Marcus added Brianna to his MySpace.com friends' list after the school field trip, and Patty is furious.
Luke Patterson, 27, who for two years has served as a mentor from the Asian Dispute Resolution Program, shifts his weight on the side of a desk at Jefferson High School one recent afternoon and prepares for each side to communicate without fists.
"You all need to get this problem out of the way so you can get back to business and show off your mind, not your mouth," Patterson says. His words ring clear, and after an hour of mediation, the girls hug it out.
"Boys are dumb," Brianna concludes.
Peer mediation programs like this are only one of the initiatives the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center spearheads in order to improve dialogue in Los Angeles. Many of the city's problems stem from a lack of community and personal communication, and much can be done to turn that around, said Charles Chang, the center's executive director.
"Most conflicts in Los Angeles aren't racial; they're just two normal people having normal problems," he said. "A landlord and his tenant. Two neighbors. Disputes can snowball quickly, so it's critical to get mediation involved before that happens."
Founded in 1989, the nonprofit center, in Koreatown, provides mediation and conflict resolution services to the wide range of ethnic communities in the city, with a focus on the Asian-Pacific Islander population. The center's credo is that peace building is critical to the livelihood of Los Angeles.
An intermediary who makes a sincere effort to understand the viewpoints of both parties involved can greatly aid that process, Chang said. The goal is nice enough, but mediators face a tough problem in L.A., where the differences in languages and cultures can readily lead to conflicts.
Chang believes an honest embrace of the differences is the key. "Little nuances in culture dramatically affect communication," he said. "If you can't get in the other's shoes, you're never getting anywhere."
As an example, he cited a recent case the center handled in which a younger white landlord of an apartment building wasn't communicating with his older Asian tenants in a manner the tenants deemed respectful.
"In Asian culture, the issue of respect between generations is paramount. It was an easy and apparent cultural difference, but maybe one side didn't see that," Chang said.
