Acceptance, not Tolerance: An Interview with NEOLOUPHIS on Social Stigma

BY CAESAR SANTOS AND KORINA CIPRIANO

Last March 9, 2019, a Facebook post and Tweet by MovePH/Rappler, involving students from Saint Louis University, had gone viral. In it, was a picture of a student, blindfolded, and holding a placard that says “I’m part of the LGBTQ community, but I am no different from you. Will you take me as I am? Would you hug me?”

The photo had made rounds around social media for its daring message. However, little do people know the full context behind the photo. They student holding the placard is actually part of the student organization “New Louisian Philosophical Society,” or NEOLOUPHIS, and this social experiment is part of an activity called “Project AKAP.”

To give us more information on the project, we interviewed Christian James Matammu, 1st Year Representative of NEOLOUPHIS.

“Project AKAP is a movement by the NEOLOUPHIS Organization in Saint Louis University,” explains Mr. Matammu. “It aims to bring light to the students of the campus that of the social issues we face today, particularly the lack acceptance for marginalized communities.”

When asked about the conceptualization and execution of the project, Mr. Matammu replied: “This project was the idea of our president, Christopher Louis Batulan, who first suggested it, and explained that, [as mentioned in the first question], one of the biggest issues our youth face today is the dominance of tolerance but the lack of acceptance towards people who are “different,” and that we need to make a statement about it. Thus, we came up with this project as a team, and launched it on March 8, 2019.”

“As the name of the project suggests, some of our members were positioned around SLU wearing blindfolds and holding placards containing varying statements, such as ‘I’m a Muslim, but I am a Peacekeeper, would you trust me for a hug?’ and the like, that encourages people to hug us as a symbol of acceptance for these marginalized communities, such as the LGBT, Indigenous People, Muslims, and Women in the workforce.”

Afterwards, we asked about the end goal of the project, to which Mr. Matammu responded “The end goal of this project is to promote the awareness that, indeed, there are a lot of people that are being discriminated against, and that we need to do something to make them feel that they are more welcome here in our school, and that they are accepted by the community.”

Finally, we wanted to ask what this project meant to them as an organization, and what message it aims to broadcast to the world. “This project, to us, is more of our own personal Philosophy, in which we think that to live in a harmonious society, we need to be more inclusive, in a sense that we don’t just tolerate other people who are different, but we need to fully embrace them for these differences, unconditionally. And hopefully, we hope that this idea will spread to the world.”

Christian James Matammu (left), 1st year representative of NEOLOUPHIS, being interviewed on Project AKAP.

Indeed, it is quite a noble thing to spend the time meant for extracurriculars towards a much bigger purpose. And while it was but a small project within the University, we must realize that change starts out small, but eventually it will spread to bigger and wider areas. The numerous responses towards the viral post of the organization is just proof of this.

What do you think of this move? Does your university or organization have any movements or causes of their own? Tell us in the comments below!