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Race Relations and MLK
"It’s important to teach in our schools, the legacy of MLK Jr. because we still live in a racist society unfortunately."
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By Jennifer Obakhume
South Los Angeles Area New High School #1, known by its students as Santee High, is 92% latino, 7% African American and 1% students of other ethnicities. Last month, the school experienced two days of rioting between black and Latino students. Weeks after a spike in racial tensions and days before a holiday celebrating the legacy of the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we wondered what the atmosphere was like. We asked Youth Radio’s Jennifer Obakhume to find out. (January 16 on NPR's Day to Day)
I’m not going to try to tell you about race relations at Santee High School. Instead, I’m going to let you eavesdrop on a hallway conversation between Tilsa Umpierre, a half black-half Latina sophomore & Jennifer Morales, a Latina. Listen closely, it doesn’t end the way you’d expect.
JENNIFER & TILSA (on tape)
Jennifer: I’m not trying to say nothing racist or anything, but there are a lot of black girls that if you go past them and they charge into you, they start talking to you like, "Excuse me?" They start giving you attitude--
Tilsa: I don’t think it’s like that, I think... It’s because people don’t say, "Excuse me." You gotta say “excuse me,” “my bad,” something. And maybe we won't get all--
Jennifer: --But at some point, it's like...why you gonna say excuse me when they won't say excuse me as well, when your bumping into somebody else?
Tilsa: All right yeah, that’s true, that’s true.
JENNIFER
See what I mean? Not every simple disagreement on race turns into a riot. The race thing isn't that cut and dry. Now let me take you someplace else that might surprise you in this school: the African American studies class. It’s full of Latino kids, except for a few African Americans.
CLASS (on tape)
The Portuguese, when they first came to Zimbabwe, they couldn’t believe that Africans actually built it. Just another example of how the achievement of Latinos, the achievement of Africans are gone, are unrecognized...
JENNIFER
Teacher Jose Lara is NOT African American. But he’s good at making links to Latinos in his lectures. Taking students from Nigeria to the Mayan ruins in Mexico. He does the same thing with teaching about Martin Luther King.
JOSE (on tape)
It’s important to teach in our schools, the legacy of MLK Jr. because we still live in a racist society unfortunately. And we still have to continue his dream, his struggle should continue on along with Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Rodolfo Gonzales, among others...
JENNIFER
Some students might wonder: Why teach African American studies at all in a school full of Latinos? But Mr. Lara’s approach is to teach black history as brown history, so students feel like Martin Luther King day is for everyone, not just African Americans. Jennifer Morales says students have been talking about King's teachings since the fights broke out.
JENNIFER MORALES (on tape)
He made the point that we should all be together. And for us to have the riots, it just makes him look bad.
JENNIFER
After the riots here a few weeks ago, students organized a peace and unity week that included an assembly. And of course, Mr. Lara took another opportunity to bring in African American studies.
JOSE (on tape)
We talked about the connections between black and brown in the South Central community. Not only about the tensions, but also the historical contexts of how are histories are very similar.
JENNIFER
Similar histories may be one thing, but dealing with day to day realities is another. Even Tilsa, who we met earlier in the hallway, says King’s teachings still apply now, up to a point.
TILSA (on tape)
I think peaceful resistance is good. But if you have to get violent to get your point across, then that's what you got to do. You do what you got to do.
JENNIFER
But another fight is the last thing many students say they want to deal with. Just ask Alicia Presley. She credits Martin Luther King for the days the school is peaceful.
ALICIA (on tape)
If it wasn’t for him, the Latinos & blacks wouldn’t be in school today, we'd be racially divided and it'll just be, armeggedon.
JENNIFER
Well Armeggedon is probably an exaggeration. Like I said, I’m not here to give you final answers about race relations at Santee High. That’s a complicated subject and we’ll have to continue that lesson another day.
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