This idea led us to think about what being "American" really means. We wanted to interview everyday people in the public about their views on racism and prejudice. We went to Northgate Mall and got kicked out because the mall management didn't want us to bother or threaten their customers by distracting them from shopping.

While researching hate crimes we came across a website for the National Association for the Advancement of White People. They said that white people were supposed to be the ones in power. This made us feel disappointed and mad. We wrote a letter to the NAAWP expressing our rage. We also visited an immigration lawyer who told us about how hard it was for immigrants to settle in this country. We participated in a community forum on race issues and crime and our ideas were talked about in the newspaper.

We made a quilt to express some of the great things about our families and cultures and we created a mural to talk about some of the things that we didn't like about America. Even though we were all different, we felt closer to each other at the end of the project because we all learned to listen to each other and share our views on these issues openly. Talking about difficult topics helps you understand people and you're able to relate to them better. We wanted to do these projects to show people that youths care about these topics. At the end of the project, we decided that our human rights should be equal no matter what color we are.