My Students' Unapologetic Journeys into "Multicultural Class"

I have been involving myself in a class on Multiculturalism since last semester (2019). At first I was adamant to be in charge of managing this class since it surely required a lot of readings and preparation. But, it turned out to be one of the classes that I love teaching. Indeed it has been a rewarding experience for me personally since I can understand how my students think of the issues and topics of discussion that we covered every week for the whole semester. We talked about wide varieties of multiculturalism-related issues faced by societies around the world. Of course, we just picked some that surely would intrigue the class’ curiosities.

To give an overview of what we covered during this semester, I will highlight about the papers written by the students. Since I did not want to let them unguided as to what topics they could write about, I gave them a wide (really wide) arrays of terms that we covered in the class. There were more than 100 words/terms with initial letter starting from A to W. I asked them to choose at least 12 words with different initial letter from which they could begin writing their paper---based on the words they have chosen. I know it could be a daunting task for them since they had to read all of the 170 more words, understand their meanings, and then pick only 12 of them.

This was a deliberate approach that I used since I really wanted to know what kinds of topics that they were interested in or which one(s) that they had invested themselves into during the whole class. Once again, it could be a difficult thing to begin with since they had to come up with an interesting, sensible, and believable topic that would cover all of the 12 words they picked in the first place. Also, I asked them to make sure that the first paragraph of their paper must be able to lure the readers into buying their arguments.

Here are the list of words/terms that they had to choose from in alphabetical order:

Ableism

Acculturation

Affirmation

Acceptance

Anti Bias

Anti Racism

Anti Semitism

Asexuality

Assimilation

Bias

Bigotry

Biological Sex

Biphobia

Bisexuality

“Black”

“black”

Black Subculture

Celibacy

Classism

Coming Out

Conservative

Cross Cultural

Cross Dresser

Cultural Racism

Culture

Culture Appropriation

Disadvantaged Groups

Disability

Discrimination

Diversity

Dominant Culture

Egalitarianism

Ethnicity

Ethnocentricity

Eurocentric

Face Saving

Faustian

Far Left

Far Right

Fundamentalism

Gender

Gender Bias

Gender Expression

Gender Identity

Gender-Neutral Language

Gender Role

Gender Variance

Handicap

Hate Crime

Hate Incident

Heterophobia

Heterosexuality

Hispanic

Homophobia

Immigration

Inclusion

Inclusive

Inclusive language

Institutional Racism

LGBTQ

Labeling

Liberalism

Lifestyle

Minority/Minorities

Multicultural

Multiracial

Multiracial education

Multicultural education

Name Calling

Nation

Native

Non-White

Oligarchy

Opulent Society

Ostracism

Other(s)

Person of Color

Political Correctness

Political Agenda

Power Abuse

Power Relation

Prejudiced Thinking

Quagmire of Lawlessness

Queer

Questioning

Race

Racial Slurs

Racism

Refugee

Relativism

Religious Strife

Respect

Scapegoating

Self-acceptance

Self-denial

Self-affirmation

Solidarity

Sexism

Sexual Identity

Sexual Orientation

Social Bubble

Social Outcast

Third Gender

Tokenism

Tolerance

Tradition

Transgender

Transgressive

Transsexual

Tribes

White Privilege

Winner-Take-All Society

After two weeks, I began accepting their paper. I could not be happier in reading their submitted papers simply because I could not stop reading their papers one by one. It’s that intriguing. Alright, I do not want to brag about it. So, to make an overview of what kinds of papers they were writing about, I will make a list of the titles of their papers. One thing that I forgot telling is that they were written in Bahasa Indonesia, so I will jot down the original titles and the translation. The list order was simply made based on the date I received the paper. Here are some of the titles that would highlight their explorative and unapologetic minds:

LGBTQ: Apa yang Salah dari Pilihan Mereka?

LGBTQ: What’s Wrong with Their Choice?

Lingkaran Setan: Diskriminasi Terhadap Orang Asia di Era Pandemi Covid-19

Vicious Circle: Discrimination Against Asians During Covid-19 Pandemic Era

Manusia Bukan Hanya Tentang Dua Jenis: Pria dan Wanita

Humans Are Not Only About Two Sexes: Male and Female 

Jalan Sunyi Kaum Transgender: Mencari Kehidupan di Tanah Demokrasi

A Quiet Road for Transgender: Searching for Life in the Land of Democracy 

Rohingya: Etnis Muslim yang Tidak Pernah Mendapatkan Haknya

Rohingya: Muslim Ethnics That Never Got Their Rights 

Orientasi Seksual: Sebuah Sekat?

Sexual Orientation: A Hindrance?

Diskriminasi dalam Multikulturalisme, Apakah Masih Multikulturalisme?

Discrimination in Multiculturalism, is it still Multiculturalism?

Feminisme Bukan Ancaman untuk Kaum Pria

Feminism Is Not A Threat to Men

Perlukah Bertoleransi atau Bagaimanakah Bertoleransi terhadap LGBTQ+?

Should We Tolerate or How to Tolerate LGBTQ+?

Cultural Appropriation: Pernahkah Saya Melakukannya?

Cultural Appropriation: Have I Ever Done That?

Perbedaan, Mengapa Harus Diperdebatkan?

Differences, Why Make A Fuss Out of Them? 

Queer dan Eksistensinya di Tengah Keragaman Masyarakat Indonesia yang Konservatif

Queer and Its Existence Within the Diverse & Conservative Indonesian Society

Diskriminasi pada Transgender : 'Biasa'

Discrimination towards Transgenders: ‘That’s Common’

Transgender: Pantaskah Diberi Dukungan?

Transgender: Should They Deserve Our Support? 

Krisis Identitas Indonesia

Indonesia’s Identity Crisis

Berkenalan dan Berdamai dengan Gender dan Seksualitas

Acknowledging and Making Peace with Gender and Sexuality

Penolakan Orientasi Seksual Minoritas di Indonesia: Diskriminasi?

Denying the Existence of Minority Sexual Orientation in Indonesia: Is It Discriminatory?

Rahasia di Balik Pelangi

Secrets behind The Rainbow

Culture Appropriation: Hambatan dalam Multikulturalisme?

Culture Appropriation: Obstacles in Multiculturalism? 

Gender-neutral Language: Usaha Mewujudkan Kesetaraan Gender

Gender-Neutral Language: Efforts to Create Gender Equality

Apakah Berbeda Selalu Menyimpang?

Does Being Different Always Mean Being Deviant?

LGBT dan Agama

LGBT and Religion 

Memanusiakan Manusia di Tengah Pandemi Covid-19

Humanizing The Humans in the Midst of Covid-19 Pandemics

Looking back into the reading materials that I gave them, I was pretty sure that there were more than just these. However, looking back into the choices of terms that I provided, I may have put too many words related with gender issues---which could be a tantalizingly daunting task for them. However, I was relieved to find out that some of them chose issues related with religion and culture appropriation. But, that’s not the point. I am glad to finally learn that the most and widely used term in the paper is “discrimination”---which is not surprising because we have travelled across diverse countries and parts of the Indonesian archipelago to learn about history and traces of discrimination and how they impacted or are still impacting people’s lives. And, to make it like a cherry on a cake, the second most widely used term is “acceptance”. That speaks for itself as how this class has impacted my students’ way of thinking or at least has brought them to dare themselves to speak up about the issues that they may have witnessed, read, or only heard but never had a chance to put their ideas into words.

This class was supposed to be conducted fully in classes, but as of March 16--after about a month of meeting--we had to change the whole class into online via webex due to Covid-19. There goes our plans of going on a two different field-trips during the semester. We were supposed to see Jogjakarta undercover-style into the lives of ordinary people mingling within diverse cultural, religious, social backgrounds in some parts of the town---that even my students have never gone before. That being said, we spent the rest of the semester doing online classes and “imagining” ourselves going into the depth of our reading materials.

This has been a great semester despite the shortcomings of doing it online.

Jogjakarta, June 2020 (Notes during Covid-19 Semester)