Youth Opinion : ‘I Know the Harm Silence Can Cause’

The following students have received scholarships for their commitment to human relations and participation in activities aimed at bringing people of different races and cultures together. The awards were given by two groups within the Los Angeles Unified School District--the Council of Black Administrators and the Assn. of Jewish Educators.

CHIDIMMA OFAH

18, Venice High School graduate

I come from Nigeria--I’m a real African American. I had never experienced prejudice before coming here. I’ve been involved in the Human Relations Task Force at school. It tries to bring together blacks and Latinos, which has been a major problem on campus.

We got people to wear green ribbons in support of better relations between the races. We were surprised: A lot more people wore them than we expected. We did this exercise called “Fish Bowl,” where a person of one ethnicity stood inside a giant fish bowl, and another person of a different ethnicity stood outside it. The person outside had to listen and learn from the person inside.

I hope people will pick up the pieces after I graduate and continue the work. There are a lot of people who want to get involved, but are afraid.

STEPHEN GORDON

18, Venice High School graduate

I was chairman of the National Council of Governors in the Junior State of America, a national organization that encourages people under 18 to be politically active. After the civil unrest, our focus was urban expansion. Through an organization like ours, we wanted students to realize that they can have a say, even though they may not be able to vote yet.

I helped set up chapters at Dorsey, Crenshaw and Lynwood high schools. Students that we dealt with were very responsive. One of our highlights was a conference and a mayoral candidate’s forum held at Manual Arts High last year that got a lot of attention. When we have trips to Washington and other places, we give students at inner-city schools discounts and help them raise funds so that they can participate as much as possible.

Political involvement is not the sole answer to socioeconomic and other problems, but it is a good start. It maintains faith that the country can work.

HANA ELWELL

17, Hamilton Humanities

Magnet graduate

I was a participant in a trip to Great Britain sponsored by the Youth Leadership Awards L.A. and the Constitutional Rights Foundation. We toured schools, saw a lot of depressed areas and saw a lot of similarities between there and here, even with gang violence. I went with an incredibly diverse group of students who had been working for a while in human relations, which impressed me and made me want to do more.

I was a leader in the Youth Task Force at Hamilton, which started after the Rodney King incident. Our main focus was improving community and police relations, and addressing the negative socioeconomic conditions that affect a lot of students. We also did outreach, like raise food for the homeless and sponsor blood drives. The good thing was the whole task force was run by students. On my own, I’ve done volunteer work for AIDS Project L.A. and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

The student task force wanted to make people understand that getting involved is so easy and so rewarding. But people hesitate.

BYRON RAMOS

19, North Hollywood High graduate

The Anti-Defamation League changed the course of my life. They sponsored a trip to Israel last April that I went on. I was exposed to the Jewish culture for the first time. My interest in not only Jewish culture, but my own Latino culture, started to grow. I became very interested in human relations and civil rights.

I took a trip to Washington after that and got more exposed to the nationwide problem of human rights. I started speaking a lot at Jewish community centers, churches and schools. I tried to explain to people how to understand and respect other people and other cultures.

Eventually I want to become involved in human rights as a lawyer. Right now I’m having a rough time accepting my church’s prejudice against gays. In the past I wouldn’t have reacted so strongly, but now I know the harm silence can cause. If you don’t speak out, things can’t ever change.

AMANDA UNDERWOOD

17, North Hollywood High graduate

I come from a biracial background--my mom is Jewish and my father is black. I’ve always seen aspects of both identities. I got involved with Operation Unity, which is a group started by a black woman to try and get black and Jewish teens together. I was on the original committee that shaped the organization. I can see a lot of similarities between the two groups. Sure, there are differences, but people perceive more differences than there actually are. There’s a lot of education that needs to be done among people. People need to see they come from common backgrounds. I’ve been very lucky because I haven’t personally experienced racial prejudice, but I know it exists.