Intermedia is Racist

This is a story about one moment of my college life experience. This experience is about building a good culture in a team and I believe that a culture is one of the most important in every team even in business or non-formal organization. Since the fourth semester, I was elected to be one of the division leader of an organization. The division was called Intermedia. It was a division that handle every media that the organization use. e.g. Twitter, Facebook, printed newsletter, and website.

Our numbers were about 15 until we start promoted the division widely to the 2011 freshmen. The number grew until it reach 50 people as the member of the division. While Intermedia is only 15 people, we were very very close to each other. I were very close to each people at Intermedia, but it is indeed It was quite hard to maintain a good environment with 50 people. Even though the number of active member is around 30, still, it was a huge number. I'm afraid that they will make their own group. I know it was not wrong to built a group, but at least, I want all of them to be close. I want that they could could talk to each other seamlessly.

So, I start to be racist. I start to shout it to myself and senior member of the division. I called myself "cina" or "cino" and the senior members as their own race when we had our weekly meeting. It could be "batak", "toraja", or "jawa" depend on the person. :)). Since I close to the senior members, I'm pretty sure they would be okay. One thing that I afraid the most is that the freshmen will take the wrong message. Surprisingly, some of the freshmen start to laugh and tried to mock the senior members including me. Looking to the momentum, I tried to made jokes about my and their race. Suddenly, they laugh and I realized that their communication barrier is weaker.

The next day or meeting is merrier and merrier. It's not that everyone instantly close to everyone, but I can see that this division is alive. At least they could talk to each other freely. The racists thing keeps growing until every time we met, we mock each other race. :)). I frequently heard words like "SIPIT!" and "GLODOK!" towards me, but I found it very funny. :)). Until at the end of Intermedia Camp, we took photos based on our race. Here is the photo.

Jawa Race

Here's another one.

Cina Race

Here's another one.

Batak Race

This "tradition" still continue until this year Intermedia's camp. Oh, how I missed that moment. I'm very happy that I have been a part of this division. A division that made me understand that it is not about what division that made your college life meaningful, but it is how committed are you to a division. Back to the topic, so, it is very important to maintain a good culture to every team. It was fun after all. It gives me motivation for every time I want to met every one of them. It was a humbling experience to serve in this division. Thank you. :D