Students Mix It Up

During both lunches today, Students for Global Responsibility (SGR) held Mix It Up Day, a national event seeking to bring students of different backgrounds closer together.

Mix It Up Day is sponsored by Tolerance.org and Teaching Tolerance. According to the Tolerance.org website, "The cafeteria at lunchtime is a social map of the whole school. A map criss-crossed with boundaries, [which exist] for many reasons – habit, friendship, status, fear, prejudice."

The event is being held in over 2000 high schools across the country today, Nov 21, to encourage "cross-cultural understanding through increased interaction," said event organizer and SGR member, senior Eryn Trimmer.

When students entered the SAC today for lunch, nine tables on the stage were labeled with the names of the 12 months. Students were asked to sit at the table of their respective birth months.

Certain tables also had a list of suggested topics of discussion such as movies, television and world events.

Trimmer found out about the event through City at Peace, a local organization that puts on plays to promote conflict resolution and cross-cultural understanding. Trimmer hoped to bring together the already diverse Blair student population. "We're trying to encourage people to cross over social and racial barriers that we've noticed," he said. "Blair has a lot of diversity, but people tend to stay in their comfort zone."

Student participation was not as high as hoped, but the lack of enthusiasm, according to Trimmer, "was kind of expected."

Although SGR members attempted to cajole more students to participate, many were reluctant. "Most tend to give a lame excuse," Trimmer said. "It just seems to me that they don't want to push themselves out of their comfort zone."

However, students who did partake enjoyed the experience of meeting new people. "I'm talking to people I may have met before, but never talked to," said senior Cedric Davis.

Other students, like junior Zoraida Alvarez, destroyed their objective opinions of others, and were amazed by the willingness of fellow peers to talk. "I thought she was stuck up and she was quiet," she said. "They just come up here. It's kind of cool."

The SGR anticipates sponsoring more activities such as this one in the future. "We hope to do more and improve by it each time," Trimmer said.

The SGR website may be found at sgr.mbhs.edu.