It's not exactly "get along month" at the University of California Davis.Let's see. Several swastikas have been found recently around the campus. The Gay and Lesbian Center has been vandalized. Eleven Muslim students were arrested protesting an Israeli ambassador's speech.
Jewish and Muslim students protested each ...other.
Hundreds of demonstrators converged Tuesday on the administration building at the University of California, Irvine in support of 11 students who were arrested for disrupting the speech by Israel's U.S. ambassador. They were objecting to what they claim is the "conflating" of the Irvine incident with other recent acts of racism at California campuses, including the carving of a swastika into the dorm room door of a Jewish student at UC Davis and the recent discovery of a noose in the library at UC San Diego.
Outside forces also joined in the fun.
The local Jewish Federation called for the prosecutions of the pro-Palestinian students, while the National Lawyers Guild and the Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded they charges be dropped. Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine sent a letter to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake requesting that the Muslim Student Union be banned from campus. Salam Al-Marayati, who heads the Muslim Public Affairs Council, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post titled, "Free 11 Muslim Students Representing America's Conscience."
Meanwhile, yesterday students demonstrated to decry bigotry on campus, while other students quickly moved to repair the defacement of the Gay and Lesbian Center.
And that's just at the Irvine campus....
The following is from Feministing.com.
March 4 Day of Action: Healing the University of California
On the morning of California's largest statewide strike and Day of Action for Public Education to date, University of California campuses continue to be plagued by a slew of racist, homophobic, Anti-semitic and transphobic actions.
Hate Round-up:
LGBT Resource Center Vandalized at UC Davis
This was discovered Saturday morning. There are responses from the LGBT Resource Center and from the Co-Chair of the State UCLGBTQIA Association.
Swastika Carved into Jewish Student's Door at UC Davis
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Compton Cookout at UC San Diego
Several weeks ago, UC San Diego students threw a "ghetto-themed" party with a long, racist description of costume requirements:
"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 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."UC San Diego Student Radio Station hurls racist slurs
Students from the station called protesters of the Compton Cookout "ungrateful n*****s" on air. A note with the words "Compton Lynching" was found on the ground.
Noose hung at UC San Diego library
The student who confessed to hanging the noose maintains she had no racial motivation, and that she simply found a piece of rope while with friends, her friend tied it, brought it with her to the library, and left it there by accident. A note was found saying, "More Nooses to Come."
KKK Hood Placed on Statue at UC San Diego
Tuesday, Dr. Seuss's birthday, his statue was adorned with a KKK hood and a rose was placed in his fingers.
Noose Drawn at UC Santa Cruz
Administrators found this in a UC Santa Cruz restroom. The word "Visionary" is written below it.
The "Irvine 11" at UC Irvine
Eleven students at UC Irvine protested the visit of Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, and were arrested because their choice to exercise free speech happened to concern Israel. Faculty have battled over whether their protest or their arrest was the "true" act of prejudice. The students were removed from the event one by one, by police officers, and now as a collective group, are being threatened with expulsion. Their punishment is inordinate because of the subject matter they were protesting.
Two LGBTQ-identified UC Riverside students attacked
This hate crime occurred on February 10. Two UCR students, holding hands, were attacked by 3 assailants, who beat them while shouting anti-gay epithets in an area directly located off of the campus.
Noose Drawn on Black figure at UC Berkeley residence
This month, a UC Berkeley cooperative student housing facility had a mural defaced with a noose drawn around a black figure. It was cleaned up.
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I grew up blocks from UC Davis. I spent last Christmas with my partner in Riverside, where we couldn't hold hands because we felt it was an unsafe environment. We were right. My childhood friends attend Santa Cruz, I attend UC Berkeley, and I was at UC San Diego with hundreds of other students for the Students of Color Conference last November. The University of California system is hurting, and emergency townhalls are being called across the state, especially in the LGBT and black communities. It's a scary time to be queer, a person of color, or both in California today. Luckily, some students respond intelligently.
Tuesday, UC Davis held a queer townhall and UC Santa Barbara planned a townhall for next week. Wednesday, UC Berkeley held a queer townhall, as well as a teach-in in preparation for tomorrow's statewide Day of Action for Public Education. But as we Berkeley organizers gathered Tuesday night to plan the queer townhall, debating for hours whether to create a space for healing or a space for action, we realized that we ourselves had not yet processed the blows dealt to our communities. Presented with dozens of images of hate on the Berkeley campus and systemwide, students embraced a new slogan: "Real pain, real action."
The UC Berkeley Black Recruitment and Retention Center held a "Black-out" Monday, where around 200 members dressed entirely in black and silently blocked the entrance to Sather Gate, the most prominent walkway on campus, to represent the invisibility of black students on UC campuses.
At Monday night's Emergency Black Townhall at Berkeley, a student leader explained the reason for limiting this action to black students only: after the Compton Cook-out and the noose found at UC San Diego, it was necessary to unify the scattered and wounded black community and "Get from -1 to zero." Then, with the help of allies, Berkeley can move "From zero to 1."
March 4 will be a statewide success, with marches, protests, picket lines and strikes, rallies, sit-ins, occupations, legislative lobbying, and impressive action on the magnitude of K-12, community college, state university, and University of California involvement. We might wake up and see fire on the news. But just as the budget cuts, fee hikes, police brutality, and violent response to student occupations deteriorate the UC system, so do the racist, transphobic, and homophobic actions across the state. Chancellors will send out emails praising police actions, and these hateful incidents will be ignored for a day as administrative buildings are locked or shut down statewide.
But it's no coincidence that the students targeted by these hateful incidents, black students, LGBTQ students, and all underrepresented or minority students, are among those driven away from higher education by tuition increases. Tomorrow, the students on the front lines will be fighting not only for the right to step foot on a college campus, but to feel safe when we arrive. California students, staff, parents, and faculty will unite today for higher education, but we all have some healing to do first.
Keep track of March 4 events at the UC Student Regent's blog, or twitter.
Related:
University of California Walkout Today
Police Brutality against CA Protesters for Higher Education
1 comment:
(1) UCSD: A group of dumb white frat guys hold an event called a "Compton Cookout." This pisses people off as it used Black History Month as a reason to mock black people with racist stereotypes. Also involved is some idiot who tries to use this opportunity for shameless self-promotion, who also happens to be black. To say the least, the guy is basically a wannabe Flavor Flav.
(2) UCSD: Another dumb white frat guy gets mad that blacks are offended of being relegated to a bigoted stereotype. He tries to hold another racist event.
(3) UCSD: Meanwhile, a terrible student media publication (which, after viewing their website consists of all white staff, nudity, staff wrestling each other, and well, not much else), pushes their limits calling black students "ungrateful n----" - not just that word, but also that apparently the black students owed them something. They have a reputation of being trashy, and at this point, administration and faculty rush to condemn racism by students of the campus and various protests begin. Funding is also cut from all student media at UCSD, creating an extra bitter controversy.
(4) UCSD: On Friday of that week, a noose is found in the library. Everything gets worked in a frenzy and - something I'll address later - a large amount of white commenter's on the internet begin claiming that is was probably a black student who planted it in order to gain more sympathy. In addition, there are rumors of a threatening note sent to the Guardian and a second noose, there was no second noose, and the threat seems to be just a rumor.
(5) UCSD: Protests basically happen at all schools in support of the students. There are various sit-ins, and teach-ins, and what have you. School administrators become pushed to be more active in fixing what's going on.
I have not seen this noose person, but most of you blame her and conveniently forget wear this all originated.
Instead of an apology there has been steady escalation and now the noose. So, what exactly will the excuses be for this cowardly act that brings up memories of the confederate KKK of the South in their attempts to keep slavery and the non-whites in fear? Is it that are uneducated, is it that their parents planted these seeds of hate, is it that they are live in fear because our President in the white house is not 100% white. In my opinion this is what the small portions of the republican party of "birthers, baggers and blowhards" have brought you. These kids are good at "Follow the Leader" of their dullard leaders, they listen to Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O'Reilly, Rush and Savage and the rest of the Blowhards, they are young and dumb. Are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think? The world is complicated and most republicans (Hamiliton, Lincoln, Roosevelt) believe that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now its about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although most republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe they have a long way to go.
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