Posted on 02/24/2010 6:58:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
UC San Diego administrators stage a campus-wide "teach-in" today about a recent spate of racially-charged incidents against African Americans on campus. Black student groups plan to hold a news conference before the campus-sanctioned event. The students believe these incidents reflect a deeper sense of racism at the university.
African American student Bijon Robinson is a top scholar and athlete at UCSD. Dozens of colleges tried to recruit her. Now she regrets her decision.
“We (her family) came from struggles and this was an accomplishment being here. But I would prefer to go somewhere else than to be here, knowing that I have to look over my back because people want me dead,” Robinson said.
Robinson is referring to a note found at UCSD last week that read "Compton lynching." The note surfaced about a week after a group of UCSD fraternity members organized a party to mock Black History month.
Students were invited to the so-called Compton Cookout. The invitation told women to come as “ghetto chicks” with “nappy hair” and “a very limited vocabulary.” Malt liquor and watermelon would be served.
Some say the Compton Cookout was just meant to be a parody. But Robinson and her bestfriend Eliz Diop are not laughing.
“The whole party was planned to dehumanize our culture,” Diop said. “They chose to emphasize the parts of our culture we have no control over. Who wants to live in the ghetto?”
Many minority students have said the incidents speak to a larger problem. African Americans make up only 2 percent of UCSD’s student population. The majority are whites and Asians. Plus, one small group of students has exacerbated the racial tensions by publishing inflammatory material in an alternative newspaper called The Koala.
Those students also appeared on a student-run TV program using racially offensive words in support of the Compton party. Now there’s a freeze in funding for student TV. Kris Gregorian is Koala’s editor in chief. He ducked an interview with a joke.
“The Koala communication protocol dictates we do not provide statements to the press unless beer is provided. The overarching goal is beer,” Gregorian said.
This kind of joking around is a sign of new generational trends, says San Diego State University sociologist Jean Twenge. She’s the author of Generation Me. She says her research shows young people today are increasingly self-absorbed – and few have any grasp of what something like the civil rights movement meant.
“They (students) maybe don't even have a lot of understanding of the history. They saw this as another group, and some of the people in this group do some things that they could have some fun with. And they don't understand the deep pain and the prejudice and discrimination that has happened in the past,” Twenge said.
A group of black community leaders hang their heads in prayer on a Saturday afternoon in Southeast San Diego. Many of them lived through the civil rights era. Now they’re meeting to discuss the problems young black people face today.
Baye Kes Ba Me Ra is with the Pan African Association of America. He says the problem at UCSD is bigger than just a few students.
“Its not just what the students did. It's a reflection of the individuals who run the institution,” he said.
Penny Rue is vice chancellor of student affairs at UCSD. She says the university has been trying to make the campus a more hospitable place for minority students. For instance, UCSD does send many admission letters to black students, but many don’t accept. They go to other schools like UC Berkeley. She says it’s a dilemma for UCSD.
“There are things that make it difficult. One is California law. Prop. 209 prevents us from using race in any way as a level of analysis,” Rue said.
Proposition 209 was the end to affirmative action in California. Rue says the university is trying to increase the number of underrepresented students on campus using other strategies.
And last week, black student leaders presented a list of 32 demands to help fix what they call a “racial state of emergency.” Officials say they will meet many of their demands. Minority students say the real test comes after the campuswide teach-in and once the media scrutiny fades.
I am agreeing with you that all of our history should included in American history. That way all of our children would benefit from knowing the scope of all of everyone’s contributions to this great country of ours. My children, who are honor students, are well versed in American history. My daughter even worked at our local Civil War museum, but I have felt it was my duty to supplement their lessons because it feel its important that they appreciate all of who they are.
Good night!
you are so lucky my hubbie just asked when I am coming to bed. I can’t stay up all night trying to get the last word anymore so my threats were hollow.
Heh... Well if I were you, I would take care of my husband (sorry, am a male so that would be normal for me to say). How about just go enjoy life and live it to it’s fullest...heh. We won’t watch... Have a good one... I actually have found that I appreciate you and your silly dialogue - must be something that I just don’t yet understand.. :^)
Presidents’ Day is in February, and February is Black History month, we should combine the two and have Back President’s Day in February.
And since the stimulus bill came later in the month, and because we don’t want Black President’s Day to come right after Presidents’ Day, let’s petition to make Black President’s Day the fifth Tuesday after the fifth Monday in February.
On a related note, let’s make Catholic President’s Day be the fourth Friday in November - Black Friday if you will.
/s
You sound like a fish being asked is the water wet. How young are you that you don’t see those shows as stereotyping Black behavior, culture and attitudes? Are you serious?
What you are really watching on those shows is some Hollywood writer’s imaginings of Black life designed to reinforce stereotypes or else the show would get canned as too unbelievable. They are in the same tradition as the writers who scripted Black minstrels and reflect the fears and biases of the larger societies. Those shows aren’t mirrors any more than Sex and the City is a reality show about women. It is just Socialist grooming on both counts.
Do you think Don Cornelius invented Black culture? It is forced upon us in layers. We can be whoever we want in America - that’s the greatest thing about this country - that’s America. To be an American is to blend in as who you want to be, without all the baggage.
Your supplementing your children’s history education is not only appropriate and right, but different, no? Everyone should be proud of the achievements of their ancestors (even the bandits, at least they make for interesting stories), but the danger lies in programming and liberals love to control minds.
Imagine instead that the frat had put on a skit making fun of the Scottish - kilts, cheapskate jokes and all. We’d laugh because the Scots have become Americans. Blacks instead have been taught to be especially race sensitive.
The Devil is a wise tactician and his strategy is human misery. We look different and it is obvious, yet Americans are a warm and caring people who today, even after a century of government schooling believe in merit and give the benefit of the doubt.
If it is always about race, then it is always about differences and differences divide. We’ve got to move beyond race and just be Americans. If we would do that then we’d laugh and say yes isn’t that stereotype funny because it would no longer be true and we’d not be sensitive to it. We wouldn’t have African-Americans, we’d have Americans of African descent. That’s my only point.
Have a good night, FRiend.
Thanks for the sarcasm tag, I was just gearing up for a long reply...Nite, FRiend.
May = Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
November = Native American Heritage Month
No Caucasian American History month I am aware of.
without all the baggage.
My parents taught me that if I work hard, I can be whatever I aspire to be, thank God. But my parents, who were born in the deep South during the time of segregation also told me of loved ones going missing only to found lynched later, having to walk by the local public library because they were not allowed in (even though her Daddy paid taxes like everyone else), my grandfather witnessing a black man being burned alive from a hiding spot in the woods. Being black in America means having to overcome the collective memories of you antecedents in order to progress toward your goals. It causes your view to be colored (if you will) by our history. I don’t consider it baggage, it is reality. However, no one should make any excuses.
See? you fell for it. The very notion that there are “black contributions to history, science, the arts etc” is a racist concept. If the contributions are important BECAUSE they are black then demands that one celebrate “white contributions to history, science, the arts etc” because they are white. In other words, “contributions” become important because they were made by a particular race, not because they are important in and of themselves. And that is as Archie Bunker would say, “Ipso fatso,” the very definition of racism.
But by your very comments you indicate you don’t understand King. I explain this in my other post to you. As soon as you say x racial achievements MUST be noticed not because the achievement itself demands recognition, but because it was accomplished by a particular race, you demean both the race and the achievement. “Well, such and such was invented by a black man.” Oh, really? So, the invention of such and such wasn’t significant enough to be elevated on its own? Again, that is the very definition of racism.
That said there is a powerful lobby that longs to keep those very real feelings as raw as possible to their own political benefit. Ironically, forced desegregation destroyed much of the Black middle-class who thrived during it. Blacks face a cultural phenomenon that is very different, but is it based on skin color exclusively or the Race Lobby?
The buses, the fountains, the libraries, the police all have one thing in common: government fiat. Think of the devastation government has wrought on Black Americans: First institutionalized racism, next the attempts to rectify it. Public schools that don't teach, the removal of Black fathers, minimum wage laws (50-60% unemployment rates) and the subtle racism of Liberals (which includes those television shows you mentioned - its part of the programming - like the Matrix). The list goes on. Racism doesn't last in a free market society.
Take a look at this video:From Cradle to Grave
Black contributions were often not included in the teachings of American history at one point in this country, hence the need for “Black History Month”. If public education continues to include the history of all of its contributors it becomes less and less necessary to highlight one particular month. I ( as in me) never implied that any one groups history was more important than another’s. I don’t see what is so hard to understand about that.
As soon as you say x racial achievements MUST be noticed not because the achievement itself demands recognition
When did I say that?
“then demands that one celebrate white contributions to history”
One major difference. Whites were allowed. It’s easy to make a contribution when you are allowed to make a contribution. I remember working for a Fortune 100 company out of Chicago and they wanted us to lose our Southern accents. Quote “People won’t take you seriously if you talk like a hick. It’s just the way it is”. How can you argue with the way it is?
How many decades did people hear “Them black hands were made for holding a handle, not a pen. It’s just the way it is”?
It’s what they overcame that made their contribution so significant.
It's more than that...at least for me anyhow...minority whining doesn't matter so much to me...everyone whines like crybabies in today's culture.
It's two things really....the fact that aside from minorities like you and a handful of others here are on the right side, most are not. Most are part of an attempt to destroy our culture as we know it and to install a government that is preferential to them. The issue of granting amnesty will do that and blacks like yourself will in due course become fairly insignificant due to your ever decreasing share of the population.
The other issue for me is the crime issue and the racial nature of it. As a white man today almost any black area of note is a danger for me to be in potentially....some even in daylight. The opposite is not true for blacks..not even close and even back in Jim Crow days or even Night Rider days the casualties were a fraction of what they are today for whites victimized by black criminals and having fought that battle myself I know that there is definitely a hatred-bitterness towards whites shadow over it all. There is no vice versa comparable....for instance on rape...almost no black women are raped by men in the US...the number is so small it's hard to ascertain.
The black community is a mere shadow of what it was 50 years ago with families and morality. I hate to see that. I grew up in a majority black county back when everywhere was safe. Now that has spread just the same to poor whites. Latino barrios hardly better if any.
I only see all this getting worse but...a big but...some minorities will see past skin color and ally with the majority of decent folks here who wish to function as families and God fearing people and leave the hood to hoodlums.
These are bad times and nack when I was a boy we were hopeful what with all the freedoms exploding but we were naive and went about it completely the wrong way. We created a subset of crybabies thinking they are owed something and rationalizing their hate and lack of decent behavior even though they never lived under any yoke but one self created.
this something of a worldwide problem...the revenge of the non white world basically everywhere...it is a cornerstone of progressivism.
"Trying" is commendable, but it does NOT equal achievement by itself, no matter what the odds.
Once you start celebrating "black contributions," you have automatically tainted them as not being good enough to be considered "great contributions" on their own. It's like the Grammys having a "Christian music" category. Oh, so Christian music isn't good enough to ever win a Grammy on its own, huh?
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