Issues and Answers (D2D)

Breaking down Barriers

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Karen Thomas (Host), Richard Valenzuela

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Series Code: IAADD

Program Code: IAADD000028A


00:27 Welcome to Issues and Answers.
00:29 Today we're going to talk about
00:31 breaking down barriers and things that divide people.
00:35 Our guest today is Richard Valenzuela.
00:37 Richard is president of Leadership Diversity Institute.
00:40 He is the former education director
00:42 for Silicon Valley FACES,
00:44 former executive director and president of Anytown U.S.A.
00:48 which is affiliated
00:49 with the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
00:52 He is an internationally recognized diversity specialist
00:56 and he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement
00:58 and was a foot soldier for Dr. Martin Luther King.
01:01 He consults regularly with schools, colleges
01:04 and universities across the USA.
01:06 Richard is going to share his life experiences
01:09 in working with over 10,000 young people
01:12 across the nation and adults on how to break down barriers.
01:16 Thank you so much, Richard, for coming to the program.
01:18 It's my pleasure to be here.
01:19 I appreciate you making that trip here to 3ABN.
01:23 So we're going to talk a little bit about
01:25 today about breaking down the barriers through...
01:28 How did you come up across doing this?
01:32 Well, you know ever since
01:34 I was in school basically...
01:39 You know one of the first things
01:41 that really impressed me
01:43 was when Sammy Davis, Jr. got married.
01:47 Some of your audience may remember him.
01:49 He was a very talented black
01:51 dancer and singer and he got married.
01:54 This was in the late '50s
01:56 I believe was, it was '59 or so.
01:58 And I was in junior high school at the time.
02:00 And he got married to a white woman from Europe,
02:05 I don't remember her name.
02:07 But anyway it made national news.
02:08 How dare he marry this white woman
02:11 and he got hate mail, I'm sure,
02:13 from all over the country, all over the world,
02:14 most likely.
02:16 But what really touched it off
02:18 and made it a conversation in our school was that
02:21 he was going to have a child,
02:22 he was going to have a biracial,
02:23 multiracial child,
02:25 and all of a sudden they were slamming it.
02:29 They were saying the child was going to be polka dot,
02:31 there's something wrong with that,
02:32 it's going to be a half breed child.
02:34 You know, the idea of that
02:38 it wasn't right.
02:39 And they even used such idiotic comments
02:42 such as you don't see cows and horses mixing,
02:44 do you, or dogs and cats mixing.
02:47 Well, I was raised on a farm
02:48 and I knew that brown dogs went with white dogs, etc.,
02:53 you know the color.
02:54 There were separate species
02:55 and that's how we were being treated in the '50s and '60s
02:58 as separate species of people.
03:00 Really! Separate Species!
03:02 Yeah and that really irritated me
03:05 even as a 13-year-old kid.
03:09 Wow!
03:10 So it started me on this journey
03:14 to make a difference and make changes.
03:16 And then I got involved with this program
03:18 which I'll explain later,
03:19 that I think has met the need to a great degree.
03:21 So how about your own background,
03:23 what nationality?
03:24 I'm Latino, I am Mexican-American.
03:27 Both my grandfathers came over from Mexico
03:29 and settled in Arizona.
03:30 One homesteaded some land.
03:32 The other was just running away from the revolution
03:35 I think is what the story is told.
03:37 But I've grown up there.
03:39 I'm second generation
03:41 and just experienced a lot of prejudice growing up.
03:43 And that's the other thing that intrigued me that
03:49 I ran into problems
03:51 and when Martin Luther King came around,
03:53 gee, well that's what I mean by being a foot soldier.
03:56 But I just became one of the people
03:58 that helped the movement and did my part
04:00 and this was one way that I found through education.
04:03 So how was it growing up at that time for you
04:06 as a person of Mexican descent?
04:09 Were you able to speak your language,
04:11 speak Spanish in school?
04:12 How was that?
04:14 Well, that was one of the first experiences that I had.
04:16 A lot of our Latino kids at that time
04:19 were told not to speak Spanish on school grounds.
04:22 If you did you would be sent to the principal's office,
04:25 you would be punished.
04:26 So immediately we began to think,
04:29 hey, there's something wrong with speaking Spanish.
04:31 There must be something wrong with me
04:32 and that second class citizenship began very early.
04:35 Now I'm sure the purpose was to get us to assimilate
04:37 and to learn English which would help us in the future,
04:40 but the intent is not always the same as the outcome,
04:45 you know, how it's interpreted.
04:47 How do you see things today now with some many...
04:51 In the media you hear a lot of racial conflicts,
04:54 you hear a lot of socioeconomic conflicts.
04:57 What do you think about the times right now,
04:59 which we live in?
05:01 Well, you know we've made a lot of progress.
05:02 There's no denying that.
05:04 I'm not an extremist to say
05:05 hey we're still in the dark ages.
05:07 But we've made progress especially this country
05:09 and I'm a proud American.
05:12 But there is still progress to be made
05:14 as you can see from the news
05:16 and how quickly it can erupt racial problems, racial issues.
05:21 Yeah.
05:23 That's just part of the barriers,
05:24 I think there's also a gender issue
05:25 between men and women.
05:27 And that's something
05:28 that we also touch upon in our program,
05:31 the issue of religion.
05:34 How many wars and fights
05:36 and what's happening in the Middle East right now.
05:37 There's a lot of religious, interfaith conflict,
05:40 and that's why it was always a pleasure to work with
05:42 the National Conference of Christians and Jews
05:44 that used to deal with interfaith conflict in
05:47 communities across the country.
05:49 So now things have kind of...
05:51 Some people ave said that
05:53 it's not really so important to really
05:55 deal with racial issues or deal with gender issues
06:00 or deal with social
06:02 because everybody's kind of doing much better now.
06:05 Do you see that there's still a need for this?
06:07 Oh, definitely.
06:08 I mean people say, well, we've made tremendous progress
06:10 because we have a black president
06:12 but that's just a beginning.
06:13 I mean there's still a lot more.
06:15 And what I find from young people,
06:16 and that's who I work with
06:17 high school and college students,
06:19 is they still are running into issues,
06:21 especially as children
06:23 when growing up of racial problems,
06:25 especially with biracial youth, too.
06:27 I'll get into that later too.
06:29 It's the idea that separation is still occurring.
06:34 You know, there's separation on our high school campuses.
06:36 You can walk into any campus,
06:37 especially in the inner city or midway in the inner city
06:42 and you'll find the groups are separated.
06:44 They're not talking, they're not communicating
06:45 and you wonder why problems can erupt up so quickly, yeah.
06:49 And even still like you said,
06:51 even on the campuses there are issues.
06:53 In fact, it's a big issues in high schools and campuses
06:56 across the country.
06:57 Segregation is there.
06:59 It may not be by law, but it's voluntary segregation.
07:03 So now you've been involved in developing a program
07:07 that is designed to address a host of these issues.
07:12 Tell us about the program?
07:14 Now I didn't create the program.
07:15 It started in East L.A I believe in '53, '54
07:19 and then it came to Arizona in '57.
07:21 It was called Anytown.
07:23 It's taken on other names now across the country.
07:26 But I helped develop it and update it in many ways
07:29 and I've had many people work with me
07:32 and many ideas that I've picked up from other folk
07:34 but it's a program that's very unique
07:36 in that it brings a diverse group of youth together
07:39 at a camp site preferably
07:41 because you need some degree of isolation
07:44 in order for the students to think about who they are
07:47 and where they're going and what's happened to them.
07:50 And you also have to create an environment of safety
07:52 where they feel safe to speak,
07:54 that they're not going to get jumped on,
07:55 they're not going to get hit,
07:57 they're not going to be shut down
07:58 for what they believe in,
08:00 either by faith or by race or by whatever issue.
08:04 They need to express that to get it out in the open.
08:06 Because I think what's happening today a lot
08:08 is we're saying, well, let's not talk about it.
08:10 You know, that's past, that's old.
08:12 A lot of parents are not even bringing up the issue
08:14 so it needs to be talked about.
08:17 So like,
08:19 can you kind of take us as best we can for those
08:22 who are watching from home who couldn't maybe go to camp.
08:25 It would be great if they could.
08:26 But what's it like,
08:28 what's it like to go through the camp?
08:29 What are some of the experiences
08:31 that people go through?
08:32 There are two models.
08:33 One is a summer model. It's a week long.
08:35 And you get to cover so many more issues.
08:38 But the basic model
08:40 that I'm promoting now is during the school year
08:42 where you can take the kids out of the classroom
08:44 and that's why it's called out-of-classroom education.
08:47 You take them out of the classroom
08:48 and take them to an isolated area
08:50 or a retreat center and you work with them
08:53 for what I'm saying three nights and four days.
08:56 And you go through all these segments,
08:57 all these exercises
08:59 based on experiential experience
09:01 and emotional intelligence.
09:03 What do I mean by experiential?
09:04 You put the kids through the activity
09:07 where they get to feel it and they get to see each other
09:09 and learn from each other.
09:11 The whole idea of emotional intelligence,
09:12 I really believe in that
09:14 that we need to develop our emotional intelligence
09:16 so we can cope and so we can communicate
09:18 and be better citizens.
09:21 So that's two of the main parts of this program
09:24 is those two things.
09:27 Empathy building.
09:28 You know we're hearing more about empathy now.
09:30 The idea that we're not just looking for sympathy.
09:33 I'm sorry what happened to you in history
09:35 or what happened to your people.
09:37 We're looking at
09:40 what the Native Americans once said,
09:41 you don't know anyone
09:42 till you walk a mile in their moccasins.
09:44 To walk in somebody else's shoes,
09:47 to be able to live their life for a short moment.
09:50 That's where we make progress 'cause sympathy didn't do it.
09:53 Apathy sure didn't do it because, you know,
09:55 we don't care what happened to you or what's happened.
09:58 But when you begin to feel as or with someone,
10:01 when you start seeing your friends
10:03 as your brothers and sisters,
10:05 and you're walking in their shoes,
10:07 then progress begins.
10:09 And that's what the whole concept
10:10 of the whole workshop is based on.
10:13 So give us an example.
10:15 So how does it start?
10:17 What's the first issue that you deal with
10:19 when a person comes up to the camp?
10:21 And they come with young people
10:22 and they come with some of the counselors
10:26 and some of the other people, so there's a safe environment.
10:29 What's the first activity that people go through?
10:31 Well, I think one of the things we have to do
10:33 is begin breaking those barriers
10:35 right from the start by just getting acquainted
10:38 by creating what I say
10:42 not only a safe environment but a trusting environment
10:45 and create what we call a community.
10:47 That's where the name Anytown came from,
10:50 create a community.
10:51 How do we do that?
10:53 I'll just mention a few activities
10:55 that we begin right at the beginning.
10:57 We do what we call two ups.
11:00 Two ups are response to there's no putdowns
11:03 allowed during the retreat.
11:05 And we're going to do it,
11:06 we're going to slip up either because we're used to doing it.
11:09 It's kind of a funny or harassment
11:11 but it can get real too.
11:13 But anyway, no put downs.
11:14 But if you do, you got to give that person two ups
11:17 which means you got to say
11:18 two positive things to that person
11:20 and it can't be something physical,
11:21 like you have pretty eyes or you dress well.
11:23 It's got to be about their personality or their character
11:26 and it's amazing how the students start
11:28 calling each other on that.
11:29 The teachers start calling each other on that
11:32 and they take it back to the school sometimes,
11:34 where they say you owe me two ups.
11:35 Yeah.
11:37 And then there's the concept of rainbow where anyone,
11:40 whenever we get together as an activity,
11:41 we can yell out rainbow.
11:43 That means you got to mix it up.
11:44 You can't be with the same race,
11:45 you can't be with the same gender necessarily
11:47 either and definitely not your best friends.
11:50 You know best friends are always gathering together.
11:53 That's the toughest thing to break
11:54 in any workshop that you do.
11:56 But with rainbow everybody's got to mix it
11:58 or else, you know.
11:59 And then one other thing that we do is,
12:06 well, I'll come back to that later.
12:07 Right, right.
12:08 So this is a type of mixer where everybody gets in there.
12:10 You plan it where people are diverse,
12:13 it's not just one group of people
12:15 and if they mix up the rainbow
12:17 it means they have to get up and talk to somebody
12:19 that they don't know.
12:20 Okay so then what happens?
12:21 The other thing we introduce is a concept of hugs.
12:25 You know it's really fascinating.
12:27 In fact, I read something
12:28 this morning about the power of touch.
12:30 And I think to some degree
12:32 we may be losing that in society,
12:34 but also to show these students the value of it.
12:36 Now we respect cultures that don't touch or hug much
12:39 or families that don't hug too much
12:41 but we make it an option.
12:42 We say it's okay to hug here.
12:44 But we may also put some humor into it.
12:46 We tell them, okay,
12:48 there are some hugs that are not allowed.
12:50 I don't know if you recall those
12:51 but the hugs are you know,
12:53 you can't have a bear hug picking someone up,
12:55 you might drop them.
12:57 You can't have an A-frame hug where you're barely touching,
12:59 very impersonal hug.
13:00 And, of course,
13:02 the sexual hug is not allowed at camp at all.
13:04 In fact, we're one of the longest running
13:07 male/female camps in the country
13:10 because we set up some restrictions on that.
13:12 So it's not there to pick up somebody, you know.
13:14 We want to deal with seeing people
13:16 as people and it's okay to hug.
13:19 And I even make the point that there's an experiment
13:22 that was done years ago, 45-50 years ago,
13:25 where they had these infants in an orphanage
13:28 and in this orphanage they split up the infants,
13:31 10 kids in one room, 10 babies in the other room
13:34 and this experiment didn't last very long
13:38 because they hugged the 10 kids in one room
13:39 and they picked them up and held them a lot.
13:43 The kids in the other room they just ignored.
13:45 They only picked them up when they had to feed them
13:46 and that was it.
13:47 So guess what happened?
13:49 Within a few hours they found, this is a true experiment,
13:51 I think it's been done more than once.
13:53 The kids that were hugged and...
13:55 I mean the kids were picked up and cuddled
13:57 and all they were smiling, they were eating.
14:03 The kids that were not,
14:05 they began to give up, stop smiling,
14:09 stop eating and they turned their faces to the wall
14:12 and just started to give up.
14:15 And that's exactly what we don't want
14:18 young people and people to do,
14:20 to give up and that's why people give up.
14:21 You're saying the power of touch
14:24 because they're not being held,
14:26 they're not being, you know, having that human interaction.
14:30 It's just that crucial, it's just that important.
14:33 And so for some kids that have never been hugged
14:35 as little kids it's amazing to see them.
14:38 Do you have that where kids come to camp
14:40 and say they have never been hugged?
14:41 The other norm that we have in many families
14:44 in our society is you stop hugging little boys
14:47 after they're four or five years old
14:49 because of the fear of what they might become.
14:52 Or you may make them too soft,
14:54 or you many make them whatever and so.
14:58 I think that concept
14:59 that it's not a manly thing to do
15:01 is what's hurting relationships in our society.
15:03 Wow.
15:05 So we get...
15:06 then they get to that kind of like the icebreaker,
15:08 they learn about the rainbow and hugging.
15:12 What's next?
15:13 The first night, we have to start quickly,
15:16 and this is a very condensed program,
15:19 is that we start with the idea of understanding
15:22 prejudice and discrimination.
15:24 What is it? What makes it?
15:26 What are the stereotypes out there
15:28 that we're constantly hearing?
15:30 What do you say to the kids?
15:31 What we do is we split the kids up
15:33 by the different ethnic or racial groups
15:35 and we send one group out of the building
15:37 for a few minutes
15:39 and then we have the rest of the group come up
15:40 with all the stereotypes or slurs
15:43 they've heard about that group.
15:45 And it's amazing the list that they come up with.
15:47 Well now the group comes back in.
15:49 This is done in confidence.
15:50 You're saying one of the groups goes out,
15:52 say maybe it's the Latino kids
15:54 or maybe it's the Native American kids,
15:55 African-American kids
15:57 or the white or European descent kids,
15:59 or Asian kids
16:01 and the rest of the whole group
16:04 they're all talking about the slurs
16:06 that they've heard growing up
16:08 or experienced about that group that's out.
16:10 The stereotypes and the slurs.
16:11 So we get a full list of all these.
16:14 And I make sure
16:17 this is not a superficial program.
16:18 This is a real program in order to get the feelings out.
16:22 So we get them up there and each group comes back in
16:24 and reflect on with ones affect them
16:26 or hurt them the most or would affect
16:28 or hurt their family the most
16:29 if they were there to hear them or see them.
16:32 And by the time that we're through that evening
16:33 you've got about seven or eight lists
16:35 of different groups and all of a sudden
16:38 the empathy building begins.
16:42 The students realize why they're there.
16:45 I think they really have to know that.
16:47 You see this is also called the leadership program
16:49 and I don't call it that just to be marketing
16:51 or be superficial about that.
16:54 I really feel and I make reference to all the students
16:56 as leaders or potential leaders.
16:59 I really believe every kid, every young person,
17:01 has the potential to be a leader,
17:02 not only to guide themselves as leadership
17:04 but to guide others.
17:06 And so we try to emphasize that throughout the program
17:09 that they're there for a reason,
17:11 They're there to influence their friends
17:13 or their circle of influences as we call it.
17:16 So after your deal with the racial slurs
17:21 and then you say it's like a big poster
17:24 that's on the wall that everyone can see
17:26 and then they kind of process.
17:28 What happens, what's the next exercise
17:29 that you do with the kids?
17:31 Well, yeah, the processing goes on
17:33 and I think that's a real important part.
17:35 You just don't do an exercise and walk away.
17:37 You've got to process
17:38 what can you gain from that activity,
17:40 what can you learn.
17:41 And it's amazing how the kids express themselves.
17:43 Now I know how it feels.
17:45 Now I know that it's not over
17:46 because there is even new stereotypes
17:48 and new slurs coming out all the time.
17:50 So the kids all of a sudden see this.
17:52 The other thing is, I think one of the learning
17:54 that they get from the program is they're not the only one.
17:57 Because a lot of them think,
17:59 oh, this is just happening to my group or my people.
18:01 We've had it the worst.
18:02 And then they see all these lists
18:04 and all these emotions coming from these students
18:06 saying this is what hurts me,
18:08 and there are some ugly things that come up there,
18:10 and if we have time we'll go over those.
18:13 But the next activity, the next afternoon,
18:16 we do have discussion groups
18:19 or sharing groups as we call them.
18:21 And those are guided also
18:23 but it's mainly just expressing
18:24 what they felt and what they learned
18:27 from the previous activity.
18:29 We give them guidelines such as agree to disagree
18:32 'cause sometimes that has to happen.
18:35 I statements, you speak for yourself
18:37 not for all your group like all blacks
18:39 or all Latinos think this.
18:41 No, you speak for yourself.
18:43 And those are important guidelines.
18:45 And then the confidentiality of keeping it within the group.
18:48 But anyway, then we move on to the following afternoon.
18:50 We deal with privilege.
18:53 And I know there's a lot of talk today
18:54 about white privilege in our society.
18:56 But there are other privileges too
18:58 that we need to discuss,
18:59 not only just white privilege.
19:02 Then there's also light skin privilege,
19:04 not just white.
19:06 I mean even... Yeah, BMT just did a...
19:07 there's a program someone just did
19:09 and you're hearing a lot of different programs
19:11 of people dealing with the light and the dark.
19:13 But tell us about this privilege.
19:14 What is it?
19:16 What do you mean by privilege?
19:17 Well, the whole idea of privilege or advantage
19:19 that we are born without our say so,
19:22 without our individual choice.
19:26 We are given color, we're given sexual identity,
19:31 or even the family we're born into,
19:34 we didn't have a choice,
19:35 and I mention that to the students
19:37 before we do the exercise.
19:38 I say you are born into the world
19:39 and here's what happens to you
19:41 and you don't have a choice.
19:42 But here's what happens to you as you grow up.
19:45 So we do this exercise where people step forward
19:48 or step back depending on
19:50 if the question refers to a certain privilege.
19:53 Like what are some of the questions that you ask?
19:55 Well one of the questions is number one is
20:00 if you've ever had a job,
20:04 or did you get a job because of someone you knew
20:06 of someone in your family knew?
20:08 Then they would step forward?
20:09 Yes, they would step forward
20:11 if they had that advantage
20:12 or privilege of knowing someone.
20:13 So then we get into the discussion of networking
20:15 and friendship making out of that,
20:17 because that's what often happens is that
20:20 we have that privilege of who somebody knows.
20:24 Economics: I wish my father would have been born rich.
20:27 I would have had so many more privileges.
20:29 I would have been able to travel.
20:32 Gender: There's still an advantage in this society,
20:35 especially in the world to be a man versus a woman.
20:39 There's advantage and privilege to that.
20:41 There's the education,
20:43 one that's hardly ever mentioned but
20:44 this is how we emphasize to the students,
20:46 hey you need to get educated
20:48 because historically
20:51 if any group wanted to advance,
20:53 education was the way to do that for the most part.
20:57 And you could see when they took away education
20:59 why they did it.
21:00 During slavery.
21:01 There were I think 13 states
21:03 that had laws against educating the slave.
21:04 Why? Because they didn't want them to question.
21:06 During the Middle Ages
21:08 the British had the Irish as serfs
21:12 and it was against the rules to educate the Irish.
21:14 And there were not books
21:16 that were available to the common folk.
21:17 In fact the Bible was the first book printed...
21:21 Really, that was...
21:22 Yes, at the end of the Middle Ages
21:24 or the Dark Ages.
21:26 It was the desire to see something, you know,
21:28 to read and to be able to get that word out.
21:31 So you're right.
21:32 It is a powerful tool, education.
21:36 It definitely is.
21:37 And so, and then we also talk about sexual orientation,
21:40 being heterosexual versus homosexual.
21:43 But there's all these privileges that society
21:47 provides for people and some get them and some don't.
21:49 And we're still either reaping the benefits
21:54 from those past laws,
21:56 even though we don't have the laws.
21:57 We're either benefiting
22:00 or we're being the victims of some of that past.
22:05 So you're saying as far as
22:07 dealing specifically with the child
22:10 or if you're dealing with the student,
22:11 being raised in that kind of a family.
22:13 They had nothing to do with it.
22:15 They were just in a particular family set of circumstances,
22:19 two-parent household,
22:22 maybe we're a family that had inherited money
22:27 or inherited privileges or businesses.
22:30 What about immigrants?
22:32 Immigrants the same way.
22:33 I often ask the students if your parents were here,
22:35 your grandparents, where would they be?
22:38 And if they have immigrant parents or grandparents,
22:39 they would be behind them.
22:41 Then I also talk about the kids that aren't there.
22:43 You say they would be behind them.
22:44 What do you mean?
22:46 You know, we put them in a big open area,
22:48 either a parking lot or a field of some sort
22:50 and they step forward and step back
22:53 depending on if it's a negative.
22:55 Some of the questions?
22:57 Well again...
22:59 Oh, there's also the social,
23:02 what I call social support,
23:04 family support.
23:06 Did you grow up with 50 books in your house?
23:10 That one has to deal more with education.
23:12 But did your parents ever take you to plays or fairs.
23:16 And some kids have never been to a play or an art fair.
23:21 So how is it when these kids are all lined up,
23:24 and the adults too, right,
23:26 adult counselors come so in that group
23:29 everybody is involved with this.
23:30 What does it look like?
23:32 Are they all pretty much together as a group,
23:34 what do you see often?
23:35 Well, if I have a good mix of white and black
23:37 and Latino and others,
23:39 there's usually a few more whites in the front.
23:42 It's usually a mix in the middle
23:43 and in the back is mainly minority members,
23:45 both staff and delegates.
23:47 But one of the things I stress
23:49 so they don't feel bad about where they are placed is
23:51 this is not where they're at now,
23:53 this is where they came from
23:55 especially the adults that now have degrees
23:57 and are educators or administrators there.
24:00 But sometimes the minority, they're in the back
24:01 because the questions are asked in that manner.
24:05 But I also say that you're the survivors for the students
24:08 because now there's a lot of kids here
24:10 that should be here but are not
24:12 because they either dropped out,
24:14 turned to drugs, turned to alcohol
24:15 and they fell off the edge and you don't see them anymore.
24:19 And so I have them do a couple of things.
24:22 I have them look straight ahead first
24:23 and say, okay, if you never look back
24:25 you don't know what's happening.
24:27 With privilege comes responsibility,
24:30 one of the major points that I make.
24:31 You have privilege because you're here at this workshop
24:35 and you've survived some of the things
24:37 that have happened to you and your family.
24:38 So now you've got to help someone else.
24:40 So there's a lot of lessons in the discussion of privilege.
24:44 It's not just you have privilege
24:46 and I don't or it's a white man's world,
24:48 this type of thing.
24:50 So, how do you deal with the violence, you know,
24:54 the things that kind of cause people to act violently
24:57 the young people, the gangs and all of that kind of thing?
25:01 What do you do to really...
25:04 How do you see this program can actually
25:05 break down the barriers?
25:08 Well, one of the things I've always
25:10 like to have is kids that are on the edge
25:12 of either going to gang activity or not
25:15 and this can make a big difference
25:17 on many of these kids.
25:18 And I've had some gang members
25:19 that have turned themselves around
25:21 because all of sudden they see something
25:22 to be proud of because
25:23 one of the other programs we have up there is
25:25 what we call cultural pride night
25:27 where every group makes a presentation
25:28 about their culture,
25:30 their contributions to America and the world,
25:32 immigration pattern,
25:34 major customs and traditions that they're most proud of
25:36 and also the stereotypes that they wish to eliminate.
25:39 And it's amazing how creative young people can get
25:41 when you give them those four options
25:43 of coming up with a presentation.
25:45 But what I've noticed is
25:46 these kids walk out 10 foot higher
25:48 because they're proud of who they are.
25:50 So many kids are put down.
25:51 It's amazing.
25:53 One of the groups that's very unique
25:55 is the biracial/multiracial kids
25:56 because that's an increasing number,
25:58 thank goodness.
25:59 Yes, in fact America,
26:00 right, it's moving 2050 they say
26:02 the average American is like almost the racial groups
26:05 that we see in the United States
26:07 are not even going to be close to being the same.
26:09 It's such a melting pot
26:10 so this is really important work that you're doing.
26:13 Yeah, this is one that I believe our final taboo
26:16 or biggest barrier is to overcome
26:18 that intermarriage thing or inter-date thing.
26:21 Kids are still being told marry your own kind
26:23 instead of looking for common interests so.
26:25 Right.
26:27 But we have a gender night too
26:29 where we talk about gender power.
26:30 How can we empower men and women to get along better?
26:33 We come up with stereotypes and messages
26:35 that they've heard.
26:37 Many of the messages
26:38 that we get in our society are negative messages
26:41 and some people apply them.
26:42 Like no means yes,
26:44 having to deal with sexual encounter.
26:46 That's sweeping across the country right now
26:48 at major colleges and universities
26:49 because they're being told you better
26:52 start looking into these cases more.
26:55 But that's a common thinking.
26:57 There are lot of messages that we don't always recognize.
26:59 But we recognize them up at camp
27:01 so they can see them and do something about them.
27:04 The act of violence between men and women
27:05 where there're couple messages
27:07 that always go up there is,
27:10 never hit a woman,
27:12 which most boys agree and most students agree that's good,
27:15 but there is always a few
27:16 that vote for never hit a woman unless she hits you first.
27:20 And so I get up there and explain okay,
27:21 how hard are you going to hit her,
27:24 how are you going to stop
27:25 and what happens because of this.
27:27 Is this a violent message and of course it is.
27:31 It has the effect on our society.
27:32 Richard, I thank you so much for coming.
27:34 There are so many great issues
27:36 that have been covered through here
27:38 and things to break down barriers.
27:41 I want to also thank our audience at home
27:43 for joining us on today's program.
27:45 If you're interested in learning more about the camps,
27:47 go ahead and contact Dare to Dream Network.
27:49 We'll have Richard's information available.
27:52 He is available to come
27:54 and conduct camps across the country
27:55 as well as there may be a camp near you.
27:58 You know Christ came to turn on
28:01 the divide between people
28:03 to break down those barriers
28:05 and He has a lot of different ways
28:06 that He is doing that.
28:08 Let us decide ourselves
28:09 that we're gonna be that community of one.
28:11 We're gonna be that person
28:12 that's gonna go and make the difference
28:14 and break down the barriers and bring people together.
28:16 Thank you for joining us.


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Revised 2016-08-29