Viva La Difference They’re Teaching us to Celebrate Our Diversity August 2006

by Don Huntington
Photos by Russell Byrne

In 2003, young men in a passing car harassed an African-American woman while she was waiting for a bus at a Brentwood street corner. They humiliated the woman by flipping her off while screaming racial epithets at her. Fortunately, the woman was able to make contact with the BDC (Brentwood Diversity Committee).

It would be difficult to overstate the good effect of the services that the BDC performs for our city. The core group consists of 8 to 10 members including private citizens, school officials, plus representatives of the Police Department, city and public agencies (especially REACH), the U.S. Department of Justice, the NAACP, and the media. The BDC functions as a resource network bringing together and channeling the members’ expertise and experience in promoting a sense of commonality and fraternity among the various parts of the community.

So through the BDC the woman who had the incident at the bus stop that day was able to bring her experience simultaneously to the attention of school officials, city authorities, and representatives of the police and the federal government. The committee members work together through their various organizations to coordinate appropriate responses in addressing problems like this.

In 2005, a KRON 4 TV report on the efforts to promote cultural diversity in Brentwood included the BDC. As a result of their interviews with committee members, KRON 4 News produced a very favorable story about the leadership that Brentwood is taking in promoting a sense of community and interracial harmony.

Origins of the Committee
The BDC has been in operation since September 2002. The committee was the brainchild of Mike McPolland, who was the Brentwood Mayor at the time, together with Police Chief Mike Davies.

The Brentwood community at that time was undergoing a number of rapid and dramatic changes that were ushering in a demographical and cultural revolution – transforming what had been a rural hamlet into a bustling city. Changes were taking place more rapidly than the normal social and political processes could cope with.

The character of the town was being diffused by rising ethnic sub-cultures. The town’s agrarian nature was being rapidly overwhelmed by a tide of commuters seeking refuge from run-away housing costs to the west. Affluent people were flocking to communities like Apple Hill, retired people to places like Summerset, and marginalized people to subsidized and low-cost housing spread throughout the area. Immigrants from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia were arriving in steady waves.

The two Mikes and others believed that something needed to be done to head off the problems that they knew were soon going to arise. They took the pro-active step of bringing together a group of people to promote a positive attitude towards diversity in order to help citizens cope with the expanding and changing culture that we all were a part of. They received support from the local NAACP and from Booker Neal, a representative of Community Relations Services, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Kathy Frazier and Rick Lemyre the current committee co-chairs, together with Desty Shoemaker, joined them in the initial planning.

These individuals provided the lead for a group of concerned citizens that formed themselves into a task force to identify emerging problems and provide appropriate education and interventions to enable people to cope positively with the emerging social upheavals. The group soon solidified into the Brentwood Diversity Committee, which continues to gather in the absence of bylaws, dues, and membership rules. The BDC lacks legal authority to make rules and laws or to take official action of any kind. Their only power comes through providing education, inspiration, and example to the residents of Brentwood.

The committee members spent a couple years educating themselves and figuring out the best ways to become Brentwood change-agents by networking with people in the community, and channeling other community resources.

Intolerance is a product of fear that stems from a lack of knowledge so a main focus of the BDC lies in efforts to educate the community. The committee members learned that everyone, even they themselves, are prejudiced in one way or another. They began by educating themselves first of all to understand and to embrace the diversity that exists among the members of the committee itself. They talked about the N word and conducted some discussions among themselves that were not always comfortable. They taught themselves through research and by listening to representatives of the various cultures that make up the larger Brentwood community. The committee members report that they, themselves, have become more accepting of others’ differences than they had been at the beginning of their journey together.

Through their work together, the committee members discovered fascinating things about other cultures that aren’t apparent to the casual observer. Desty Shoemaker, for example, presented materials about the Hispanic La Posada Christmas Festival commemorating Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. They learned about playing with a dreidel during Hanukkah before offering anyone else the experience.

Last December the committee set up tables at the Village Resource Center’s La Posada Festival with displays showing how wintertime festivals are celebrated across the world including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas along with information about each holiday. People could see pictures of African-American celebrations, for example, and play with dreidels.

Other Committee Activities
The committee supported the efforts of three of its members, Brentwood Police Lieutenant, Kevin King and Booker T. Neal from the U.S. Department of Justice, along with Vic Thornhill in creating “Standard Operating Procedures” to guide members of the school district and the police department in handling racial problems arising on school campuses. The booklet was put to use in Brentwood with such good effect that it is now being adopted by school districts and local police departments throughout California. The document is also being made available through the U.S. Justice Department website, which is giving it exposure to police departments throughout the nation.

The BDC also intervenes on those rare instances when racial bias and ethnic friction rear their ugly heads in our community. The committee’s effectiveness derives from its lack of rules and formal procedures. Committee members are free to make any appropriate ad hoc response to situations as soon as they arise – and before they attract unwanted attention from the media.

A mobile food service truck belonging to a local businesswoman was being kicked off construction sites, for example. The business owner brought a complaint to the BDC because she imagined that the lack of access might be due to the fact that she was Hispanic. Members of the committee visited the authorities on the woman’s behalf and learned from company representatives that, for security and safety reasons, they had implemented a policy limiting food-service to a single vendor and had formal contracts in place with another company.

City representatives brought the city resources into play and had inspectors check licensing issues. A committee member explained to the woman who had brought the complaint what the problem was and, furthermore, told her how to get on the list of new sites as future projects started up so she would have the possibility of securing some of these contracts for her own business.

The woman came to the committee with a complaint and the committee members helped her deal with her situation. It wasn’t necessary for her to go to the media with a story that might have cast Brentwood in a bad light. The BDC acted to prevent a minor situation from possibly blowing up into an angry confrontation.

The BDC works together with local organizations in efforts to bring positive outcomes out of bad events. For example, some kids once hung a noose from a tree on the Liberty High School Campus and in response the BDC supported an effort by school officials and the community to create a Unity Plaza on the campus featuring a small kiosk with culturally diverse artwork and a quote from Martin Luther King. Students can meditate or meet informally with each other in the atmosphere of that uplifting place. Every day the Unity Plaza helps get across to the students the message that we need to all work together to continually bring a sense of harmony out of our diversity.

A more recent example of the committee’s work occurred in connection with the march for immigration that took place last May. The committee members investigated HR4437, the proposed Anti-immigration law. One of the members, Desty Shoemaker conducted research and brought a report to the committee. By arming themselves with the facts, the committee members were prepared to help inform residents about the nature of the bill.

One important work of the BDC is to cooperate with other agencies in supporting projects promoting interracial harmony. For example, one of the committee members, Ike Montanez, is leading the committee’s efforts in supporting the work of the Village Community Resource Center.

In 2004, the BDC established a library through a book drive that they conducted at Barnes & Noble. The library makes available to the public its inventory of more than 200 books and tapes in the Delta Room at the Brentwood Police Department headquarters.

You can get involved in the good work of the BDC in a number of ways. You could attend a meeting, for example. The BDC meets during the school year on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 5:00 p.m. in the Delta Room of the Brentwood Police Department. You could also invite the committee to report their activities to your club or organization, donate appropriate books to the resource library, or make a monetary donation. You can especially keep telling people about the work of the BDC. The committee is ready and willing to provide whatever appropriate assistance or learning opportunities any part of the community desires.°

You can contact the BDC at 925-513-3728
rick@brentwoodpress.com, or
kathy.frazier@sbcglobal.net