Tranquil Mountain Camp Focuses on Urban Racism : Stereotypes: First of the annual sessions since the riots leaves teen-agers committed to eradicating bias.

On a placid June morning amid the soothing smell of pine trees, nearly 100 Los Angeles-area teen-agers sang a ballad in unison, then tackled an exercise on racial stereotypes that by nightfall would tear them apart.

Many of the young people had traveled up this San Bernardino mountainside filled with a sense of purpose, determined to rise above the rioting that had torn Los Angeles apart less than eight weeks before.

But in a series of emotional confrontations at this weeklong camp on human relations, they found in themselves some of the same attitudes that contributed to the unrest.

During exercises dealing with stereotypes, blacks were called “undependable,” “unfriendly,” “ready to pick a fight.” Anglos were labeled “condescending,” “rude,” “smile outside, racist inside.”

Then came the night and the most excruciating exercise. Campers ranked the power of four racial groups in a routine known as the “Power Grid”; whites consistently came in first, Latinos last.

Many youths sobbed openly at the seeming futility of it all.

Yet within days, a number of these teen-agers from neighborhoods as diverse as Westwood, Compton, Lynwood and Santa Monica would be re-energized and brainstorming about ways to fight racism on their home turf.

And organizers hope that some of the idealism permeating this mountain retreat--including a dogged belief that racial stereotypes can be admitted, confronted, perhaps even changed--will prove workable “down the mountain” as campers return to the schools and streets of Los Angeles County.

The National Conference of Christians and Jews has been organizing human relations camps in Southern California since 1950. The progression of lists, conflicts, tears and resolution has been a rite of passage for thousands of high school students over the years.

“I would hope that they would see the progression of stereotypes, prejudice, racism . . . and that it hurts people,” outreach coordinator Lecia Brooks said.

But the June session in the San Bernardino Mountains was the first since the Los Angeles riots, and organizers approached it with unusual nervousness and considered toning down some exercises.

Some campers, meanwhile, arrived at Pilgrim Pines camp above Yucaipa wondering if such exercises could dilute stereotypes in a city racked by racial disunity.

The riots were one reason that Stan Kang, 17, of Santa Monica signed up. But by the evening of the third day, he still was not sure where all the seminars and soul-searching would lead.

“I hope there’ll be some conflict. That’s the only way we’ll get something done,” said Kang, a high school graduate of Korean heritage who is headed for Amherst College this fall. “I’m still sort of skeptical of what’s going on here. There’s a lot of talk.”

By the end of the week, Kang was somewhat heartened by the conflict and the candor he witnessed. The camp, he said, “made me more aware of the need for honesty.”

Some camp veterans had complained that this group of teen-agers seemed too polite, too eager to avoid confrontation--perhaps because their memories of the strife remained too raw.

Staff members wondered if they were being too careful, if the teen-agers needed to be jolted more harshly before they would open up and acknowledge how they stereotype others.

Five campers sat on the edge of a stage as their colleagues stared at them.

A facilitator pointed to a white girl with long, straight, blonde hair.

Where did she live?

“The Valley.”

“Westside of L.A.”

The black girl sitting nearby?

“More toward downtown.”

And what does the Latina do in school?

“She’s in the cheerleading squad.”

“I see her sitting in class, putting on makeup.”

What sort of car does she drive?

“I say she gets the guys to drive her around.”

And how about the Asian-American youth?

“One or two sports teams. Maybe tennis.”

“I see him in an Integra.”

“A Toyota Celica. Or a Volvo.”

It was the morning of Day 3, and campers were beginning to look at stereotypes.

Later exercises--in classic camp style--encouraged teen-agers to open up, admit to stereotyping, react to others labeling them, and openly discuss feelings.

Despite the anger and bitterness that some exercises engendered, the group ended the day in harmony, gathered in the darkness around a campfire, singing songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “If I Had a Hammer,” the smoke billowing past the camera lights set up by a television crew filming the weeklong camp.

Ironically, a training session for camp staff and volunteers originally was scheduled for the weekend of May 1-3. Then the riots swept through Los Angeles after the April 29 verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial, delaying the session for two weeks.

When the session was held, it would reveal divisions among staff and volunteers charged with leading a camp on racial harmony. Some people advocated canceling the June camp, said Lori Nelson, director of youth education.

Because camp facilitators tend to put difficult issues “in people’s faces,” she said, there was fear “that parents wouldn’t let their kids attend for fear of violence.”

But planners decided that the camp should continue.

It was smaller and more suburban than past camps because the Los Angeles Unified School District was still in session. Forty of the 90 students came from private schools. Twenty-four of them were Anglo, 21 were Latino, 20 were Asian-American or Pacific Islander and 18 were African-American.

Some activities were standard camp fare. Teen-agers crowded into the dining hall three times a day, complained about the food, teased their counselors, joined in nightly sing-alongs and talked with cabin mates late into the night.

But much of what ensued on the mountainside was unorthodox, even unsettling. Campers were asked to grapple not only with racism, but with stereotypes of class, gender and sexual orientation.

The youths were separated into racially segregated groups. Three groups ranked Anglos first, Asian-Americans second, African-Americans third and Latinos fourth; only the white group varied, ranking African-Americans second and Asian-Americans third.

The main lodge had been turned into a kind of gallery, its walls hung with posters laden with statistics about racial groups, including unemployment and the percentage of lawyers and medical school graduates by race.

Campers filed slowly by the posters before gathering in the center of the lodge to hear the facilitator solemnly read off the Power Grid results, group by group.

Four times, Anglo campers were deemed the most powerful and told to stand on the stage. Four times, Latino campers were told to stand in the back of the room.

The lodge echoed with loud sobbing. Boys and girls of all races stared at one another, faces damp with tears.

This moment, they would say later, was the most painful moment of the week.

“My friend was up on the stage--my best friend, looking down on me, and me looking up,” said Eugenia Washington, 16, of Gardena, who is black. “It just hurt me. . . . It made me realize that I can’t hide from it. It’s always there.”

As the week wound down, the campers focused on what they could do to change things after they left the mountain.

They promised to reach out to teen-agers of other races. They talked of confronting friends who used racial slurs, calling radio stations to complain about racist comments, asking a record store not to stock music by a white-power band. A few said they might try organizing multicultural clubs at their schools.

By the camp’s final days, they seemed less angry, more accepting, even mellow.

“I don’t think stereotypes like that can be changed in one week, or one month, or one year,” Vanessa Rodriguez of Lawndale said. But some campers’ stereotypes may have been altered, she said.

Jade Sasser, 15, of Hollywood said she still believes she can fulfill her dream to become a lawyer, despite feeling shaken by a chart showing how few African-Americans are in the field. Although she had considered corporate or international law, she said, “coming to this camp makes me feel I’m much more needed in civil rights law.”

Curiously, few teen-agers talked extensively of the riots in their meetings.

That annoyed Washington, who felt that white campers were less than honest when they ranked blacks second in the Power Grid. “You know they don’t think we’re second, or they’d treat us better,” Washington said. “I think it was the guilt, and the riots.”

But Washington says that by recognizing racial divisions, the campers grew closer.

“You can’t work on your differences,” she said, “if you don’t admit you have any.”