FASA makes new friends on the playground

Conveniently located at the columns, probably one of the hottest spots to be on MU's campus when the weather isn't being bipolar, FASA (Filipino-American Student Association) held its first general body meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7. We acquired a handful of fresh faces who are interested in learning more about our culture and creating new friendships, but it was not the meeting's agenda that made my day, but the games that we played.

Of course, we could not stay on topic for long and the ice breaker games seemed to morph into the games we used to avoid doing homework. After jedi-tag, the name game and 'no-limbs' tag (the new name of the game because I cannot remember it), we were stuck on Ultimate Ninja. This intense single-elimination modification of martial arts tag kept us busy for upwards of 30 minutes - and caught the attention of some onlookers and fellow students on the quad.

It was quite entertaining to see a group of roughly 15 "asian" students slicing at each other in awkward positions, posing in pathetic excuses for ninja stances, however I couldn't help but feel like the eyes of judgement were there, too. Regardless, four youngsters approached me when I stole a moment to grab a drink of water and were wide-eyed in the fact that we have also been their entertainment for the last 20 minutes. "We've been videotaping you guys for a while! We can't believe you guys know how to play Ultimate Ninja, too... but you guys are actually ninjas," exclaimed a girl, clad in all pink. I couldn't help but laugh and invite them over to play a few rounds with us, but it was a perfect example of how sheltered even the quad could be. Was it that blatant in the observations of the onlookers that Asian-Americans were playing a fun game, as opposed to a fun game was being played by MU students?

I'm not one to rant about stereotyping, discrimination or inequality, so I'm not going to. The point of the matter is, FASA is a group of MU students who are interested in the Filipino culture and want to share it with Columbia, Mo. Filipino heritage is not a requirement and is not what embodies this organization and I am so proud of it. Here's to the rest of the school year!