October 12, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

'Not in our town'

by Alexandria Rocha

Last December, a swastika was found scrawled across a chalkboard in a Palo Alto classroom. A few months earlier, a black Gunn High School teacher received thousands of racist messages in her work e-mail account.

In 2002, a Muslim girl was raped in the basement bathroom of a Longs Drugs Store and police prosecuted it as a hate crime. Eight years ago, NASA scientist and father of twin daughters Herbert Kay was killed on Gilman Street by six members of an East Palo Alto gang known as the True Blue Crips. Many residents speculated it was a racially motivated hate crime.

Throughout the years, incidents from harassment to vandalism to murder in Palo Alto have been labeled hate crimes.

Next week a town forum will address racism head on. Those in attendance will be encouraged to share their stories of discrimination and ideas for how to combat the issue.

"The situation in Palo Alto is not different than a lot of other places. There are still acts of intolerance. The issue is alive and well," said Becki Cohn-Vargas, an administrator with the Palo Alto school district who is helping to coordinate the event. "More people are touched by these issues than you think. But there is a lot of growing awareness."

The forum will begin with a viewing of a documentary created by the Working Group, an Oakland-based nonprofit, called "Not in Our Town Northern California." A facilitated discussion will begin after, in which students from Gunn and Palo Alto high schools' Gay/Straight Alliance clubs will speak.

"I'm really hopeful. I can see people crying and coming to terms with this," said Pamela Hornik, a member of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, which is one of the sponsoring organizations. "People will need to be open and honest and admit that Palo Alto isn't perfect. We're lucky that we can try to make things better."

The video, which is meant to spark community dialogue, chronicles how citizens in five Golden State cities battled and dealt with hate crimes, including the burning of a synagogue, the killing of a gay couple in Redding, a transgender youth in Newark, and a black family who found a cross burning on their lawn in Anderson.

The Working Group produced its first "Not in Our Town" documentary in 1995. It was a short 30-minute film about how the community in Billings, Mo., responded to an upsurge of hate crimes in the early '90s. At that time, KKK fliers were being distributed, the Jewish cemetery was desecrated, the home of a Native American family was painted with swastikas, and a 6-year-old boy who displayed a menorah for Hanukkah had a brick thrown through his window.

According to the "Not in Our Town" Web site, the Billings' police chief urged citizens to respond before the violence escalated any further. Religious groups held marches and candlelight vigils. Members of the local painters' union painted over racist graffiti. The local newspaper printed full-page menorahs that were displayed in nearly 10,000 homes and businesses.

Executive Producer Patrice O'Neill said the Working Group began screening the documentary after the Oklahoma bombings. She said people wanted to talk about issues in their communities, so the nonprofit responded by creating a "Not in Our Town" viewing week.

"We thought we would do maybe 10, and we did over 100. 'Not in Our Town' is now a movement," she said.

Communities that set up screenings are typically responding to a large-scale hate incident, said O'Neill. However, more and more towns are simply wanting to crack open the discussion about small incidents that do not get a lot of attention, but have become far too routine.

"In the best moments, people are honest and they talk about the challenge. They move from their comfort zone and they say we have to do something about this, this is what scares me, this is what our obstacles are," O'Neill said. "Once you get that stuff out on the table, you can start problem solving."

Gunn teacher Deborah Sanderson has mixed feelings about attending the event. When she received thousands of racist messages in her Palo Alto Unified School District e-mail account last summer, she felt helpless. The person who sent the e-mails was never caught.

"People are afraid to step on any toes and allow things to happen for fear" of retribution, she said last week.

"None of us are safe, but as long as the problems are not attacked head on in a direct manner, there is a pretense of safety. It is the ostrich syndrome. If we ignore it, maybe it will go away or just get frustrated and worn out and therefore too tired to fight anymore," Sanderson added.

Those organizing the event hope to change that.

The "Not in Our Town" forum will be held at 5 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Lucie Stern Center Ballroom, 1305 Middlefield Road. For more information, call (650) 329-3717.

Staff Writer Alexandria Rocha can be reached at arocha@paweekly.com.

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