FOSTERING EMPATHY
Peninsula high schoolers explore dynamics of classism
HAMPTON — Hampton High School student Nayelis Hill was surprised to learn that others can perceive lower income to mean dirty.
It was a survey the 17-year-old and a few dozen high school students from localities around the Peninsula took Tuesday during a workshop at Hampton University, while learning to improve dialogue and inclusion amid diversity.
Other students in attendance linked higher-income with being white or snobby. Another said that the different class groups probably have no clue what it’s like to be from another class group, unless they were actually in that situation.
“Middle class doesn’t really know what lower class or upper class is like. Ignorance plays a huge part,” said Dreama Starcher, 15, a student at Warwick High School in Newport News. “We need to have that eye opener of people who have different situations.”
The workshop, called “Diversity Dialogue Day,” was hosted by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities.
The Richmond-based nonprofit has organized the program for students from different communities to meet, exchange ideas and learn about themselves while considering ways to build skills for more inclusion to break down barriers, Jessica Hawthorne, director of programs said.
“Because students know that these barriers exist, but may not get a chance to talk about them,” Hawthorne said. “They are very aware of them and they have to start somewhere. Realizing
schools are a microcosm of our communities, if we can practice breaking down barriers in our schools, we can take that into our communities.”
VCIC has offered diversity workshops for a decade. It hosts four workshops throughout the year at Virginia colleges, including Hampton University and Old Dominion University, Hawthorne said.
While other sessions have focused on gender, race or bullying, this year’s program, which drew about 120 students and teachers, focused on socioeconomic status.
It gave students an opportunity to have frank discussions, via smaller group activities, on what class and diversity meant to them and how it affects them.
When speaking about class, in addition to it being a relative social ranking based on income, there are a lot of other factors at play, Hawthorne said.
“It’s not just income. There is so much more to it. It’s what you own. What you owe. Where you live. It’s whether that debt is inherited,” she said. “People assume you are going (to) behave a certain way based on your social class. So today was about breaking those stereotypes.”
Michele Pickens, a volunteer and educational psychologist who facilitated one of the breakout groups, said she wanted students to learn how to feel more comfortable about themselves by learning to develop empathy for others.
One exercise the students did was to imagine a house and then describe the things needed to feel safe in the home. Food was the first choice; being friendly, having respect, being open-minded and having empathy were also mentioned.
Students also shared what they wanted checked at the door — egos and negativity.
“To develop more empathy for the class they are not in, whether richer or poorer (and) to go back to their school and become change agents,” Pickens said.
Meeting teens from other communities was an open door to making new friends, said Hill, who bonded with Yanitza DeJesus, 17, from Denbigh High School in Newport News.
“You are speaking to people from different incomes and breaking down the different stereotypes. Everyone has a story and it’s OK,” DeJesus said.
Starcher said her school should be more like the workshop environment, with “the openness of the people and that people are open to ideas and different settings,” she said.
Dylan Varney, 16, a student from Jamestown High School, in Williamsburg, said labels are the real problem.
“Until we learn, we need to break labels in general. Labels hurt people,” Varney said. “It comes back to empathy. That’s how we can get rid of discrimination.”