CARIBOU, Maine — What do maps, pianos, typewriters and locks all have in common?
They all have keys.
Students at Caribou High School answered that riddle and others like it during an assembly on April 11, featuring School and Curriculum Coordinator for the Civil Rights Team Project with the Office of the Attorney General in Maine, Brandon Baldwin.
Organized by the Caribou Civil Rights Team, the assembly encouraged students to find similarities between the seemingly dissimilar.
Caribou Civil Rights Team member Hailey White explained that it’s important for the greater community to understand “that we are indeed alike, that we shouldn’t just focus on our differences — that even though our differences are evident, there are also things that we have in common below the surface level,” she said.
Baldwin’s presentation was filled with that sentiment.
“If you were to look at my DNA, you’d probably think that my DNA would be most similar to the white guy that lives down the street from me than the black man living in Nigeria or the Asian man living in Korea — and you’d be wrong,” he told the CHS students. “There’s as much genetic variation between people of the same race as there is between people of different races, because there is no race gene. And in fact, by studying people’s DNA, genetic scientists have discovered that 99.9 percent the DNA in all of our bodies is exactly the same as everyone else on the planet.”
“So we’ve learned our whole lives that we’re unique and we’re special, and you are — but only .01 percent of you,” Baldwin added, receiving a laugh from his audience. “Ninty-nine percent of what you are is exactly the same as every other human being on this planet,” he said. “So there are differences between race and color, but when you get down to it, you discover that we’re all a lot alike.”
Every year, Baldwin creates a new presentation for schools with Civil Rights Teams as way to talk about bias related to race, skin color, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical and mental disabilities, gender and sexual orientation.
“Those are hard things to talk about, so I think it’s important that we find new ways and avenues to connect to these really serious issues,” he described.
It can be challenging to teach subjects like racial diversity in Maine, where roughly 95 percent of the population is white, because “people sometimes make the mistake of thinking Maine’s 95 percent white population can just be rounded up to 100, and often times people ignore the fact that 5 percent of Maine’s population are, in fact people of color — and that’s a real insult to the 5 percent, to say that there’s no diversity here in terms of race,” Baldwin explained.
“People tend to ignore the racial diversity that exists here — but it’s also important to note that there are six protected civil rights categories, and race is only one of them,” he emphasized. “We have plenty of diversity in terms of national origin, ancestry, religion, physical and mental ability, gender and sexual orientation.”
The Civil Rights Team of the Caribou High School exists to create awareness of all the protected civil rights categories, and its members believe their group generated a lot of positivity during a before-school program they led last Tuesday.
“I think that grabbed a lot of attention,” said Civil Rights Team Member Ashley Dube.
Her fellow team member Monica Alley explained that students receive the Civil Rights Team’s messages better some times than others.
“It depends on what it is,” she said.
Team member Daniel Powers emphasized that the Civil Rights Team is about creating awareness, not enforcement.
“Sometimes, hopefully most of the time, we can convince people to treat everyone as individuals and yes, we have many things in common,” he explained, mentioning the saying “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
Team member Michael Marquis explained that it’s about respect — both respecting the beliefs of others as well as individual beliefs.
“At the same time, we can try to change what they think and how to go about it, and their awareness of it, but in the end, if we were to go against their beliefs and (verbally) attack them, then it would kind of be pointless and going against what we preach,” he described.
That respect described by Caribou students was a key component of Baldwin’s presentation.
“There’s nothing wrong with who you are, but it’s also important that we respect others for their individuality and their being themselves,” he said.
According to the Maine Attorney General’s Office website, the CRTP launched as a pilot project in 18 schools in 1996. Initial efforts focused on education about the civil rights law and increasing communication and collaboration between schools and law enforcement,
The Civil Rights Team Project has grown in both focus and participation since its inception in 1996. The program now focuses on changing the culture and climate in schools to one that will actively prevent bias-based behaviors, including violations of the Maine Civil Rights Act.
