Hey guys. So I went to the see an event called the Tunnel of Oppression a few days ago during my Tuesday lunch break. The event was going to be centered on the topic of immigrant abuse/oppression. When I got there with my friend Tasnia, we saw about five other students also waiting for the tour. Finally it started at 1:00. Our guide took a brief moment to tell us that the tour was going to be quite an intense experience, and little did we know about what we were about to see. First, we walked into a dark room with lots of hay on the floor along with a projector screen on one of the walls. We sat down in some seats and a short clip started playing on the screen. The clip showed us some basic information from the immigrants’ point of view. We usually hear about immigration in the news but we usually never hear about it straight from the source like that. One of our tour guides also acted as a immigrant on a train car, screaming and dying of dehydration. The room was completely dark and at one point, she came up right next to me. It was very intense.
On our way to the next exhibit, we saw posters on the wall that said things like “Stop taking our jobs!” and “Leave this country!” A bit later we came upon our final exhibit. There were two actors, one male and one female each on a separate mini-stage. The actors portrayed struggling immigrants. At one point, the male immigrant dropped to his knees as he sobbed about his longing for his wife and kids back home. It was a touching scene and another reminder of the difficulties immigrants face.
Finally after the exhibits concluded, the whole tour group went into a discussion room. We discussed how ways to change our community for the better and everyone participated. Overall I thought the Tunnel of Oppression got its message across loud and clear through the exhibits they had. Surprisingly I wasn’t bored at any point and I felt like I learned a bunch of things. It was definitely an interesting experience.