An Exercise in Preventing Hate Crime

“I was at Fashion Island and I saw this really cool jersey that I liked. So I went to get it and this store clerk taps me on the shoulder. He says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept food stamps here.’

“I was like, shocked. I couldn’t believe he said that. It really made me mad. I just dropped the jersey and left.”

--Armond Bryant, Century High School student

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I can picture my rage if a store clerk had said that to my teenage son. But then, my son is white. Armond is African American. Would the clerk have treated my son as if he were on welfare? I doubt it.

Armond was recounting this incident to a group of high school students at a retreat on race sponsored by the Orange County Human Relations Commission. Some of the frank discussion was included in a video I saw--newly produced by the commission--called “What Do You See?”

The Human Relations Commission usually makes the news when it reacts to Orange County racial issues--like last Friday, when a disagreement between a white student and a Latino student touched off a fight at Newport Harbor High School. School officials downplayed the racial aspect. But the commission’s executive director, Rusty Kennedy, lists it as a hate crime. The commission has made arrangements to do some follow-up work there with school officials and some of the students involved.

But much of the commission’s job, less publicized, is designed as preventive medicine. It works with 40 area high schools on comprehensive programs on race relations. The new video is its latest tool to fight prejudice.

All the speakers on the video are local high school students. They talk about their experiences, and admit to having some of their own stereotypes.

One Latino girl said it’s only natural to congregate with your own race. “Maybe it’s not supposed to be, but that’s just the way it is,” she said.

And Kennedy of the Human Relations Commission isn’t trying to change that.

“We’re not obsessive about students on a campus mixing with other races,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is simply build a level of tolerance so that if a student did want to interact with someone from another background, that student would feel more comfortable with it.”

One point that stands out from the half-hour video: True, the students often feel safer sticking together by race. But when they have made friends with those of other backgrounds, the experience has been enriching to both parties.

Some of the stories from the video were eye-openers:

One boy told about being one of the few Jews at his school, where he often hears people make jokes about Jews. Friends would say things to him such as, “Hey, you Jew!” Not because he was Jewish--they were unaware he was. It was just a put-down tossed out to anyone.

One student from Pacifica High in Garden Grove said he’s been taunted by white friends as “white chocolate” because he has befriended one of the few blacks at his school.

One black youth at another school talked about a visiting teacher who began to tease him and a fellow black student, gibes built on the presumption that they were poor students.

“He didn’t even know my name. He just assumed I was not a good student because I was black,” said the youth, who is an A student.

Again, I tried to picture my own son in that situation. Would he have been singled out for a teacher’s poor taste in jokes?

In one exercise shown in the video, the students at the retreat were asked to judge blow-up pictures of four solemn-looking students of different races--white, black, Asian, and Latino.

One white girl wrote that the Latino looked like a gang member. Afterward, she read about who he was--that he wants to be a firefighter, that he goes to church, that he admires his father. “It makes me feel bad that I even thought he could be a gangster,” she said.

A Latino boy at the retreat admitted his surprise after learning the four youths’ backgrounds: He found he had more in common with the white boy pictured than with the other three.

Kennedy said he’s tried out the four-poster exercise with a number of adult groups, like the Kiwanis or the League of Women Voters. The results?

“Some people, after they find out what the four are really like, ask us if we changed pictures. The four look less angry once you know something about them.”

Kennedy’s hope is that students who participate in the four-poster exercise and who view other parts of the video will understand that the closer we get to people, the less likely we are to stereotype them. It seemed to work for the students at the retreat.

The video’s premiere came at Chapman University two weeks ago at a session for 200 high school students. The plan now is to show it to teachers groups and students throughout the county. The commission has only limited copies so far and hasn’t worked out details of how to get them to the schools. But if school officials read about it and want one, Kennedy said, he will see they get it.

By the way, Armond Bryant can expect a call soon from Fashion Island. Erica Farkas, speaking on behalf of management for the shopping center, said such behavior by a store clerk is not tolerated.

“Not only will we attempt to reach the manager of whatever store is involved,” she said, “we will try to reach the customer to apologize.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com