THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060062
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines
CAN PENNIES fight prejudice?
Portsmouth school kids are counting on it.
The city's elementary school students have been collecting their coins for the past two years to help pay for an exhibit at the new Children's Museum of Virginia, which opens Saturday. The exhibit, ``You and Me,'' is aimed at educating kids about cultural diversity and prejudice.
So far a combination of fund-raising efforts, including those at the schools, has raised $5,000 toward the $15,000 exhibit. Plans to expand the exhibit would bring the cost to $36,000.
``We're hoping the kids will go through their couches and offer to do chores for their parents to help raise money,'' said Don C. Campbell who has spearheaded a fund-raising project for the city's cultural diversity action team. ``We want them to have a sense of ownership in this exhibit.''
The centerpiece is a game that incorporates videotaped stories from children who have been treated hatefully because of their color, their religion or physical disabilities. The stories explore the children's feelings and how they handled the situation.
As groups of children were jumping, climbing, sliding and otherwise ``testing'' the museum's other exhibits recently, one 9-year-old girl sat quietly listening to an Asian-American girl's videotaped story of how a group of children at her school made fun of her and hit her because she was different.
After the story, the child continued through the game, asking questions of the game about why it happened and how it made the her feel. Before she finished, two other children were watching over her shoulder.
The ``You and Me'' exhibit is in a corner of its own, which allows children time to contemplate the stories and ask questions in a relatively quiet area.
``I really want to go see the exhibit,'' said Tamika Baskerville, a student leader who helped raise money for ``You and Me.'' ``We were so excited when they were telling us about it. We thought it was really neat the kinds of different things they were going to include.''
Baskerville, 15, was particularly intrigued by a two-way mirror where visitors can see a reflection of themselves mixed with parts of the person standing on the other side. The mirror is a square large frame made of mirrored blocks and open blocks. The exhibit allows a visitor to stand on one side and see their chest and neck in the reflection with someone else's face in the open panel above.
Baskerville, now a sophomore at Churchland High School, got involved in the project while in the eighth grade at Churchland Middle school. As president of the Student Council Association, she and another student, Leila Islam, played a role on the city's Cultural Diversity Action Team.
The team was formed more than two years ago after residents and city leaders named racial disharmony as the city's worst problem and toughest challenge. Folks in Portsmouth wanted to find the root of the problem and then turn its cultural diversity into an asset.
The team is made up of citizens who volunteered and were then appointed by the City Council. There are now 18 active members, but it is not limited to that number. Anyone who is interested can ask to be a part of the team, Johnson said.
Zelma Rivin and Charles Whitehurst were the co-conveners when the team chose the ``You and Me'' exhibit as one of its projects. Campbell said they have also been a force in getting the project done.
Racial strife rose out of a variety of issues in the city, including a 20-year controversy over whether to close the I.C. Norcom High School, a historically black school with a rich history, and later whether to build a new I.C. Norcom; the council's on-again, off-again, on-again decision to locate a regional jail in a predominantly black neighborhood, and the city's inability to quickly deal with lead contamination in a predominantly black portion of the city. Some white residents have long complained that the city has spent far more of its resources on predominantly black areas of the city.
Portsmouth's population is 51.4 percent white; 47.2 percent black; 0.3 percent Native American; 0.7 percent Asian and 0.34 percent other, according to the 1990 census.
In all of Hampton Roads, including the Peninsula, the racial breakdown is 67.8 percent white; 28.5 percent black; 2.5 percent Asian; 0.38 percent Native American; 0.74 percent other.
``The goal of the team was to improve racial harmony and the use of diversity,'' said Van Johnson, a city employee who also serves as the liaison between the task force and the city.
Johnson said the team identified fear, a lack of communication and prejudice as the three hurdles to racial harmony. Once they worked through those issues, the group decided to find a project that could combat those things.
When Museum Director Betty Burnell mentioned the idea of bringing this exhibit to the children's museum, the team took it on as their project.
``One of the things the group realized was that communicating or not communicating is a contributor to fear and that they needed to find ways to talk to one another,'' said Johnson. ``With an open line of communication you can reduce fear.''
Campbell, a member of the team, said the group also wanted to do this project in particular because it was aimed at children.
``One of the things we have felt and have talked about was that it's pretty hard to change attitudes once you become an adult,'' said Campbell who is 68. ``I hope we can breed out prejudice. We wanted to increase awareness of different cultures, of prejudice and discrimination. We decided that exhibit would really accomplish the goals.''
Campbell has gotten others involved, bringing the project to his Merrimac Kiwanis Club, which raised money by taking up collections at a series of concerts. He hopes to have school children design and draw pictures for a book that explores the similarities and differences between kids and their culture. The book would be sold at the museum with the profits earmarked for ``You and Me.'' ILLUSTRATION: MARK MITCHELL/Staff
Part of the Children's Museum of Virginia is the Science Circus
exhibit.
by CNB