KU helps students become ‘allies’ to illegals as 'conditions around the country worsen'
The university claims this event is important because of the supposed fact that “conditions around the country worsen” for illegal immigrants.
The workshop was “inspired by” an art installation soon to be hosted at the university, focused on honoring the “voices” of “undocumented” immigrants.
The University of Kansas invites legal citizen members of its community to a workshop where they can learn proper “solidarity and action” to become “responsible” allies to the “undocumented” community.
The University of Kansas is offering a workshop for students who are “interested in learning how to be a better ally to undocumented immigrants in the U.S” in conjunction with an art installation that creates “dazzling portraits” of “undocumented immigrants.”
The KU Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies is hosting a new “Allyship with Undocumented Immigrants” workshop on Wednesday. According to the university, the workshop is open to the public, but is “of particular interest to educators and students.”
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The event description makes clear that such allyship “requires solidarity and action” and bills the workshop as a place to start for those who are “feeling the call to help” as “conditions around the country worsen” for illegal immigrants.
The inspiration for the event comes from a particular work of art to be housed at the university’s Spencer Museum of Art in January. “Mantras,” a sculpture series by artist Danielle Rooney will be part of the Museum’s “knowledges” exhibit. The series “translates” voice recordings of illegal immigrants into “animations of light,” which create “dazzling portraits” of the individual illegal immigrants “without revealing their identities.”
“Each animation represents one voice, many from within the migrant community in and around Lawrence,” the university, which encourages students who are “migrants and immigrants” to visit the university museum to “record a mantra, phrase, song or prayer and see it become flowing movements of light,” says.
The workshop is the result of a collaboration between the KU Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Sanctuary Alliance Lawrence Kansas, a group that advocates for the abolition of ICE and is currently engaged in active efforts to “protest the federal government’s inhuman[e] policies of family separation and detention camps.”
Federation for American Immigration Reform spokesperson Matthew Tragesser, took issue with the concept of the event, telling Campus Reform that “universities, particularly public universities funded by taxpayers, should not take an active role in training students to become political activists.”
“It is not a proper role for a state university to ‘educate’ students about how they can help people violate U.S. immigration laws. The University of Kansas should not be engaging in what amounts to political indoctrination of students on the taxpayers’ dime,” Tragresser said.
Campus Reform reached out to the university as well as Sanctuary Alliance for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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