Dreaming big

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- It’s where the American Dream meets the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.

It’s where burritos and burgers are on the same plate, where Saks rubs

shoulders with Sav-on and where brown, beige and white blend together.

And it all happens in Beek Hall 164, a little room tucked away at Newport

Harbor High.

The 17-year-old 11th-graders there have seen a lot together: first

pimple, first test, first date, first love, first tear, first failure,

first family breakup. And for many, spending at least one hour of each

school day for the past three years has been the first time they

journeyed outside their own worlds to challenge their comfort levels.

This special class has unwittingly become a petri dish for race, class

and cultural relations. The students are from both Costa Mesa and Newport

Beach. They are poor, working class and rich. They are African American,

Hispanic, Caucasian and mixed. They are the faces of the future. And they

all get along.

Clearly this is what civil rights activist, the Rev. Martin Luther King

Jr., envisioned before he was assassinated in 1968.

As they celebrate what would have been the visionary’s 71st birthday

today, these students are also celebrating the fact that, in their little

classroom in their little corner of the world, they have managed to

achieve what still eludes much of the world.

KING’S MESSAGE STILL NEEDED

The kids, who met at age 14, have experienced the raw honesty of that

awkward transition into young adulthood in front of the same 20 people.

Over time, they’ve developed a trust and have overcome the strangling

fear that closes so many people to each other.

And, just maybe, they have some answers for everyone else.

“We’ve been in close quarters for three years,” said student Kevin

McRoberts. “We’ve learned to work together.”

They are average students with above-average hopes and dreams. The thin

line threading each of them together is the desire for something better

than what they’ve got. They all want to go to college.

This was the original goal of AVID, the Advancement Via Individual

Determination program, said teacher Phil D’Agostino.

But the result was quite different.

“We’re the first senior [AVID] class. We all share a common goal and

we’ve come together to help each other out,” said student Pedro Lopez,

explaining how they have moved beyond their personal walls.

On Martin Luther King Day, each said they will be considering whether the

leader’s message of racial equality is still a necessary one.

“Martin Luther King died without [realizing] his dream,” said student

Andy Godinez. “A lot of people think the civil rights movement is over,

but it’s still going.”

Students need only step outside their classroom to realize prejudice

still exists. It’s in their school, their cities, their country and

around the world. But while many Americans read about the ethnic

cleansing in places like Bosnia, their own backyard is sometimes a

forgotten battlefield, say students.

“I think society is scared of trying new things,” said Magaly Cano.

“Martin Luther King said that what matters is what’s inside. Racism and

prejudice will always be there.”

In Orange County alone, police recorded 169 cases of hate crimes against

minorities in 1998, according to state government statistics. The

majority of these were against African American, Jewish and Latino

community members. The crimes were primarily vandalism, physical assault,

verbal assault and hate literature, the statistics show.

There have even been cases in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. Recently a

local resident had a homophobic slur spray-painted onto his driveway,

said Betty Flick, chair of the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee, who

stepped in to address the situation.

The students are acutely aware that when they move out of the comfort of

their four classroom walls, the world can be an unforgiving place. Even

at their school, students still fall into groups based on race, interests

and popularity. The cliques are clearly defined and crossover is minimal.

“People with the same tastes group together,” said student Jordan Turner,

adding that recently a stranger tried to join his group and was swiftly

kicked out.

One student recalled her freshman English class where the teens had

unwittingly segregated themselves; all the Hispanic kids were on one side

of the room and the white students were on the other.

Hareli Morena added she wandered into one class only to discover she was

the only Mexican girl. The cold shoulder she received from the other

white students was enough to make her transfer to another class, she

said.

Others are even more unsure of where they belong.

“I don’t even know who to hang out with. As a mixed child you’re confused

about who you are,” said April Shields, one of the few interracial

students in the class, who described herself as Italian, Irish, Mexican

and American Indian.

HOPES FOR A BETTER WORLD

It is primarily from the media, family and friends that people learn to

be closed-minded, students said. These often unspoken messages subtly

weave together until they become part of one’s consciousness, they added.

But, while sources of prejudice were simple to point out, finding a

solution was more challenging -- even for them.

“They teach history, English and math -- why can’t we have a class that

teaches culture?” asked student Rosa Pena. “Why can’t we take one year of

culture?”

Pena added that while it was possible in college to major in ethnic

studies -- a historical study of the immigrant and minority experience in

America -- she thought it could make a bigger impact on high school

students. Another girl added school is the only place she sees any

diversity in her life and is therefore a wonderful place to study it.

“It’s important that we hear about other cultures, certain stories and

other races,” chimed in student Amy Barklow.Godinez suggested that

instead of just sleeping or playing video games on Martin Luther King Day

that perhaps people could celebrate his message of helping others and

overcoming boundaries by actively doing some good in the community.

“Maybe we should be a catalyst for positive change around the school,”

suggested teacher Phil D’Agostino.

Whether or not these students will take what subtle lessons they’ve

learned in their AVID class and apply them to the greater, wider world

remains to be seen.

But, one thing is for certain -- these years will not be forgotten and

somewhere deep in their souls, it has shaped who they are today and who

they will be when they graduate in 2001.

FYI

U.S. Census Bureau statistics for 1998:

Ethnicity White Hispanic Asian Black Other

National 72.31% 11.19% 3.66% 12.10% 0.74%

Newport Beach 89.70% 5.72% 4.0% 0.28% 0.3%

Costa Mesa 72.4% 19.9% 6.3% 1.0% 0.4%