Promoting peace through understanding

If we understood our differences, could we all get along? Were we

able to eliminate bias based on race, religion, gender, age and other

aspects of diversity, would the world be a more peaceful place?

With these aims, the Newport Beach Public Library will launch

“Making Change Through Tolerance” this fall. Funded by the Newport

Beach Public Library Foundation, the ongoing program will offer

numerous special presentations, as well as a collection of materials

that promote tolerance. As an introduction, and to encourage

expression about tolerance, an art and essay contest is now underway

for students in seventh through 12th grades.

For inspiration, students can turn to historical fiction that

portrays the ugliness of prejudice. The best of the genre includes

“The Land,” Mildred Taylor’s 2002 Coretta Scott King Author Award

winner. Narrated by the son of a white plantation-owner father and a

slave mother, the saga about life in 1880s Mississippi recalls a time

of rampant racism.

Other ideas for the contest may be gleaned from videos that

examine contemporary intolerance. How to fight ethnic bias is

explored in “Color-Blind,” a provocative documentary in which five

students of diverse backgrounds discuss racial harassment at their

high school.

As a role model for tolerance, people of all ages can turn to Elie

Wiesel, who discusses his reaction to the Holocaust on “Facing Hate,”

a Bill Moyers Collection video. Reflecting on his inability to hate

after witnessing his family’s demise in the Nazi death camps, the

Auschwitz survivor observes, “Hate is not only destructive, it is

self-destructive.”

Even before they start school, children can assimilate racist

attitudes, conclude Debra Van Ausdale and Joe Feagin in “The First

R.” From their study of preschoolers in multiethnic day care centers,

readers can learn how perceptions of ethnicity can become planted in

children’s psyches at an early age.

Early biases can grow into intolerance that surfaces on one of

society’s most insidious battlefields -- the school playground. In

this combat zone, peer abuse can leave deep scars, an effect examined

by a professional psychologist and a child abuse prevention advocate

in “Bullies and Victims.” In their exploration of schoolyard cruelty,

Suellen and Paula Fried present empowering strategies for challenging

physical, verbal and emotional abuse.

Think you have no preconceived notions that influence your

behavior? Test your perceptions by viewing “How Biased Are You?” From

subtle expressions of racism to extreme manifestations -- slavery,

the Holocaust, segregation and bias crimes -- this Discovery Channel

video looks at one of society’s most destructive forces.

For expressing their thoughts about tolerance in images or words,

four seventh through 12th graders will win a $100 savings bond.

Two-dimensional art and 250- to 300-word essays for “Peace through

Understanding” may be submitted to any Newport Beach Public Library

through Oct. 18.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams. All titles

may be reserved from home or office computers by accessing the

catalog at www.newportbeachlibrary.org.