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.
It is really disheartening that racial strife is continuing after all this time. I know there will be some Freepers talking about reverse discrimination and affirmative action and all that bullsh*t, but it is really about human beings not respecting and loving each other in spite of our differences. I’m trying to figure out when it will end.
Sounds like the new generation is less uptight about old racial attitudes and the sanctity of the grievance mentality. Progress, in my book. I witnessed the same during my very young years between European ethnics that finally made peace through joshing instead of fighting.
To the grievance mongers: lighten up, Francis.
Amen. Sadly there are people on both sides who will use this to their advantage, instead of trying to make it better.
Some frat boys do something in poor taste and the black studenys get all uppity and make a list of demands that the cowardly administrators will cave in. If I was a UCSD student I would not be attending any sort of teach in. If I was the President I would ban the frat and that should be the end of it.
Liberals have negative senses of humor.
Well, politeness is a conservative value too. There are PC excesses, but that doesn’t mean people went around being obnoxiously rude before PC.
“I’m trying to figure out when it will end.”
Never, its part of human nature to a certain extent. When certain groups demand special treatment it only aggravates the situation.
America is MUCH less prone to this type of behavior than many other places in the world.
Well, maybe you are also the cause of this type of strife. Yes, reverse discrimination exists and only causes more problems. Really, if we want to get past this, we really have to get rid of all government discrimination...pro and con.
It seems that liberals have the major problem.. I have never had a problem judging a person by his actions and beliefs (what many of us call morality) - just try that on a liberal. Many of us have never thought about color, race, or creed, but judge a person based upon his actions and morality. Why liberals can’t do that is a problem.
I live here in San Diego.
Still don’t figure this. A liberal Univ.
Also has major Medical School and big on the
sciences. Many Nobel Prize Profs.
Also at UCSD are several under grad colleges,
Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt are the name of a few of them.
These kids are probably spoild rich brats with too much time on their hands. Maybe the brass could find them something to do, something they wouldn’t pick out to do.
The bottom line is, they can't have it both ways. You can't have "black history month" to celebrate supposedly "good" racial characteristics and then complain when people joke about supposedly "bad" racial characteristics. Once you go race, you never go back.
“Uppity”? Oh, brother.
“Yes, reverse discrimination exists and only causes more problems.”
No such thing as reverse discrimination. There is only discrimination and all races are capable of it.
They should have just burned a U.S. flag....they would have been applauded by the university....kids need to learn how to behave.....
Well, then, attack it as rudeness instead of escalating it into racism, which is the game that is trying to be played here. If every perceived slight is inflated as such, there never will be harmony.
As I said, I watched my father’s generation come to peace among the European ethnics. A lot of “polacks” and “wops” were bandied around by tough construction workers who laughed it off sincerely and moved on; something that would have provoked mass fights decades early was put into proper perspective through humor.
And our government legitimizes it.
“I’m trying to figure out when it will end.”
Soon, I hope.
But there’s so much money in the continuance of it that I fear it is here for awhile longer.
As you said, it’s about human beings respecting each other.
I wonder what Fo So La Te Do had to say?
Heh..not sure if you’re response was belief in reality or maybe just making fun of the situation.
Of course there is reverse racism and it is displayed every day by almost all colleges (They tend to call it making up for past problems - or diversity). That’s okay though, most leftists do not recognize or admit that. Yes, racism is racism - in all colors and attitudes. When you don’t actually see that - well, that is your problem.
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