RACE AWARENESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201090023-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT. - - - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201090023-4
uL ~Lrr~++BED
ON _13
MIAMI (AP) - Some Dade County
employees are bein g "sensitized': to
racism in seminars that call for them
to throw marshmallows at each other
and place cups of water on their
heads while humming The Star Span-
gled Banner.
That puts the 250 employees in a
humbling situation so they can under-
stand how black Americans feel in a'
white-dominated country, says
Charles H. King of Atlanta, who cre-
ated the program.
King's "urban awareness" semi-
nars are pert of a -tie-year $1.12
million project to reduce stress for
managers and to improve interper
sonal relationships among Metro-
Dade Transportation Admini.-ation
employees.
The federally financed project be-
gan last week with the first of Kites
seminars, which will run through 'Ju-
ly. King, 57, says people who take- part
in his program will go home bets
people, more caring about the plight
of black Americans.
But before they do, they will:
/ Throw marshmallows at each
other. That is to show disagreement
with what another participant is say-
- ing?
/ Join hands and form a circle,
drawing tighter as another partici-
pant tries unsuccessfully to get in-
side. That is an example of how "in-
stitutional racism" excludes minor-
ities, King says.
/ Be insulted, badgered and
bullied by King.
Groups of about 30 employees,
mostly middle- and upper-level super-
visors, will attend the two-day
courses for $i each The seminars
will cost about $69,000, including up to
;6,225 for King's expenses.
The expense money covers travel
for King and his ;150-a.day suite on
the 16th floor of Miami Beach's Deau-
ville Hotel. King says his program is
worth it. Many graduates of the semi-
nars - there are 100,000 of them na-
tionally - praise his techniques.
The former Baptist preacher
started the seminars almost inadver-
tently 13 years ago at Wittenberg Uni-
2 June 1982
Seminar uses .humiliation
to educate on blacks' plight
ace awareness
versity in Ohio, where he taught black history to
white students. One day he exploded and talked of
his fury about oppression for 20 minutes.
Then he walked out of the classroom. When he
returned minutes later, the students applauded.
"I got their attention," he said.
He has held sme major ra-
tio for the Na for local overnme Atlan-
hic a g!_!_!, ear contract
r_ L
J~A
~enCy sa
with the .eutral Intelligence
Though king has never formally studied psychol-
ogy, he says he has learned a lot by being black He
also worked as a staff analyst for the National Ad-
visory Commission on Civil Disorders and as the
director of the Human Relations Commission in
Gary. Ind.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201090023-4