December 7, 1995, Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles
Ambassador Ananda Guruge, Special Advisor to the Director General, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
This year 1995 has been designated as the International Year of Tolerance. On November 16, 1995, 183 nations meeting in Paris at the UNESCO General Conference unanimously adopted the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance (attached). Today is the first public occasion since the adoption of the Declaration.
UNESCO, one of the independent agencies in the UN system, is dedicated to education; physical, human and social sciences; communications; and culture.
The UN Charter states "We the people of the united nations [are] determined . . . to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors."
UNESCO's Charter states that, "As wars begin in the minds of men, the defense of peace must be constructed in the minds of men."
In the beginning UNESCO's tasks were to help ensure basic education for all (including girls). We also worked to end the idea of "superior" and "inferior" cultures.
Now, with the end of the Cold War, our major task is "peace keeping" -- keeping conflicting people apart. And more importantly, "peace building" -- creating the foundation in the minds of everyone for tolerance and understanding.
Tonight, we honor the memory of Yitzhak Rabin for his dedication to peace and understanding among the peoples of the Middle East.
We invite all of you to support the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance and to declare November 16 every year as the Day of Tolerance, to rededicate ourselves to fight ignorance and prejudice everywhere.
Lloyd Kajikawa, National School Project Coordinator, Japanese-American National Museum
We work with teachers to help them transmit multi-cultural understanding and inform students about the Japanese-American experience. We want to go beyond the dictionary meaning of tolerance as "enduring suffering." We have noted the increase in "tolerance" of Japanese-Americans when there was a need for cheap labor and a decrease when people felt threatened by war or economic difficulties.
Our concern is how do you get people not to look for differences between themselves and others to use them as reasons to discriminate. Our objective is to practice tolerance in both thoughts and actions. As Sonia Nieto says, "We want to go beyond tolerance and respect to affirmation of solidarity." From this standpoint, we can embrace differences as a legitimate vehicle for learning. Conflict is not avoided. Culture is dynamic and subject to critique. It honors complexity, which is what living in the world is all about.
We start with the questions, "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to become?" Then we go to more and more complex questions, until people can see if they are congruent in both thought and action.
We Japanese have learned that you cannot just tolerate persecution, you must do something about stopping it.
June Jones, Vice President of Interstate Bank Corp. and teacher at UCLA
As a member of the business community, I want to say that business has made great strides in promoting understanding among people and tolerance of diversity in our community.
I believe both affirmative action and diversity have been good for business and for the world, because they have taught us how to live and work with all kinds of people and interact with all kinds of ideas.
It also helps us make a profit. For example, the diversity of demographics among customers forces businesses to learn how to include all kinds of people both among their customers and employees. The markets of minorities are huge.
Businesses also want to make the workplace more of a community, so we all can work together better.
The California Business Roundtable statement says, "It is our belief that affirmative action, properly implemented, is a method to open up the system so that everyone has a chance to succeed according to their efforts. . . The door of opportunity needs to be opened wider." Individual corporations have also made commitments to affirmative action. They are supporting voluntary quantitative goals and guidelines.
The U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws suggest that our commitment is to not allow color and race to be the basis for our decisions to include people. The UN and human rights organizations around the world remind us of our commitment to keep doing the right thing. We are all on a lifelong journey to learn how to become global human beings and transcend the narrow bounds of race. As Nelson Mandela said, "To be free is not merely to cast off our chains, but to live in such a way that respects and enhances every other person." He challenged the UN to redefine its goals relative to human rights.
Sheila Kuehl, California Assemblywoman
I have the privilege of being the only openly gay or lesbian member of the California government.
If you were Martian anthropologists here to study the issue of differences among people, you would discover that there are many differences, but only certain differences are made important by any one society, and these important differences vary from culture to culture. I believe there is nothing wrong with differences or samenesses, but we get into trouble when some differences classified as making some people better or worse than others.
It seems like sex is the most basic quality of a human being, it is the most important thing to know about a new baby. We use various tools to ratify the hierarchical system. For example, how many women in this room are wearing pants, and how many men are wearing dresses? So women can adopt the clothing of a higher-ranked class, but men would not wear that of a lower-ranked class. Similarly, American blacks place higher value on the lighter skin members of their community.
When discrimination is not enough, we use violence to control lower classes. To combat intolerance, we must be aware that it is a tool to maintain the hierarchy. Silence is the enemy of tolerance.
Brenda Ness, Social Science Department, Santa Monica College
Santa Monica College students are diverse, they represent a microcosm of the world.
We had a couple of incidents recently. One was a cartoon on the front page of the student paper, depicting an extra-terrestrial ("alien") baby, accompanying an article on undocumented aliens. Another was a campus speaker invited by the African-American student organization charged that the local student branch of the Hillel organization was part of an international Zionist terrorist network.
As a result, a group of 25 faculty decided to create a pro-active framework for anti-bias education, the Campus Anti-bias Education Initiative. The National Conference (of Christians and Jews) helped us created a program involving a series of Inter-racial Dialogues. Facilitators led a group of students, faculty, staff and an administrator for 6 weekly sessions to confront bias, stereotyping and racism and develop trust based on mutual respect. Then we had a weekend retreat with 25 students and 25 faculty, staff and administrators. The response to these programs was very positive.
Unfortunately, at this point there are no plans to continue the program because of budgetary reasons. However, we believe that the dialogue approach has been demonstrated to be very productive and could be applied elsewhere. As the students described it, this program fosters "the celebration of our differences, within the common context of humanity."
George Ramos, Los Angeles Times columnist and KCET program host
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. One of the reasons I was given the opportunity to write a column was because I am struggling with ways to say that I love this City. Los Angeles is on the cutting edge in terms of race and social schisms that divide us. I'm looking for love, for solutions for this City.
In the context of Prop. 187, I enjoy talking to this group, even it is like "preaching to the choir," because there are so many groups out there that are full of fear and hate.
William Wheeler, Human Relations Commission of Monterey Park
The composition of Monterey Park is about 55% Asian, 35% Hispanic and 10% Caucasian. Each year, our Human Relations Commission puts on Harmony Month, with five different events: a Film Festival, Town Square Fair, Essay Contest, Museum Tour, and Round Table. The purpose is to help people get to know each other, which is extremely difficult in a divided community like Monterey Park.
* The Film Festival offers different types of films, to attract a variety of ethnicities.
* The Town Square Fair is a "carnival-type" atmosphere to involve children and their parents. There is also an art exhibit.
* The Essay Contest is offered to four different groups, 5th and 6th graders, 7th and 8th graders, senior high school, and adults. The most recent topic was, "What has growing up in a culturally diverse community taught you about friendship?"
* The Museum Tour was a tour of the Museum of Tolerance,
* At the Round Table we give the community a chance to talk. Once we had a team put on a workshop on conflict resolution.
I believe that by starting to build tolerance at the community level we can create understanding at ever larger levels.
Terrence McNally, moderator and radio program host
I am wondering what impact on intolerance is caused by the growing disparity of wealth in this country (the top 1% possesses more wealth than the entire bottom 95% -- more disparity than Guatemala). Also the fact that, in the midst of global competition, people are fearful of losing their jobs -- has increased intolerance.
Jones: I agree that, with all the layoffs, people have become more concerned about keeping their jobs. People are reluctant to take risks, or make long term investments in things such as education.
Kuehl: There are economic theories that have been implemented since 1980 that have caused the economic problems in this country. They have produced a doubling of wealth by the top 1%, and a decrease in the wealth of the rest. The right wing forces have made people afraid of each other and increased intolerance.
Ramos: There is a lot of fear in my family. My mother (who voted in favor of Prop. 187) says, "I already got mine [my success] in this country, let others (including my cousin from Mexico) get theirs some place else."
Ness: The Nazis came to power in Germany through manipulating fear.
Kuehl: People need to be educated and to experience a feeling of togetherness. We need to face the issues and consider fundamental change. Our education system is not working, it is not breaking down the barriers to people working together.
Audience Questions: How do people with multiple mixed ethnicity relate to this set of categories of hyphenated Americans?
Ness: It is often difficult to fit in with the categories on a census form.
Kuehl: Be proud of your background, whatever it is.
Kajikawa: My identity comes both from being Japanese and being American. I am multi-cultural and proud of it.
Q: How do we combat people who preach intolerance?
Kuehl: There will always be people who seek to further their aims by preaching intolerance. But I believe that we are combating intolerance. Howard Ahmanson spent $25 million to buy 18 California Assembly seats in 1994 for the right wing, but he won't be able to do it again. The major institutions, religion, media and law, can be changed by people like those in this room. Remember that President Clinton is the first President who can say the words gay and lesbian without spitting up.
McNally: What are your reasons for hope?
Jones: I believe that all of us can make a difference -- just touch one life at a time.
Wheeler: I am inspired by the fact that there are all these people in this room.