Don’t Be Afraid to Talk With Others Outside Your Race.

To learn something about young people’s perspectives on how Asheville’s various ethnic groups get along, UNO interviewed African American, Hispanic, and Ukrainian students from Asheville and Erwin High Schools.

by Cathy Holt

The students reported that racial incidents have occurred, but they have been managed well.
Brenda and Martin Maldonado, whose parents came here from Mexico four years ago, both attend Asheville High. Brenda is a sophomore, Martin a freshman. Martin’s friends are mostly Latino, though he also has several African American friends in school. Sometimes, he says, he plays sports with his friends, or goes to their homes and lifts weights with them. There are no students he doesn’t get along with, though only three or four Latinos are in his class.



He
notes that the year before last, at the Kipp Academy, the entire
student body included only four Latino kids, two or three whites, and
60 African Americans. “I got used to being with African American kids,”
he says.


UNO:
Have you experienced any racial incidents?



Brenda: At
Asheville Middle School when I was in sixth grade, a group of African
American girls didn’t like me, they kept on bothering me. We had a
camping trip and they hassled me a lot. All my Latina friends were
bothered by that group of seven or eight girls, it was a racial thing.
In my classroom it was only me and my two girlfriends who were Latina.


In all three
grades [of middle school], there were maybe only seven Latino kids. I
felt a little lonely. The white girls had their little gang of friends,
and the black girls hung out. So I didn’t know who I should hang out
with, other than my Latina girlfriends. I was pretty nice to the other
girls, but they excluded me.



I made more
friends in the eighth grade, some whites and blacks, plus more Latinos
started coming to our school, to my grade. So I felt more comfortable.
Some white kids started talking to me, and I also joined the soccer
team. That made a difference, because I met more girls and made more
friends.



UNO: How is high school?



Brenda: It feels
more friendly, more open. I have African American friends. A lot of the
kids are from the Middle School, but they are nicer now, I think they
grew up. They don’t tease me any more.


Auri Blythers,
an African American sophomore at Asheville High School, attended
Claxton Elementary, Asheville’s magnet school for the arts. As a
result, she says, “I grew up around all different races; I met Asians,
blacks, Hispanics, whites. I love Asheville High. The classes are well
mixed, and it gives us a chance to learn about other cultures – it’s
great especially for students who haven’t grown up around that. There
are a few Asian students, and quite a few Hispanics in my classes. I
have a lot of Hispanic friends, ’cause they’re in most of my classes,
and a lot of Caucasian friends. I kind of hang out with everybody. That
started in elementary school.”



UNO: Any racial incidents?



Auri Blythers is
a sophomore at Asheville High School. Photo by Cathy Holt

Auri: There have
been racial comments made around a couple of friends. I try to say,
“That was really uncalled for,” and if we can’t resolve it, one of the
guidance counselors will. We have four guidance counselors. They’ve
been through a lot of training, and they really know what they’re
doing. They help us resolve it, and if it’s a big issue they’ll keep us
coming back for weeks to make sure everything is okay. The counselors
emphasize that we need to learn how to deal with this sort of thing
because it’s going to happen for the rest of our lives.


I’ve never had
it happen to me, but I’ve helped other people with their issues. Like
telling somebody that it wasn’t cool to say something like that, and to
please stop. Most people are pretty good about listening when you ask
them. The main type of racial comments are from blacks against Latinos.
The black kids were calling the Hispanics “beaners.”  



I told them,
“That’s not cool, I wish you wouldn’t do that.” It also goes the other
way occasionally, I hear the Hispanic students using the N word, which
I do not accept at all. I’m like, “You hang out with me, you probably
shouldn’t say that.” They stop, as long as they’re with me. I don’t
know how they are with others.



UNO: Any advice for young people, ethnic minorities, who are coming new into a school?



Auri: Try to get to know other cultures as much as you can, and if you have a problem, take it to a guidance counselor.



We also spoke
with Nadya Bidnenko, a junior at Erwin High School. Her parents came
here from Ukraine when she was five years old.


Adrianne Turner is a senior at Asheville High School. Photo by Johnnie Grant

“I feel
comfortable hanging out with Americans,” she said. “On our soccer team
we have a lot of Latinos. They’re so much fun! All the rumors that go
around are just pointless. They are good people. People say, ‘Why don’t
they go back there, they’re taking all our jobs.’ I don’t think people
should say things like that in school. My best friend is from Russia.
The only thing I don’t like is the division into cliques, there are the
Gothics, the jocks, the people who don’t care. . . . But it doesn’t
divide on racial lines. You want to meet new people, but when you go up
and say ‘Hi’ they look at you like you’re crazy, because you’re not one
of them.


UNO: Have there been any racial incidents?



Nadya: I haven’t
seen any. Once we saw a bunch of Russian people and some black people
yelling and screaming; that wasn’t at school though, because the
authorities wouldn’t allow it here. In my German class, you get
Hispanics and different people. Sometimes something will be said in
German, and the teacher asks a student to say it in Spanish, and it’s
really cool because it sounds different, but some of the words are so
much alike.


At the W.C. Reid
Center, we interviewed three African American students from Asheville
High: sophomore Maurice Harrison and seniors Adrianne Turner and Pete
Littlejohn.



UNO: Who are your friends?



Pete: I have
white and black friends. I hang out with more of my black friends more
of the time. I haven’t met Latino kids at Asheville High. Track is
mixed, basketball is mainly African American.


Adrianne: I hang out with both, but just date African Americans.


Maurice: I have friends in both [groups]. I know a Latino kid, we play football together.

Maurice Harrison
is a sophomore at Asheville High School. Photo by Johnnie Grant




UNO: What would help students of different ethnic backgrounds get along better in school?



Pete: You can’t
make somebody like somebody. It just has to happen. The lunchroom is
pretty well mixed. There are some tables that are not mixed. It’s not
like people have all white friends or all black friends. I just treat
‘em all the same.



Adrianne: I have
some friends that aren’t black and aren’t white, but I don’t go asking
them, “What are you?” because you just don’t look at them like that.



UNO: Is there racial tension, gangs, hostility?



Pete: I haven’t seen it. There are black gangs vs. black gangs, it’s not about color. It’s about their neighborhoods.



UNO: What brings people together across ethnic lines?



Adrianne: No
matter what you are, Gothic or a jock, you always have somebody, you
don’t have to be by yourself, unless you choose to. It depends on what
classes you’re in, because classes are where you get to know people and
how they are, to go beyond the stereotypes. In a couple of my honors
classes, I’m the only black person in there, so I can either sit by
myself, or make friends.



UNO: Any advice to give students who are experiencing prejudice?



Maurice: Don’t be afraid to talk with others outside your race.


Adrianne: It’s life, it happens!