Same Difference

The stereotypes go like this: Asians are brainy. Latinos are gang members. If a guy isn’t masculine, he must be gay.

These and other racial and gender cliches were under attack Monday during the ninth annual Walk in My Shoes conference, organized by the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

During one exercise, the more than 500 teenagers were urged to conjure up stereotypes in reaction to posters featuring a diverse group of Orange County youths.

Many looked at the portrait of Nam and pegged the Asian teen for his presumed smarts. They concluded that Chris, a Latino, was a ready-to-rumble gang member. Christinna, a black teen whose long braids were pulled back from her face, was deemed mean and off-putting, while Bobby, a smiling, freckle-faced teen, was labeled too feminine--and most likely gay.

But upon closer inspection, the students said the posters that play on cruel and ugly assumptions also offered a valuable lesson in humanity.

“You shouldn’t judge people until you know them because your stereotypes aren’t right,” said Mindy Resnik, a 17-year-old Fountain Valley High School student who attended the event at Cal State Fullerton.

Such comments were exactly what organizers were looking for when they dreamed up the “What Do You See?” poster campaign, which will be featured in high schools across the county. The timing couldn’t be better, organizers said.

Orange County’s ethnic make-up is changing. The student population in kindergarten through 12th grade has gone from 81% white in 1977 to 45% white this year.

Minorities, including Latinos, Asians, African Americans and Native Americans, now are the majority in the county’s public schools, said Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county’s Human Relations Commission.

As people of differing backgrounds are thrown together--heightening the possibility for racial conflict--the campaign hopes to promote harmony by destroying prejudices.

“Orange County has changed a lot,” Kennedy said. “One of the important lessons that we learn as we become more diverse is not to judge people by first impressions. That’s what the whole ‘What Do You See?’ campaign is about. It’s challenging us to see the stereotypes that limit our ability to see people as they are.”

At students drew closer to the posters, they discovered faint type running across the portraits. Taken from interviews with the students in the pictures, the words aim to let viewers know that--first impressions aside--the teens in the posters are pretty much like any other Orange County kids.

“I don’t have a homecoming date yet,” reads the print across Chris’ portrait.

“I’ve been getting mail from a lot of colleges. I help my brother Antoine with his homework every day. The cafeteria pizza is too greasy,” Christinna’s poster informs onlookers.

Bobby’s says: “I work at a fast-food chicken place.” And, Nam’s: “I’ve been a sophomore for two weeks. That’s how long I’ve been in this country.”

“What do you see?” each poster queries in large white letters. After viewers have had time to let the message sink in, small red letters seem to jump off the paper, asking: “How about now?”

The idea behind it is that, given a chance, youths will find that even though their ethnic or religious backgrounds may differ, they all have something in common.

Buena Park High School physics teacher Myra Philpott, who brought a dozen of her pupils to the conference, said the commission’s efforts are making a difference.

The students “are appreciating differences and understanding what it is to be tolerant,” Philpott said.

She credited the commission’s work for launching her school’s inter-ethnic council to address race relations issues on campus.

Two years ago, a Fullerton Joint Union High School District survey on the school’s climate revealed that only 58% of Buena Park High students felt safe on campus, and attributed much of their concerns to racial tension. The survey, taken again recently, reported that 91% of the students said they now feel safe.

“Kids are kids and they will have disagreements, but today’s disagreements are not over culture, race or ethnicity anymore,” Philpott said. “Now, the arguments are about normal kid stuff, and I love it.”

Participants in Monday’s conference vowed to do their part to combat racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and discrimination.

“You can never tell anything about a person until you read their fine print,” said Christinna Starks, 16, a Buena Park High student who was one of the four Orange County teens randomly chosen to appear in the campaign posters.

Kyla Wright, 16, a Sonora High student in La Habra, agreed: “Education about your own culture and all other cultures makes the world a better place.”

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Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Lorenza Munoz.

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Changing Faces

Orange County’s student ethnic makeup has changed in recent years as more Latinos entered the school system. A look at the shift in local schools’ ethnic breakdown over the past eight years*:

1988-1989

White: 56%

Latino: 29%

Asian/Pacific Islander: 13%

African American and other: 2%

1996-1997

White: 45%

Latino: 39%

Asian/Pacific Islander: 12%

African American and other: 4%

*Figures based on kindergarten through 12th grade

Source: Orange County Human Relations Commission; Researched by LORENZA MUNOZ / Los Angeles Times