No place for hate

Speaker 1: 00:01 We've talked a lot on Medea edition about what needs to change. So tragedies, like what happened to George Floyd? Stop happening. It's not just about changing police practices, but also about examining our own private biases and teaching our children about racism and bias. What are schools doing to raise self-awareness the most common program in San Diego County schools is called no place for hate offered free by the San Diego chapter of the Anti-Defamation league. And joining me now is Kelsey Greenberg young who's education director for the anti defamation league. Thanks for joining us, Kelsey, thank you for having me and Mariana. Eakins graduating senior from power unified who helped organize a no place for hate conference earlier this year? Thank you, Mariana. No problem. It's a pleasure being here. So let me start with you Mariana. You are African American and there are only a few dozen African Americans in Poway schools. What's it like for you being in the minority in your school? Speaker 2: 00:57 Um, it's definitely interesting. Um, being surrounded by people who don't always look like me, there's not that much representation. So growing up, I did have a little bit of a conflict with my own identity at times, but it's a great way to gain perspectives as well as educate others on my importance. And my culture is important in our school and our school districts and in the world. Speaker 1: 01:19 Have you been following the news much in the, in the past month or so? What's been your reaction? Speaker 2: 01:25 My mom and I have had a very emotional reaction to everything going on. Um, it's not the first time an incident like this has happened. I was, I think, 10 years old when this was Trayvon Martin all over the news. So, um, it's definitely been a struggle again, but you know, racism has never gone away. It's just being recorded on a larger scale. Speaker 1: 01:45 You helped to organize this no place for hate program and your school districts. It was organized by seniors for middle and elementary students. Why did you decide to get involved in this? And, and what did you think worked about this conference? Speaker 2: 01:58 We got involved in educating elementary school and middle school students because the earlier students are able to learn about other's backgrounds and their differences. I think the more willing and eager they are to learn more about their cultures growing up, instead of, you know, getting to a point now where it's all over the news and they have to ask their parents, Hey, what does this mean when their parents might not have those answers? So I'm very proud that we were able to do that. Um, and work with these young kids. Speaker 1: 02:25 Kelsey, I wanted to ask you if a school signs up to be a no place for hate school. What does that actually mean? I mean, what, what are you hoping will happen during a no place for hate event? Speaker 3: 02:34 What happens is a school agrees to partner with the ADL? Uh, they partner with us to use a framework that is focused on challenging bias, challenging bullying, promoting respect and inclusion. Um, not just on one day or one week throughout the year, but multiple times throughout the year, not just sharing some information or plopping on a video, but rather providing opportunities for discussion and reflection and to really crunch into these topics of bias, bigotry and prejudice and what these kids can do about it at an age appropriate level. Speaker 1: 03:05 So I want to see if you can give us some specific examples, Mariana, from your conference of things that you thought really worked, where something actually got through to students and things changed. Speaker 2: 03:16 It wasn't just based on like race. We also tackled economic disparities. We tackled prejudices for LGBTQ communities, and I feel like we went through scenarios that they would understand, like we said, like, you can come eat lunch with us because you live in an apartment and I live in a big house, stuff like that. So I think making sure students can understand what we're saying by making it easy for them to understand is the best way to get the message through. Speaker 1: 03:44 Was there anything that you felt that actually changed you being the organizer as well as them? Oh, Speaker 2: 03:50 all the time I work with, um, kindergartners and first graders outside of school. So I learned new things every day and especially at the conference, how much they know already at their age baffles me. And I think that goes back to social media and technology nowadays. Cause we definitely underestimate these kids and how much they know. So a lot of the stuff they knew, but it said know how to express the words for, and I feel like that's why our conference was just super important for them to understand what an ally is, how to support people who might not have the same privilege as they do and to speak up. Speaker 1: 04:25 So Kelsey, we know that there are a lot of these programs that are organized by adults, but this one was organized by students. Do you think that makes a difference? Speaker 3: 04:34 That makes a huge difference. One of the key components of no place for hate and being a no place for hate school is actually putting student leadership at the helm. We know that schools often want to do these things. They want to put on these events and teach these concepts. But they're coming from the top down from administrators or teachers, which is of course important, but we know that there is a substantial increase in the impact when it's coming peer to peer and specifically coming from older students to younger students as these role models in these situations. Speaker 1: 05:04 That's right. I mean, parents obviously have the primary role to talk to their children about ways of being in the world. But why do you think it's important for schools to tackle the issue? Specifically? The issues raised by the death of George Floyd. Speaker 3: 05:18 I spend eight hours a day at school. They spend eight hours a day at home and mixed in there. They're spending all this time with their friends. And so when you start tackling issues of bias and bigotry, inclusion and respect, um, from a variety of different stakeholders, the message is stick better. So part of no place for hate is actually asking the school to form a committee with the student leadership at the helm, but having staff, administrators, and parents as also part of the conversation so that all of those different perspectives and all of those different tools and all of those different opportunities for conversation, whether or not at school or at home are taken advantage of Speaker 1: 05:54 Mariana, you know, power is pretty affluent San Diego suburb. Do you think that programs like no place for hate are effective or even being practiced in other parts of San Diego, for example, you know, inner city areas where there's much more racial diversity? Speaker 2: 06:08 Absolutely. I think that no matter if we're in the suburbs of inner city, racism is everywhere. Bias is everywhere. And I feel like it's just a great platform for the ADL to just expand their message of love and inclusivity. Speaker 1: 06:23 Do you think there's anything else that schools can be doing to stop people being hateful toward each other? Speaker 2: 06:29 I feel like if there was more representation on campus, that's a big one as well as more counselors for students to go to. Um, I know my school just got one of their first African-American staff members and it's already made a world of a difference on our campus. Um, and I also think that the ADL has a whole database full of lessons for no place on their website. Speaker 1: 06:50 Kelsey, how many schools in San Diego County actually participate in, in the no place for hate program Speaker 3: 06:56 here we had over 76 schools designated they showed the commitment to continue this work, even when it was hard. Many of those schools actually completed their final activities, their final anti-biased and anti-bullying activities on through distance learning and thinking about not only the racism and the conversations around the black community right now, within the past three months, we saw, um, issues of bias, uh, against the Asian American community that would needed to be addressed. And so of those schools, many of them chose to tackle those issues as well. Speaker 1: 07:29 I don't know whether you've noticed that some schools are finding it hard to fit in this kind of training when they're having to meet, you know, reading, writing and arithmetic standards. Speaker 3: 07:37 As Mariana mentioned, um, a lot of the no place for hate resources, the ADL provides are actually lesson plans that can be embedded directly into the classroom. Uh, they use writing standards, reading standards, et cetera, through the common core standard curriculum to make sure that these don't have to be separate conversations, but rather can be part of the school fiber of their curriculum. And I'll share that, um, we opened up no place for hate registration for next year already. And we've already seen, um, a third of the schools who were a part of it last year, uh, already reregister. So they know that no matter how hard it might be, no matter what budget cuts might be, that these topics are too important to let go. Um, and we'll expect to see probably a big increase this year rather than less. Speaker 1: 08:22 So what else do you think that schools can be doing to improve the situation we're facing right now? Speaker 3: 08:27 I think that schools can be tackling these concepts at a much earlier age and working together on them. Um, as Marianna shared about the conference that her and her fellow students put on earlier this year, kids actually know a lot more than we give them credit for. We don't need to wait until they're 12, 13, 14, 15 to talk about bias, prejudice, racism, and other forms of bigotry. We can be talking about it with them when they're in preschool and kindergarten, we know bias is formed throughout our lives. And so the earlier we start having these conversations, the more good we can do. And when schools work together with their theater schools, elementary schools, with the middle schools and the middle schools at the high schools, there can be a continuous message through that entire, that child's entire school career rather than it being fragmented. So I'd love to see it start earlier and I'd love to see a continuation from school to school, to school. Speaker 2: 09:17 I would also like to add that I think school should also be educating students on not just one history America has. Um, I feel like we don't learn enough about native Americans, LGBTQ. Um, the only history I learned about my own culture is slavery. When there's so much more we have to offer. Um, and I know that starts from the top and I feel like more education that's positive about the minorities and everything else instead of just, you know, the white male culture of America would be a huge impact on students. We've been speaking with Kelsey Greenberg, young who's education director for the anti defamation league and Mariana Akins, who is graduating senior from power unified. Thank you both so much for being with us. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. It's really been my pleasure. Speaker 4: 10:08 [inaudible].