By Nedal Ahmed

Student Correspondent

Zero Tolerance Against Violence, a collaborative project between Collin College, Hope's Door Shelter, the college's Counseling Services and The Turning Point Rape and Crisis Center, has a vision of promoting safety from sexual assault, stalking, and intimate partner violence.

This February, Zero held several showings at all three Collin College campuses of the documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, a film that took a look at hip hop and its culture and promotion of violence and demeaning of women.

"I learned about this documentary during my training, and I fell in love with it," Sandy Suvannachakkham, project coordinator, said. "A lot of my colleagues have used this to promote awareness, and it was something that I could relate to because I used to listen to some of this music."

The film itself is a documentary released in 2006 and directed by Byron Hurt, a former quarterback for Northeastern University with a journalism degree and experience with domestic violence prevention. The film explores many issues and themes surrounding the hip hop industry and culture. Themes discussed in the film included the struggle to be one's self instead of the favored, hardened perception, masculinity in American culture and violence against women. Many notable rappers such as Busta Rhymes, Clipse, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Mos Def and Talib Kweli were interviewed as part of the film.

Danielle Parker, a freshman, said she is not usually interested in these type of films, but it helped her recognize a problem.

"I never  really thought about before," Parker said. "Now that I think about it, I can see that there is a lot of sexism in music videos and it does influence a lot of people."

Prior to and after the film, the staff asked the audience to fill out a short survey asking questions regarding their views of how the media is responsible for the propogation of violence and mistreatment. This became part of the topics for discussion groups after the screening. One question was, "Is today's media responsible for how women are being treated?"

"It's definitely involved partially," said Angela Britt, who was at the showing with her sister-in-law, Kelsey Britt. "You have women wearing very little clothing and moving proactively, and they show men controlling a lot, and all these girls have bodies that [are not realistic]."

After the film, some of the viewers saw their answers change because of what they had seen during the documentary. Lina Jabari, a freshman, said her views about media influence and violence against women changed after the screening, although she didn't hold the media responsible at first.

"I changed my answer after I watched the video and saw how the rappers are always about violence, women and money. It changed my mind," Jabari said. "I don't listen to rap, but I just think it affects the person that listens to rap because it makes them think that that's all that there is out there, and that there are no goals in life. All the music videos don't talk about staying in school. You don't think about working hard and trying to be someone."

Suvannachakkham said she is proud of what Project Zero has accomplished so far. Collin College was one of three community colleges throughout the state to receive this grant, which is awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women in the U.S. Department of Justice. The grant went into effect January of 2007.

"The fact that we even got this grant is unbelieveable. I feel that violence impacts everyone, not only students who live on campus, but students here. The difference is that our students go back home, or they commute to where they live. I consider getting this grant is a huge success," she said.

One way Suvannachakkham gauged success was by the changes in the way that crimes are being reported. She said that although crimes are not necessarily rising, students are now feeling more comfortable and aware of the presence of campus police. Another sign of success that Suvannachakkham hopes for is an increase in requests by faculty for private presentations. These private presentations allow for several media and activities to teach students how to recognize abuse and where to go. 

Project Zero is now busy re-applying for the grant, which expires in September. In April, The Turning Point Rape Crisis Center and Collin College will host the 5th annual Candlelight Vigil to commemorate sexual assault survivors and to raise awareness about this topic. The special guest is sexual assault survivor and Macie Jepson from WFAA Channel 8 news. The vigil takes place April. 24 at 7 p.m., at Spring Creek Campus and is open to the public.

For more information, visit www.ccccd.edu/zero.