“I came to the tunnel last year, and I learned a lot, so I came to help as a tour guide this year.”

The Tunnel of Oppression is an experience that forces students to encounter the seen and unseen oppressions in our society, the director of Tunnel of Oppression, political science and pre-law and general management junior Michelle Cooper said in an email.

Before entering the Tunnel of Oppression, students participate in a privilege walk — where students step forward or backward for each social advantage or disadvantage they’ve experienced — to start thinking about how lucky or unlucky they are.

The audience is then guided through a maze with stops at each performer addressing a different issue of oppression, including cyber bullying, high college tuition rates and sex trafficking, through a monologue or skit. Viewers are given the chance to see and experience firsthand how oppressed people feel and then attend a debriefing after the maze.

The event has been popular in years past, so Amnesty International and the University Activities Board extended the event to three performances at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday in the Union Ballroom.

“I would say that this event is for everyone,” Cooper said in an email. “We touch on many different forms of oppression that if a person relates to one of them, there are many more that you might not and will learn about before the end of the tunnel.”

The monologues, some personal, were written by students and performed by a group of
student volunteers, Cooper said.

Social work sophomore Tera Warn helped lead the discussion in the debriefing room after the first show Wednesday and said she was expecting more response from the audience, but some people did voice their thoughts.

“One student said she thought the doctor scene about people who are transgendered affected her.

She said she could relate and said it’s a huge issue that transgendered people can’t get medical help, and people are scared of transgendered people,” Warn said.

“There was one woman who said that the whole message was to not judge people.”

Cooper said the event was a chance for both attendees and the student performers to
look at life from a new perspective.

“I hope that the audience open themselves to the possibility of learning something new,” Cooper said.

“Maybe even wanting to change their outlook on the world and other people and cultures.”