‘Day of Dialogue’ Helps Shatter Racial Stereotypes

When Fanny Leon, a 14-year-old Latina, was asked to pose for a photograph as an African American, she sat on the ground, her legs out, and smiled broadly.

“African American people pose like I did on the picture because they are not very shy,” she wrote.

Wilteysha Burnett, a 12-year-old African American, stared menacingly at the camera, her arms wrapped around her chest and her fingers locked in a gang sign.

“My Latina pose is embarrassing because I’m flashing a gang sign. I often see pictures of Latino girls and boys . . . acting tough. I know that most Latinos are not tough,” she wrote.

Fanny and Wilteysha were among about a dozen African American and Latino youngsters at a 4-H after-school program Wednesday at the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts who were given an unusual assignment: pose as a member of your own race, and of another.

The youngsters at the 4-H clubroom discussed why they chose the poses for the camera as part of a “Day of Dialogue” and exchanged ideas about discrimination and preconceptions they have of people of other races.

“Both groups live in the community,” said Keith Nathaniel, a coordinator with the University of California Cooperative Extension, which sponsored the discussion. “We wanted to get a dialogue going. These kids are naive, in a sense, and they are coming into their own understanding of themselves and others.”