Just as Marta Moreno Vega hit a key point in her discussion, she was cut off.
A Michigan Union employee interrupted Vega at the door with the phrase "time has expired," just as Vega was speaking on the allegations of racism at Texaco oil company and the suppression of minorities in the corporate world.
Many in the Michigan Union's Welker room laughed at the irony and repeated the phrase to themselves.
Vega, a professor at Drew University, spoke last night on ethnic labeling and her experience as a Puerto Rican of African descent. Her presentation was a highlight for Puerto Rican Week, which runs through Monday. The event was sponsored by Alianza, the Latino/a student alliance.
Vega said she wanted to speak to students because of their potential as future leaders. "To me it's very important that young people are having discussions on issues of race," she said. "So that young people have the consciousness to want to look at the issues is very important to me and it's very important to our future as a people."
Vega said students are the lifeline to the future if racial conditions are to improve. "The work that I have done ... will mean nothing if you don't carry it on," she said.
Standing in front of a large Puerto Rican flag, Vega said racial incidents continue to mar the lives of minorities, although sometimes in more subtle ways than in the past. She gave "that moment when you raise your hand, the teacher calls on someone else," as a typical example of racial discrimination.
"These are very hateful experiences but they have a history," she said.
Vega, who grew up in Spanish Harlem, said society often sends the message that people born with darker skin are less intelligent than others. "The society has introduced ... that if you are dark, somehow there's a gene there that doesn't allow you to be as bright as European Americans," she said.
Vega emphasized that progress in terms of racial acceptance can only be made if students take the initiative and do things for themselves.
"In two hours, I can't give you a McDonald's package for changing the world," she said.
Audience members said the topic of discrimination and multiculturalism was eye-opening. "I'm sorry that you have to speak like this in 1996," ethnomusicology Prof. Lorna McDaniel told Vega.
"I thought it was really successful," said LSA senior Iliana Santiago, who invited Vega to speak. "And it was good to see the amount of different student and graduate groups that (were) represented."