A group of Ball State University students found out first hand how hate speech affects those who are its targets as they participated in an immersion seminar through the Virgina B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry.
Robin Elmerick said the first thing that comes to her mind when she thinks of her experience with the project is a homeless man she met named Rocky.
Elmerick was able to experience a day in Rocky's life and see the looks people give him daily, she told the crowded room in the Cornerstone Center for the Arts.
Elmerick was one of 15 students who participated in Learning From A Legacy Of Hate, an interdisciplinary immersion seminar sponsored by the Center for Creative Inquiry and facilitated by Beth A. Messner, associate professor of communication studies.
The class presented a seminar on its semester long project to an audience Thursday night. They shared memorable stories experienced during their participation in the project as well as showed the documentary and Web site they created.
Audience member Jessica Patterson was especially touched by Emerick's story.
"The thing that was the most shocking was the interview with the homeless man because she got to experience the looks of disgust he gets everyday," Patterson said.
The group hopes to educate and inspire people to make a difference in their community where hate speech is involved. Students spent the spring semester creating the Web site and documentary as well as a companion CD-ROM about hate speech in Indiana.
The Learning From A Legacy Of Hate Web site provides visitors with a timeline of hate speech, areas of pop culture involving hate speech, a teaching page and interviews with Hoosiers who have been hurt by hate speech.
The interviews stood out to telecommunications major Alyssa Ivanson.
"This topic is difficult, and I think these students did a very good job of getting the emotions out of a sensitive issue," Ivanson said.
The group warned Web site visitors that the images and words on the site might be offensive. The group said it chose not to censor the Web site because they accurately reflected the times to which these events are relevant.
The Muncie Community School System co-sponsored this project and plans to implement the companion CD-ROM into its learning curriculum, according to the group. The group also plans to distribute one CD-ROM to every superintendent in the state of Indiana.
The Legacy of Hate Web site will be available for browsing at the beginning of next week.
Http://www.bsu.edu/learningfromhate
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