By Alex Tansom

Desensitizing a diverse audience to racial slurs can be difficult, but the N*GGER W*TBACK CH*NK (NWC) comedy group did just that last Friday.

Student Activities sponsored the group’s performance in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, where 441 CSB/SJU students, staff and faculty attended this free show.

The same show was performed a few years ago at SJU as a part of the Fine Arts Series, and Gwen Schimek from Student Activities said she was excited to bring it back.

“(The show has been) highly spoken of ever since, ” Schimek said.

The comedy group takes ownership to a name that it seems everyone is uncomfortable even saying. The name alone is enough to grab a person’s attention, but the obscenities are used for a larger purpose.

The three members of the group worked together using song, physical comedy, poetry, personal accounts and a number of racial slurs to help students recognize the large impact that diversity has on college campuses.

Schimek said she hoped the group would help students realize how strong an impact the language college students use around campus has on racial issues.

Although the words used throughout the performance are not a direct reflection of the language used on campus, many college students use discriminatory language that affects their fellow students, Schimek said.

Sophomore Libby McMurray said the performance was not only hilarious, but thought-provoking.

“It made me realize how many generalizations we make unconsciously about people who are different than ourselves, ” she said.

This was one of the main goals of the group. Through their presentations, they hope to help people realize that there are many race and stereotype issues in our society today. These racial slurs and stereotypes affect our perception and classification of people whether we realize it or not.

Although comedy may seem like an interesting way to bring such serious issues to our attention, McMurray said that comedy was the perfect way to bring these issues up.

“We don’t want to be lectured because we do that in class, ” McMurray said. “So bringing a comedy group to campus to talk about an important issue is great. ”

Student Activities was very pleased with the turnout of the performance and hoped that the audience size reflected the fact that this performance provided something students wanted to see.

Filed under: Variety by Justin Roth