As the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom grew dark Thursday night, a white screen of isolation reflected the shadows of students determined to define discrimination in their own words.
For junior Zac Davis, it meant opening a urine-soaked residence hall door.
For sophomore Amber Williams, it meant being called "nigger" by an employee.
And for junior Derek Braun, it meant being mistaken for being deaf while wearing a hearing aid.
But the message behind the 12 students' experiences was clear during Spectrum's Chamber of Hatred presentation, which was part of Ball State University's Unity Week. The participants were members of Spectrum, the Asian American Student Association, Black Student Association and Latino Student Union.
"The biggest thing with this is there is a lot of isolation between minority and majority students," Davis, Spectrum president, said.
More than 100 students looked on as Davis recalled seeing papers ripped off of his residence hall door, the word "faggot" or "queer" written on the door and pictures of people in obscene positions posted on a bulletin board. He especially remembered coming home to a soaking wet door, not knowing what had happened until he overheard what fellow floormates had done.
"They decided the most mature thing to do at a higher education level was to urinate in a bottle and throw it on my door," Davis said.
Williams said she was offended when a fellow restaurant employee called her "nigger."
"I tried to ignore it and tried to think like I didn't hear what I think I heard," Williams said.
But when she finally confronted the employee, the employee told her she didn't mean for it to be derogatory and always used that word for annoying people, not for her specifically. Williams had to go through the store's manager, district manager, regional manager and finally the manager of all of Indiana's chain restaurants to get the employee fired, she said.
"I just don't think it should have taken all of that to get the issue handled," Williams said.
Junior Beverly Bautista, who is Filipino American, described how she was constantly mistaken as a Chinese woman by a fellow Ball State student until she finally approached him.
"He realized what he was doing, and that was all I needed to do," Bautista said.
As the stage curtain opened, the students descended stairs, revealed their faces and described themselves as "diverse," "secure," "empowerment" and "reason." Sophomore Stevie Hahn then led the audience in a performance of "I'll Cover You" by Jonathan Larson, which was featured in the Broadway musical "Rent."
Sophomore Asher Lisec, Student Government Association president pro-tempore, said she enjoyed the presentation, which encouraged her "to try to fight and work with minorities" as a campus student leader.
Freshman Caland Chavis, who participated in Spectrum's "Desolate Thoughts" production last semester, said she hoped people learned to be more aware of the struggles minorities go through.
"If we had shows like this all the time and not just during Unity Week, it could have a bigger impact," Chavis said.
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