Racial
labels broken down by program
By Maritza Diaz
On-line Forty-Niner
Opening
the lines of communication between middle
and high school students has been the main
goal of Students Talk About Race, a Cal
State Long Beach program.
The program trains college students to openly
discuss matters of race and explore issues
of racism and personal views on different
cultures between younger students.
“The challenge is the subject,” said James
Manseau-Sauceda, co-founder of STAR. “You’re
dealing with some sensitive issues and it
takes a second for someone to feel insulted
or attacked. And yet where are the safe
places to explore all of this?”
College students are trained in a six-hour
course on how to get middle and high school
students to openly discuss how they perceive
race. Manseau-Sauceda sees this program
as a service to the community and hopes
it teaches children to look beyond stereotypical
labels.
“If someone says, ‘All Mexicans are lazy,’
we would ask, ‘Why do you feel that way?’
We encourage them to talk about how they
came to feel this way,” Manseau-Sauceda
said.
The training includes a history in where
racial labels originated dealing with adolescent
children and handling conflicts.
CSULB student Eutihia Megas originally participated
in the program to obtain extra credit in
an intercultural communications class, but
soon found a new perspective on race.
“I
was altered for life,” Megas said. “I gained
an unbiased knowledge about stereotypes,
racial tensions and multicultural diversity.”
During the first week of the eight-week
session, the STAR facilitators conduct a
first impression exercise. Students are
asked to sum up what they think the facilitator
is like by appearance only, according to
the STAR training manual.
“We ask the students what they think the
STAR student drives, what music they listen
to and they are usually dead wrong,” Manseau-Sauceda
said. “That’s what we do in life, we try
to get someone’s number, but we are more
complicated than that.”
The issues of intra-ethnic discrimination,
which are issues within a person’s own culture,
is also discussed in the program. One of
the topics examined is why people with light
skin are treated differently than those
with darker skin, Manseau-Sauceda said.
Megas recommends the program and does not
regret participating in STAR and feels that
the program’s training is satisfying.
“It creates a forum for the healing effects
of communication about the injustices and
oppressive nature of such ideas,” Megas
said.
Other students who have participated in
the program have found a great learning
experience, and describe the training as
an “eye-opening” experience.
The misconception of a multicultural project
like this is that many people feel that
only people of color participate. That misconception
then leaves out many other participants,
Manseau-Sauceda said.
“We need everyone from every background
to be a part of this,” he said.
Communication is key to the program. Getting
students to discuss how they feel about
other cultures can be challenging at times
and some classes take weeks before they
open up. However, talking about race can
lead to better relationships between people,
Sauceda said.
“Keeping
the silence only preserves the ignorance,”
Sauceda said.
STAR begins its spring training March 8.
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