Seminar on Prejudice Teaches Students About Themselves

Tamika Westfield, a black teen-ager at Canyon High School, recalled with exasperation a question by fellow students at the predominantly white campus in Santa Clarita.

“People asked me if I was in a gang because I wore a Raiders jacket,” she said.

Some students around her laughed, shaking their heads and rolling their eyes in disbelief. But other students nodded knowingly. It’s hard to wear black and not be called a gang member, they said.

Westfield and 99 other Canyon students shared other stories of insensitive remarks, double standards, sexism, stereotypes and blatant bigotry during a daylong seminar designed to promote cultural understanding at the high school. By day’s end students drafted a plan to promote racial harmony on campus.

Sometimes funny, sometimes eerily moving, the seminar forced students to evaluate how they view and behave toward others unlike themselves. The ethnic composition of the campus is changing, said social science teacher Julia Howelman, and school officials hope the seminar will help prevent ethnic conflicts from erupting in the future.

“Let’s do something before it happens,” she said.

With a minority population of 21.4%, Canyon High is the most culturally diverse campus in the William S. Hart Union High School District, said English teacher Jody Monteleone. The percentage of minority students is small compared to the inner city, but the campus is a rare common ground for different races in the predominantly white Santa Clarita Valley.

The demographics of the valley, however, are slowly changing. Ten years ago, one of every 300 students at Canyon was black, Howelman said. Today, one of every 40 is black. One out of every six students is Latino, almost twice the ratio of 10 years ago, Howelman said.

The 100 students were nominated by teachers to attend the seminar, which included group discussions, videotapes on racism and stereotypes, and a somber speech by David Okasaki, a teacher from Saugus High School who told how his parents were imprisoned in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

“I was born in a concentration camp,” he began, “an American concentration camp.” The room, earlier that morning filled with laughter when students discussed the moral implications of ethnic jokes, fell silent as students listened to Okasaki describe how the memories and shame of the camps scarred his parents’ lives and his.

“As I grew up, I didn’t like who I was,” he said. “I didn’t like being Japanese.” He and his family had to prove they were Americans after the camp, he said. His voice tinged with regret, he said he never learned to speak Japanese.

During a group discussion, some students complained that some teachers occasionally make ethnic jokes. The teachers recently attended a seminar that was similar to the program, and Monteleone said she hoped that session had influenced the teachers.

“If your teachers have been telling ethnic jokes in class, I hope that’s stopped,” she said. “If your teachers are doing that in class, if you are offended, I hope you tell them.”

Students confronted their own prejudices as well. “I’m not that prejudiced--only gays,” said James Brimidge, 18, a senior. “That’s the only thing.”

Brimidge, who is black, also complained that he, like Westfield, had been judged by his clothes and the color of his skin. “The way I dress is different, and they immediately thought I was in a gang,” he said of other students.

Howelman conceded that “we have a real gang fear up here.” Some parents recently asked school officials if Canyon had gang problems because Latino students were gathering in front of the school to socialize, she said.

“We are very much aware that this community does have prejudices that you’ve gotten from your parents and other adults,” Howelman said.

“Well, maybe we should start teaching parents,” said John Bibi, 17, a senior.

“That’s something you guys can do,” Howelman replied.