By Jamie Iglesias

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Issues of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and many others will be tackled at Thursday’s Rally Against Hate event in the Quad from 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

The Association for Inter-Cultural Awareness and Associated Students Inc. are sponsoring the event to bring awareness of hate crimes, discrimination and prejudice.

“We have a bunch of council members within AICA and multicultural clubs who are coming together to squash stereotypes, squash labels and bring awareness to the campus,” said AICA’s advocacy coordinator Trina Tan, 19.

The event will start with resource fair participants from various backgrounds who will set up their tables in the Quad and provide students with information about their culture or organization.

The main attraction during this event is the Clothesline Project where people from different cultural organizations on campus write and even draw on shirts to share their emotions.

“Some of the stuff makes you tense, but discrimination still goes on, and different groups that you would not even think of experience it as well,” the public relations coordinator Zohra Latif, 19, said.

The shirts come in a variety of colors and they will be hung around the Quad so students will have the opportunity to read and see images about different forms of discrimination.

AICA events coordinator Sabrena McDonald, 20, attended the event last year and her favorite aspect of the event is the Clothesline Project.

“There were words there and certain things that you never want to see and I appreciated the time people took to write those things and to put their emotions on the shirts,” McDonald said.

There will also be a “Wall of Prejudice” and a “Wall of Hope” where students will be able to write their experiences and comments. Then, “The Wall of Progress” will show the progress we have come to and it will be starting with the 1960s.

Sylvia Mendez who was the young girl involved in the 1946 Mendez v. Westminster desegregation case is one of the speakers who will share her experience with segregation and discrimination.

Cal State Fullerton sociology professors Angelique Harris and Carter Rakovski will discuss sociological perspectives of prejudice attitudes and associate dean of student life Esiquio R. Uballe will discuss immigration issues.

Throughout the event students will have the chance to speak out, write their experiences and write a pledge on a heart-shaped piece of pink, green and yellow-colored paper.

These pledges will go up on the “Wall of Hope” and each person will get a flower that will represent their commitment, Tan said.

An open microphone, that students are going to be encouraged to come up and share their experiences dealing with discrimination, will be available at the event.

McDonald will be on the stage most of the time to try to get students to come up and share their experiences with discrimination.

“This event will open students’ eyes and show them that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in the community,” Tan said.