 Good evening. My name is Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald, and I'm your host for Students Speak Out. Joining me today in the studio are two high school seniors from Davis Senior High School. We have with us today, Babajire Olupona, and Waimi Rosas Romero. Thank you both for joining us here in the studio today. Babajire Olupona is a friendship day facilitator, alternate youth commissioner to the City of Davis Human Relations Commission. A health advocate and one of his most successful and I know makes him very proud. He's a football player number 73 on the Davis Senior High School Blue Devils. I believe you're a center and defensive tackle, right? A DT as you call it. Waimi Rosas Romero is a student representative to the school board and a friendship day facilitator as well. Thank you both very much for joining us here in the studio today. Let's get started and talk first about February 24th. You were both in attendance at that, at that forum hosted by the Human Relations Commission of the City of Davis, and the forum focused on solutions to a community problem of racism, bullying, etc. that is going on in the community and in schools. There were a lot of people in attendance who said that they were shocked, surprised, or just did not know of some of the incidents that students were talking about that day. For what reason do you feel people did not know that it was as bad as it was? Who do you want to talk to? Anybody, either of you. Well, I think there could be several, there's several reasons why people in general don't know why, what's going on and if it's going on at all. I think one of the major issues is like since we've been growing up, Davis has just gets this idea of this sheltered place that it's kind of like the perfect community where nothing happens and I think that there are a lot of people who just live their lives who don't have to deal with this on a daily basis and come to a point where they just don't think it goes on because they don't see it happening. I think when it comes to administration or the city not knowing about it, there's also several reasons why they wouldn't know about it also. There's a large number of students who don't report things just for the simple fact that it's just going to lead to escalating of issues and the whole silent of the code of not reporting things to the office is that's a big thing that goes on in all high schools and then at the same time it's there are students who also don't feel that the administration is going to help them out and it's going to give them support so they also don't go to the administration and for the combination of all these reasons it just adds and then eventually there's kind of a point where there's just a large number of people who don't know what's going on. Duymi, you mentioned earlier when we were talking about this before the show, you mentioned kind of what Papajite has mentioned the code of silence so to speak and I asked you is that code of silence from students to students or from students to administrators? It's definitely from students to students just because you don't want people to think that you're just going to your mom and crying to them and telling them what people are doing to you at school because you want to deal things on your own and it's really hard but during that time you really want all your other friends to not put you down but it's I don't know how to explain it it's just hard you if you go to a teacher it makes you look like you're the weak one like you can't deal with it. So is it correct then to say almost as a means of survival and living being on that campus day in day out you have to have coping mechanisms and that's one of them to be a part of this code of silence so that you can not be singled out or isolated. What if anything do you think can be done either of you think can be done to create an atmosphere that makes it okay for students to bring their concerns to their parents to teachers to administrators without there being some kind of ramification by fellow students what do you think it would take to create that kind of atmosphere do you have any ideas? Well I think what we're doing right now just bringing your wordness to school because maybe people like I know when I went through the whole like a person bothering me like I was being bullied in junior high that I just felt like it was only happening to me and maybe there was I didn't know that there were other people going through the same thing so if more people are aware that other people are going through it and that there is something that can be done I mean of course I would have done something about it before and it's hard because at the time you feel like everybody's against you like you're the only one who is experiencing this yeah and there's really nothing to no one to turn to because in my situation this girl made all my friends just completely ignore me she told them not to talk to me just because she didn't like me and it just I mean I didn't know what to do I cannot go to I don't want to go to my parents I didn't want to go to school and I had no friends so it's just it's really it's really hard it was difficult being isolated and you didn't want to to face that again yeah and it's kind of like you just have to meet new people and hope that they'll accept you for who you are and just eventually build up from there and I think yeah definitely just bringing awareness to what's going on and maybe if students didn't necessarily have to go straight to counselors like for example if they had like a box I mean something simple as a box where you could just write things like there's this problem happening to me so administration will be on the lookout of this person and not necessarily say okay this is me this is happening to me but just to say something this person's been bothering me and that way it's not such a thing that they feel like they're actually um how can it snitching on the person in a way so so for example you could then let them know that this problem exists but then they wouldn't necessarily say that you were the one who snitched on this person exactly so you would feel you would have more anonymity yeah this is particularly more in junior high but then when you're older I mean it's kind of different I haven't really experienced anything like that in the high school but it was mainly junior high Babashita what about you I think that's that's a brilliant idea it is a brilliant idea I love the fact that we're having this discussion right now and I know we're going to have some more because I think this is how we're going to develop solutions to some of these problems that you all have been encountering what would you say like especially at the junior high level I think the box idea is just pretty much brilliant because especially with males I'm talking from my own perspective guys will not it's just it's just anti everything that a guy is like the that society or like other fellow students tell you to be and you will not go in and just go report things that happen that's why what fights happen is because most of the time the the principles didn't even hear about if these people have been problems before because they just guys just don't go in it just doesn't happen it's just like the male code of conduct yeah it's just one of those things I think about and I think personally the idea that I'm trying to create an atmosphere in which students will be comfortable enough to go to talk to the principles and not worry about what other students are going to feel what they're going to say is just it's not going to happen you can't think like that it just that's it's there's a certain way that the student life works and it's the way that it's probably always going to work in the future in the way it's always been done and that's just one of the things that isn't done people just don't like to tell other people them and go tell the administration their problem I think for that issue a better way to look at it is in to make students themselves like more and strengthen or empower to tell their friends hey don't do that to this person or hey don't say that to this person that I believe is a lot more realistic and try to get students to want to go talk to administration I think it's easier for students to stand up to their friend than it is for a student to go talk to the administration and then fear more escalate in the issue in a way what do you think could be done to help students or assist students in in that process in helping them or teaching them skills to be able to stand up to those that are harassing them or bothering them what what do you think could be done I think part of a large part of it is especially with because we're both frustrated facilities and this is something we talk about almost and we'll be talking about friendship day by the way yeah um I think a big part of it is letting when other students really understand or hear the stories of other students that they know people they see on a daily basis people they've they've known for years and they really understand the extent of the pain or the things they've gone through it makes standing up to your friend a lot easier you know in a way it's really hard for me to to think of ways in which you could just make a random person want to stand up for for civil rights which stand up for the rights of others but it's when people I think it's human nature and in in everyone there's just that good side the side that you will feel you'll feel you'll feel the pain of the other person and when you hear the stories of some of the people at our high school you're just like you can't help but be like hey like this I didn't know that that person was going to do this that was experiencing that so I'm going to stand up for him and her because this has to stop is that what you're saying okay okay so creating an atmosphere where these things can be discussed and students can can use their their natural what would you call it I guess a natural tendency to be compassionate and caring for their fellow students is that what you're saying okay um let's let's go back to the friendship day facilitator you are both friendship day facilitators what is friendship day and what does a friendship day facilitator do what is the role of a friendship day facilitator what is friendship day I always do the history of friendship day so let's start with the history yeah it's a good place to start it started I believe it was on May 18th 1983 that Tong Nguyen was killed on the day of the school campus and after Tong Nguyen's death and he was to tell you what happened Tong Nguyen was a Vietnamese student who was stabbed to death on the student on the campus on the campus because of racially motivated motivated incidents and after that it happened it was kind of a shock to the community as a whole and they decided to try to create activities and programs to kind of try to strengthen the bonds of the community and friendship day was one of the ideas that came up with and pretty much students just come to friendship day we invite a large variety of students and then it gives them a chance to to know people that they wouldn't get to know in the school environment it's good that we take them out of the school environment and like the first thing we do is play duck duck goose and it just breaks down all the boundaries and kind of like the whole this is my image at school and when people get more on a personal level you get to meet people every single friendship there and meet people that I've never met before people that I've seen and I'm like I've seen for like years and years and I've never just I always learn new things about them and it pretty much is gets students together and brings them outside of school and breaks down all the boundaries and just lets people to see people for what who they really are is just the person they are not the stereotype that is given to them in the high school environment so so on friendship day then um how does it work are you broken into different groups um and then you go out into the community is that is that how it is set up no what we do is we invite different students from the high school okay they get an invitation and we go we uh have a friendship day in the third and b mm-hmm it's on the friday and um we pretty much do activities all together but we do have small discussion groups okay we have to and that we do divide into groups and it's just we kind of just talk about different things such as discrimination just prejudice anything that's going on at the same at the time any stereotypes or things like that we just that's how you meet students that you otherwise would not normally have a lot of interaction with perhaps is that right and uh so this has been going on since uh since uh 1983 i believe yes yes 1983 um what are some of the um highlights of friendship day that you have have seen that that stand out the most in your mind i mean it's hard to say because everything's so fun i mean i think when i went i was an facilitator but i was invited to friendship day the thing i loved the most like for example in in introductions you get kind of you get to see like when you get to introduce another person that you don't know so you talk you're given a certain time and you have to find out as much as you can about that person and it was interesting to find that some things that this person liked i liked too and i would never have thought that we had the same interests or things like that and then also just enjoying the like spending time with those people you never even thought about talking at school and having so much fun with that and then when you go into the small discussion groups hearing their stories and things that you can relate to and by the time i left i had a totally new like perspective of what was the high school because i i began to see people for who they were instead of the stereotype and just believing it did you guys find that after friendship day that you went back to the high schools and had conversations or developed friendships with students that you might have otherwise not had discussions with or become friends with did you both find that yeah it's it's it's what that's one of the biggest ideas that's incorporated in friendship day is we actually always at the end of it always have talk of what you're going to do on monday and we watch the breakfast club and that's that's one of the highlights i think it's a great discussion group after the scene from breakfast club it's probably it's always the highlights probably the best part for me because then it's that's when you know because friendship day there's a lot of this fun stuff and it's like and it's fun but that's when it gets it just comes down to more of the and the issues just laid out the issue of you know because if you know friendship day i mean i'm not friendship day but breakfast club yes it's a movie where kids there are pretty much i think it was five or six six kids yes six six six kids from completely different groups you might not be able to tell but i am older than you so i did see it when i was in high school believe it on was a high school yes i did yeah so it's pretty much six kids who from absolutely completely different groups and they're put in an environment and then it's just like the interaction between the kids and it's just kind of like a small example of what high school life is all about yeah is people from different groups coming together and when that issue is simplified just hearing people's opinions on it and the way people feel about it and then it always leads on the other issues is just pretty much getting other people's opinions and see where they stand and what they believe in and things that happen to them it's always the best part it's because pretty much that's when it becomes on a personal level of friendship day and you realize how much you have in common instead of how different you are that's what's amazing huh that's what's quite amazing there's like something that really sticks in my mind when i think about friendship day is there's i don't remember what some girls named the one that was rich or something molly ringwald well her there is this thing that she says um she says i have as much feelings as you do and it hurts as much as when everyone steps when everybody steps all over steps all over you and that just really stuck to me because i mean i think oh yeah like the thing that the people think the preppy crowd or something and that you wouldn't think that they would get harmed by anything that they're just happy with their lives and just that part just stuck with me and i just thought wow you know those are those kind of things that you just realize and you think that they're not affected by anything negative because their life seems so perfect and you realize that they they have emotions and feelings also wow well it definitely sounds like something very very positive after uh february 24th that forum on the 24th i've spoken both to to um to students to you babajide and we've had discussions with the superintendent of of schools dave murphy and it's my understanding that a lot of things have been happening on campus um if i'd like to talk about some of those things i know that there have been uh a weekly i don't know if you call them rallies or meetings where there have been quite a number of students in attendance can you tell us a bit about those well mainly bj is the one kind of in charge of that and it's just a student forum we all kind of share like our thoughts about the school climate about anything that's been happening i i've only been able to attend one but i mean it's just pretty much um people i mean it's not only listening to the people who are actually experiencing the prejudice themselves but just people who who are blamed for it are able to to talk about it and say you know this is why i do this or please let me know what i'm doing wrong too because i don't think i i do believe that there are certain people that are just blamed and maybe they're doing things because they're they're not really aware of what the impact of their words can do so i mean just the whole bringing a word this is helping out a lot of all students babajide what um what helps you to think of this idea and how well first of all what how how did you think of this idea and how did you make it happen well pretty much it after the whole this all these incidents that have gone on me and my group of friends in a way it kind of separated ourselves from a lot of people and even people that i've known for years like we just it was kind of a point where it was so many people that we'd known that we'd been friends with had been doing things that we were just like well we trust each other so we're going to stick with each other and then i just i realized that there had been adults that talked about it we talked we'd all we'd been up to all these forums and talked about it and there'd never been a time where students just discussed just students just students talked about it so i was like well um i wonder if people would be interested in like ask a couple people and they're like whoa that'd be cool and then i went to more kicks to talk about it and then we pretty much the infamous more kicks yeah so then we pretty much we just got the plan together we got a room i got it i'm cleared by the administration and then it was it was the first one was really amazing a lot of people came out came to the place and we talked about the issue and there'd been it's like it's kind of uh a good and bad because a lot of people are just out of the pin that it's been overkill and that everyone keeps talking about the issue and a lot of people are like well people just come and talk about this is the problem this is the problem how do we solve it how do we solve it but for me it's the this the sessions no matter what people say like the impact it has had on me personally i think it was what happened because after the very first meeting um there were a lot there were people from all groups and there were people from the group of the people that had been talking at the basketball games that had been in the papers and stuff and they were trying to express their opinion the ones that have been sort of for lack of a better way to say um um saying certain things and not that have caused harm to others yeah and it was it was amazing that the people like try to really express their opinion and some people got really attacked for it and i that was kind of like whoa because it was kind of like tables were turned and it was majority became minority and minority became majority and so it was kind of like it's been kind of an interesting thing to happen but what happened the interesting thing was after the very first meeting um a sophomore baseball player came up to talk to me and he's just everyone knows him he talks he's also always talking about all games and stuff and he really he simplified something that no one really been able to simplify for me and he'd said from him personally when he went to the basketball games every single game when he went to the game and he was going to talk and he was going to say stuff he thought of things that would get in the heads of the players and that was the opinion or that was the way in which the crowd is seeing they're chanting and they're saying all these things to get in the head of the players and that's their opinion you're they're coming from and but then i was trying to explain to him it was that although the things that were said were said from this angle and for this purpose you can't see it as anything but racist because the things that were said to fairfield players will not be said to you know the valley union players for example you know it's and all almost all the comments that were made were were perpetuating a stereotype right but at the same time just hearing like it caught me off guard because i never thought about it like that that they so instead of making a comment let's say um you know uh you're a terrible player whatever you know commenting on the player's ability they were commenting on their ethnicity perhaps or something relating to their ethnicity or trying to find something about them that they perceived as being negative but it wasn't just about their playing it was more more of a personal attack and yes yes and no because this is ever since i've been really talking to these people i've come to an interesting like standpoint on this topic i see both sides really okay and i understand both sides in defense to the crowd what they say is said from this point like they're just really when they really think i think a large majority of them see it as they're saying it to get in the heads of the players and just to get them out of the game and just to frustrate them on that fairfield game they really did get in the head of the best player of the team he got ejected from the game because you can handle it but at the same time it's you have to be really careful about what you say right because i personally wasn't at that game but if i was at that game the whole food stamps you know don't buy doesn't buy hummers or or like gpa and stuff would bother me right and it's it hasn't really changed from for my sister's years it was we go to stanford you go to jail that was what was said and it's just it's pretty much changing so they have to understand the um the ramifications of their comments pretty much yeah they do they have to take some responsibility and i don't know because i wasn't there and i don't know these these people but i believe there comes a point it sounds like you're saying where people have to take responsibility for their words and for their actions is that right i think it's just ignorance is just the i know it's like i've told people what you said was just ignorant and the people get defensive but at the same time it's just that is what it is it is just ignorance in the simplest way so having these forums on campus has it helped to to um to discuss this and what impact these things these words that are being said what impact it has and how it affects the people that it is being said to have you guys been able to have those discussions yeah i think it's it pretty much it's been great for me and people just get a chance to tell their stories say their side and people get to see people for on the human level yeah and it's i personally don't know if they're going to continue because i think once students lose interest then it's going to be gone but that's why it's so important to keep the dialogue going but it's it's so far it's been really good and i'm hoping it continues but i guess a lot of people are coming to the point where it's like hey we know the problem is out there hey we know it exists what can we do to solve it and it's it's that's the next step in the thing and that's the next step where we're trying to take it is we have to try to figure out ways to get students together talking about ways to solve the problem rather than just saying what the problem is okay well you mentioned a very interesting thing that i'd like to to touch base on and that is um solving the problem what are some of your suggestions for solving the problem have you given thought to that have you heard students express opinions on how to solve the problem i love your idea about the the box suggestion box uh we're going to have to definitely pass that on to superintendent murphy it's a great idea because it does provide some anonymity uh what are some other suggestions that you think might work at the high school i think there should also i mean friendship date in itself helps out a lot so there could be any more programs at the high school that can be almost like friendship date but just a place where people are just able to talk about i mean i know there's the whole program with peer helpers that you know you can go with another student and talk to them but not necessarily people might not feel comfortable going to person date you have never met in their entire lives and just tell them their problems right so i mean that's kind of hard so i mean i'm not sure how would you get people to to open up open up it's it's really hard i mean i'm just thinking right now junior high but i mean high school i think it's a little bit different depends i think the whole bringing awareness to everything is very important if you think if there was more opportunities similar to friendship day or maybe even more friendship days that that would help yeah definitely okay have you uh thought of any babajide or have you heard of any suggestions yeah i've had to feel this question a couple times and i was just answering it earlier today um there are different way there's several different steps that you we can take as students and as administration to solve the problem i think you got to kind of take it differently as students though the way i see the problem stopping or at least decreasing is students taking social responsibility for what's going on and for what happens on the campus when the students stand up to others and say hey i don't want to hear that or hey i don't want to hear you say that then that's going to eventually help the problem less and less and that's a very big part i think also uh a lack of education of other cultures is it stifles diversity because you know for like for black black history month you know for at the high school all it is is posters the library and this one wall that and like that's all that's it i'm single to my everything other all the all the parts of other cultures all the richness and and diversity that exists at the high school isn't celebrated in the curriculum it's we say it all the time you know that that united states is a solid bowl or melting pot depending on which way you see it and that hey there's all these different cultures that california is becoming more diverse that this davis high school is becoming more diverse yet at the same time the curriculum isn't changing and the that this diversity that is existing and the diversity that is growing it doesn't seem isn't being celebrated it's not being shown that that it's a different group of people that's that it's being taught that's being taught the information you never hear really about it's very rare to hear about you know like the history of other cultures or what goes on in other cultures but there are some teachers who personally taken upon themselves to step excuse me to like to incorporate social issues in their classes and it's i think there needs to be more of that because if you don't if you're not educated about other cultures you're going to get the education from different from different places and the big thing is tv tv you know yeah the news when everybody is committing crimes they show on the news and unfortunately they'll show you know people caucasian people they'll show people of other ethnicities and people then develop these stereotypes and thinks that he thinks that the majority of those people that are committing the crimes are minority groups and so you're saying people are buying into that too much what is he on tv it's something we that we've talked about actually one of the small discussion groups is like especially with for me personally it's the whole african issue and when you see the depiction of tv on africa like of africa on tv it's people and huts or people who are poor they never really show the richness of the country and then so when you come here the whole idea that hey you're a bushman did you live in a hut it's that's all they've seen and then you've heard those comments before oh you'd be surprised for the last 12 years and you know rap music and rap culture it's a it's a culture now and that's also another thing and all the stereotypes of that are put on african americans who go to the davis heist and they're in the davis high school system because that's all people see on tv they're not educated about the other things in culture they're not educated about the strengths and the diversity and the richness of everything of like different aspects of cultures like in the nigerian culture itself it's so rich there's so many different parts of it that like so many people are so amazed when they hear the things and i hear and i i tell them the stories and the beliefs and the way the culture is based on and it's amazing people are really interested and i think that if they had more of that incorporated or even if they just came up with a class then just talked about diversities of other cultures you'd be surprised at the amount of students that sign up for it i think it'd be amazing just that i think it'd be an experiment you know just have the school where maybe just come up with a class and i don't know how hard that is but if they just came up with a class they just talked about diversity of other cultures and just talked about other cultures other than the basic one of the american culture that we're we're taught from first grade to 12 you know if they they focused on other cultures and they focused on diversity i think you'd be amazed on the amount of people that'd be interested it would really want to know that is an excellent suggestion and since we are meeting with superintendent murphy we will definitely uh uh suggest to him the the different suggestions that you both are coming up with you know you face this day in day out and you have fabulous suggestions and we do hope to hear from fellow students as well um so what you're saying babajide is that that not only did you say that students would most likely take the class that there would be a lot of interest but you're saying that a lot of um of these stereotypes stem from the ignorance or lack of knowledge that people have about other cultures right right yeah like i have to say like there's um now in my point of view over hispanics like um i don't know if you heard about the magazine vanity fair did you hear about what happened i did yes that was just uh oh it was it was uh it was unfortunate it was very shocking why don't you why don't you tell us thwammy what what happened because a lot of people don't know about it well um it was a letter and to this character in the magazine you know that you asked them questions almost like a dear and landers type of yeah so they were just asking something about the spanish language like speaking spanish that this person i'm not really sure what it was it was something about this person wanted to know why people were like why girls would like spanish or something like that like the language i guess but anyways the the response to this person was that what why would you want to learn spanish if it's only spoken by ignorant people who only clean houses and you know are and you know just fast food place and yeah who are just completely don't know anything they're not educated this is a this is a magazine a national magazine that yeah vanity fair yeah and it was quite shocking and surprising i looked into it myself i thought is this true did this really happen and i i myself wrote a letter to them yeah that i was i was very upset but you're using that as an example so what you're saying is that that is a part of the problem is that that mainstream america exactly this is happening in mainstream america and kids see this and they think it's okay and that it's acceptable they buy into the stereotype yeah and i think the sad thing is that both the hispanics and the other ethnicities buy into this stereotype both i say because um people just think that well there's a large number of hispanish i mean hispanics particularly mexicans who come here they work on um in the fields right oh they're working my family did as a matter of fact yeah i have a family who does too right and yeah there's a lot of people come here because because they don't have enough like a job opportunities in mexico which is really bad like it's really sad but the sad thing is that people don't see the other side of the mexicans like for example there's a lot of professionals over there noble prize winners i mean it's there's a lot of things that people are just not aware of and the reason why they don't come over here it's because they're successful over there and people don't really see that they just think mexico as just this type of people and that's how they're supposed to stay and also if i might add to that is that the people that do work in the service industry or do work on the farms field work there's nothing wrong with that exactly it is work that they do very well it is work that they are proud of um california uh would not be the wealthy state that it is if we did not have the uh the labor the dedicated labor of farm workers that is why cesar shaves if i could do a plug here we're going to be celebrating cesar shaves day on the 29th of uh uh march and so so what you're saying is that not only do we have the farm workers but we also have professionals in the uh mexican community who who choose not to come here and those that are here which is students need to be exposed to that yeah there's a variety there's a variety and also to have respect like you say for the farm workers there's nothing degrading about working in in the fields no they're being honest they're honest people who are earning their money working very very extremely hard yes i mean i know people just work plenty of hours from five in the morning till right yeah i have to it's amazing i just don't know how can they stand really hot like in the summer yeah i mean i just can't believe how much how hard it is and how they're just almost treated as if they're not as good as certain people you know right right and that's what i'm saying also it affects the hispanic community because some people may even feel like that they they feel less than others because i know for example like i can say my mom she has this problem like she she doesn't really want to speak english because she thinks she's going to be make fun of or that she doesn't have the education supposedly to she feels that she's going to be made fun of by her family or siblings or by friends may well for example her accent and things like that uh-huh and i mean my mom's a lawyer and everything but in here she can't really do anything because it's different laws obviously but in Mexico she is a practicing lawyer yeah so i mean she she feels almost as if the calcasians look down on her and i just don't understand why she does and it's just hard because she just looks at she she thinks that the stereotype here of the mexicans are just people who have no education and they don't really have a voice that's how my mom feels and i've told her many of times that i mean that's not it you can do whatever you want oh yeah and it's obvious i mean of course in here i feel like i have even a greater opportunity in succeeding than if i would in mexico and like for example like students at the high school they it's so running it's like they're they even think that what they're expected to do is just go community college and then go to work maybe just anything easy like fast replace anything like that and they don't really think ahead and it's just the thing is that they don't have the role models to be like shown to them saying okay this is what you can become it's okay to want to be that person and these are the hispanic or mexican students at the high school so you're saying if more opportunities were presented to them yeah about uh showing them hispanics that that have careers in different areas that that they would see that it's something that they too could achieve yeah what you're suggesting because i mean even like in school like it's really hard to find somebody who's hispanic uh involved in like sports or in clubs or in student government or in like friendship day i mean my friends when i try to join friendship day they were like okay why are you gonna do that you know it's like why are you joining on all those things and like all my friends well the friends i used to have when i said i wanted to do student government and they would be well why would you want to be there it's just all the white people so they don't feel very welcomed either exactly they don't feel welcomed and that's why there's some uh mexicans that just tend to stick together and they feel like okay we are we all that's all we have each other and that's it and they're like they call the white people already they're they won't even try to even listen to us so what's what's the point of trying because it's not going to make a difference you make a very good point and i'd like to ask you both this this question is a follow-up to what we've been discussing one of the items that was mentioned at the forum on february 24th is um that that students would like to look at ways or come up with ways to put an end to or hopefully put a limit on student self-segregation and that's basically what you've been talking about what suggestions do you have if any for that how can what what can be done to to um put an end to or put a limit to student self-segregation i mean students are obviously going to hang out with whomever they choose to hang out with and especially if if there are situations where they're being shunned or where they're being treated negatively because of their race ethnicity gender socioeconomic status etc they're going to stick to others who are more like them what do you think can be done to curtail that do you have any ideas for that um in a way this question has been asked a lot and the idea that there are clubs where it's it's like you know the bsu and the gay straight lines and i don't know how does it was latinos and you know and there's all these clubs that and the question of are well are there aren't these clubs promoting segregation or whatever um i think in my personal opinion it's it kind of happens you know all the all the friends that i'm friends with now in junior high i was a friend with at all i've almost gone to fight to probably all four of my closest black friends okay and it just happens like i didn't personally say hey well oh i'm not gonna be friends oh i'm just gonna be friends with the black guys and it's just something that happens you know when you are in a school of you know 20 20 something like how many students are the 2000 something or a little over 2000 yeah when there's when you're when you're in a school with 2000 something students and you're one of you know maybe 50 or 20 black people that are there i probably said about 50 what what do you expect like it's it's just it's gonna happen people are generally more comfortable with people of their own kind like i think it'd be funny to see like i this would be interesting some of these people who come up with this question that why do these clubs exist or why did the people segregate themselves it'd be funny just to take them up root them up and put them in a school where they're the minority grant for instance or johnson a school that maybe like even or and see if they would they could also cling with people of their own kind and it's it's for us me and my friends we're friends are probably eventually if you we're friends almost everyone at the school if you look at it we know people from every a lot of the groups if not every single group i have friends i could say from almost every single group in high school so i don't feel that i'm segregating myself from another group because my closest friends are just all happen to be black it's also we all just all happen to play sports and a lot of we live next to each other two of my friends have the exact same birthday it's just like it's just the they're the people that that stuff stuck by me over the years if they something were white it'd be the exact same thing i have a lot of really really close friends that are white and so i personally don't even think that you can really say hey why did these things happen but at the same time it's there are clicks at the high school and when group when people feel you know if these a way to put is if these people weren't friends with each other who would they be friends with you in a way because do i believe that a lot of groups are not really not welcomed by other groups a lot of times you know they're not talked to and personally a problem that i've seen is between like like the mexican americans and african americans there's a big issue especially with the younger kids like with with our grade it wasn't it hasn't been that big a problem with the seniors but with the juniors and sophomores there's been a lot of tension and a lot of tension between african americans and and mexican students yeah and it's it's kind of like it's absurd to me and one of the things that i want to do for these years over is talk to them and get them to work their things out because it's when there's all these minorities in the high school that are all minorities that are all going to suffer through the same things and they're all going to go through the same experiences it is ridiculous to be fighting with one another and i think you know it's just it's amazing to hear you say this i'm laughing because this is something that is often discussed in quote unquote the real world the adult world and here you are as youth and you're experiencing this at high school and you're already saying wait a minute this needs to stop and we need to come together and talk about this basically coalition building so to speak and so that's that's wonderful you i i commend you guys because you're uh you're uh developing your leadership skills and you're recognizing that this problem exists so what what would you suggest what would be a way to deal with this perhaps i think you know communication is a big deal and you know there are so many stereotypes about you know about different cultures everyone has them everyone has them you know and in a way you just gotta realize well that's not really they don't exist you know like for me it's personally i've grown up with so many people from different cultures that you know like like i call booba jose garibay it's one of my best friends in the world like i've known him since the sixth grade we play football together and it's just like he's like as close to friends with me as some of my black friends and it's just that it's just with the seniors i don't know if it's just our class but there hasn't been a lot of really mexican-american african-american issues with our with us with the younger kids you know i think this happened is a lot of the kids that are here now especially the black males they were they didn't grow up in davis all their lives a lot of kids moved here from other places and i think one of the one of the things we've talked about in the warnings we've given the administration is when we leave the group of kids that are gonna be there are completely different group of guys and the some of the stuff that we've grown through they will not take okay so in other words the tensions are such that they may escalate to a level that is not good yes i think communication is always everyone says that communication is the best thing but when you actually go up and talk to someone it's and you realize wait a second you know this person is really not quite the image that i thought they were it's just completely different and it's just when when you i think that's probably one of the best ways and to someone you know i'm kind of frustrated with the question of hey you why do people segregate each other or segregate it's it's because people are uncomfortable with the idea that they're the black guys here hitting the mexican guys and the asian kids or whatever but it's just like when when generally i think one thing that's been said and the comment that was made was that the mexican americans and african americans and a lot of other minorities in the high school don't feel that the school is really theirs you know what i'm saying exactly yeah i know what that is one of the biggest issues that people have talked about why do mexican americans and african americans not run for office because do they a lot of people just like they don't feel that it's the high school and then i think one issue that we haven't talked about it's really important i know this is kind of side-track it's classism it exists it's it's kind of it's it's the issue that you know i always really never mentioned it but it's really important because kids are put down and you were saying california is a really wealthy state davis is a really wealthy community and some people do not have the same amount of money and aren't as fortunate as others and they're going to be put down for that and in a way it's like it's funny because i have some friends who were raised really poor and because of things that happen to them are now like really well off and it's the balance of that and like the extremes that i've talked about is really sad because i never thought about it like that and i never thought the hey well the poor kids are being made fun of too and classism i think is a big part of it because that's also kind of shows you like the black stereotype all the black stereotypes are pretty much about being uneducated being poor Mexican stereotypes that are used to be about being uneducated being poor and i think that's a very big part of it yeah you mentioned a very good topic that we are definitely going to do a follow-up show with and that is classism because that uh uh some people have also defined it as white privilege when it comes to david and that's definitely an issue that we want to follow up with and have a show to discuss and have a a large group diverse group of students from the high school come and talk about it maybe even a junior high i saw you over here doing me uh uh shaking your head in agreement with babajide what what do you wish to to add to to the comments that he was making i saw you over there shaking your head definitely because i felt that way before that the school is not yours that is not mine it was i really like i i think it was until 10th all 10th grade all the way through 10th grade i didn't feel like i just went to high school to take classes because i had to but i didn't really feel like i was part of the school i didn't really even try to go to the dances anything because i didn't i didn't feel part of the school because i feel like i wasn't even nobody even tried to incorporate us to it so because your your culture your your your culture the thing that you grew up with that identifies you uh being african uh being uh hispanic latina that is not a part of the everyday discussion so so when you attend school you're attending just to take your classes get your grades and then move on and you aren't there to contribute and be a part of it is that because it feels like nobody even tries to really understand like us like as a community like for example i know like the whole segregation a self segregation i did that too because when i moved here in eighth grade i didn't everybody had known like knew each other from elementary school so what was my first thing to do will go with mexicans because i can identify myself that's what you felt comfortable with i felt comfortable talking to them and they would i hope they would help me out to really kind of just get the hang of the whole thing feel welcome yeah but then the thing is that i realized that they themselves didn't really want to be part of the whole thing it just kept with each other and that was my the problem that i had with that the girl who was bullying me she was she was a mexican girl and she had a problem with me talking to other people from different races or even trying to do anything with school because she she just didn't like that and that's just really really sad and like i like i said not a lot of people try to like right now i'm in student government and have a position or any and things like that not a lot of people do that very important position might i add you're a student the student representative to the school board and and a friendship day facilitator that's fabulous what what is it that that made you comfortable to say i want to do this what what what is it that happened that made you decide to go ahead and take that chance well i think i i just the fact that i felt that some people actually believed in me like there were certain teachers who would push me that would tell me come on you should try to do it i mean i know you can make a difference and prove to people that you're not just that like like stereotype that they're giving to the mexicans like you can actually do something with your life and it just made me think yeah you know why should i be why should i not be trying to enjoy what the school is offering and become part of it and that's like also through going through friendship day and really helped me open open my circle of friends and just talking to other people and just probably since my junior year i've been looking at people for who they are and just not really thinking about races or anything else or religions or whatever that is just accepting accepting people yeah it's just really hard to do for some people though yeah that is wonderful um boy you both have shared just so much fabulous information and you really sounds like with the discussions that have been going on you both have learned a lot about yourselves and about others that you you might have otherwise not had a lot of communication with which is good and i really commend you on the you know taking leadership and participating in the dialogue so i think that that's where the answer lies in the dialogue you mentioned babajire classism and i know that's such a big issue and we do want to cover that in a future program have you experienced that i i ask you that but i also say that because i know that your answer is yes i remember you mentioned it at the forum on the 24th you have experienced classism um is that something you've experienced while attending school here or is that something you've just experienced as a whole what what can you say about that i think i've almost experienced it like through probably starting through fifth grade up till now and i still have just because for example in fifth sixth grade i used to live in mexico but i attended a school really millionaires just really rich people and i didn't have as much money and people do kind of look down on you but they don't really say it to your face you know but then i mean it wasn't as obvious as when i came over here and which was really sad is that i don't really get um the whole classism issues with people from different ethnicities but with the people of my own ethnicity and the things like a lot of like i said a lot of mexicans come here like who just trying to get like their parents come here because they don't have really good job opportunities over here and they're probably like don't have a lot of money and things like that and these people have grown up like that and they see me my dad with a phd and he is a really good job and i think we're okay yeah so then they treat you differently and they treat me different just because of that and i mean it's hard because it just they say oh yeah you look at you you have a house you have a car blah blah and we live in trailers yeah can i just they themselves isolated me and it was really hard for me for a while because i felt like i was isolated by the mexican group and in a way i didn't just didn't feel like i belonged to anything else because i didn't feel like i was accepted by anything else like what else was i supposed to identify myself with and it's just really really hard because people just looking at you as oh yeah you have money like they're just labeling you as you're not like us so then we can't be with you no way i'm being told that our show is about to wrap up here but i do want to commend you both again you're doing outstanding work both of you it takes courage and leadership to to come forth and say there is a problem and we need to talk about it as a school as a community and you both have done that and i i commend you both you both are outstanding outstanding not just outstanding youth but outstanding human beings and this discussion is going to continue because it's a discussion that has needed to take place for quite some time for quite some time and uh i ask you i'm going to ask you both to to continue to help me and help others in the community continue with the dialogue so that we can come up with solutions i want to thank you both for joining us here this evening in the studio and i want to thank you the viewing audience for joining us today uh on student speak out and please be sure to to stay tuned and uh you know look both in the newspaper and on the schedule for dc tv because we're going to have upcoming discussions on this very topic have a good night i'm your host is cilia eschemia greenwald thank you thank you both so much i appreciate it