toward EQUALITY : EXPLORING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE : RECOGNIZING DIVERSITY : A Resource for Parents and Teachers to Fight Prejudice, Build Pride, Respect Diversity : HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?
These are from Los Angeles Times news stories. How would you feel if you had experienced the same thing? 1. Orange County banker said to a black couple applying for a business loan: “We have histories of blacks owning barbecue businesses, running shoeshine stands and limo services. We don’t associate your background with success in the import business because no one of your race has done this.” Aug. 2, 1987.
2. Chinese student at Alhambra High School: “ . . . When I talk to American people, I get nervous. I make mistakes, and they laugh at me. Even with my Chinese friends who were born here, I am afraid to talk. That’s why a lot of Chinese stay in their groups and speak Chinese together. They never learn English.” April 9, 1987.
3. Santa Ana woman who emigrated from Bolivia with husband and four children: “They say, ‘If they’re in America, why don’t they speak only English?’ They think that maybe we don’t want to be real Americans. . . . Why can’t we love both of our cultures? This is the American way, too, isn’t it?” Aug. 6, 1988
4. East Los Angeles student who went to Harvard: “I knew I had Mexican parents. I thought of myself as an all-American kid in some ways. All of a sudden I got to Harvard and realized what All-American meant and it wasn’t me.” Jan. 6, 1988.
5. Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo: “Being an Asian, I have to be twice better than someone of a different race, say, white. There definitely is racism. . . . It’s hard to measure in polls because most people have very polite self-images and do not think of themselves as racists.”
6. Jewish woman starting her first important job recounts how she began each workday in humiliation. The boss would buzz her on the intercom with a JAP (Jewish American Princess) joke. After delivering the punch line, she says: “He’d roar with laughter, and I’d just sit there. I didn’t know if it was funny or not, but I knew I didn’t like it.”