ATTACK ON RACISM

Violent incident sparks organization designed to promote multicultural understanding.

It was one of the first times the first-grader had ever ridden the school bus. As he sat down in a seat, a few of the older kids came up to him and started taking his belongings away and teasing him. The older students were only having fun, not intending any harm, but the boy had never been so scared.

Although the students did not realize they were frightening the boy, he felt threatened.

This is a kind of bullying, and it comes in many forms. It can be as simple as this, or it may escalate into something more, like taunting or attacking someone over what he wears or the color of his skin.

Violence in Zionsville

It was an act of violence that prompted Gail Evans, a child and family therapist, to begin a group in Zionsville whose goal is to educate people to accept the cultural differences of others.

The catalyst for the group's start was the harassment and eventual attack on a boy, whose family then moved out of state. The reason for the violence, the family says, is that the teen-ager invited some black youths to play basketball with him in Zionsville.

In September, the teen, Patrick Carter, was beaten by 20 students from the Zionsville Community High School who allegedly called him names such as "nigger lover."

Five juveniles have been charged with battery in the attack. But some students said Patrick sparked the incident by reportedly making insensitive comments about two students who had been killed in a car accident.

In news reports, Patrick denies that charge and said the students who beat him created that rumor as an excuse to hit him. Ever since Patrick and his family moved to Zionsville in 1991, the family said, they have been the target of threats and vandalism because Patrick's friendships with blacks.

The violence and reported racism, Evans said, "brought some things to light that many of us had been concerned about for a long time."

Multicultural curriculum

Now her group _ Zionsville Uniting for Multi-Cultural Appreciation, or ZUMA _ is concentrating on the future. Meeting once a month, it hopes to persuade the community's schools to adopt a multicultural curriculum. The group also hopes to bring its multicultural agenda to adults through churches and businesses, and by passing out fliers and inviting residents to its meetings.

"We just really felt that . . . any kind of expression of prejudice towards difference (is) appalling," she said.

"There have been other kids in our schools, other people in our community who have been treated unfairly simply because they were different in one way (or) another, whether it be their race, religion, sex, because they were rich or poor, or because they looked different in some way, or dressed different in some way," Evans explained. "We really felt that we needed to begin to address this openly to educate ourselves."

Children's Express attended the January ZUMA meeting at the Zionsville Town Hall. About 30 residents attended the organizational meeting and discussed ZUMA's future. The agenda included everything from publicity and a mission statement to dividing into action groups and deciding who would inform the community of their activities.

In recent meetings, ZUMA has been putting its plans to action. In February, it invited Dr. Patricia Brown, director of the Office of African Centered/Multicultural Education for Indianapolis Public Schools, to speak.

Reasons for joining

Laura Decapua, a senior at Zionsville Community High School, explained why she joined ZUMA.

"Our school system is having difficulty even getting along with each other, let alone getting along with anyone else outside of our community," Decapua said. "I just find it a real problem because if you can't get along with the people within your school, you're not going to be able to get along with anybody outside of your school."

Evans agreed. "I think that one of the problems we have in this society is that we can only learn what's presented to us. We don't understand the ways that (others) have contributed to our society in history, in music, (and) in art in very important, constructive ways."

Evans said the group hopes to generate some proof of increased multicultural understanding in Zionsville.

"This is not just to change attitudes in our community," she said. "We want to be able to show other people that we are very sincere about wanting cultural diversity in Zionsville and we want to encourage people with cultural differences to come and live in our community."

According to census statistics, only 14 blacks live in Zionsville. Evans says fear probably keeps people of color from moving in.

Evans knows that if she hopes to stop prejudice and harassment, she has to change societal attitudes.

"(Society) teaches us how to feel about things . . . through the images that we see around us through the media and through friends (and) through school," she explained. "Bullies are created because they're treated badly in some way. There is something going on in their life and they don't know how to deal with it and so they deal with it by abusing somebody else."

Attack spurs attendance

Although the group is open to anyone in Zionsville, the numbers who have joined since it began holding meetings in December were small. However, attendance shot up to about 200 after a February article in The Indianapolis Star about the attack on Patrick Carter.

While many people came to hear Brown speak at that meeting, others came to express outrage at the newspaper article, which they felt was biased and did not fairly represent the town.

Evans hopes many who attended the meetings will join ZUMA.

"I think a lot of people are afraid . . . it's very hard to speak out," she said. "You know when you stand up for something, you're vulnerable to people attacking you or making fun of you."

Nonetheless, her group will continue to offer encouragement to those who want to change attitudes in Zionsville.

"Sometimes you find yourself as being powerless and you don't realize that it only takes one person to get something going," she said. "You can have a tremendous influence on other people if you're just willing to give them an opportunity to join you."