Western student and Ethnic Student Center employee shares his thoughts on the aftermath of the Burlington shooting and how to move forward as a community.
Dear Western Community,
I would like to take this time to give my condolences to the families and friends of the victims from the Burlington mall shooting. I know how difficult and unexpected this tragedy has been for these individuals. As we grieve this loss, we must also reflect on the perpetrator and other perpetrators of numerous shootings across the nation.
The perpetrator may not have been a student affiliated with this institution, but how does our inability to reach out to surrounding communities contribute the chaos in our nation, around the globe?
As an institution that prides itself in a high academic standard and intellectualism; we have discussions, debates about contemporary issues and elections. We have honor societies and honors courses for those who excel academically. Yet, we fail to provide support to a number of students. How is it beneficial to have competitive programs and challenging discussions if we are only benefiting ourselves? Does this even matter if our communities are wounded? If shootings and bullying continue to exist?
Our knowledge often stays within our walls, within our classrooms. Sometimes we want to enhance that knowledge by hosting events, or workshops around certain concepts with guest speakers specialized in a discipline; those events might discuss issues in our communities and in our globe. Some of those issues may even impact the lives of those on our campus, but after those events, the speaker leaves, and the problem is still floating in our atmosphere.
It is my hope that we work within our institution to collaborate with different students, departments, and expand our resource scope. To expand our outreach to our exterior communities. To provide education and tools to populations that cannot afford higher education.
If we consider that the perpetrator of the Burlington shooting is Turkish, and the reaction towards this person, we can see that often when a person of color commits horrific acts of violence an entire ethnic community is impacted. A group is portrayed as innately violent. Stigma is attached to a racial identity. This reaction differentiates when a white person commits a similar act, viewing them by the life they had prior to the event. This binary is problematic.
Sincerely,
Alan Alatorre-Barajas
Ethnic Student Center Cultural Education Coordinator
