Playing the ‘Color Game’ and Pursuing the American Dream

Regarding the color game to make students aware of discrimination: Gabrielle had to sue the Los Angeles Archdiocese and school because they would not allow her to quit playing this game.

Church officials argue that Gabrielle and her parents miss the point of the bigotry game; that she and her parents are immature and irresponsible in refusing to play a game that requires students to bow before other peers.

The church is arrogant in defending this game and no better than the bigots they require children to play act. In my experience, it did not take a color game to teach me that bigotry sometimes happens and is a form of arrogance.

Martin Luther King Jr., Ruben Salazar (Times reporter killed in 1970), Robert F. Kennedy, and others died so that we would not have to see the ugliness of bigotry and discrimination. Because of them I have never felt discriminated against and have no desire to know what it feels like.

It is bigots who think that those with ethnic and racial differences are less intelligent--less human. The church in this case judges those who object to the personal beliefs of its teachers as “immature” and “irresponsible.”

This has nothing to do with church doctrine but with the haughtiness and arrogance of certain individuals.

Discrimination is bad, but the church has chosen to teach it in a scarring way. What is next? Must we beat each other to know the ugliness of violence?

ADAM ORTEGA JR.

Los Angeles