♪ [Music] ♪ - Good evening, and welcome to another episode of Generation Grid where we explore hard-hitting topics from the perspective of Generation Z. Tonight we'll be discussing critical race theory.

Let's meet our panel joining me here is Olivia Betees.

Olivia is a Junior at DSS three, Conservatory Green.

She will be entering her third year with CYC and could not be more excited to be a member.

She enjoys public speaking, and learning about global issues and history.

When she is not studying, she can be found binge watching dramas, baking, or listening to music.

Sitting beside Olivia is Clarice Rikely.

Clarice is a senior at Denver School of the Arts where her major is creative writing.

This is her third year in CYC and she is incredibly passionate about environmental justice, women's liberation, and helping people tell their stories.

When she is not organizing with CYC Clarice can be found reading poetry with her cat Rida.

Clarice and Olivia are both here on behalf of Colorado Youth Congress.

Let's see what CYC is all about.

- Think about the power that is in the circle, think about what we can create together.

[cheering] My name is Mohammed, I go to [indiscernible].

My name is Nora, I'm 17.

- My name is Sam Badden, and I'm the founder of the Colorado Youth Congress.

What I've heard from my students is that they want a seat at the table.

And their education they should not be passively learning in chairs.

They should be working with others, to enact positive change in the world.

- Coming together as a community makes us so much stronger and being able to do projects together, it works a lot better when you have people from all around the community.

- You would be shocked at the level of brilliance, empathy, critical thinking, and power our young people have.

Colorado Youth Congress supports students as they take that power and channel it to create a future that is just and equitable.

A future where we can all thrive together.

- I got to see the deeper side of other people and I got to see that I am not alone in this situation.

I can see things from other people's perspective and in some ways, I felt closer to them.

- Our mission at the Colorado youth Congress is to build and inspire the diverse community of young people.

To drive inclusive, system-level change.

We do that three ways.

First we bring students together from across schools to take on civic change projects.

Whether that is education, the environment, access to healthy food, changing our voting laws, whatever that is that students feel most passionate about, we support them with access to coaching and financial resources to take their idea and turn it into reality.

Second we work with teachers, school districts, schools, to help make their civics classes actionable.

Third, we connect students to opportunities to advocate for the issues that they care most passionately about.

- If more students were given the opportunity to speak up, or more students had the opportunity to go to programs like this, things would be a lot different.

You would see greater changes in schools, you would see greater changes everywhere.

We do this work so that young people can build real relationships across lines of differences.

We do this work so that young people have the knowledge and skills and social capital to bring about the positive change that they seek.

We do this work so that we can strengthen our democracy.

We all deserve the opportunity to thrive, we all deserve to be represented in decision-making.

We all deserve the right to be agents of change in our lives, our communities, and systems and institutions that govern us.

This is the future we want to live in, at the membership of the Colorado youth Congress, we are not waiting for the future, we are creating it.

And if you believe in the power of young people, then join us.

- I wanted to actually start doing something instead of just sitting around and talking about it.

So I think the organization is a great way for me to actually get out there and think about what I can do to make a tangible difference in my community.

- Think about what we can create together.

[Music] - That's a pretty awesome organization.

You guys have been there for multiple years right?

- Yes.

- I guess you like it?

[laughs] Our expert for tonight is Joshua Trinidad, Joshua served in Denver Public schools for 10 years, he is an advocate for equity and scholar of ethnic studies in critical race theory.

Joshua currently is serving as the first diversity and inclusion officer at YAI New York.

Happy to have you Joshua and can you define critical race theory for us and paint a picture of what it looks like in practice?

- Yes.

Well critical race theory began in the mid-1970s, but it really began in the 1960s with a lot of movements coming out of the black and brown communities, specifically out of the Black Panther movements and the Chicano movement, but it originated actually out of some early writings and legal scholars such as Garic Bell, where folks in the legal world were beginning to question and to challenge laws in which they were created and upheld in the intersection of race.

And really it went through a few different things, one thing being how does race play a part in how a lot of the laws were not only created, but how do they affect brown and black folks in communities across the United States?

CRT also looks at intersectional work, outside of race, it can also look at some other pieces that we are now looking at outside of race, besides abilities, disabilities, socioeconomic status which we can see correlation with race, but having said so at such expense.

So today it's been more outside of the legal world, we now see it playing a big part in the educational world, we see it being used throughout health systems, housing systems, banking systems, that we now know how to ask questions such as do white people get advantage in certain situations because it was created by white folks?

Or people that are minoritized continue to suffer based upon laws and rules that were not created for them to thrive.

So in essence, that's what CRT begins to challenge and furthermore, it's a beautiful scholarly look to continue to ask these questions even today in our modern time.

- So Olivia, what got you interested in the subject?

- Yes I have been involved in racial justice work since my freshman year, and it was after reading the other Wes Moore, which really got me into the differences, and how two people who are similar and grew up in the same environment can end up in completely different areas of life.

Due to no fault of their own, just the area that they are in and I think after reading that it really opened up my eyes to everything that's going on in the world.

- And you, how did you get into it?

- I got interested in critical race theory, I've done a lot of work with this it's like a class in school called national history day, and I've done it for about six years and every year you kind of compete with the topic, as I started doing it, made me really realize how much history is taught by the conquerors and white people and anybody who is very privileged in these ways.

And it's got me really interested in telling the history of those who have been historically disenfranchised and written out of history so that was definitely the starting off point for me, and getting more interested in critical race theory and had me reading more about it and acting upon it with the Colorado Youth Congress as well.

- Why do you guys think that there's so much controversy around whether critical race theory should be taught in schools or not?

- Yeah I think it's because so many generations have been taught with this like false picture of history and being told that we live in a post-racial society, that everybody gets along when there are a lot of things holding people back in America, so having to confront the ways that they have contributed to that, in the ways that they still contribute to that I feel it is very shocking for many people and they do not really want to face it because it requires them to dig deeper into their own actions of who they are as a person.

- Yeah, I think if our generation and so many people living are awoken to the real reality of what was happening in the past, and the truth of both the harms being committed and the liberation was taking place, the duality of it, we would be so much more powerful and I think if we know where we come from, it allows us to not commit the same atrocity into the future, it allows us to move into the future that is more equitable where the same horrors will not be created again.

- When you study history, is it comforting for you, or is it turbulence?

Is it tough?

- It's a mix.

I think sometimes you have to put the book down because I'm just so enraged and so emotional, but honestly at other times, reading about black women and our resilience in history, I feel so empowered and happy about our future, and I'm filled with so much pride for our people.

So it's a mixture.

- How about you, is it up and down, is it prideful, hurtful?

- Totally yeah, there's a lot of pain that I feel especially I have a lot of Irish ancestry, my mom lives in Ireland part-time, so learning about the colonization of my own ancestors faced in Ireland, and then fled to America inflicted the same indigenous people of America, such a duality that I'm constantly kind of addressing and really seeking to understand the ways that I uphold the systems of power oppression today, so history is really challenging to swallow sometimes.

Especially as a white person.

And it also going back long enough into Irish history before Ireland was colonized has helped me dream into an era where I can - pardon me, it has helped me dream into an era where these wrongs of the past can be righted and can hopefully dream into a future again that is more equitable.

- Joshua, critical race theory revolves around systematic racism.

What evidence do we have to prove that racism is a systemic issue?

- Yeah, well one thing I want to say real quick please, just listening to the students speak is, first of all, wonderful to hear and their impression and understanding of how critical race theory functions and their impressions - is just so beautiful to hear.

And knowing that you know, I reflect on myself as a youth growing up, and I did not know as much as the individuals that are with us today about critical race theory because we were at a point where we thought everything was better and that race wasn't an issue.

But as we stated many times, a few momments ago, that it continues to not be an issue, but it is at the forefront of this work that is needed to continue for equitable learning.

So I just want to commend the young folks with us today, their knowledge is beyond where many of us were at this time in our learning.

So congrulations on doing the work, and being so knowledgeable with the work.

You know, ways that we see systematic racism existing in today's society and I will talk about school specifically is you know, we can see it within honors programs, within schools.

You know some students are set up for success based upon maybe their background, the things that they have advantages to.

So that they could separate and segregate students within schools.

And we think that segregation has ended, but as we take a deeper look even into schools into Denver Public schools, we will see that there are multiple tracts of learning that are happening within a single building, and you can see it just by looking from one classroom to another and I have been a principal at multiple schools in Denver, and it's a very hard thing to dismantle because you are up against many many different types of folks.

You are up against the community of white folks that uphold white supremacy, thinking that segregation is not happening but it actually is, and to help teach that community that we do need to dismantle and bring together folks for learning, is important and a very hard thing to do in 2021.

What I will say is racism hides itself in many different places.

Like gifted education.

A lot of those opportunities only afford themselves to folks that are white or that have opportunities to transportation to events to attend, that's one thing I want to ask students on the couch, have you noticed these things in school where you start to question like why are they over there, why am I not with that group?

Why wasn't I selected to be part of certain groups of academia?

I'm just wondering, have you ever encountered that because that's a form of racism that exists in schooling.

I think that's a question for you right there, have you encountered something like that?

- Yes definitely.

I think even as young as elementary school, being blocked from entering certain programs, despite meeting requirements of the program, like excelling in them and not understanding the teacher's reasoning of like oh you can't enter this area, being confused because I didn't fully understand what was going on.

But my mom did.

So I always had my mom to help empower me and advocate for me.

So I always did end up in those classes, but if I did not have my mom that I most definitely would not be in the classes I'm in now, have the grades that I have now, so it just pains me to think about other students who do not have parents like mine who are not able to advocate for themselves.

- How about you have you felt segregated in situations?

- Yes definitely on the inverse of Olivia.

I did for full disclosure go to a gifted and talented elementary school that was on the corner of Five Points and I think in many ways has participated in the gentrification that is happening, but aside from that, even going to the Denver School of Arts now, it's definitely affluent and mostly white and it's been really awakening to see and be surrounded by so many people who have a lot of different life experiences for me and are able to share their perspectives on these things and has really broadened my worldview and brought me to be aware of the inequities that I participated in schooling and the ways that I have a lot of privileges that are not provided to black indigenous people of color.

- Do you guys think that there are more students that are interested in these things like you are?

Or are there less students that care about these issues as much as you do?

Do you think that you guys are smaller group of students or do you think the student body cares about these types of issues?

- I think that everybody cares about these types of issues, I think it's just the environment that they grew up in.

So if they did not grow up in an environment where activism was known for advocating for others, these things will be like in the back of their mind but they will not actively look for them.

Because they were not exposed to that.

Also, just like people stand up for others in other ways, there's no standard way of activism or helping other people, so I do think that a lot of students are interested in these issues, it just shows up in different ways that people may not be able to notice.

- Most definitely, and kind of on that note, I completely agree and I think too that is so challenging in schools and students do not realize they do not have the resources and education about critical race theory and about the true history of the United States and like the cut and dry and not trying to euphemize it or anything like that.

I think students do not know that they need that until it's told to them that they learned on social media or in an article online, so it's likeour generation is really hungry for it and we just don't always know that we are hungry for it until we get the information.

- How do you guys think that students or people in society learning about these issues, critical race theory, and how do you think that benefits the community?

- Yeah, I think there's like unlimited benefits to it.

When you realize these issues and when you're passionate about them, everybody is able to work together to solve these issues, and work on these issues and collaborative solutions.

Like a lot of solutions in the past have been bandaid solutions, slap it on temporarily and it does not fix the issue but when you have multiple people who are aware about a certain subject and are passionate about and want to work on it, you've got all these ideas, all these perspectives then you can actually work to solving the root cause of the issue and not just slapping something on and calling it a day.

And also just when people are empowered in society, then society flourishes.

So it's a win-win situation for everybody.

- Most definitely, I have nothing to add except that it also just helps foster empathy and understanding as well.

- I want to ask you guys and Josh, besides CRT, what are some other ways we can create a more inclusive societies?

- This is something that I've been working on recently.

I think including black history all the way to pre-colonial Africa is extremely important.

Even just like everybody's history, so like Asian history, Pacific Islander history, all of it, I think it helps us to not look at things in such a Eurocentric lens.

I feel like once you remove that lens, everything is so much more free and open.

But just like as a black woman, black history is super important for Americans to be able to understand the past and how to move forward from the past.

I think it's extremely important.

- What do you think are some other ways that we can go about this in society, besides critical race theory?

- Yeah, something I have been thinking about a lot through CYC is dispelling echo chambers, it can be incredibly uncomfortable and I find myself really easily falling back into echo chambers and people who uphold my same beliefs, and in a social justice fear is really just a breath of fresh air and energizing to be around people who have those similar ethics and morals, but I'm also realizing by staying so confineded to one perspective it's limiting and it's not going to help me understand people who are on other sides of things and people who do not understand the need for critical race theory and that are outright opposed to it.

So I'm really interested in and I don't know which ways this would happen because America is so polarized right now, but fostering conversations where we do not need to change each other's minds but instead just understand, I know there's a lot of emotional labor that can go into that, and a lot of subsets and things that we would have to address.

But I would just love to have that space where we are not also stuck in our beliefs and unopen to other perspectives and change.

- Great conversations, it's these are right here right now.

You know what I'm saying, small conversations.

And accountability, what you know, what you think you know, it's funny to hear you talk about race, whenever I hear critical race theory, I think about it like a water fountain.

Black only water fountains.

When things were openly racist, and around like 1970, they started embracing Black history month.

They meaning like schools, right?

It's just 1970, it's not that long ago I was born in 1982.

So 12 years before I was born, is when they started to embrace African-American history.

We got Black history month, so what's going on for the other 11 months?

- Yeah, there are other months, that are dedicated to other minority race groups, but obviously they are not like advertise or shown as much, they really have to take the load on themselves, to show their history, it's not actively shown to other people.

And I do think that learning about all history not just black history is super important because there's so much intersectionality.

If you ignore one side you might miss one final thing that will help come to the solution.

- Did you guys have any questions for Josh?

- Oh.

- So many.

I guess just a question, yes I do.

I have an open dialogue question.

So Angela Davis has his concept of like radical imagination, like dreaming into the future that is possible.

And I would love to hear both your perspectives on what you were dreaming into for the future especially as it relates to critical race theory.

>>What I am dreaming into the future right now?

I just want everybody to stop and listen to each other.

I think that I said in another episode, that everybody just signs the paperwork, nobody reads the paperwork.

Everybody just signs the iTunes agreement, we do not read it.

That happens, from the highest level to the lowest levels.

So for me, dreaming into the future is just like paying more attention.

I should pay more attention to you and listen to you.

I should be accountable for who I am and who you are, and how these exchanges go.

- Did you want to?

- Oh answer the question?

Yeah I think I just echo what he said, I don't think I have anything to add, I think listening, empathy, and just being able to acknowledge the boundaries and emotional labor that is involved is all important to consider.

- Josh, what do you dream for the future?

- Yeah you know, I think as an educator, I dream of a classroom where in the school, where all students have true equity and access to great education and not play any of these games of choice, moving on to the certain side of towns so the kids can go to school, got one school, all the politics and everything needed to get students into a good school that you can simply walk your kid to the corner and have them get a great education there as they would anywhere else.

And to be able to do that, with confidence, and love, and to know that all students despite where they come from or what their life's realities have given them, that they all have access to do whatever it is they want to or need to do to get to that next level.

That's what I dream of.

- What a great way to end the very last episode of the season.

You can watch this episode and the rest of them anytime, at PBS12.org.

I want to thank you two for being here, I am Cedric Avenue, and for all of us here at PBS 12, good night.

♪ [Music] ♪