Racial Discord in a "post" Racial Era

Despite the election of a Black (or half Black, depending on your perspective) President, we are far from the Promised Land that Martin Luther King Jr. saw. A lot of disappointing and sad events have happened within the past few weeks for students of the University of California system, but one silver lining is that these events have sparked a serious discussion about the ways we look at oppression and the very systemic exclusion and marginalization of people since the passage of Prop 209 that ended Affirmative Action in California.

 
Racism has become an extremely loaded term, especially after being co-opted by the Right isle of the political spectrum to denote anything that points out differences in color.  So now, in society, if you mention someone is Black or White, some people will believe that you are being Racist.  As such, I would therefore like to clarify my perspective; when I think of Racism I think of Institutional Racism as coined by Stokely Carmichael. He described it as the “differential access to goods, services, and opportunities in society to promote the superiority of one race over the other”.  I don’t find programs like Affirmative Action (AA) to be racist because while they may give preferential treatment to certain groups, they were not created with the idea of superiority, and the end results of their establishment do not subjugate Whites.  In fact the greatest beneficiaries of AA have been White womyn.  To me, racism deals with issues of actual power, so I can’t buy into this notion of Reverse Racism because there aren’t hundreds of board rooms filled with non-White people saying Whites are an inferior breed of humanity so let’s deny this one a job.  One analogy an African American Studies professor gave me was you have one man standing with his foot over the throat of another man.  It means an entirely different thing when the man whose throat being stepped on says: I’ll kill you, than when the man doing the stepping says the exact same thing.  With that said, I do not believe individual acts, such as name calling or the events I’m going to describe in this article can be classified as racist.  I believe individuals can discriminate or be discriminatory, but not racist unless they are in a position of power.  However, the occurrences of such discriminatory acts are the inevitable results of institutional racism, and this is what needs to be addressed far more than punitive action for individuals (which doesn’t mean to say no punishment should be given).
 
Wow, that actually took longer than I thought!  As many of you know, February was Black History Month in the United States.  A few weeks ago, just 20 minutes away from my home in the suburban community of Mira Mesa, a group of students who belonged to a fraternity seemed upset that Black History month exists.  So they decided to throw a themed party called the “Compton Cookout” in which attendees were to arrive dressed up in every derogatory stereotype of Blacks that they could conjure up from their very privileged experiences.  These privileged experiences most likely lacked actual experiences with Black people because one would have a lot more respect, not to mention common sense, than to make an appearance at such a party.
 
The first one probably wasn’t such a smash hit because a few weeks ago individuals once again attempted to (or did) throw another “Compton Cookout” (this time adding in a II just to make sure people realized they still didn’t understand it probably wasn’t a good idea) and did so under the banner of exercising “free speech.”  While I’m all for free speech, folks should understand that it also allows other people to exercise their disagreement with the speech you are freely speaking.  Also, speech that places folks under duress such as threats like “I’m going to kill you” (legally known as “fighting words”) or yelling “bomb!” in a theater, are not protected under the First Amendment.
 
News of this “Compton Cookout II” spread like wildfire due to the social networking site, Facebook. In addition to catching national attention from various news outlets, organizations like the NAACP have commented and are attempting to take action.  This came like a sucker punch with the individuals’ own fraternity condemning the party and the UCSD administration making various statements to legally cover themselves by repeatedly mentioning the event was an off campus one not sponsored by the school.  Student reaction has also varied as well, with members of a student run shock paper known as The Koala calling all those in support of the Black students “N****rs” on campus television.  This all came to a boiling point when last week a noose was found at the Theodore Geisel Library; a female student has admitted to being the culprit, has now been suspended, and has released a statement of apology.
 
Across various campuses in the UC system, multiple demonstrations have been organized. As of this past Friday, a large contingent of students have occupied the office of the Chancellor at UCSD as well as Murphy Hall at UCLA asking for the following demands of the Black Student Union to be met: 1) Closure of UCSD until there is a full investigation of events surrounding Compton Cook Out and the noose left hanging for 3 days in the Library, 2) Expulsion of offending students and dismantling of The Koala newspaper, and 3) Diversity needs be met by March 4th.  In addition, this past weekend two other instances of hate have erupted.  At UC Davis a swatzika was carved into the door of a Jewish student’s dorm and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on the same campus was found to be severely vandalized.
 
It’s actually been quite difficult to classify what should be done with these students for people like me, who are both for the expression of unpopular ideas, and against discrimination (though I do believe racial discrimination is still quite widespread but just not out in the open like it was in the 40’s).  While I think one does have the right to shout every Racist “I’m superior than you” claims they want, this has a very different impact than if I were to say “I believe in the fall of Capitalism”.  It hasn’t even been half a century since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which was created to actually enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed 145 years ago.  To say one is persecuted by an overly politically correct culture is a gross overstatement - considering the lack of representation certain groups in our country have received, and the very real harassment and repression by our own government other groups have received.  Carlos Bulosan, the Pilipino-American author of America is in the Heart, died of Bronchopneumonia as a penniless alcoholic due to the blacklisting of the FBI because he had pro Socialist leanings.  Fred Hampton, a college-aged Black Panther, was murdered in his bed after being drugged in a planned hit that was coordinated by the FBI and local law enforcement.
 
Someone commented about how the BSU was over-reacting by feeling that their safety was threatened by the noose that was hung at the library.  Whether these incidents were done as a prank or not, they represent real threats, just as the Swatzika carved on a student’s dorm is a real threat, and fit perfectly with the definition of Terrorism.  While they are the actions of individuals, and are not condoned under university policy, they are endemic of the UC institution’s as well as individual UC campus' drives to heighten their prestige at the cost of their original mission statement to serve the people of California.  UCSD has a 1.3% Black population, and although 44% of their student body classifies as Asian, this percentage does not delve into the various subcultures of East and South East Asia, and also is representative of the campus' attempts to woo foreign students in order to cash in on the out-of-state tuition these students pay. 

Racial ignorance and intolerance certainly does sprout from a lack of diversified experiences, and the recent outbursts of hate and ignorance are indicative of a failure to achieve that diversity - not only in the student body, but also among the faculty, staff, and curriculum of the institution as well.  The ball is most certainly in the court of the UC administration and Regents; I most certainly hope they can diffuse this racial/sexist/homophobic powder keg they have on their hands, which in my opinion they have created.
 
Related Links:

The Aggie Online: UC Davis LGBT Resource Center Vandalized 

ABC News 10: UC Davis: Swastika carved into Jewish student's door probed as hate crime

STOP THE RACISM, SEXISM AND HOMOPHOBIA AT UC SAN DIEGO

Racial Intimidation at UCSD escalates; noose found at Geisel Library

UC Student Regent’s blog, lots of information regarding the recent events (the hate crimes, student organizing, etc) on all UC campuses can be found here

UCSD Guardian: Noose in Geisel Was Not Intended As a Threat, anonymous student apologies about hanging noose and claims it was done unintentionally

North County Times online: SAN MARCOS: CSUSM investigating alleged hate-speech incidents GRAFFITI IN SEVERAL RESTROOMS INCLUDED SLURS, NOOSE DRAWING, events at UCSD have sparked instances of vandalism at nearby Cal State University San Marcos targeting homosexuals and multiple ethnic groups