Education difficulty-With 86 percent of its students being minorities Contra Costa College has the most diverse student body in the Contra Costa Community College District. Sixty-eight percent of Los Medanos College’s student body is minorities while Diablo Valley College’s students are 56 percent minority. Within urban US societies comes struggle with finances, potential conflicts due to differences of race, religion and can lead to educational barriers. Contra Costa College services students from Richmond, San Pablo, Hercules, Pinole and El Cerrito, to name a few cities, most of which differ in various ways depending on finance and race. The correlation between earned income per household and diverse communities make CCC a difficult place to govern in regards to a Community College serving its immediate community. Richmond and San Pablo are very similar in regards to these statistics. The 2010 Census results show that with 9.3 percent of households making less than $10,000 per year and most households, 17.4 percent, making between $50,000 and $74,000, Richmond has the lowest income average of these cities. However, CCC, the community college closest to Richmond, is in the same district as DVC, which has zero households making less than $10,000 per year with 32 percent of its population bringing in between $50,000 and $74,999 and 17.8 percent of its population making more than $100,000 annually. “The data is very clear that typical achievement measures in K-12 correlates very highly with income,” Interim President Dan Henry said. “If you live in a neighborhood with higher incomes test scores, in general, are going to be higher.” Results from a 2010 College Board study, found on the societypages.org, show that students from households earning less than $20,000 per year scored an average of 434 in critical reading scores, 457 in math and 430 in writing on their SATs. Students from households earning at least $80,000 score on an average that is higher than 500 in each subject. Racist living-Though a serious, ongoing issue, academic achievement based on diversity and economics fail in comparison to the emotionally and sometimes physically harmful side of diversity. “My father was a member of the KKK,” 38-year-old student Marc Stroud said. “He brought me and my brother up in that environment. Our community in Mississippi was very racist.” Born in Long Beach Calif. Stroud’s family moved to Mississippi when he was 5-years-old. When he was 13 Stroud said he began to question the racially charged way of thinking that his father forced upon him. In 1986, his mother uprooted he and his brother and moved back to California cutting ties with his racist father. “I was still very racist,” Stroud said about his return to California. “There was a very diverse community in Olivehurst, which was a huge culture shock for me.” Stroud, still influenced by the racist ways of his old community said he went through a “painful learning curve” in his new city. “There were times I would say racial epithets then find myself waking up on the ground after being beaten,” Stroud said. “In no way, shape or form am I saying that I didn’t deserve it.” After a confrontation with a fellow community member Stroud began to see the error in the life he had lived for almost his entire existence. “I had been in California for about two years,” he said. “Guys were walking by me and one of them said something to me and I yelled back a racial slur. The guy approached me and asked, ‘If that’s what you think of me, then what does that make you?’” Stroud said he thought about this question for days. As well as contemplating all of the years he lived his life with such bias beliefs. Today he lives by a different creed and values the differences between people as opposed to making conflict behind them. After the change, Stroud said he went back to visit his father in Mississippi. He told his father that his racist beliefs were full of lies and that he knows the truth. No longer will he stand by and witness discrimination, he said. Stroud believes that if all people work together in this world then human beings can make the world a greater place. However, he also said, “If we continue to battle then we’re just going to destroy each other.” Escaping the hate-A former professor of Stroud’s, Sociology Department Chairperson Manu Ampim dealt with racism at an early age as well. Born in Mobile Ala. Ampim’s family moved to the Filmore District in San Francisco when he was just six months old in March of 1964. “My family moved (from Alabama) to escape racism and white supremacy,” Ampim said. “My father was one of the type of people who would carry a knife. He knew that he had to remove himself from a situation that would eventually explode. He felt that with a wife and two sons it would be best to move away.” However, moving to San Francisco was not an immediate solution to the racial issues his family faced in Alabama. Ampim said he and other African-American boys from his neighborhood were bussed to predominately white schools for desegregation. “They assumed we were nothing but trouble makers,” Ampim said referring to the teaching staff and principal of the school. If any of the African-American children would have a conflict with a white student, Ampim said the student from the Filmore would be suspended without just cause. When he found himself in those situations Ampim said his mother would go to the school and talk with administration to avoid suspension. Though racism and oppression surrounded his youth, Ampim did not let the negative elements of society influence his beliefs. “One of my best friends was white,” he said. “His name was Patrick and I would go often go to his house and hang out with him and his family.” He added that his family would also visit Patrick’s home for dinner on occasion. An advocate for first-hand research, Ampim personally travelled the globe in search of information mainly regarding African civilization. During his explorations he met people of different races, religions and beliefs. In some European countries, such as Switzerland Ampim said, there is not much diversity. However, in England and Germany where there is more diversity, he said there is racial and religious tension amongst the people. “I stayed with two people in London, Heather and Julian, whom I met in Libia,” Ampim said. “They were political activists who dealt with the racial tension in London.” Ampim said, from his experiences and through his research he deduces that areas with more diverse societies, be it racial or religious diversity, carry a greater risk of conflict. Promoting Change-Though discrimination is not an apparent issue at CCC, some students fell that there can be more done to bridge the gap between different races and cultures. Nehayah Alnajar, a 20-year-old student said that being Muslim leads to some social issues. “Me being covered, people assume that I am not approachable,” she said. “This affects my interaction with others, at least until we talk.” The Richmond resident said she believes in the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “After 9-11, in the fourth grade I faced (judgment) head on,” Alnajar said. “Kids called me ‘Osama bin Laden.’ Since then I’ve been working to eradicate negative stereotypes.” Alnajar believes that educating ourselves as well as others, on different races and cultures will ultimately bring the people closer. Stroud and Ampim’s stories are similar in the way that both of their families uprooted themselves and moved to California to escape racially charged environments. From North Carolina, Antonio Rustin lived in a predominately black neighborhood before moving to California in the fall of 2011. The 20-year-old said he faced racial issues frequently in his hometown and had to channel them out in order to maintain. “Staying to myself, being the bigger person and continuously educating myself,” he said are ways he kept himself out of continuous racial situations. “It was an everyday thing for me,” Rustin said. “I knew what the south was about from how my mother raised me.” CCC’s campus is the most diverse society Mustin has ever been a part of. The variety of races, cultures and ethnicities is a welcoming feeling for him. “It’s made (my transition) easier,” he said. “I feel like I can be more of myself out here.” Conflict behind racial, cultural and religious differences is an ongoing issue in the U.S. as well as the world. Diversity does carry a host of complications and confusion but it can also be a way for people to focus on similarities between differences instead. Sam Martinez, a 21-year-old CCC student from El Sobrante said he is ¾ Caucasian and ¼ Mexican, and that he believes in the, “each one teach one concept.”“I was fortunate that my mom was very loving and caring,” Martinez said. “She taught me the values of racial diversity. You can’t get the most out of life learning about just one culture. You have to branch out.”
Posted on: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 00:30:17 +0000