Liberty and justice for all … of the people, by the people and for the people … all men are created equal. These values are carved into the bedrock of our nation; we believe in them, and we teach them to our children. Men and women have fought and died to protect those words, and yet Americans are still divided by race. Prejudice and discrimination are still problems. “So on the one hand we live in this world where we take equality for granted, but then we see these, these huge inequalities in educational status, in economic status, in political status - and how do we make sense of that?” asks Pamela Perry, Ph.D. She is a sociologist and race researcher studying that very question at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “This creates, for young people especially, a conundrum - something that they’re trying to figure out and make sense of,” she says. Just over 50 years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled segregation unconstitutional. The dream was that kids of different races who studied and played sports and ate lunch together would no longer mistrust or be afraid of one another. Many people take for granted that diversity is a good thing, but Mitchell Chang, Ph.D. spends his time researching exactly how that may be true. According to a theory called Cognitive Dissonance, he says, children who experience diversity actually grow up to become better leaders, better citizens and achieve higher self-esteem. “When we test this,” he says, “we find that students who are in diverse learning settings come to understand issues in more complex ways …they become better thinkers.” Seventeen-year-old Nicki is African-American. She baby sits for a Caucasian family because she wants their children to grow up not to be afraid of people who look different. Sarah and Jeff Streiff are Caucasian, and they both grew up in segregated neighborhoods. But now they’ve chosen to raise their children in a neighborhood that is nearly all African-American. At Artesia High school there have been small race riots in three of the last four years. But this year, two girls, Marisol and Harmony - one Mexican and one Caucasian - are crossing a line that few there have ever crossed before. What have these kids learned from diversity? What can every family gain? See the hardship and promise of diversity, watch, “Primary Colors.”