By
D.S. Brown
  

On November 6, 2009 I had the honor and extreme pleasure ofonce again participating in the Anti-Prejudice Consortium’s Atlanta POPSummit.  The POP in POP Summit standsfor Power Over Prejudice. 

The Summit was modeled after a similar program started inHouston, Texas in 1991.   Theprogram was designed to help educate and guide young people in understandingthe power of stereotypes and generalizations, and the harm they can cause whennot dealt with effectively.  In1997 the Power Over Prejudice Summit was launched in Atlanta, bringing togethera diverse group of individuals, organizations, agencies, and schools to launchthe first summit.  The statedmission of the APC is to fight prejudice, increase tolerance, and promoterespect among all people.

This was my second year participating in the POP Summit, andI tell you now I will most certainly be participating again next year.  If I may indulge my altruistic,capitalistic infused, dichotomous self-serving while serving the world nature,please allow me to say that participating in this summit satisfies much of thecriterion I personally define as best in being human, representing what weshould aspire to as human beings, concerned with the growth and welfare of ourposterity.

As a volunteer facilitator I was charged with workingclosely with fifteen young boys and girls, middle-school kids on the cusp ofadulthood.   My task was tolead them on a journey of directed education regarding prejudice, stereotypes,generalizations, and bullying.  Formy own good measure I like to mix in my mantra about critical thinkingskills.  It’s a lesson that neverseems to fall on deaf ears or closed minds.  However they arrive, they seem to leave more open, moreaccepting, well past tolerant, and if I may add, considerate with regard tocritical thinking skills.

My goal in working for the APC is to increase my level ofparticipation and use it as a vehicle to spread nuggets of knowledge around thecritical thinking approach.  Eventhough I could only participate for one of the three days, I think my personalmandate was well established.  Irelish seeing people, be they kids or adults, furrow their eyebrows, stop,think and consider.  They listen, asopposed to spontaneously speaking. They take the time to successfully digest what’s being discussed,seeking clearer understanding, and then contributing, adding to the overalldiscussion.  They lean intodiscomfort and positive conflict in order to elevate not only themselves, buteveryone present.  This year Ithink my group of kids accomplished this objective quite admirably.

Before breaking into separate learning groups, we startedthe day with an opening ceremony, and a speech by Dr. Leon Bass.  If you have not heard of Dr. Bass takea moment to look him up.  He wasborn in 1925, served in World War II, and can bear witness to any detractor ofthe holocaust, and state emphatically with the power of eye witness testimony thatthe horrors at Buchenwald were real. He regaled us with his stirring oratory, a tale of a man steeped in therichness of diversity, and wise in the ways of prejudice and intolerance, andhow best to combat it.  We listenedto Dr. Bass with rapt hearts and minds. After his speech, it was time for us to get engaged in the day’s work.

This year’s group was markedly different from the two groupsI worked with last year in two major ways that I could readily observe, one byimmediate recognition, and the other after they introduced themselves and Inoted some physical, behavioral characteristics.   First, nine of my fifteen kids were African-American,or black, whichever you prefer, though I think perhaps two might state theywere of mixed ethnic origins.  Last year less than half of my kids were black.  Also, I would say three of my four kidsoutwardly exhibited homosexual characteristics, one far more vividly than therest.

Let me clarify my position on diversity, tolerance, andacceptance regarding this observation.   I have observed at my wife’s school, and from thestories she’s shared with me regarding some of her students in particular thattimes have changed … in my opinion for the better.   I did not highlight my observation of homosexual charactertraits in front of the students while conducting the training, but I did checkit in my mental data bank as something of note. 

Why?  Because itis important to understand and note differences. 

The class itself is about seeing, acknowledging, andaccepting differences AND similarities, which I also noted.   When considering the situationcritically, I understand that as our word evolves we must be able to grow intoreadily identifying and celebrating our rich differences, being tolerant wheresomething is striking, and moving on towards accepting when a difference, aswell as a similarity, is not a negative character trait, not something harmfuleither to the individual, or the people he or she interacts with.  Now, we may have to lean into a greatdeal of discomfort when identifying and discussing these differences.  However, doing so, actually taking thetime to discuss our differences as well as our similarities, no matter howdifficult, is what leads to tolerance, and from tolerance we move to acceptance.  

Communication is key to achieving Power Over Prejudice.  Education is key to achieving Power OverPrejudice.  Together, they form acritical construction of information shared between the participants in thedialogue.  In any POP Summit facilitationsession you see just such a construction created, for many the basis is alreadythere, which simply fills me with such hope, noting that the children are sofar beyond where I and my contemporaries were at their age.

The children in my group were open and engaging.  As we discussed stereotypes andgeneralizations, it was refreshing to see them ask questions, to offer answers andanecdotes pertaining to their particular experiences.  It was also very interesting, and refreshing to see themeschew the word race, albeit not racism. They spoke in terms of ethnicity. As I’ve pointed out before, I do not believe in the man-made contrivanceknown as race, rather I speak in terms of the very real, basic but powerfulcultural differences inherent in our ethnicities, which from my perspectiveleave room for dynamic interpretation.   For example, the ethnic cultural experience of aJamaican will vary greatly in comparison to that of an Atlanta, GeorgiaAfrican-American, which will vary to a large degree with that of a Black youthgrowing up in Swainsboro, Georgia. However, the two African-Americans have a uniquely American ethnicbackground that is in contrast to the ethnic cultural world of the Jamaican, aworld with which even an American naturalized citizen of  Jamaican origin strongly identifies,and will do so until the day he dies. Have you ever heard a Jamaican talk about being a Jamaican?  If you have, then you know exactly whatI mean. 

The students worked through issues regarding group dynamics,why people gather with others that look like them, and what keeps themsecularized in such groups.  Fromthis dialogue we moved into discussions regarding bullying.  We talked about the various reasons whybullies do what they do, and what we can do to stop them. 

As part of the students’ education on bullies, we asked themto break up into groups and conduct a stage play according to a givenscenario.  Each of the groups didvery well.  However, we all as oneagreed that one of the groups was far better than the rest.  This group just happened to be led bythe most flamboyant and fabulous person in the class.  This individual seemed to be very comfortable with who hewas, and how he expressed himself. In fact, he said he wanted to grow up to be an actor.  If what he showed us was any indicationof his future, then I’m quite certain he will go very far.   However, though his performancewas great, what really warmed my heart was the look of acceptance from theother children in the room.  I muststress the word acceptance because their behavior was beyond tolerance. 

As I recall, only one of the kids, let’s call him Anthony,seemed to react in a questionable manner to the other child’s behavior.  At one point, Anthony looked at me andstared, questioningly.  I read hisexpression.  Inherent in his starewas the query of tolerance.  Was Igoing to be tolerant?  Was I goingto be alarmed?  Would I frown atthe lilt in the other young man’s voice, his mannerisms, his flamboyantfeminine behavior?   The staredidn’t last long.  I looked at him,and then simply looked back at the young man standing before us, excitedlydescribing his triple-threat potential and the already perceived extremebrightness of his future.  Anthonyquickly turned back around and paid attention.  We were all in a place beyond tolerance.  We were all very accepting, as itshould be.  

Over the course of the day I was again moved, as I alwaysam, by the volunteers that put on the summit, by my fellow facilitators, thoseof us who take time out of our hectic schedules to help pay forward the giftsof diversity by helping to further the education of our youth.  However, I was most moved by thechildren, the middle-schoolers who are at the point in between being what was,and becoming what will be, impressionable minds open to understandingstereotypes and generalizations, open to nourishing critical thinking skills soas to not prejudge, and give in to said stereotypes and generalizations, butrather to embrace the richness of our diversity, to seek the similaritiesbetween us all, and celebrate the differences, to move beyond tolerance, andlive a life of acceptance.

www.2rulesof3.com

blog.2rulesof3.com

www.TheHandMill.com

blog.dsbrownwrites.com

blog.facebooktales.com

www.youtube.com/dsbrown3000