Diversity Event – Soul Control at AS220

This is related to an event that was off campus. I went to go see a band from Rhode Island called Soul Control, along with a couple of other touring bands who were playing. The show catered to Rhode Island’s diverse punk, hardcore metal scene. It’s a music style I identify with because the people who are a part of it find themselves different. Some of us are having lots of piercings, others have different colored and unique hair styles, and others are covered with tattoos. I had an experience however that was a little disheartening to me. I always identified with the music and “scene” because I always felt different, I grew up in Central Falls, I was a minority in a town that was, at the time, predominately Columbia, Dominican, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. I have always been a bit defiant; I am one to always question the “norm” thinking, so to speak.


While at the show I was sitting at the bar area and the conversation of homosexuality came up, I was talking to some friends and some acquaintances. One kid in the group who I was talking to brought up a situation where he was getting mad because someone in one of his classes would always be staring at him and it made him feel uncomfortable. He said that it had nothing to do with the fact that the kid was “gay” but it’s because its common decency, it’s not right to stare at anyone for an allotted period of time, and that was his defense.


I found it interesting that this person in particular automatically identified his fellow student as “gay”. I asked him how he knows his classmate is gay and he said “you can just see it.” This was completely mind boggling to me. The idea that this kid with two half sleeved tattoos and long hair would automatically make an assumption about someone he knows nothing about. I made it a point to say “well maybe he just wants to be friends with you and he’s just socially awkward and doesn’t know how to approach you. Maybe he just thinks you’re cool or something.” I was frustrated and annoyed that assumptions are made about guys looking at other guys, especially when they’re made by someone who is not a part of the “social norm”. It pretty much made me sad; honestly, here is where I feel lonely in my endeavors to find people like me, and even in the group of kids I identify with on a musical and image level are just as ignorant as the people I try to fight against.


The other problematic thing for me too is that these bands that I see who are a part of this whole scene write songs about defiance, self-reflection, and speaking out, yet here is a kid who is actually not a part of that at all. I have witnessed issues like this a number of occasions while attending shows. I decided to put this up on my blog as my diversity event because I feel these shows are a big part of diversity, but I also wanted to address the fact that sometimes even the people you identify with will show a side that will undeniably bum you out because of an ignorant thoughtless mind state.