Katharine Egli
Photos, from left: Drake Jeantette draws during the inaugural Reading to End Racism event at Arroyos del Norte this past January; Amadeo Irlando-Wildman, a third-grader at Arroyos del Norte Elementary, draws while Daniel Escalante reads "If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks," by Faith Ringgold during the inaugural Reading to End Racism event in January; and students in Gess Healy's third-grade class draw and listen as Escalante reads.
“Intuitively, they seemed to understand that differences can lead to misunderstandings, and fighting,” Bullard said in an email to The Taos News.
“We didn’t talk about the KKK,” he said. “But they could really wrap their heads around bullying, which is what racism is. They just took the ball and ran with it.”
Escalante said all the volunteers stuck to the principles of the program. Namely, the purpose of Reading to End Racism isn’t “to talk about who is racist or what to name the park. We read about racism and let the kids work through it themselves. They come up with the ideas about how to end racism,” he said.
Escalante said students came up with ideas about how they could personally intervene when they see racism on display — everything from being nice to kids they aren’t friends with to standing up for victims of taunting and discrimination.
“Kids have a real strong sense of social justice,” he said. “And they’re problem solvers, too — if you let them be.” Patrick Trujillo, who’s been involved with nonviolent activism for much of his life, said he is concerned about the health of the community “in a lot of regards.” In addition to volunteering with Reading to End Racism, he also helped organize a forum between law enforcement agencies and the community. “Often I see our community lauded as a tri-cultural community and that somehow everyone gets along all the time, that there isn’t any discrimination or feelings of prejudice,” Trujillo said. That myth is part of his motivation to confront the topic honestly with the people who can deal with it in simple, realistic terms — kids.
Principal Gallegos said though racism is its own issue, teachers at Arroyos del Norte strive to put the topic in relation to bullying. The school uses a multi-pronged approach when it comes to bullying, with teachers embedding it in their curriculum and prompting students to think of their own standards for a respectful community. Though readers didn’t lecture, they talked through the students’ suggestions. In one of the books that was read, kids throw rocks at an undocumented immigrant boy from Mexico. When an Arroyos del Norte student suggested throwing rocks back, Trujillo helped guide the conversation toward nonviolent responses.
Escalante said a lot of people are a little nervous about being the first participants in any program, but that Reading to End Racism volunteers were won over by the fact that it’s a proven method of combating a very real problem. And, he said, it doesn’t take too much time — just three hours for training, and just one reading in one school each year. Asked about his motivations for volunteering, Bullard said,“Schools do not exist in isolation. They are the central pillars which serve to support strong relationships to communities.” Though their team of eight trained readers made the event at Arroyos del Norte a success, Escalante said they are seeking more volunteers. Reading to End Racism is also in talks with administrators at Taos High School and Chrysalis Alternative School about getting older students trained as readers, too. Anyone interested in volunteering can find the program at facebook.com/TaosRER or contact Daniel Escalante at (720) 9878148.
“It’s about how you deal with anger and frustration in the struggle for equality,” Trujillo said.
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