October, Culture Club co-sponsored an event with Winthrop’s Sexuality and Gender Equality club that focused on the cultural impacts the LGBTQ community has had on society to celebrate LGBTQ History Month. This past semester, Culture Club’s Culture Fair brought the spotlight to different cultures and cultural organizations represented on campus. Students representing Iran, Ghana, France, Japan, Korea and many more cultures came to the fair to teach others about their cultures. This event was such a great turnout and inspired one group of African students to create their own club. That is the reason why Culture Club is here, to cultivate friendships and connection.
