by: The Editorial Board
The Guardian (UCSD), 2/25/10
The question of whether we should enforce affirmative action at the University of California — one of the most contentious and drawn-out issues of our generation — has never been more relevant.
Yesterday, approximately 400 students from the Southern California area joined in a Black Student Union-led protest to address racism on campus. They asked Chancellor Marye Anne Fox to comply with a list of demands that would increase outreach efforts on campus, expressing hurt and alienation over the frat-affiliated “Compton Cookout” party and the racial slur made on Koala TV last Thursday.
Though BSU is correct in believing it must attack underrepresentation by way of changed policy, not all of their demands are fiscally feasible. There’s only so much funding Chancellor Fox can put aside for a resource center or an art space after systemwide cuts have left us with mere scraps of an already depleted budget. However, we can more realistically attack the problem at its source by immediately tweaking our admissions process.
Of course, it isn’t legal to consider race in admissions just yet. But, thanks to the actions of student-based coalition “By Any Means Necessary,” that might change. Earlier this month, BAMN filed a class-action lawsuit to overturn Proposition 209 — the 1996 law that banned affirmative action at all California public universities. According to the organization, because of the precedent set by 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger — which declared affirmative action both necessary and legal — BAMN has a good chance of overturning Prop. 209.
We hope that’s the case, and urge students to funnel whatever energy they have after parading Price Center’s perimeters this year and channel it into helping level the playing field at a legislative level.
The fewer minority students there are at UCSD, the more other students will think events like the Cookout are no big deal. Without a challenge to the privileged point of view, the more graduates we release to the world without a trace of cultural sensitivity.
While we’re waiting on BAMN’s lawsuit, however, we recommend that the university do what it can within its limitations. Currently, all UC campuses save UCLA and UC Berkeley make admissions decisions based on a comprehensive system that awards each applicant a certain number of points according to his or her academic record, economic status and personal achievements. At UCSD specifically, an applicant’s academic record makes up for 74 percent of his or her score — meaning those who don’t earn enough points based on their GPA or SAT scores won’t even get a chance to be reviewed for personal achievements.
The holistic review that UCLA and Berkeley use, however, avoids forcing a value on any one aspect of an application, and assesses candidates based on all factors of their application. Even if, say, an applicant’s academic SAT score is low because he couldn’t afford a prep course or find time to study while helping his parents pay the bills, his evaluators would still be able to consider him based on other merits. Accordingly, UCLA and Berkeley have more than double, almost triple, our 1.3 percent of black students.
And let’s face it. The way we deal with everyday challenges almost always says more about our ability to learn and adapt to difficult situations (i.e. blazing through with two weeks of midterms on top of a part-time job) than the grade you weaseled out in AP History.
It’s true that such a prestigious institution of higher learning as UCSD should value academic record very highly in the admissions process. But if you really think about it, no matter how many worksheets on chemical titration you filled out in high school, you probably don’t remember any of it now. Your high-school resume often has more to do with the resources and encouragement you received — opportunities far from equal in California’s fund-biased education system.
So, we hope that Associate Vice Chancellor of Admissions Mae Brown means it when she says that her department will be launching a pilot program incorporating holistic review next year. Far more than punishing frat boys or student media, a new system would foster campus diversity and, therefore, awareness.
Our student population is in a state of obvious disproportionality — one for which no safe space nor free tutoring session can compensate. Starting-line coexistance is the only answer. If UCSD were to eventually incorporate a form of affirmative action into its admissions process, should Prop. 209 be overturned, the holistic system would be more likely to ensure that applicants aren’t simply receiving points for race, in isolation from experience. Rather, race could be considered within the context of any other strengths or weaknesses, advantages or disadvantage.
As concerned faculty affiliated with an academic program dedicated to the study of gender and sexuality at the intersections of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and other important organizing constructs of modern societies, we write to express our unequivocal support of the letter issued by the University of California, San Diego faculty of African descent, and ask that the University act immediately to respond to the demands by the Black Student Union.
We believe the racist and misogynist event last week is not an aberration but symptomatic of a larger systemic problem on our campus that the university has historically failed to redress. UCSD has not been forthcoming in fostering an intellectual and pedagogical environment hospitable to those who consider campus diversity foundational to teaching, critical thinking, research and public service. In the past this reticence has profoundly hampered our program’s growth.
Over the past two decades, many faculty affiliated with the Critical Gender Studies Program (formerly Women’s Studies Program) have dedicated their time and energy to increasing diversity on campus. In the absence of the University’s commitment to supporting and sustaining historically underrepresented groups in general, and women of color in particular, an alarming number of African American and other CGS faculty of color have left the campus in bitter disappointment. An African American CGS faculty who recently left UCSD would lament that in her “Black Feminist Theory” class, she was the only “black feminist” in the room. Another African American CGS faculty, who published an award-winning book in timely fashion, was not tenured due to institutional oversight. She left UCSD to teach at a prestigious university with tenure. Earlier when a large number of CGS faculty were involved in the Coalition Against Segregation in Education (CASE) that rallied against the California’s Proposition 209 under the banner, “No University without Diversity,” the University neglected to publicly issue its commitment to diversity in education. After the offensive campus incident last week and the continuing acts of antagonism, we are now being asked to reach out to the prospective students from historically underrepresented communities to assure them that the recent display of hostility is not representative of UCSD. But some of us have been struggling against these conditions long enough to know that this is hardly unusual. At the same time, as faculty affiliated with a program that has managed to grow despite these serious setbacks, we are also aware that much can be accomplished with the concerted efforts and commitment of our students, staff and faculty mobilized for the consistent administrative leadership.
As faculty teaching in CGS, we are keenly aware of the intersecting oppressions many UCSD students face on a daily basis and we know how important it is to have programs like ours, giving all students the theoretical tools to analyze and challenge these structures. There are too few spaces on this campus that offer safety and support in an often alienating climate and we want to emphasize the amazing work done by the Cross Cultural, LGBTR and Women’s Centers. These centers were created due to student pressure and the recent events show how important they and their commitment to intersectional politics still are. We are proud, though not surprised, that again students are taking the lead in pushing for a livable campus climate for all and we fully support their demands.
Symbolic gestures disavowing racism and misogyny will not usher in the changes necessary to achieve our highest aspirations in public education. The CGS Program faculty invites the entire campus community to support the University in its effort to implement the demands of our students and colleagues and immediately commit concrete institutional resources towards bringing forth substantial structural changes to UCSD.
The UC San Diego student who hung a noose inside a campus library has been suspended from the university. Chancellor Mary Anne Fox says it’s one example of how the university is taking actions to quell racial tensions.
Police say the female student hung a noose from a bookcase inside the Geisel Library. Campus police are not classifying it as a hate crime, but there are saying the noose was left with the intent to terrorize.
It’s another racially-charged incident since a group of students took part in the so-called Compton Cookout party. Fox told students at a campus demonstration that her highest priority is their safety.
“We need to come together and stand together strongly. I pledge to you that we will create a campus climate that students will know that this university that respects them and their communities,” Fox said.
Minority students took over Fox’s office on Friday to demand change. Fox says she is taking actions based on a list of student demands from UCSD’s Black Student Union. One of her actions is the creation of a task force to help bolster outreach and recruitment strategies for minority students. Other actions include:
Charging a permanent taskforce to review and enhance outreach programs and identify recruitment strategies to attract minority faculty. Associate Vice Chancellor of Faculty Equity and the Faculty Equity Advisors will serve as the core of this committee.
Creation of a Campus Climate Commission modeled after UCLA’s recent efforts to address declines in African-American enrollments
Continue to fund the Faculty-Student Mentor Programs; fund the vacant Program Coordinator position in the African American Studies Minor; continue to provide funding within the Chancellor’s Diversity Office
Currently identifying a space for an African-American Resource Center on campus
Currently identifying appropriate, central locations for cultural art
Chancellor and campus leaders to meet with the chair and vice chair of the Black Student Union at least once every academic quarter.
4:59pm UPDATE: Chancellor Fox has just issued a video statement. Click HERE to view it.
3:49pm UPDATE: According to UCSD police, no second noose has been found. Apparently it was an unverified rumor that became viral. Things on campus right now are tense to say the least.
3:20pm UPDATE: Report of 2nd noose found at UCSD in Warren College on bear statue. An RA called it in (more details to follow).
2:25pm UPDATE: In sympathy with students of color at UCSD, black students at UCLA organized a brief sit-in at that school’s administrative headquarters, Murphy Hall, in the hallway outside the office of Chancellor Gene Block. A campus spokesman said about 100 protesters were involved, no one was arrested and there was no damage. It ended after Block went out and talked with the students and expressed concern about the situation at UC San Diego. Students at UC Irvine are also trying to meet with the administration there.
1:05pm UPDATE: C President Yudof’s statement on UCSD noose incident says student who confessed claimed she had two accomplices (see statement below).
12:45 pm UPDATE: Students are now occupying the offices of the UCSD chancellor, as the Black Student Union demands that the university close temporarily due to safety concerns. One report on Twitter suggests that they’ve given the university a 5 pm deadline.
12:00pm UPDATE: Students have now peacefully occupied the Chancellor’s office asking that the administration immediately adopt the BSU’s demands .
10:30am UPDATE: VC Matthews announced a suspect has admitted to participating in placing noose at UCSD Geisel Library. There WERE witnesses (for more scroll below). -J.F.
***
Student admits leaving noose at UCSD – Latest incident has spurred new rallies
Karen Kucher and Steve Schmidt
San Diego Union Tribune, 2.26.2010, 10:31am
SAN DIEGO — Campus police at the University of California San Diego are questioning a student who admitted she hung a noose on the seventh floor of the university library Thursday night.
The incident is the third racially charged episode on the campus in two weeks, and has spurred a new round of rallies.
“This is truly a dark day in the history of this university,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox told students gathered along Library Walk. “It’s abhorrent and untenable.”
The noose was found hanging from a bookcase of the Geisel Library at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, and the student called at 9 a.m. Friday to confess, according to vice chancellor Gary Mattews.
“It’s someone who didn’t think that leaving a noose was an issue,” he said.
Authorities are classifying the crime as “hanging a noose with the intent to terrorize.”
At the new rally, about 300 students and others gathered near the Price Center. Some speakers read poetry, while others made speeches. Many made heartfelt pleas for racial unity and also asked students not to respond in kind.
“This is something that matters. This is something that affects all of us,” said sophomore Sharon Seegers.
Deirdre Vernon, who works on staff in policy and records administration, told the gathered students, “We are behind you and we support you 100 percent. You are loved, no matter what they hang, no matter what they burn.”
Melanie Leon, a junior studying political science who transferred to UCSD this year, said she saw a picture of the noose Friday night in a text message sent to someone at a student meeting she attended.
“I was very upset. I asked campus police to escort me to my car. It is a really awful experience to be threatened on your own campus,” Leon said.
Leon, who is Latina, said she feels threatened and fearful because of the racial tensions on campus.
“I’m in awe that people can be so hurtful and so vicious,” she said. “I don’t know if that is their idea of a joke or not, but those of us that are being affected by this, we take this very seriously.”
The racial turmoil was sparked by an off-campus party Feb. 15, dubbed the “Compton Cookout,” that mocked Black History Month, and by a subsequent show on a student-run TV station that supported the party and called blacks ungrateful, using a racial slur. A piece of cardboard was found at the TV studio with “Compton lynching” written on it.
Minority students on campus declared a racial “state of emergency” on Feb. 19 and met with campus administrators. They presented four pages of demands, most of which targeted improving the racial climate on campus. One demand was for a safe haven on campus for blacks who feel threatened or intimidated.
On Wednesday, members of the Black Student Union and their supporters walked out of an administration-organized teach-in at the Price Center focused on combating institutional racism. The students also staged a roving protest.
African-Americans make up less than 2 percent of undergraduates on the La Jolla campus.
Police are questioning other witnesses, in addition to the student who came forward. They asked anyone with information to call (858) 534-4359 or e-mail detective@ucsd.edu.
***
Protesters take over UCSD’s Chancellor’s office – they are outraged over latest episode, a noose hanging at the library
Steve Schmidt, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/26/2010, 2:23pm
SAN DIEGO — Student protesters have taken over the offices of University of California San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox as a third racially charged episode has brought a new wave of outrage.
Students are protesting atop desks and countertops throughout Fox’s suite, except for her own sanctum. They are chanting, “Real pain, real change.” Some are playing drums.
Fox has twice addressed students today, once outside the library where a noose was found last night and once in a eucalyptus grove outside her office. Students remain upset with the pace of the administration’s response to their demand for action over ongoing racial strife.
“You can’t imagine how pained we are, we are heartsick,” Vice Chancellor Penny Rue told the students on a bullhorn.
Campus police are questioning a student who admitted she hung the noose on the seventh floor of the university library, on the west side of aisle three, which faces the windows.
“This is truly a dark day in the history of this university,” Fox told students gathered earlier along Library Walk. “It’s abhorrent and untenable.”
The noose was found hanging from a bookcase of the Geisel Library at 10:30 p.m. last night, and the student called at 9 a.m. today to confess, according to vice chancellor Gary Mattews.
“It’s someone who didn’t think that leaving a noose was an issue,” he said.
Authorities are classifying the crime as “hanging a noose with the intent to terrorize.”
At a morning rally, about 300 students and others gathered near the Price Center. Some speakers read poetry, while others made speeches. Many made heartfelt pleas for racial unity and also asked students not to respond in kind.
“This is something that matters. This is something that affects all of us,” said sophomore Sharon Seegers.
Deirdre Vernon, who works on staff in policy and records administration, told the gathered students, “We are behind you and we support you 100 percent. You are loved, no matter what they hang, no matter what they burn.”
Melanie Leon, a junior studying political science who transferred to UCSD this year, said she saw a picture of the noose Friday night in a text message sent to someone at a student meeting she attended.
“I was very upset. I asked campus police to escort me to my car. It is a really awful experience to be threatened on your own campus,” Leon said.
Leon, who is Latina, said she feels threatened and fearful because of the racial tensions on campus.
“I’m in awe that people can be so hurtful and so vicious,” she said. “I don’t know if that is their idea of a joke or not, but those of us that are being affected by this, we take this very seriously.”
The racial turmoil was sparked by an off-campus party Feb. 15, dubbed the “Compton Cookout,” that mocked Black History Month, and by a subsequent show on a student-run TV station that supported the party and called blacks ungrateful, using a racial slur. A piece of cardboard was found at the TV studio with “Compton lynching” written on it.
Minority students on campus declared a racial “state of emergency” on Feb. 19 and met with campus administrators. They presented four pages of demands, most of which targeted improving the racial climate on campus. One demand was for a safe haven on campus for blacks who feel threatened or intimidated.
On Wednesday, members of the Black Student Union and their supporters walked out of an administration-organized teach-in at the Price Center focused on combating institutional racism. The students also staged a roving protest.
African-Americans make up less than 2 percent of undergraduates on the La Jolla campus.
Police are questioning other witnesses, in addition to the student who came forward. They asked anyone with information to call (858) 534-4359 or e-mail detective@ucsd.edu.
For parts 1-9 of the video reports of this morning’s protests and the subsequent chancellor’s complex occupation, click HERE.
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Below, I am posting emails from people I’ve been receiving.-J.F.
***
We are in a state of emergency my friends. Latest news is that a NOOSE was found hanging on the 7th floor of Geisel Library. People ask whats the big deal? Why is everyone so upset? I’ll tell you why take note of this exerpt in the autobiography of Angelo Herndon titled “Let Me Live”:
“I know many stories about Negroes who were lynched on no more just provocation than this. Sometimes the lynch mobs need neither provocation nor excuse to carry on their bestial orgies. Often I used to read with horror about the lynching of some Negro worker in the South. The most gruesome, the most disgusting lynching story I ever heard was that which concerned Hayes and Mary turner, Negro sharecroppers in Georgia. They were pauperized and their landlord had tried to rob them of everything they had produced on their land with the toil of their hands and the seat of their brows. The share cropper was man enough to stand up for his rights. He demanded that the farm products be divided equally, as had been agreed upon at the beginning of the year. The landlord grew violently abusive. He threatened him and said he would “fix” him. Terrified out of his wits, for he knew that his landlord would not stop at anything to revenge himself, Hayes Turner tried to make a quite getaway. But his landlord had not allowed grass to grow on his track. He quickly organized a posse of hooligans and the most disreputable elements in the community and gave chase to the runaway. The posse, led by the County Sheriff, caught up with Hayes Turner at the fork of the road near Barney. THEY STRUNG HIM UP ON A TREE AT WAYSIDE WHERE HE HUNG FOR TWO DAYS. Hysterical and grief-stricken, Mrs. Turner was heard to remark that she would have the lynchers arrested. When the lynch mob heard of her determination they decided they were going to teach her a lesson for such a presumption. Although she was in the eighth month of her pregnancy, THEY STRUNG HER TO A TREE AND BROKE HER NECK. THEY HANGED HER BY HER FEET AND POURED GASOLINE OVER HER. As she burned, the mob howled with glee. Then one maniac, wielding a hog-splitting knife, RIPPED HER BELLY OPEN AND THE LITTLE INFANT FELL OUT. ONE OF THE LYNCHERS STAMPED THE INFANT WITH HIS HOBNAILED SHOES INTO THE EARTH. Then the mob, driven with wild bestiality, began to howl like wolves and in their criminal sadism fired hundreds of bullets into her lifeless body.”
This my friends is the BIG DEAL. This my friends is what a noose symbolizes and if the individual that put this up or the individuals that agree with that person putting this noose up for everyone to see agrees then they are perpetuating this very act of violence and genocide of a group of human beings. So now its time to mobilize MORE THAN EVER before. It is time to come together in solidarity and struggle. Tomorrow 8am library walk WEAR ALL BLACK AND BE READY TO HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD!!!!!!!
Love and Solidarity,
Desiree Prevo, UCSD ’11
***
Dear all,
Please call on Chancellor Fox to declare a state of emergency and shut down the campus. Last night, a group of Black students had to spend the night at the Cross because they feared for their lives if they were going to try to make it home. This is NOT a university. Students should not fear for their lives while going to school.
It is fundamentally wrong that students and faculty of color have had to labor around the clock this past week, putting aside their study, their research, their teaching, their writing, while the rest of the campus continue as usual. It is fundamentally unfair. Who will give them back the lost hours? Who will compensate them for their always-uncompensated and unrecognized labor, in this case to birth an institution that is truly a place of LEARNING, in the most profound sense of that word.
We call on all of you–students, staff, faculty, union reps, librarians, and ESPECIALLY ADMINISTRATORS–to share in this labor.
Prof. Yen Espiritu, Chair, Dept. of Ethnic Studies
***
Dear Chancellor Fox:
As a Full Professor who has spent her whole 20-year career at UCSD, as Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, and as a woman faculty of color who has faced many indignities over the years, I write to ask you to exercise your leadership today to declare a state of emergency and close down the campus–in recognition of the shattered state that the campus is in.
Since the “Compton Cookout” incident, many students and faculty of color and their allies have devoted countless hours to do your/our job of teaching about racism on campus and of ensuring that UCSD lives up to its mission as a place of learning–in the most profound sense of that word.
Their labor–physical, mental, emotional, intellectual–goes uncompensated, unrecognized, and even mocked by the largely apathetic UCSD community. Because they have had to put aside their study, their teaching, their research, their writing, to do the university work, they will again bear the brunt of the costs of being at a university that views “diversity”, at best, as a benign celebration of multiculturalism and “economic empowerment.”
As many of us face down today in the shadow of a noose, we ask that you share in this labor and that you ask the ENTIRE community at UCSD to share in this labor. To not do so will be to benefit, once again, from the labor of the marginalized and maligned at UCSD.
Every crisis can bring forth great change. You have an opportunity to participate in this movement of change in a real and fundamental way. Please do so, or we risk a campus that will be deeply divided for years to come. The campus will be shut down, one way or another. It’d be in our best interest that you are the one to shut it down.
Sincerely,
Yen Le Espiritu, Chair, Dept. of Ethnic Studies
***
In response to the noose that was found in the library, I believe that all faculty should stage a solidarity strike today. The admin will quickly condemn “the noose incident” and repeat Chancellor Fox’s statement recent statements reaffirming that the University values African American and minority students and respects the communities from which they come. That is excellent.
But this is different.
We need to make OUR pain THEIR pain.
The large number of students and professors who do not yet get it need to be as inconvenienced as we feel threatened by this act. Exam time is coming round. Let them understand what it is to study in the shadow of a noose. We need to escalate this beyond Library Walk and take it into the classroom. If the students cannot attend lectures and concentrate in class study because they are hurting and angry, THEN NEITHER CAN WE TEACH IN THE SHADOW OF A NOOSE.
We should gather on Library Walk and march across campus with all students who join us. We should choose a route that will take us to the natural sciences. We should stamp our feet and chant and boom and echo in the corridors of York Hall and Peterson Hall and everywhere else that large Bio classes are taking place.
Let us meet on Library Walk asap. But we must take this further. Anxiety about disrupted classes and the coming exams are NOT the preserve of studious but uninvolved students. The magnificent leadership that has compelled this campus to recognize our common humanity are as committed and concerned about their studies as any other student on campus. We cannot sell them out. Not now! We cannot isolate them as noisy protesters who are not really interested in hard academic work.
Many of you have been around long enough to know that universities always land on their feet. Even in South Africa, where unremitting educational strikes were the norm for more than a decade, compromises were worked out in the end and students took (modified) exams and graduated. None of this will happen here. Our students will take their exams in the normal way. Nor am I suggesting that we should rise to each and every race-baiting insult on campus. But this is a non-negotiable moment to make our moral outrage clear. We should also force the admin to feel the PRACTICAL inconvenience of studying and teaching under protest and in conditions of fear. A culture of fear iis a moral threat for the oppressed. Let us make it at least make it a practical inconvenience for bystanders and the institution’s minders.
We need, too, to make it clear that this is a glimpse of the future. Racism, arrogance and cruel bigotry will run rampant when privatization and the “restructuring” of universities will expunge citizen-students of colour from campus. Who will assemble the masses on the steps of Price Center when the number of black students is pared down close to zero and study in the shadow of another noose? Who will rescue this university from the same shameful apathy that brought us to this crisis–and which will return as soon as we drop our guard? We need to save the university from its innermost self, which is where apathy, routinized indifference and racial resentment remain deeply rooted. We need to say clearly, this noose threaten not just us, but the university.
The noose shows how this week and next week are connected. This week we said, “we are moved” to fight for our rights. Next weeek says, “We shalll not be re-moved!” from this campus. These two movements are organically bonded. This is what the noose has done. It has tethered the university’s functioning to our anger. That is what we need to make clear to the mass of students and to the university: racism and hatred are a generalized threat to the entire UCSD.
Bring UCSD to a grinding halt. I recommend that we meet on Library Walk, quickly caucus with the BSU and its allies, go on strike and stage marches that cannot be ignored.
Prof. Ivan Evans, Dept. of Sociology
***
Here are some pictures of this morning’s protest in response to the noose incident (this was organized in seven hours) . -J.F.
Here’s a link to a great interview that aired this morning on KPBS with Glynda Davis (Assistant Chancellor of Diversity), Sara Clarke Kaplan (Assistant Professor of Ethnic and Gender Studies) and Andrea Guerrero (ACLU San Diego Field & Policy Director). This is really worth a listen.-J.F.
Click HERE to listen to the interview, download it in mp3 or to read the transcripts.
The event was held in response to two recent racial incidents. But minority students don’t believe the university will take significant steps to boost their numbers or improve conditions, one said.
by: Larry Gordon, LA Times, 2/25/10
Reporting from San Diego – A student walkout Wednesday disrupted a UC San Diego teach-in that was intended to promote tolerance in the wake of two recent racially charged incidents. Many of those involved said the protest showed how difficult it will be for the beachside campus to overcome long-standing concerns about the small number of African American students enrolled there.
More than 1,200 students, faculty and staff packed an auditorium in the student center for the teach-in, which campus administrators organized in response to the incidents, including an off-campus party Feb. 15 that mocked Black History Month.
But halfway through the planned two-hour session, hundreds of students walked out.
The students, who were joined by many others during the afternoon, held their own noisy but peaceful rally outside the building, calling on UC San Diego leaders to improve conditions for minority students and boost their numbers.
Administrators may have thought the teach-in “would make us quiet,” said Fnann Keflezighi, vice chairwoman of the Black Student Union. But she said minority students do not believe that the university will take significant steps to improve the situation. The controversial party, she and others contended, was just the spark that ignited long-simmering ethnic tensions on the campus.
We are mad at the system that we feel has repressed us. We want to be free, we want to overcome, we want to win. But we cannot fight for freedom and peace, because the very nature of a fight precludes both freedom and peace—in fact, it perpetuates the cycle of oppression. It necessitates that one party prevail over another, and in that scenario, both sides feel threatened and react accordingly. Fighting against something merely serves to reinforce it. What is called for, then, what pounds in our hearts and brings us flocking together, is a yearning for awareness. A shift in consciousness.
Suss it out. On what level does the issue exist? It is a matter of human emotion and how we choose to express our feelings. Is this Warfare, or Welfare?
Discrimination is supposed to be illegal, but how can we prosecute perception? We have arrived at the reality of how people treat each other. This is about human rights and it’s inextricable from any other inconsideration committed by one person against another. Repression, crime, and war are all symbolic of the isolation of the psyche, just as coming together to create a movement for positive change is symbolic of the connection of the soul.
Over the course of history we have won many battles, only to keep fighting. This is the human condition. We are all hurt. We’ve got to stop fighting and start feeling. To truly succeed in making a change, we must first cultivate a deeper awareness of the atmosphere we are creating…we must infuse ourselves with compassion, understanding, and acceptance. (This is the only state of mind in which we can actually LIVE, not just visit on the weekends.)
Secret to destroying the enemy? Love it to death. In the light of love, the enemy disappears. It is only our own shadow that prevents us from seeing each other and treating each other as equals. It’s a collective effort that must be taken personally; we can only be responsible for our own emotions and emissions. Keep an open heart.
With my deepest respect and appreciation,
Gina Tang
Office of Student Wellness, UCSD
Click HERE to access the Live Well: UC San Diego blog.
As members of the Theatre and Dance community we actively condemn the so-called “Compton Cookout” party organized by UCSD students and the subsequent racially charged performance aired by TheKoala on SCTV. We call on the UCSD administration to take all means necessary to prevent these types of acts from taking place in the future. As scholars and practitioners of theater and performance we recognize that there is an intimate link between these racist performances and the historical popularity of blackface minstrelsy in the United States. A multitude of theater scholars have argued that this tradition, which originated in the 19th century, was used as a medium to turn white anxiety surrounding the threat of free blacks into mockery and entertainment. Although the invitation to the “Compton Cookout” reads as if the organizers were the clever inventors of blackface, racist stereotype, and colonialist mimicry, blackface minstrelsy is actually considered the first form of American theater. In other words, this was the first theater developed in the US that was neither indigenous performance nor directly imported from Europe. This tradition, and its perpetuation well into the 20th century, relies on the performance of a collection of images, sounds and embodied acts that are imagined to signify “blackness.”
This history therefore underscores the way in which “blackness” is divorced from black bodies and performed by any number of bodies (including whites, Asians, Latinos and blacks), much as one would perform other characters. However, for African Americans, unlike playing a character in a play, one does not cease being seen as black even outside the world of the performance, and the negative, buffoonish qualities of the character are in turn ascribed to the body being signified. While the performance of any kind of stereotype should be critically examined, there is a particularly charged history of the performance of blacks by non-blacks, particularly when the intended result is laughter at their expense. While many kinds of comedy rely on the use of stereotypes, they should always be understood in an historical relationship to power.
Furthermore, we are concerned about the way in which the primary metaphors of “acting” and “performing” have been invoked in defenses of the “Compton Cookout” as “harmless fun.” Much like the director of a play, the organizers encouraged attendees to take on the looks and actions that reflected their view of residents of Compton or “the ghetto.” Following an explicit list of desired characteristics, the Facebook invitation reads, “ The objective is for all you lovely ladies to look, act, and essentially take on these “respectable” qualities throughout the day.” Despite emphasis on the fact that this party was “make-believe,” and therefore billed as “inoffensive,” there remained an interest in depicting the “real.” Before the misogynist and dehumanizing description of what “Compton girls” supposedly look like, the invitation welcomes the unknowing reader, “For those of you who don’t know what ghetto chicks act like,” as if to clarify any misconceptions and to set the record straight. Literally scripting the scenario by providing words (“constipulated”) and limiting what can be said (“Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary”), the directions for performing “ghetto chicks” seems to rely on other embodied mimetic qualities (“making noises, such as “hmmg!” or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises, grunts, and faces”). Finally, the young men organizing this event seem to be aware of one of the other crucial elements of performance: the audience. Apparently unconcerned about how their party might be received by more distant audiences, they trusted that their guests would be an approving and contented audience. However, as theater scholars and practitioners we hold that even if someone performs a stereotype for amusement and without any mal-intent, that person cannot control what their performance leads others to believe about those depicted in the stereotype. It is precisely stereotypes like those invoked in the invitation that lead to the belief that most African Americans, and especially African American women, are lazy, inarticulate, vulgar, and not to be respected.
Performances of any kind, whether on a stage, in film, in daily life, or at a theme party, invoke the act of representation. Any act of representation always involves aesthetic and performative choices of what to represent and what to leave unrepresented. Therefore no act of representation is ever purely objective, or simply an unmediated reflection of “reality.” Conversely, just because something is depicted in the space of performance, it does not mean that it is entirely detached from any real-life significance. Additionally, while there is a long tradition of anti-theatrical prejudice born out of the moralizing of art, and we do not wish to reproduce this here, we wish to point to the important intersection between aesthetics and ethics. The dismissal of ethical concern in favor of aesthetic choices can be socially irresponsible and reflects the need for critical examination of all acts of performance, both within and outside of a theatrical space.
As faculty, graduate students and staff, we understand that recent events like the “Compton Cookout” and The Koala’s insensitive and bigoted interventions in the name of “humor” could be potentially prevented in the future through education not only about theater history but also about the theories of comedy, the language of performance, and the power of embodied representation. Classes that provide this understanding should be valued by the university and should be taught regularly. Finally, we endorse the Black Student Union’s list of demands and insist that the Chancellor and the UCSD administration work to rectify the embarrassingly small percentage of undergraduates of color that attend our school. The incidents of the last week are not isolated examples, but rather they speak to the need for deep-rooted and broad reaching changes in our classrooms as well as on an institutional level.
Julie Burrelle, Maritxell Carrero, Kyle Donnely, Rai Genna, Nadine George, Jorge Huerta, grace shinhae jun, Lily Ketling, Gabriel Lawrence, Ursula Meyer, Irugu Mutu, Carolyn Passeneau, Lisa Porter, Jade Power, Heather Ramey, Patricia Rincon, Megan Robinson, John Rouse, Emily Roxworthy, Rana Salimi, Rebecca Salzer, Janet Smarr, Terry Sprague, Jessica Watkins, Terry Wilson, Shahrokh Yadegari, Aimee Zygmonski
Here’s an interesting excerpt from a story that KPBS just did on the ‘Compton Cookout.’ -J.F.
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.
There are three sides to the current state of emergency that has been declared—but not initiated—by students of color and their allies at UCSD: (1) The first are those students of color and their allies who face the difficult and unwanted task of legitimizing and articulating their trauma in light of the current racist activity on and off campus; (2) the second are the defenders of a status quo that excludes black students and trivializes their response to the recent racist actions on and off campus; (3) the third group consists of a student body, faculty, and administration uncertain about what side to take and how far to go in their response to the current crisis.
We are not concerned with the second group here. Those defenders of the status quo have a fairly predictable task. As defenders of an entrenched hegemonic order, they have a safe and privileged role to perform in the current crisis: they will continue to hide behind legal rights, such as free speech, to justify actions and rhetoric that prolongs a long history of racism in which black culture and heritage is treated as their private property. They do not deserve our attention here because they feed on negative press and the further incitement toward controversy.
This letter, rather, is written in alliance with the first group. Our demands are aimed at the UCSD administration and those members of the third audience who face the current situation at UCSD and who have a choice.
We, the undersigned graduate students, occupy a somewhat removed vantage point on campus life, but that does not preclude us from making demands in alliance with our black brothers and sisters. We are teachers, students, and friends of undergraduate and graduate students of color. In these roles, we have seen the burden that is now placed on black students and their allies as they try to legitimize their feelings to an audience who is confused about the problem and its associated discussions.
With scant resources and limited mentors on the UCSD campus, the marginalized 1.3 % and their allies have an enormous weight to carry. Even as we write, this unwanted weight is taking its emotional, academic, and physical toll on these students. Black students and their allies face the disproportionate task of balancing their academic work and social lives with the real radical demand to articulate their experience in a racialized environment. In the context of this state of emergency, the need to articulate their experience has become their main priority. They must miss classes. Their work must suffer. They must stay up for nights on end strategizing together as an excluded and unwanted community rather than studying as peers. While taking this necessary action in the name of their academic and human rights, they face the threat of physical and psychic assault from the campus community. They face the fear that their experiences are not legitimate in the eyes of their peers, teachers, and the administration. More distressingly, they face physical threats from supremacist groups and individuals on campus.
In light of these demands placed on black students and other students of color, we ask that the following demands be met this quarter:
• Counseling for students affected by the current state of emergency: We ask for the temporary hiring of more counseling staff, particularly black counselors, who can speak with students who face the emotionally and physically draining task of articulating their situation.
• Extensions on all academic work: Students who are struggling with the radical burden of articulating their experience cannot be academically penalized. If students are academically punished for their actions in the current state of emergency, we will consider it a form of racial violence enacted on the part of the administration.
• Classroom autonomy: Graduate students who elect to speak about these issues and the March 4th Day of Action should not be prevented from or penalized for taking a stance, regardless of the official position of the program.
• Creation of a pool of resources at the Center for Teaching Development: Undergraduate and graduate students from a wide variety of disciplines, regardless of whether they work as Teaching Assistants, need to have access to reference materials to use to facilitate productive discussions in the classroom about these issues.
Our purpose here is to intervene and implement changes in the short term for the successful completion of winter quarter, addressing specific needs we see in our capacity as graduate students who also work as Teaching Assistants on campus. We are also in solidarity with the long-term demands made by the Black Student Union, Department of Ethnic Studies, and other letters that have been published. We are greatly inspired by the mobilization of our undergraduate students and look forward to the realization of these changes that have been demanded.
Sincerely,
Concerned Graduate Students and Teaching Assistants
[This is an extract of a letter I sent to the Chancellor and Prof. Paul Drake}:
February 21, 2010 10:17:29 PM PST
Dear ——-:
…The hornest’s nest that has been stirred this week seems to have had opposite, but equally distressing effects on African American students. Some vowed this weekend not to quit but to “endure” and complete their degree here, “no matter what they do to stop us”. Others said that they intend to transfer to Berkeley, UCLA “or even Santa Barbara” if they remain unhappy this year. Only half jokingly, the latter said that they would present themselves to the other UCs as “political refugees”. They are confident only when they are together, they said, but feel menaced and vulnerable when walking alone on campus. These are absolutely astonishing sentiments by any measure. At the meeting, the representative of an outside mental health organization offered her company’s services to students who seem strained to the breaking point. Again, remaining engaged with these students has fallen to a small number of faculty and TAs, in part because the students report that they are disaffected with the administration.
It is against this backdrop that I want to echo what students are saying and record my own disgust, and the growing anger of others, with the near lily-white composition of the personnel who comprise the university’s public face, the one that is most clear and immediate to undergraduates. Having resisted the notion for years, I am now increasingly of the opinion that the racial monopoly over senior administrative positions is not accidental but seems to be the product of something that is inscrutably systematic and even sinister. We have watched the administration almost go out of its way to circumvent suitable minority candidates to appoint white colleagues in ways that, I feel sure, would not withstand scrutiny at the the two flagship universities within the UC system–were such racial effrontery ever attempted at those two illustrious peers in an age when no self-respecting state institution openly flaunts racial domination. The failure to de-racialize the university administration can no longer be attributed to factors such as the conservative weight that the hard sciences enjoy at this campus. And so the endlessly repeated promise to “promote diversity” is now greeted as mere cant at this campus. These ritual incantations to “diversity” are now also viewed as insults, as something that the administration knows that it can and regularly does get away with. Appalling statistics annually confirm the resultant “hostile campus climate” that minority students often refer to and which drives away minority faculty. Hence, the simmering disillusionment amongst undergraduates about this issue now resonates amongst minority faculty as well.
And now there is talk that some of the students who were involved in the past week’s events might or should be expelled. Certainly, the connection between what appears to be a predominantly “Whites Only” administration at UCSD and the “Compton Cookout” affair is neither linear nor singular–permutations of other factors are at play as well. Still, one reason why I am reluctant to support calls for the expulsion of students who seem to have clearly violated university codes, and engaged in criminal behavior to boot, is that these acts were perpetrated in an institution that has never placed “diversity” issues at the top of its agenda. Everybody knows this, but few have seriously challenged the quotidian rhetoric that the university administration devotes to the issue. Expulsion is therefore too easy a solution. However justifiable, expelling guilty students smacks of scapegoating.
Stunned observers on and off this campus are slowly grasping a bitter truth: the university administration’s flaccid commitment to “diversity” has emboldened some students to behave as they did this past week. The rhetoric they employed–”Niggers should be grateful we let them in here”–expressed in vulgar form what the university’s own tepid “diversity” policies have been suggesting for a long time: “this is not a fundamental issue for us”. This is how I responded when the current whites-only Council of Provosts issued its well-intended but ironic statement, “Condemnation of Off-Campus Party and Affirmation of Principles of Community”. The university would no doubt like to, and in my opinion, should turn to senior and familiar African American office-bearers to present the administration’s response to race-baiting students. But it cannot because no such person seems to exists. This is astonishing. The path to redemption for the university begins with conceding telling points such as this.
Precisely because there is such a dearth of trust between the students and the administration, an adversarial relationship has opened up when instinctive unity between the two in the face of loathsome KKK behavior would seem obvious. Students have therefore taken on the burden of organizing meaningful events that will not just stabilize but, they hope, substantially transform the university. The task is Herculean because the problem’s roots are decades old and deeply sunk in the marrow of UCSD.
The greatest safeguard that UCSD can devise for itself is to elevate rhetoric about “diversity” into the guiding and non-negotiable principle of internal reform. Anything less will court disaster for this institution.
Sincerely,
Ivan Evans
Assoc Prof
Sociology Dept
UC San Diego
The problem is not (just) the party. The problem is the party line.
An open letter to the UC San Diego community
Dear us,
First and foremost, we should all commend the Black Student Union and its many allies across the spectrum of student organizations (including fraternities/sororities), for the dignity with which you have faced the recent onslaught of racist provocations. You are turning personal insult into a push for structural changes that are sorely needed at our university. You fight not only for the benefit of African-American students, but for all our common good. You are continuing a tradition of UC San Diego student activism dating at least as far back as 1968. You honor us. I hope our university will honor you back.
That said, I’m not writing to condemn the PIKE party. I’m writing to condemn the university’s party line.
University officials have been quick to the condemn the party, and even quicker to point out that it happened “off campus.” The party line is one of shock and horror, as if prior to last weekend, this institution was a model of diversity and racial justice. We repeat buzzwords like “mutual respect” and “diversity” and “community” until they are empty of meaning. The party line is to individualize a racist system to a few “racists,” and to isolate the event as a freak occurrence at UCSD. This party line says: Let’s go after a few fraternity boys, and then go back to business as usual.
What is business as usual?
We have a 1.3% African-American student enrollment, not simply because of poor admissions, but because admitted students don’t choose to come to UCSD. Only about 13% of admitted African-American students come to UCSD (compare to 44% at UCLA). This information comes directly from the “Yield Report” – a 2007 UCSD Final Report from the Advisory Committee on Increasing Yield of Underrepresented Students. The Yield Report actually provided multiple strategies for improving campus climate, and for increasing the number of underrepresented students. These recommendations have by-and-large NOT been implemented despite 2 years of research and 3 years of reading time.
Business as usual means that for the last 30 years our university has refused to repatriate Native American human remains found on the ancient burial ground (on top of which the Chancellor’s house now stands). This outright defies federal law and treaty rights. San Diego has the largest number of Native American reservations of any county in the United States, but UCSD has a nearly 0% Native American student body. Why wouldn’t Native American students want to come here? It’s not just because of some frat parties.
All the administrative condemnations of a woefully misconceived fraternity party will not increase African-American enrollment at UC San Diego. All the email links to the “Principles of Community” will not make UC San Diego more diverse. A Chancellor-sponsored Teach-In, however well intentioned, will not lead to systemic change. Even as a symbolic gesture, it is misdirected – enough so that we should teach against this Teach-In.
What exactly does this Teach-In teach?
The Teach-In puts the blame for racism on our students. It exonerates the “teachers” of their role in perpetuating a poor campus climate. If our administration refuses to take responsibility for a toxic campus climate, for our share in the disrespect of African-American, Native American, and other excluded communities, then why would we expect our students to act differently? If our administration deals with collective problems by disavowing individuals, then why would we expect students to act differently? If our administration is silent about its own poor track record in race and community relations, then why would we expect students to act differently?
Furthermore, a two-hour Teach-In trivializes the work of teachers who critically examine race and racism year-round. We teach in History, Ethnic Studies, and Psychology, as well as other programs, departments and colleges, such as Thurgood Marshall’s Dimensions of Culture. In these classes, our students and instructors put in intense intellectual and personal work in struggling with our inheritance of racism, sexism, and classism.
But most importantly, teach-ins are strategies for the powerless, not for people in power. The Chancellor has a wide-range of powers and more than a few resources to commit to improving campus climate. The BSU is rightfully pressuring the administration to administrate, not just talk about, solutions for improving our campus climate.
What should the administration do?
To paraphrase Cornel West, “Young people don’t want to hear a sermon, they want to see a sermon.” It’s time to commit to some real structural changes. We can start with the BSU demands. But if a simpler list is needed, I have some suggestions below.
1) Implement the Yield Report. This report came out 3 years before last week’s frat party. Can the administration take this state of emergency and finally implement the Yield Report recommendations?
2) Put some teeth into the diversity office. Currently, the Chief Diversity Officer is a 50% position with no budget, no staff, and no formal power. Upgrade it to a Vice Chancellorship and equip it with a staff and budget. Such offices at UCLA and UC Berkeley are able to provide material support for research, teaching, and student affairs. They can take a preventive approach to racial incidents on campus. (This recommendation can also be found on page 10 of the Yield Report.) But don’t stop there. Give this office wide reform powers over all units on the campus, and we will gain at least one institutionalized motor for bridging the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of diversity.
3) Fund organizations that support underrepresented students. Right now, student organizations like the SAAC orgs (BSU, MECHA, and others) are doing the work of the administration to recruit, retain, and respect underrepresented students. These student leaders bear a double burden – even as they are assailed by a toxic campus climate, they are also expected to be its antidote. How do we expect to retain our current students if they are mending our university on top of their obligations to schoolwork, jobs, and family? These orgs should be given increased funding for major events such as high school conferences, overnight recruitment events, and graduation ceremonies. (This recommendation is on page 9 of the Yield Report).
4) Create a committed commission on campus climate. No, not a group of Chancellor’s appointees, but a coalition of organizations with a track record of transforming our university. Start with the SAAC orgs, the Campus Centers, and the interdisciplinary departments and programs.
5) Repatriate, Research, and Respect. If diversity is to be more than an empty word, then it has to become part of the fundamental business of universities: research, teaching, and service. Fund collaboratories and cluster hires around indigenous scholarship, black and black diaspora studies, and chicano/latino studies. Develop curriculum and coursework relevant to these areas. (These recommendations are on page 10 of the Yield Report). But don’t stop there. Repatriate the Native remains, the burial grounds, and the Chancellor’s house on it. Let the Kumeyaay decide how they wish to establish a Native peoples’ presence on campus. UCSD would lose an unoccupied house, gain a Native cultural hub, and comply with the law. We might also become a truly attractive option for both established and aspiring Native American scholars.
What should the faculty do?
As departments, programs, divisions, and as the faculty senate, we should formally endorse the BSU demands and the Yield Report recommendations. We should change our admissions policy from comprehensive to holistic. But don’t stop there. Let us create admissions criteria that value local San Diego community knowledge, especially the community intelligence it takes to persevere within structurally disadvantaged schools. We would not only increase campus diversity, but also demonstrate commitment to the local community in these adverse economic times. UC San Diego might yet live up to our namesake.
What can students do?
It is a privilege to teach here at UC San Diego, where I am constantly impressed by our students’ initiative, compassion, and sense of social justice. Stay up, stay strong, and stay righteous. You’re changing this campus.
With respect,
K. Wayne Yang, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies
Affiliated Professor of Urban Studies and Planning
The UCSD Dept. of Ethnic Studies welcomes all thoughtful, informed and reasoned comments to its departmental statements. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of all faculty and graduate students in the department, the Regents of the University of California, or the University of California, San Diego. Please post your comments on its blog HERE.
As faculty and graduate students in the Ethnic Studies Department at UC-San Diego, we unequivocally condemn the February 15th off-campus party, dubbed the “Compton Cookout,” as an example of racist, classist and misogynist stereotyping that degrades Black people through disparaging representations of so-called “African American culture.” Like similar events thrown on college and university campuses across the United States, this “theme party” in one quick, broad stroke reduced the complex lived experience of a heterogeneous racialized community to a caricatured depiction of cultural deviancy. All the more troubling, this particular themed party was intentionally organized to mock ongoing celebrations of African American History month in the U.S. and specifically here at UC San Diego.
This “monstrosity” (as some of the organizers called it) has a violent and racist history that began with blackface minstrel shows in the U.S., starting in the early 19th century, heightening with popularity during the Abolition Movement, and extending into 20th century theater and film. Both blackface minstrel performances and parties such as the “Compton Cookout” reinforce and magnify existing material and discursive structures of Black oppression, while denying Black people any sense of humanity, negating not only the actual lives that exist behind these caricatured performances but the structural conditions that shape Black life in the US. Far from celebrating Black history, events such as this one are marked celebrations of the play of power characteristic of whiteness in general and white minstrelsy in particular: the ability to move in and move out of a racially produced space at will; the capacity to embody a presumed deviance without actually ever becoming or being it; the privilege to revel in this raced and gendered alterity without ever having to question or encounter the systemic and epistemic violence that produces hierarchies of difference in the first place. Moreover, like their blackface minstrel predecessors, the organizers and attendees of the “Compton Cookout” demonstrate the inextricability of performances of white mastery over Black bodies from structures of patriarchy: by instructing their women ‘guests’ on how to dress (“wear cheap clothes”), behave (“start fights and drama”), and speak (“have a very limited vocabulary”), these young men not only paint a degrading and dehumanizing picture of African American women as so-called “ghetto chicks,” but offer a recipe for the objectification of all women—made permissible, once again, through the appropriation of blackness.
by: Angela Chen (The Guardian, UCSD); posted 2/22/10
Two words aired on Student-Run Television Thursday night brought UCSD into the national spotlight — and into yet another campus free-speech debate. After Kris Gregorian, editor in chief of humor newspaper the Koala, said that protestors of last week’s controversial “Compton Cookout” party were “ungrateful niggers” on Channel 18, the Black Student Union declared a “State of Emergency” and issued a six-page list of demands to the university.
In response to the outrage — expressed principally by the black population at UCSD, or about 1.3 percent of 22,000 undergraduates — A.S. President Utsav Gupta immediately shut down SRTV. Then, on Friday afternoon, he unexpectedly decided to freeze all student fees toward media organizations.
Click HERE to read the rest of the article (it’s worth reading since it contains detailed information that hasn’t come out in the mainstream press coverage).
These just came out. The originals (w/ online comments) can be viewed HERE.-J.F.
***
Dear Editor,
We submit that the so-called “Compton Cookout” incident has less to do with the racist culture of a particular fraternity or the Greek system in general (although that is certainly a factor) than it does with long-standing structural problems at UCSD — lack of a critical mass of faculty and students of color, generic (specific, community-neutral) approaches to improving campus climate, a very low profile and poorly funded African-American and Chicano studies curricular programs, etc. Together all of these institutional weaknesses produce a campus climate that emboldens the kind of racism we saw in the language and proposed activities of the “Compton Cookout.”
We urge the administration to avoid psychological interpretations of the incident. Individual behavior and attitudes are not the primary source of the problem. It will not be enough to oppose racist speech with “more speech,” with lessons about the limits of satire or even with well intentioned but ultimately symbolic campaigns such as the proposed “Not in Our Community” initiative.
This incident, and the potential for others in the future, should convince campus policymakers that serious structural changes are long overdue. In our opinion, the administration should take immediate action and 1) commit to permanent and substantial funding and staffing for the African American Studies Minor, 2) establish an Organized Research Unit to conduct research on local communities of color that are underrepresented at UCSD, 3) create a task force to study the desirability of rotating public art installations linked to underrepresented minority communities (preferably local) and 4) reorganize the office of the Chief Diversity Officer in order to facilitate the writing of a campuswide plan for addressing campus climate with a focus on how climate affects specific groups.
We understand that in a time of budgetary constraints, some of these proposed solutions will be difficult to implement. And yet these kinds of changes ought to receive the highest priority if we are to believe Chancellor Marye Anne Fox when she says the campus has a serious commitment to diversity. What is undeniable is that UCSD must change what it has been doing on the diversity front up until now. It’s simply not working.
— Jorge Mariscal
Professor, Literature Department
— Patrick Velasquez
Director, Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services
***
Dear Editor,
The university was right to condemn the “Compton Cookout” party. It was both insulting to the African-American community, and degrading to UCSD’s image. But the administration’s response to this racist off-campus event ignores one of UCSD’s most embarrassing, racist, on-campus publications: the Koala.
The Koala, notorious for its humorless and unintelligent satire, takes every opportunity to insult minorities of every race, religion and orientation. Though their offensive rants are largely unread and ignored, I must ask: Why there is a lack of outrage on behalf of the administration or the Black Student Union regarding the material published in the Koala?
The Koala receives its funding from the university through the Associated Students. On Feb. 15, the Koala submitted yet another funding request to the A.S. Council. They declared themselves a publication, type: “Tabloid, not offensive,” and asked for no less than $3,471.15 (All of this information can be found on the A.S. Web site). Where does this money come from? Tuition? Student fees? Who knows. Could this money be better spent? Absolutely.
It is hypocritical for the university to come down so strongly against the unaffiliated cookout, while simultaneously ignoring the racism spewed by the Koala, which is funded by the A.S. Council. The administration and the Black Student Union should regularly come down on the Koala, as they did in response to the cookout. Finally, Associated Students needs to cut funding to the Koala. At the very least, it can do this by citing the erroneous description of “Tabloid, not offensive” on the Koala funding request form.
This message is intended for all those uninformed, misguided UCSD students who insist on defending the Compton Cookout as a legitimately humorous party idea. This is basically like a really dumbed down version of parts of the Ethnic Studies statement posted below. -J.F.
***
Ever seen one of these cartoons?
These are “humorous” depictions of Jews during the times right before the Nazi holocaust (the were at funny at least to Germans in those times). No historian would dispute the fact that cartoons like these were in part responsible for cementing the notion that Jews were evil in the minds of the common German folk, and that therefore, they had to be “gotten rid of.”
How about this kind of cartoon. Do you know who this guy was?
His name was “Jump Jim Crow. ” According to wikipedia:
Jump Jim Crow is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) “Daddy” Rice. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. The number was supposedly inspired by the song and dance of a crippled African in Cincinnati called Jim Cuff or Jim Crow. The song became a great 19th century hit and Rice performed all over the country as Daddy Jim Crow.
Jump Jim Crow was a key initial step in a tradition of popular music in the United States that was based on the mockery of African-Americas. The first song sheet edition appeared in the early 1830s, published by E. Riley. A couple of decades would see the mockery genre explode in popularity with the rise of the minstrel show. It was also the initial step in the still extant tradition in popular music of incorporating African styles and subject matter.
The tune became very well known not only in the United States but internationally; in 1841 the USA ambassador to Central America, John Lloyd Stephens, wrote that upon his arrival in Mérida, Yucatán, the local brass band played “Jump Jim Crow” under the mistaken impression that it was the USA’s national anthem.
As a result of Rice’s fame, Jim Crow had become a pejorative adjective meaning African American by 1838[1] and from this the laws of racial segregation became known as Jim Crow laws.
Like in Germany, in America, it was stereotypical representations like these (sometimes “humorous” according to white cultural notions of what was funny then but certainly not funny to blacks) that led to a system of racial, subjugation, segregation, lynchings, and psychological terror known as the “Jim Crow” era that lasted about a hundred years and that ended just two generations ago, when most of our parents had already been born. That means that all of our grandparents were adults when this system was in full swing. If your grandparents had been black, they would have been formed as children and young adults under it. The memory of these times are fresh in the minds of African-American families… yet this doesn’t mean these sort of things don’t endure in post-Obama America.
Contemporary representations like the ones we see in the Compton Cookout event or in the Jigaboo Jones videos are the direct descendants of blackface minstrelsy. They are as demeaning, and dehumanizing albeit in more subtle ways. Through repetion, racial stereotypes reproduce ways of oversimplifying the way we conceive of human behavior and cultures tied to certain racial phenotypes. Even if a person does something with a stereotype for amusement and without the intention of painting a negative picture of anybody, that person cannot control what that stereotype leads others to belive about the racial group that’s being depicted.
Also, the fact that a person of color (e.g., Jigaboo Jones) performs an offensive racial stereotype doesn’t make it any less problematic or harmful. Back in the old glory days of blackface minstrelsy, there were plenty of African-Americans themselves who would perform these stereotypes as a way of attaining some degree of fame and recognition. This Jigaboo Jones character seems to be assuming role of the contemporary blackace minstrel (or rather ghettoface minstrel).
It is stereotypes like these about “life in the ghetto” that lead many in this country to believe that most African Americans are lazy, stupid people who are born into a “dysfunctional” of poverty, criminality and welfare dependence. It’s no wonder then that surveys show that racial profiling in police departments is rampant. It’s no surprise that of the people in this country (the nation with by far the biggest prison population in the world), almost 50% are African Americans when these comprise only 13% of the general US population. These are the US’ present incarceration rates broken down by race: Whites: 393 per 100,000; Latinos: 957 per 100,000; Blacks: 2,531 per 100,000. In a social scientific statistical analyis, this would count as a HUGELY significant difference. One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of correctional supervision or control. Let me repeat that: One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of correctional supervision or control. Something funny is going on here, right? Either African Americans committ way more crimes than whites or they get arrested way more. So which is it? Are the stereotypes of “ghetto life” true or not? Are most people in Compton, esp. most black males, criminals after all?
I should note that most of these convicts are in jail for nonviolent drug offenses. Considering that 15% of drug users in the US are black (72% are white), how do you explain that 37% of those arrested in the US for drug abuse violations are black? Black people (esp. black men) are the ones being pulled over by the police, searched, arrested, and processed (ever heard about “driving while black”?). And it’s all partly thanks to stupid stereotypical depictions like the ones we’ve seen in UCSD over the past week. It’s not that people in the black ghettos use more drugs than people in the white suburbs necessarily. It’s that they get caught more doing it (like the old saying goes, “if you don’t get caught, it ain’t illegal”). Imagine if all UCSD kids would get pulled over by cops in La Jolla and searched… how many of them would end up in jail and with a criminal record for drug possession, or for DUIs, etc?
And it’s not just a black thing: Latinos are about 13% of the US pop. yet they are about 25% of those in jail (the same thing happens with drug consumption v. drug arrests).
When you look at the statistics of blacks and Latinos in US universities, the opposite happens. At UCSD between 1-2% of students are black when African Americans are 6% of the SD pop and about 13% are Latin@ when Latin@s are about 25% of the SD pop.
So the bottom line is: stereotypes are not innocent – if you just take a quick look at US history you will begin to understand that stereotypes always go hand in hand with racial oppression. They are twins.
Hence. There is nothing funny about making fun of black stereotypes. If you asked people in Germany in the 1930s-40s if they thought of caricatures depicting menacing Jews with big nose, they would have all defended these as legitimately funny artistic expressions.
Oh, and one more thing: the fact that Dave Chappelle did sketch comedy depicting some of these stereotypes doesn’t excuse people reproducing these, esp. if they don’t get what Chappelle does. Chappelle is a smart guy (If you don’t believe me, go HERE). He knows all this history of minstrelsy and he knows how to play with it with tactful and subtle irony that is meant to explode the absurdities of racism in America. His comedy is like one of those “kids: don’t try this at home things.” If you don’t get it, don’t mess with it because you’re going to burn other people and in the end, it’s going to come back at you. Oh, and also, let’s not forget that Dave Chappelle backed out of his $55 million contract with Comedy Central for a reason. If you listen to the interviews he did after this, he says he stopped the show in part because he was tired of people wanting to see his show not for his satire but because they just wanted to see him say “I’m Rick James bitch.” He was fed up with people turning him into a minstrel.
Anyway, watch this video if you want to get a sense of where all of this is coming from.
I’m including a screen grab containing: (a) the event invitation, (b) the facebook profile of Mr. Randazzo, the creator of the event, and (c) a list of confirmed guests as of (5:45pm PST).
Black student leaders at UC San Diego blasted Chancellor Mary Anne Fox and other college administrators in an emotionally charged campus forum. Students say the campus climate allows for racially offensive incidents to take place.
Some students broke down in tears while others yelled at Fox. The impromptu meeting follows several days of public outcry over a racially-themed party organized by UCSD students mocking black culture.
Black student leaders handed Fox a list of 32 demands. The demands include everything from creating a safe, central space for black students on campus to fully funding recruitment efforts for black students.
David Ritcherson is the president of UCSD’s Black Student Union. He helped to pass out transfer and withdrawal applications during the heated exchange.
“Do you know how many students in my community are about to fill those out and leave this university?” Ritcherson asked. “Convince us to stay by funding our programs, Chancellor Fox.”
Just so you know. Campus climate is getting worse, because we are not being heard. Our pain continues to be a source of mockery and we continue to be disregarded by the university at every level. Student funded television was abused tonight in which the Koala used racial epithets to target all racial groups (this is not just a “black” thing anymore) over live broadcast.
Actions and words that continue to target people of color is a clear consequence of lack of a firm stance on the part of administration to punish racists and sexists and to defend their students, the largest investors at UCSD. The lack of tangible action: we mean e-mails addressed to the student population, as empty words; we mean the continual protection of first amendment rights while others must stand by silenced; we mean the deprioritizing in social value and financial support of student-intiated and student-run access and retention programs, even though it is well-known that during times of budget cuts and massive tuition increases students of color are disproportionately negatively affected; we mean the incapability to hold students who feel safe at UCSD to the principles of community and the hostile campus they continually create; AND the real inability and lack of motivation to actually address racism at an institutional level. These examples signal the condonment of racism and sexism on our campus, and continued investment in white patriarchal supremacy.
Now, you can no longer say that this is just a student fight. There will be no difference on our campus unless we are reinforced by actual investment from the university at the institutional level to stop this and improve life for all current and future people of color. This frat “incident” can no longer be just made a learning example, people must be held accountable and punished for the decisions they consciously and purposefully make.
In response, we will be gathering on library walk, at 8am as a solidified community against racism to demand real actions be taken against the multiple “Black History Month” events, the South of the Border Party that occurred this month and the countless racially charged events that go unnoticed. Please wear black and join us.
Love and Solidarity,
Fnann and Mabel
“FYI…I’m on the phone with the UCSD BSU Chair and he’s relayed to me that there are White students on the UCSD student run tv calling the Black students “N” words, saying they received a pass and mocking them for being upset. David is describing their frustration and anger and says that he and the other students do not feel safe and do to want to be on campus. Students are crying and deeply upset over this situation and and have called UCPD. I also spoke with Diane Griffiths, the Secretary and left a message for Judy Sakaki to respond. We called the Chief of Staff for Mary Anne Foxx and left her my number to call back immediately. We’ve not been able to get a hold of anyone on the campus, except UCPD, but they wil certainly hear about if first thing in the morning. This is not good.”
This past weekend, a number of events have occurred that have deeply impacted our community. The inciting incident was the advertising of an off campus party with racist themes. The subsequent events include many responses from numerous quarters of our campus community, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and the greater San Diego community.
Deeply troubling is, while this event clearly targeted historical contributions of African Americans, equally insidious messages were present. The blatant misogyny, glaring class issues, and subtle heterosexism are intertwined throughout the obvious racism. The references to men and women, when juxtaposed, highlight a vast difference in how gender, relationships and class intersect into stereotype, myth and denigration.
This incident underscores the important nature of the work around intersectionality. When one group is targeted, all of our communities are impacted. Incidents such as these, when they happen, can serve to disaffect those from other marginalized communities as well, and pit folks against each other in a hierarchy of oppression.
There were opportunities to stop this event from happening. When individuals expressed concerns about the nature of the party, were they heard? Building community on our campus provides opportunities where these voices can have an impact on decisions that peers make. Critical dialogue can be uncomfortable, but creates a campus climate where all people are valued.
Our communities cannot be bystanders to events such as this. It cannot be “Oh, look what is happening to ‘that’ group…” We are deeply connected as members of the UC San Diego community, and what affects one of us affects all of us. It is how we react from our places of privilege that is the true testament of community building.
What we do now, in support and in community with those who have been the most affected, reflects the mission of the Campus Community Centers, which includes the belief that ending one oppression requires ending all oppression.
We invite you to continue the dialogue with us, and to join the teach in on Wednesday, February 24th from 12-2pm at the Price Center East Ballroom.
“Clearly the way college students view African Americans is offensive to some. Where would they get these ideas? TV shows on MTV and BET? Spike Lee movies? Television stations that fascinate on ghetto behavior? Who knows…
It sure isn’t from the ‘frats’….”
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“NOTE: The only folks making a big stink over this are the media and college administrators trying to cover their arses in the name of political correctness. As I said yesterday, sometimes it hurts to see how the rest of the world sees you. The party may have been in poor taste, but it was certainly a pretty good parody on black youth in America. Just drive through Compton (or Southeast San Diego), and tell me if you see anything different from what this party portrayed.”
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“The entire Hip Hop industry is “Ghetto-Themed” but it’s OK; they’re “keeping it real”.
If you’re a black college student, you’re “embracing your roots”.
If you’re a white college student, you’re a racist. HEY PARENTS: Is this the kind of hypocrisy and double standard you pay to have forced down your kids throats? Also, Hollywood and the music industry do not exactly try to glorify life in the trailer park, the way they do life in the hood.”
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“I’m not sure what is more funny.
The fact that these students are having a “Ghetto-Party” or that UCSD is promoting respect for the ghetto culture.”
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“Racism is in the eye of the beholder”
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The vast majority of us are sick of how offended you are. Your self-esteem is not a concern in the real world, so grow [u]p and stop griping about everything.
—
“Ghetto” relates to a segment of the population just as “redneck” refers to a segment of the population. When people think of “ghetto”, they think of lower class blacks, and when they think of “redneck” they think of lower class whites. Not all blacks are “ghetto” no more than all whites are “rednecks”. I was not at all offended, because these stereotypes do not apply to me, my family, or my friends.
This is the original screengrab of the original “Compton Cookout” event. It also contains the screengrab of another similarly themed event that was due to happen later this month.
February marks a very important month in American society. No, i’m not referring to Valentines day or Presidents day. I’m talking about Black History month. As a time to celebrate and in hopes of showing respect, the Regents community cordially invites you to its very first Compton Cookout.
For guys: I expect all males to be rockin Jersey’s, stuntin’ up in ya White T (XXXL smallest size acceptable), anything FUBU, Ecko, Rockawear, High/low top Jordans or Dunks, Chains, Jorts, stunner shades, 59 50 hats, Tats, etc.
For girls: For those of you who are unfamiliar with ghetto chicks-Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes – they consider Baby Phat to be high class and expensive couture. They also have short, nappy hair, and usually wear cheap weave, usually in bad colors, such as purple or bright red. They look and act similar to Shenaynay, and speak very loudly, while rolling their neck, and waving their finger in your face. Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary, and attempt to make up for it, by forming new words, such as “constipulated”, or simply cursing persistently, or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises, such as “hmmg!”, or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises,grunts, and faces. The objective is for all you lovely ladies to look, act, and essentially take on these “respectable” qualities throughout the day.
Several of the regents condos will be teaming up to house this monstrosity, so travel house to house and experience the various elements of life in the ghetto.
We will be serving 40′s, Kegs of Natty, dat Purple Drank- which consists of sugar, water, and the color purple , chicken, coolade, and of course Watermelon. So come one and come all, make ya self before we break ya self, keep strapped, get yo shine on, and join us for a day party to be remembered- or not.
If you would like us to post something on this blog for you, email us at: stopracismucsd@gmail.com.
We welcome people's comments on any of the posts contained here (we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments so try to keep it civil).
