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By Roderick Sasis My Interview with Tarek Captan: Race Relations In The Eyes Of Dusk Racial discrimination. Racial slander. Racism in general. Such things conjure up vivid images of the 1960s when separate but equal facilities polarized white and black America as the dominant race attempted to maintain their grasp on power while the subjugated race attempted to free themselves from the invisible chains of Jim Crow. Sadly, in the eyes of Tarek Captan, a.k.a. Dusk, racism still exists today, even on a place of higher learning such as UCLA. Born in Liberia, West Africa by a Lebanese father and a German-Irish mother, Tarek benefited from a diverse heritage and a diverse environment as the family relocated to La Habra, east of Los Angeles. Growing up in La Habra, he later assumed the name, Dusk, and engaged in graffiti art. Through his experiences, he became aware of the issues and problems surrounding underprivileged children today, such as gangs, and provided the seeds for his later desire to help them. Now a senior, majoring in sociology, Tarek saw many parallels to life in La Habra and life in UCLA. Black on brown violence beset La Habra as Latinos fought against African Americans for turf and power. UCLA, on the other hand, was a place of learning that typically promoted racial harmony, yet still was not devoid of racism. Tarek believed that UCLA was a microcosm of U.S. society, yet did not represent U.S. societal beliefs on race relations. UCLA, instead, represented the more liberal aspect of U.S. society. But despite this, he believed racism still pervaded UCLA. He witnessed the evil manifestation of racism in restrooms. Racial, ethnic, gender, and religious slurs laced the walls and the doors of restrooms such as Lu Valle's Coffee Shop. The era of political correctness only seemed to mask the true feelings of many students at UCLA. In order to combat this institutional racism, Tarek felt that a reexamination of history should be in order. Primary and secondary educational institutions should promote books by African American poets, authors, and historians, rather than simply recounting slavery in America. History and other subjects should incorporate a much broader interpretation rather than the typical Eurocentric-Protestant approach. Knowing each other's history and culture would enable people to better relate to each other, thus improving race relations. Today, Tarek already started to help improve race relations. As a youth counselor at Mar Vista located in Culver City, he helps promote cultural understanding to kids who live in housing projects such as the Mar Vista Garden and live in an area beset by gang violence. Tarek also helped with the establishment of a youth conference which dealt with such issues as racism and prejudice. After graduation, he plans to become a high school teacher or a teacher in a juvenile detention center. He felt kids in detention centers needed support also since there were discrepancies in educational rights. This led to his desire to once again become involved in the campus organization, Free the Mind, a prisoner's rights organization. (Roderick Sasis is a Sophomore.)