DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260053

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  123 lines

WILSON FIGHT OFFERS CHANCE FOR DIALOGUE SOME SAY IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT RACE.

In the privacy of her home, the mother of a Wilson High School student talks openly about the racial tension within her son's school and the surrounding community. But she wants no talk about it in the meetings following an Oct. 14 brawl at the school.

``The more race is dwelled upon, the more problems it will create,'' she says.

A freshman at the same school quietly concedes that racial tension led to the riot that sent 22 students to the clinic. ``That's what it was,'' he says, only after making it clear that his name cannot be used. ``That's what happened. It was a racial thing.''

A black student talks candidly about his white friends' approaching him after the fight, in tears, asking, ``Why?'' Although he says that all of the fights he saw were racially divided, he adds that race played no part.

Public opinion polls show that Americans view race relations as one of the most compelling problems facing this country. Yet, for a variety of reasons, Americans are loathe to use the ``R'' word. Experts on race relations say that ignoring racial tensions makes them worse, and that incidents like the one at Wilson High present opportunities to begin meaningful dialogues that shouldn't be overlooked.

``There is a silence about race in this country,'' said Garrett J. McAuliffe, an Old Dominion University associate professor of counselor education and expert on issues of racism and oppression. ``We are unconsciously pretending that race is not a factor in schooling or in dealing with each other.''

He added: ``The Wilson High School incident was clearly one with a racial dimension.''

Students who witnessed the outbreak of fighting at the school say that it started in the auditorium when a group of white boys started throwing balls of paper at a group of black girls. The first of many racially divided fights then erupted. Later, a group of black students roamed outside the school, looking for white students to fight, students said.

Many parents, students and school officials have said that race played no part in these altercations. Wilson Principal William E. Gibson Jr. said the racially divided fights were groups of friends fighting other groups of friends. ``I'm still not saying it was racially motivated,'' Gibson said. ``If it is racial tension, it's not on the top.''

Whether race played a part in the altercations, violent situations like the one at Wilson present the perfect time to begin an open dialogue about race, said Beverly Daniel Tatum, professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass.

``I really think that there is a lot of untapped potential among educators in terms of being agents of change,'' said Tatum, who is leading a two-year study to evaluate programs designed to improve race relations in middle schools. The study is being funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of a $2.1 million project aimed at creating a new generation of tolerance.

Tatum and McAuliffe said that it's common for adults, especially adults in schools, to avoid the ``R'' word. In instances where there is violence, school personnel often ignore race as a factor.

``If they can put it on something else, they will,'' Tatum said. ``Many educators won't take advantage of the opportunities they have. They are afraid. . . . It's a big can of worms, and they don't know how to deal with it.

``That is because no one talked about it with them.''

Talking about it is the key, experts say.

``What was your earliest experience with race?'' Tatum asks her students in a class titled the Psychology of Racism.

The majority of the situations are emotionally charged and unpleasant, she said.

Then she asks, ``When it took place, did you talk about it?''

``Most people,'' Tatum said, ``have had experiences of being confused about race and having pain about it, but not being able to talk about it.''

The result is a generation of adults unable to talk about race.

In a perfect world, teachers would be trained to help young people understand racial issues before trouble starts, but ``almost no teachers are trained to talk about race,'' said Linda Powell, assistant professor of education at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York and co-editor of a book titled ``Off-White: Essays on Society, Race and Culture.''

Wilson teachers soon will be trained to deal with multicultural issues and conflicts, Gibson said.

``It should be looked at,'' said Courtney Rhodes, 17, a Wilson senior. ``The administration and teachers should talk to the kids about what race is.''

In Rob Claud's sociology classes, Wilson juniors and seniors do just that during a unit on race relations. Claud shares personal experiences with his students, but he said that it sometimes gets uncomfortable. ``We're all walking on eggshells,'' he said, referring to people everywhere. More dialogue about race in school wouldn't hurt, he said, as long as the groups were small and the students mature.

Experts say that today's students are exposed both inside and outside of school to avalanches of misinformation about race. They get it from the media that too frequently pictures welfare recipients as black. They get it from parents who allow racial stereotypes to go unquestioned. And they get it from life.

Tatum used the example of the black teen who recently was accused of stealing a shirt from an Eddie Bauer store. He had bought the shirt the day before.

``Many white kids don't have those experiences,'' Tatum said. ``A lot of white young people . . . underestimate the significance of race and racism in youths of color.''

Racial tension can also rise when students perceive unequal treatment based on race. Figures released this week by Virginia Beach show that black students in that city are disciplined at higher rates than their white peers. Tatum believes that students internalize these situations as racism.

Norfolk resident Bev Sell doesn't consider herself an expert on race, but she believes that people need to talk about it. Through the Norfolk Neighborhood Network she organized four forums on race.

``It seems like there is no other place that you can go and talk about this,'' Sell said. ``I was told this was not something I should do, that it was a powder keg.''

But given the chance, between 60 and 120 people came out to try to make sense of one of the country's most compelling challenges.

``We need to have dialogue,'' said Carol F.S. Hardy, a Williamsburg education consultant and former associate vice president for student affairs at the College of William and Mary.

``Most of the fracases taking place in high schools would not happen if we had open and honest dialogue. . . . They need to understand that struggling is part of life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

``I'm still not saying it was racially motivated. If it is racial

tension, it's not on the top.''

William E. Gibson Jr. Wilson High principal KEYWORDS: WILSON HIGH SCHOOL RIOT AFTERMATH

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