Beyond FEATURES: Cindy Rodríguez on Overcoming Prejudice

Today’s Denver Post features a telling piece by staff columnist Cindy Rodríguez called “Overcoming Prejudice Takes Work.” Rodríguez writes about a recent workshop on “unlearning racism” she attended at the Jewish Community Center in Boulder. I’m intrigued by details she provides on the workshop leader (diversity trainer Lee Mun Wah) and the documentary viewed during the workshop (Last Chance for Eden) and will discuss Wah and Eden in future posts. I was most impressed, though, by the quotes she attributed to a former president of the Boulder Valley School Board, Bill de la Cruz:

“I tried to raise issues of bias in the schools during the six years I sat on the board, and I got no support,” de la Cruz said. He noted that while he’d had some supporters in this effort, when it came time to speak out, they disappeared. De la Cruz also said he will continue to prod the board to include workshops to help children work through issues of bias and discrimination. “We are so heavily focused on academics that we don’t realize children need social skills,” he said. “They need to know how to have conversations about sensitive issues without fighting. That is a skill they need: to be able to communicate and listen.”

Certainly schools across the country would benefit from workshops on bias and discrimination, especially with the recent increase in tensions regarding immigration. Maybe we could all sign up to attend. “We all have some element of racism inside us,” Rodríguez notes, “and it will be passed on to succeeding generations unless we purge ourselves of it.”

Photo © Tan Wei Ming - FOTOLIA