In the News

Decade of fighting prejudice celebrated

By Jeffrey Pieters, jpieters@postbulletin.com

March 10, 2006

Born during a dark period in the history of race relations in Rochester, Prejudice Reduction Workshops, offered by the Diversity Council, have reached a 10-year milestone.

Diversity Council members and supporters celebrated the anniversary and a host of ambitious goals for the coming year at the group's annual meeting Thursday at the Heintz Center on the University Center Rochester campus.

Through the years, workshops have touched more than 100,000 students in Rochester-area schools, many more than once, and the program is set to expand in 2006 and subsequent years with offerings to schools across a wider area and to churches and workplaces. The Diversity Council's goal is to reach 18,000 students with the workshops in 2006.

"What we hear from teachers and kids is it does make a difference, in terms of how kids interact with each other," said Kay Hocker, executive director of the Diversity Council.

Peggy Marchesani, a workshop facilitator for four years, said she has noticed students coming into the workshops showing a greater awareness and appreciation of racial-prejudice issues each passing year.

"They're more aware of the thought process that is prejudice, and how that translates into action," she said. "They're more aware of their own biases."

The program came about in 1996, after a string of violent incidents between whites and blacks, including one in which a 12-year-old Somali boy was beaten by a group of white assailants brandishing baseball bats.

Prejudice Reduction Workshops were one of a host of programs launched in response. Mechelle Severson, today a school board member, and George Thompson and Jackie Trotter, past directors of the Diversity Council, developed the program.

The workshops play on what was a frequent theme in Thursday's program: respect.

"How we envision the word 'respect' is not only to listen, but to acknowledge" the value of others' opinions, said Ebony Broussard, the Diversity Council's education director. "We try to get people to acknowledge the humanity of other people first and foremost."

Students themselves are becoming involved in the effort to bring racial harmony.

A group of Mayo High School students late last year wrote and prepared a short play, "Stop Hate Speech Now," which they have performed to groups of their classmates and to the Diversity Council meeting Thursday.

"You know, I think it has (made a difference)," said Ashleigh Huxsahl, a Mayo senior who co-wrote and performs in the play. "You'll hear them (classmates in the halls) -- 'Stop hate speech now.'"

The racial atmosphere at Mayo High School is more peaceful today than when she started high school, Huxsahl said, a result probably of educational programs and more vigilant enforcement of school rules.

"Kids have now learned to be more respectful," she said.

To offer more Prejudice Reduction Workshops, the Diversity Council will need to recruit more facilitators. The group is also stepping up its fund-raising efforts in 2006, with goals of $80,000 from 80 or more corporate contributors, and $25,000 from 500 or more individual givers.

The Council, which depends on the contributions for more than one-quarter of its budget, will solicit business gifts by offering a diversity "tool kit" geared for workplaces, including best practices from a sampling of local businesses. They'll describe the Diversity Council as a resource employers may call to ask questions.

In business, attention to diversity issues pays, said Norm Doty, past president of the Diversity Council and general manager of Express Personnel Services in Rochester. When people feel comfortable in the workplace, they feel free to share their ideas, he said.

"So much becomes possible when we respect each other," said Doty.

The Council gave four awards on Thursday. Abdirahim Nur, minority liaison at Kellogg Middle School, and the TRIO Program, helping low-income students attend college, won Champion of Diversity awards. Frank Hawthorne, a Rochester Public Library reference librarian, and Abdiaziz Gaal, an advocate for refugee immigrants, won Human Rights awards.

© 2006 Post Bulletin. Used by permission.

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