COLORFUL FLAGS PROGRAM
In 1996, Renford Reese received his doctoral degree from the University of Southern California’s School of Public Administration. He conducted his doctoral research on ethnic conflict and intergroup relations at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva, Switzerland. He received his Master’s degree in public policy from the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies in 1990. He received his Bachelors of Arts degree in political science from Vanderbilt University in 1989. He is the founder/director of the Colorful Flags program and teaches in the political science department at Cal Poly Pomona University.
You can see Dr. Renford Reese’s homepage here.
History
In March 1991 an African-American teenager named Latasha Harlins walked into a South Central Los Angeles convenience store owned by a Korean-American merchant. Shortly after entering, she got into an intense argument with the Korean-American clerk over a bottle of orange juice the clerk thought the teenager was attempting to shoplift. Words were exchanged as the two grabbed for the orange juice bottle. After the scuffle, Harlins attempted to exit the store, but before she could leave, the clerk shot her fatally in the back.
This tragic incident weighed on Renford Reese’s mind for months. There had to be a way, Reese thought, to defuse such situations before they escalated into tragedies. He believed, as others in the community believed, that Latasha Harlins’ death was the climax of growing ethnic tensions between Korean Americans and African Americans in the South Central neighborhood. His resolve was further strengthened the following summer, when South Central erupted in violence following the acquittal of four police officers who beat African America motorist Rodney King. Many of the stores destroyed at the time were owned by Korean Americans.
Reese had just begun a doctoral program in the School of Public Administration at the University of Southern California. He pledged that he would use his studies to find ways to defuse tensions among the diverse groups who live in urban communities. In May of 1993, the second year of his doctoral program, he was selected by the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California as a “Presidential Fellow.” The Leadership Institute was founded by Warren Bennis; James O’Toole and Burt Nanus were the directors. All three of these scholars acted as his personal mentors.
The Presidential Fellowship program allowed select students from the University of Southern California’s 17 graduates and professional schools to participate in an intensive leadership training program. One component of the program required each Fellow to create and lead a community-based program. The creation of the “Colorful Flags Human Relations Module” stemmed from Dr. Reese’s dissatisfaction with the state of race relations in our society, especially in Los Angeles.
Building Cultural Bridges in Schools: The Colorful Flags Model.
You are all invited to an expo by African Swiss artists, just received from Mutombo Kanyana, one of its most active representatives. Exhibition of African artists, plays, celebrations, looks like fun and culture are mixed nice!
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Check Newsweek’s special double issue on the global elite but more specifically Underhill’s interview of Peter Sutherland regarding the Melting of the Melting pot. Despite a danger of closing our doors to inevitable immigration, Sutherland welcomes the new multicultural recognition and pays a tribute to the US: “I imagine that President Obama is the greatest example of immigration success
July 31, 2010 at 3:27 pm
[...] Multiculturalism [...]
January 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm
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