On October 14th, I had the opportunity to attend the “Boo! Who?” event in the Townsend Residential Learning Center. This event was hosted by D-building RA’s, Anthony, Julie, and Nancy. It served as a one-time event to educate attendees largely about stereotypes, and how to better interact with our peers. It lasted from about 8:00-9:00, followed by a watching of Hocus Pocus. The event was well-advertised around my dorm, as I live in D-building. The purpose of the event was intentionally kept a secret and was only described vaguely, as my RA described, because to go into too much detail about the event would be to detract from the meaning of being there at the event that night. “Boo! Who?” was targeted at Honors students, although others were technically invited. There were less than three non-honors students that attended the event.
I had gathered a small group of friends to go with and arrived about twenty minutes early. Decorations were mostly set up, and Anthony and Nancy were putting on the finishing touches. There was a table of candy and refreshments by a wall, and I assisted in setting up a Pandora station appropriate to the atmosphere they were trying to achieve. After about thirty minutes of talking to friends, more honors students arrived and we began the night’s activities. First, we played some group games while the organizers set up an activity, now knowing how many people were there and therefore how many materials they needed to make. While playing, each person was assigned a stereotypical role on our backs, such as Jock, Theater Student, Loner, Pothead, and Greek Life student. We couldn’t see our own tag, and were told to treat others stereotypically according to their tag. I was assigned a pothead, as I found out quite quickly when people started asking me for brownies. The purpose was to show that people with labels such as these would generally be offended and saddened that they could be treated in such a way that that they were considered two-dimensional. Obviously, there is more to a person than their stereotype, and the burden falls on us to realize that.
Afterwards, we performed a similar task in which we were assigned a role that was kept secret from everybody but ourselves, and to act like that role. As a jock, I interrupted conversations to talk about muscle gains and protein powder, as that felt like what I was supposed to do. This was meant to either give insight into ourselves or others, depending on how closely our assigned role matched our own personality. As someone who is horribly non-athletic, I considered the fact that not all jocks behaved stereotypically, and would take that into future consideration in the future. It offered an opportunity to reflect on my own biases and evaluate them with regards to other people.
Finally, we finished with a game of “On the Bus.” The premise is that a moderator asks a question about our lives, and if it applies, we get off on the left side of a line, and if not, we move to the right side of the line. The questions got increasingly deep and personal, such as going from having siblings to having experienced racism, body image issues, and whether suicide has impacted our lives or not. The purpose was to show that, even as negative experiences affect our lives, we aren’t alone as others have experienced the same thing. I didn’t stay past that, and didn’t watch the Hocus Pocus movie afterwards, as I had other obligations.
Overall, “Boo! Who?” was a fun experience that made attendees really reflect upon how they treat others, and how others deserve to be treated, as well as let us know that in our toughest times, we were not alone. It was a refreshing experience that I am glad I could spend with my friends.