Woodland Hills : Seminar on Racism Attracts Few Students

Patricia Siever has learned to recognize the more subtle signs of racism, such as, she says, when some white people avoid her eyes when they pass her on the street.

Racism “is not going away, until we acknowledge it exists,” said the Pierce College history teacher, who is African American.

Her concern was echoed by speakers of many colors at a seminar Thursday at Pierce College designed to ease the city’s racial tensions. Speakers included City Councilwoman Laura Chick; Khalid Soliman, a librarian at the Muslim Public Library Islamic Foundation; Sgt. Joel Price of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division, and Roni Blau, director of the San Fernando Valley Anti-Defamation League.

The three-hour event drew about 50 people at any one time, including only a few students. The lack of interest among students was a disappointment to Marlyn Dinon, a member of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, which helped organize the event.

“The people who work in human relations organizations, those are the ones we keep meeting over and over again at these kinds of events,” she said. “It seems we are preaching to the choir.”

She added that it demonstrates that her group will have to work hard to combat apathy.

One speaker, Mark Rocha, Cal State Northridge associate dean of the School of Humanities, said despite the racial problems facing Los Angeles, he was optimistic that racial harmony will someday be achieved. Los Angeles’ racial diversity is an asset, he said.

“This is not a problem,” he said, “this is an opportunity.”

Human Relations Commission members hope its “Neighbor to Neighbor” seminars will continue throughout the city, Dinon said.

Two more are planned for the 1st and 14th City Council districts in coming months, according to Dinon, who urged other council members to sponsor similar events in their districts.