Friday May 8 was a great tragedy in the quest to unify the already unified ethnic communities of the University of Sheffield.
The Stand Up For Diversity project descended into farce as soon as it was being advertised, with immediate complaints from outspoken students that there was a distinctly bitter irony that everyone was welcome to this grand event, except the BNP.
The notoriously right-wing party are not many people’s cup of tea and at this University in particular there have been a number of anti-fascist groups trying to lure people into signing petitions.
It is therefore an impressive achievement that the supposedly all-inclusive ‘Stand Up For Diversity’ project has managed to become equally disliked.
Amazingly, whilst tickets were priced at a meagre 50p they managed to sell just three.
This all-inclusive enthusiastic celebration of our rich culture failed to appeal not only to white people, but to every other ethnic group. Perhaps they should have invited the nationalists after all, as they may have at least made an ironic sale.
So why did barely anyone bother to go? Are we all so uninterested in progressing social unity? Isn’t there anyone who enjoys being preached to by a barrage of representative committees and political societies?
Or perhaps the idea of a non-alcoholic university event fails to appeal, since hardly anyone who is politically aware bothers to talk about such issues unless it is at least 2am and a few beers have loosened the tongue.
We all understand that voting is an important aspect of our role in a democratic society. However, we also understand that we are an inherently lazy group of people and often we can’t be bothered.
Why then, remembering this laziness, would we even consider going to a talk on something we already understand the importance of?
After the monotony of the speeches, activities such as salsa dancing, capoiera and a ceilidh were due to take place. Perhaps the inclusion of such colourful and energetic pastimes was to bring life back to those who had sat through the speeches.
I personally would at that point have needed a drink. But of course the organisers of the event, who should be praised if they haven’t emigrated through embarrassment, failed to provide the sufficient alcoholic content to encourage me to part with 50p and drag myself to Fusion & Foundry.
Luckily, Stand Up For Diversity hasn’t caused any social damage – what it has managed to show us is that students don’t care for either hypocritical political agendas, or dancing without alcohol.