“It is the middle of English class, and I am still searching in my backpack for the Hamlet homework that I didn’t finish. While my discussion group sits, speed-reading the act the class was supposed to read two days ago, I can’t help but overhear a girl cheerfully describe her new boyfriend. “He has a Toyota truck with new rims,” she boasts. “He has light eyes, smooth skin, and big lips. But they are not nigger lips.”
What did she say, I’m thinking to myself. The girl keeps talking, and her friends don’t seem to mind that she used a racial slur to describe lips. She nonchalantly used the word as an everyday, standard English adjective. I figured the girl felt comfortable using the world “nigger” because there are no blacks in my English class.
The incident stunned me, but it really shouldn’t have, according to a group of black students at my school, Glenn High in Norwalk, whom I interviewed for this article. Many conceded that when blacks are present, most people make a concerted effort not to offend them, but when blacks are not around, racial discrimination still persists. “They talk about us behind our backs,” said one student.
Tolerance can be achieved
Although this is a sad reality, racial tolerance is not a lost hope. I interviewed the aforementioned group of black students to find answers to the following questions: Are conditions better for blacks in the 1990s when compared to the 1960s and before? Has progress been made?
The overwhelming majority of the group believe that, on the whole, conditions are better for blacks in the 1990s. “There has been a big change,” said Nashata Garcia. “There is still a racial problem, but it’s not directed mainly towards blacks.” Wesley Hitchens feels that “people have become more tolerant.”
Ajali Towns, on the other hand, feels there has been some change, but not much. “I have faced a lot of discrimination since the end of my sophomore year, and it has progressed,” she said. When asked to describe how she has been discriminated against, she replied, “When I walk around school, some people throw things at me. If I try to fight the issue, nothing will happen.”
Those students who feel conditions are better for blacks cited many reasons why: more job opportunities, civil rights laws and the influence of interest groups, such as the NAACP. Sherrie Gasper credits civil rights laws and leaders, such as Rosa Parks, for significant changes. “Now we can go to any school, go to any bus stop and sit in the front of the bus,” she stated. Others believe it is the blacks’ initiative that results in progress. “We have more jobs,” said Brandon Locke, “and more [of our] people are working hard.”
A problem that still affects many of the blacks I talked to is racial stereotyping. When I asked them to list stereotypes about blacks, the answers came toward me like a swarm of bees: Blacks are poor, violent and have bad jobs. “[People] think all our teens have many children and we are all on welfare,” said Nashata Garcia. Kaneisha Johnson especially hates it when people poke fun at blacks’ names. “It really gets on my nerves,” she stated.
In the race-conscious ’90s, we all should know that stereotyping and labeling ethnic groups fuel racism. They were partly responsible for the racial atrocities of the past.
Even in the ’60s, there was some tolerance
In a 1967 Seventeen magazine article, titled “Does High School Integration Really Work?” you really get an idea of the tolerance levels of students in the ’60s. I admit that before I read the article, I had a few stereotypes of my own. I thought I would be reading quotes from completely racist, bigoted demon children. That was not the case. Here is a sampling of some students’ opinions:
“My boarding school has a handful of Negroes in the student body. We live in the dorms like sisters. Why not? We come from similar homes, like the same clothes, will go to the same colleges,” said a girl who attended a New England boarding school.
A student from Monroeville, Pennsylvania commented, “It never had to ‘work’ here. Everyone simply accepts the fact that your friends who live across the street will attend the same school you do even if you have different skin colors. We have a track system but it doesn’t divide us by color. White and Negro friends sit together at lunch in the cafeteria, visit each other after school, go to parties together.”
Of course, there were some statements made by narrow-minded individuals, such as the Colorado boy who said, “Most Negroes are silent in class and never contribute ideas. They put forth little effort. They are naive. They use foul language. They go to my school because of an open enrollment plan. They should leave to make room for more serious white students.”
Another girl said, “In my school, cliques seldom cross racial lines. Negroes talk about different subjects than we do and they have a different sense of fun. Just riding around in a car is their idea of a good time. Seeing a movie or eating in a restaurant is ours. Sports are all they seem to want to talk about. No, I haven’t actually talked to many…”
Interracial dating was almost unheard of in the ’60s, and most teachers, students and parents showed fierce opposition to crossing racial lines. Some parents would even forbid black-white friendships, so dating was out of the question. One black girl recalled going to a concert with a boy from Switzerland: “People stared. One lady was so preoccupied she walked into a door. We ran into a teacher from school and if looks could kill, I would have been dead. I enjoyed the date, but I can’t pretend it was comfortable.”
While the majority of schools surveyed by Seventeen reported that integration had not been easy and painless, the writers of the article felt optimistic about the future. They wrote, “From all parts of the country flows evidence that when it comes to integration, teens have an impressive ability to entertain new ideas, to change and grow.”
Racial separations still divide us
Yet are schools fully integrated today? Is desegregation the norm across the country? Theoretically, yes. The federal law prohibits forced segregation of people. Realistically, this is not the case. People still seem divided by race in many schools. My school, which is fairly diverse, is race-clique heaven. At lunchtime, the campus is divided by race, with the black group in one corner, the Asian group in the other corner, and so forth. Only a few groups are racially mixed.
This observation was confirmed by a 1983 Youth News Service study of high schools in the Bay Area. The study targeted five ethnically diverse high schools where no single racial group was in the majority. The study stated: “A sizeable proportion of students in so-called desegregated settings have established rigid boundaries to keep themselves separate from other racial and ethnic groups.” Black students were particularly disappointed with counselors who they said did not encourage them sufficiently to take advanced classes.
Steps must be taken to address race issues
The study concluded that steps must be taken to improve race relations. “If desegregated schools in the Bay Area provide a glimpse of the future, that future will be one of many different Americas, each group apart from one another,” stated the study. That was 14 years ago, and by the way things look today, little has changed.
Nonetheless, the majority of the students I talked with said conditions for blacks are better in the ’90s, but racism still exists. To improve race relations, Bianca Parks thinks people should “be at peace with themselves. If they can love themselves more, they can love other people.”
Realistically, the future will be better only if Americans can adapt to a color-blind society. Sure makes Hamlet look easy.
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