Virtual Tunnel of Oppression 2020-21

12/11/2020

Saint Louis University's annual Tunnel of Oppression is going virtual. The Tunnel of Oppression event is a multisensory exhibition of some of the most difficult and complex issues we face today. 

The Tunnel experience will demonstrate the concepts of privilege, power, bias, and the harsh reality of hate crimes including covert and open acts of oppression as a community would experience them.

Participants are typically guided through a series of scenes that aim to educate and challenge them to think more deeply about issues of oppression. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, participants will virtually walk through these scenes on an interactive site that the Housing and Residential Life and Cross Cultural Center teams created.

This year’s tunnel will feature:

• Body image
• Ableism
• Barriers to voting
• Micro and macro-aggressions
• Flipping the script between majority and minority identities
• Mental health
• Parental leave
• Mistreatment in healthcare
• The disproportionate effects of COVID-19 in minority groups.

Enter the Tunnel

The Tunnel of Oppression started as a campus grassroots diversity program at Western Illinois University in 1994 and can now be found at many colleges and universities around the nation. Inspiration from the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. was used as a template for the first Tunnel of Oppression.

The Tunnel of Oppression at Saint Louis University is coordinated, written and designed by SLU students, faculty, and staff. The site will be running throughout the year.