Race-Based Student Government

Campus Report ^ | September 24, 2009 | Alana Goodman

[bs9021]

Race-Based Student Government

by: Alana Goodman, September 24, 2009

Racism is alive and well at the University of Massachusetts. And I’m not talking about the hysterical, trumped-up allegations of racism made by people like Henry Louis Gates and Jimmy Carter at the mere mention of legitimate criticism about Barack Obama’s policies. I mean clear-cut, systematic, institutionalized racism.

Just look at our Student Government Association (SGA) By-Laws. As we prepare to swear in our elected representatives to the SGA Senate next week, UMass students should be aware that 13 percent of our SGA Senators will not have even competed in Tuesday’s elections. Instead, they will be appointed to their positions before the election results even come in, solely on the basis of skin color.

This portion of the Senate is appointed by a registered student organization (RSO) called the African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American (ALANA) Caucus (no relation to this columnist). Only minority students who fit one of those four racial categories–or other students who the Caucus approves as “minority allies”–are considered eligible for these Senate seats.

Proponents of the ALANA Caucus will argue that anyone can be a member of the group and have access to its appointed seats, and they may be right– technically. On paper, RSO’s like the Caucus are open to all fee-paying UMass undergrads. But while most RSO’s actively work to recruit a large membership, the ALANA Caucus doesn’t; you will almost never see their members “tabling” in the Student Union or advertising their meetings to the general public. They seem to prefer their organization small and close-knit, and why shouldn’t they? Unlike other RSO’s, ALANA’s annual funding isn’t contingent on the size of its membership–the SGA’s “ALANA Caucus Reserves Fund” earmarks an exorbitant $10,000 for the Caucus each year....

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

This is a perfect example of the beliefs of liberalism being put into practice. They are racist through and through.

[GeronL]

sickening

but the racial thing isn’t the point.

“minority allies” should be a clue. This is about leftism.

BTW- look at Tucson AZ schools new race-based discipline policies

[BobbyT]

Stop calling it “Liberalism”. They do not defend liberties, and there is nothing liberating about handing over every power and control you can think of until you have Omnipotent Government.