Do School Ethnic Clubs Unify or Divide?

In an era in which such volatile, racially charged issues as affirmative action, Proposition 187 and the O.J. Simpson murder trial are dominating public debate, ethnic clubs are emerging as the hippest but also among the most controversial student organizations at many California high schools.

Consider Tustin High School. During the school year before voters approved Proposition 187, racial tensions escalated when members of the club Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) staged a campus protest against the initiative, now stalled in the courts, that would deny illegal immigrants access to many public services.

Some passersby “yelled things like, ‘Go home, wetback,’ and ‘Go to Taco Bell,’ ” said senior Alicia Barcenas, president of the group.

Barcenas said the club is still controversial on campus, but continues to appeal to many Mexican American students who feel ostracized at school and often are stereotyped as “gang members or lowlifes.”

“MEChA gives us a chance to be proud of our roots,” she said.

But, in a reaction common on campuses, Tustin High junior Jason Chittenden, who is white, said MEChA is political correctness taken too far. Rather than promoting cultural awareness, Chittenden believes the club incites racial tensions by granting Mexican American students privileges that white students don’t have.

“I think it sucks because it creates divisions between Mexican kids and other people,” he said. “They say it’s open to everyone, but it’s really just for Mexicans. It’s not fair because if white kids started their own club, we would be called racist.”

Ethnic clubs are gaining popularity not only in California, but across the nation as the population grows increasingly diverse and students look for ways they can express pride in their heritage at a time of growing multicultural awareness.

Hundreds of groups have formed across the Southland, including a Polynesian club at Garden Grove High School, a Native American club at Los Amigos High in Fountain Valley, a Young Black Scholars student group at Burbank High, a Russian culture club at Venice High and even a Japanese Honor Society at Whitney High in Cerritos.

The clubs continue to attract large followings, but in recent years they have become the targets of growing hostility.

Some attribute the resentment to the state’s dramatic increase of minority students, particularly in areas where whites have long been the dominant group.

Over the past decade, the white population at California public elementary and secondary schools decreased from 52% to 40%. In Orange County, the white enrollment shrunk from 64% to 46%. And in Los Angeles County, only 21% of students are white, compared with 31% ten years ago.

“A lot of people seem scared because the population is changing and Latinos could be the majority in California pretty soon,” Barcenas said.

Others say the racial undertones emerging from Proposition 187, the O.J. Simpson trial and the UC regent’s repeal last summer of affirmative action practices have thrust ethnic clubs into the hot seat because they are viewed as an empowering force for minority students.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a heightened interest in young people of issues relating to race and ethnicity, and a lot of it is arising from hostile debates like Prop. 187 and affirmative action,” said Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

Kennedy said hate crimes against certain groups always increase when there are major public debates involving race or ethnicity. And because hate crimes are primarily perpetuated by young people, high schools often bear the brunt of racial incidents.

“For many minority students, ethnic clubs serve as a security blanket,” Kennedy said. “But for those perpetuating hate and hostility, the formation of these groups is threatening, especially in areas where there is an increasing presence of minorities in leadership roles.”

Some clubs, such as MEChA, have been around since the 1960s, when civil rights activism was at a peak. Others are loosely organized groups that are made up of teenagers who simply want to celebrate their roots.

“The clubs are being filtered down from universities,” said Gayle Byrne, a teacher at Edison High in Huntington Beach. “The kids who form groups in high school are mimicking what they see at the college level.”

The clubs vary by campus, but most have regular meetings, sponsor school events and fund-raisers, discuss current issues, perform community service and participate in festivals.

“I know some people have a misunderstanding of what our club stands for and what we’re trying to promote,” said Eshe Earl, president of Tustin High’s African American Student Alliance. “But the black community is so scattered in Orange County, and we don’t learn a lot about our culture in our textbooks. So when we meet as a club, it’s a time of fellowship for us.”

Most of the clubs’ activities tend to be cultural rather than political. But members have taken public stances on controversial issues.

In 1993, a group of Chicano students in the Garden Grove Unified School District attended a school board meeting demanding that the district hire more Latino teachers and broaden its curriculum to include more history of other cultures.

The students, who represented local chapters of MEChA, said they would go the state or federal government or the courts if the district did not address its concerns. The district’s number of Latino teachers has increased since then, but it is still well below the percentage of Latino students.

Because of MEChA’s reputation for being sometimes militant in its efforts to advocate for Chicano students, school officials occasionally become skittish when students ask to start a chapter on their campus.

Controversy also brews because even though ethnic clubs are open to anyone who wants to join, the vast majority of members tend to be of a particular ethnicity, mostly from minority groups.

“There’s a club for every group except us,” said Tiffany Paden, a white senior at Savanna High in Anaheim. “We don’t feel comfortable going to any of the ethnic club meetings because they’re for that race. If we did go to a meeting, they’d probably look at us strange.”

A few years ago, tensions erupted at Ventura High School after the student council approved a Black Student Union. Immediately after the vote, white students on campus began trying to form a white student union, but no faculty member volunteered to serve as its advisor.

A few weeks later, a black student at the school was punched in the face by a white former student who screamed a racial slur at him.

Earlier this year, white students at Valley View High in Moreno Valley in Riverside County started a white club, raising concerns that it was launched to compete with existing Latino, Asian and black student groups.

But Principal Joe Palomino said the bulk of opposition to the club has come from people in the community, not students at the school.

At a diversity conference earlier this year at Cal State Fullerton, Orange County high school students cited ethnic clubs as a main source of tension on their campuses.

Some students linked ethnic clubs to the debate over affirmative action, because they believe administrators are showing favoritism to minority groups.

Nikki Belcore, a senior at Foothill High, said she was upset after a white classmate tried to start a “Eurocentric” club but was rebuffed by the school staff.

“I just wanted to know why it was wrong to have a Eurocentric club,” she said.

School administrators say white clubs tend to be discouraged because they fear they could turn into white supremacist groups or are being organized with racist intentions. They said they’re also somewhat superfluous because the curriculum already is dominated by the history, language and culture of people of European descent.

But Michael Matsuda, a teacher at Orangeview Middle School in Orange who studied diversity topics as part of a national school diversity project, said he believes administrators should not rule out all European clubs.

“I personally feel that if white students want to form a club, administrators should at least hear them out and maybe even allow them to form,” Matsuda said.

Amid the controversy, four Orange County school districts--the Huntington Beach Union High School District and the Saddleback Valley, Placentia-Yorba Linda and Capistrano unified school districts--have banned all clubs that do not relate to the curriculum. This includes ethnic clubs at the vast majority of schools in these districts.

In 1994, community activists urged trustees at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to allow MEChA chapters at Esperanza High and other district high schools. But the board refused to make any exceptions to its 1989 policy.

Although the four school districts were not specifically targeting ethnic clubs when they drafted their policies, some school administrators in these districts say they philosophically are opposed to having separate ethnic organizations.

Instead, they’ve promoted multicultural clubs that draw members from all ethnic groups.

Wayne Mickaelian, principal of Laguna Hills High in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, said he believes multicultural clubs are a better alternative to ethnic clubs because separate groups can get competitive and “polarize” a campus.

“We’re more interested in people coming together,” he said. “I don’t see how having special-interest groups with their own agenda works in the best interest of everyone.”

But many minority students in these districts say they think the policy is outdated and insensitive to their needs.

To get around the ban on all noncurricular clubs, about 100 Asian students at Edison High in Huntington Beach have formed an Asian study group, which is a spinoff of the school’s previous Asian culture club. The study group, which is not an official campus club, meets once a week to discuss current issues, perform community service and talk about their personal lives.

“There’s a lot of racism on campus,” said senior Tracy Huang, who is part of the group. “The purpose of the group is to give us a sense of belonging.”

After emigrating from Taiwan when she was 7, Huang said attending schools in predominantly white communities damaged her self-esteem.

“It’s been hard especially in Huntington Beach because it’s like a surfer city here, and my friends and I aren’t into that.” she said. “But when we get together and talk about what’s going on with us, it gives us a sense of well-being.”

Despite the controversy and reluctance of some school administrators to approve ethnic clubs, they appear to be a big hit at other schools.

“They work very well on our campus because it boils down to respect that our students have for each other,” said Mike Schiesel, assistant principal at Los Amigos High, which is part of the Garden Grove Unified School District. “We wholeheartedly endorse these clubs.”

At a recent International Day celebration at the school, hundreds of students from different backgrounds spent their lunch period attending a performance by the school’s Pacific Islander club.

The standing-room-only crowd clapped and cheered as shirtless young men stomped across the school gym, swaying to the beat of drums. The crowd was equally enthusiastic when young women danced the hula, wearing leis and long Hawaiian dresses.

When the event lasted beyond the scheduled lunch period, administrators announced that students would not have to return to class until the performance ended.

Most of the performers were Pacific Islanders, but students of other ethnicities also participated.

“They asked me if I wanted to play the drums for them,” said senior Jamie Hevener, who is white. “It’s been fun. I think these clubs are good for the school because people get to learn about different cultures.”

Byrne, the Edison High teacher, said the key to fostering successful ethnic clubs is to make sure they work with other groups and promote activities for all students.

“There has to be a real attempt on the part of the administration to have groups work together,” Byrne said. “In schools where there’s no effort to bring groups together, they don’t work well. I think you have to teach kids to build coalitions.”