What is TOLERANCE? I grew up in a small town full of culture but lacking tolerance. A place where it is hard for people to accept someone else’s beliefs, even if those beliefs do not affect them in any way. That showed me that if that happens with a small amount of people, then the whole world could be full of small groups of people with the same mind set. Tolerance from my perspective is about respecting others, accept them the way they are without any intend to change them. Respect is something that the society nowadays is missing: a society that makes you believe that there is a only one kind of right and one kind of wrong. That is the reason why I decided to go out and talk to people, in order to get some feedback on what tolerance means for others and how the apply it to their lives. My goal is to grow as a person and learn about the Valley’s culture, because listening to other’s point of view does not hurt anybody.
Basics: Tolerance as a noun
Introduction: What is Tolerance?
Take a Listen
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Building Minds
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Visual Perceptions
Performing Dreams
Put on your Dancing Shoes
Breaking Down Barriers
Reap what you sow
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BASICS
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tol路er路ance noun 1. the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessary agree with. synonyms: acceptance; open-mindedness, broad-mindedness, forbearance, liberality; indulgence, understanding
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PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES Being a dance major in a place where the arts are not taken as a profession, requires of more hardwork and dedication than usual. Amanda, Cassandra and Lupe are Dance students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, with the perspective that in the Rio Grande Valley is hard for people to understand fine arts as a real profession. Individually, they have suffer discrimination in the fact that financially, people support more other programs such sports. But as a group, they agree that there is no better way to teach people their value than by showcasing their talents.
“The problem is that people don’t have enough knowledge to judge, but they still do it “
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“There are so many people that think that the arts are not important, but I do think is just as important as any other activity, people don’t realize that and they push down the arts, unfortunately “
On the bright side, medical programs look at fine arts students because “they tend to use their brains more”, so that opens up a lot of scholarship opportunities for college students.
The struggle happens when they are out there in the professional world, because it is difficult for people to undertstand what dance majors are able to do, specially here in the valley.
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TAKE A
LISTEN
“For most part, musicians are underpayed.” From Paul’s perspective, a junior music major at UTRGV, people from the valley do not considerate musicians as professionals. The reality is that they put on the same amount of hours as any other profession throughout the world. It is an issue that should not be taken lightly, and for him, one of the solutions is to have more demand and exposure, make contracts and set a quote, but the most important part is to “Take a listen, because it doesn’t hurt”.
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Being able to go foward and tolerate any kind of situation around you is not an easy thing to do, from Sergio’s point of view. However, that is what tolerance is about, to be “able to carry yourself without any bagagge“ and handle the situations that you are facing without hesitation. Sergio Sarmiento is a graphic design major, who had suffer from intolerance from other people when they hear the word “graphic” as a carreer. In his experience, people consider that being an artist leads automatically to an starvation wage. The issue here in the valley is that the demographics affect people’s perspective of the arts. People discriminate against artists in general. From Sergio’s experience, people had told him that being a graphic designer is not a good choice of a career, but the best way to prove them wrong is to be sucessful.
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breaking down
BARRIERS Being you is what makes you special. Diversity is present every single day in our lives, and being able to accept that idea is the real challenge. It does not matter where you come from, what matters is why you are here and what are you doing to make a difference.
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“You can’t tell me what I can and can not believe in, I already made my choice”
Luis, Ely and Samantha are a group of friends with different choice of career but with the same passion of make a difference in the world. “Tolerance is accepting other’s people choices and beliefs. People can not control what you can do or choose to do, so it is wheter they accept you or don’t accept you”. The biggest issue in the valley according to them, is the cultural differences: it is easy to jugde someone by their looks and that is not right in any way. As individuals everyone has the right to make their own desicions, being single minded is the problem and it is something that has to change.
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building
MINDS Coming from a big city to a small place is a change that affects your life in many ways. It could be for better or for worse, it all depends on the iniciative that you take. Bullying is a social problem that involves being intolerant of others, and not being able to accept the unknown.
“I’m originally from Chicago, and personally I can say I suffered bullying when I came down to the valley, specially because of my accent. My parents sent me with a psycologist and it helped me a lot, that is why I decide to become one, because in that way I can help others.�
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On a good note, Cristian, a finance student at UTRGV, believes that in order to have a good and healthly life it is necessary to accept diversity. “There’s a lot of variety here in the valley, of any kind, and I think it’s important to respect others as they are. The valley is a good place to live, if we respect each other.”
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“Respect each other is common sense� Living in a small place as the valley has their pros and cons. One of the pros is that you get to learn a lot from other cultures, but on the other side you have to deal with the discrimination that the same mixture of cultures carries.
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“It doesn’t matter where you come from, being able to tolerate is common sense, it‘s essential, it’s what makes us humans”
To make a choice is difficult, and people makes it more difficult when they judge you without hesitation. For theatre students, worrying about employability after college is something unavoidable. However, it is not the end of the world as long as you keep doing what you love; if you enjoy your career and embrace your profession, there is nothing that can keeps you from success. It is true that people do not take the arts seriously, but at the end all that matters is your passion. Dreams do come true, if you invest in them.
SPECIAL
THANKS
reap what you
SOW
To all those who participated in the interviews. Without you this project would not be completed.
Tolerance equals Respect, as humans is important to remember that we reap what we sow. Accepting others and being able to tolerate their beliefs it’s a key to living. Being tolerant is not only to be able to put up with others; it is about trying to understand and respect those who differ from you. Tolerance happens when you accept that each person is worth the same. And that a person that is worth less does not exist. From my perspective, I believe in respecting others no matter their beliefs, sex, race, identity, religion, social status, etc. Everybody in the world should be treated equally and with dignity. Everybody have a point of view, and the right to express it without being judged.
DESIGNED AND WRITTEN BY diana chong. ALL CONTENT IS ORIGINAL WORK FROM THE ARTIST.