Tuesday, May 26, 1998
From slavery to Prop. 209, America still racist at heart
STRUGGLE: Repressing people of color nothing new to ‘good old
boys’
By Angelica Prince
I struggled with how to respond to Matthew Gever’s May 20
article, "Merit-based admission preserves high standard." then
realized that I’m not just responding to Mr. Gever, but to every
other clueless and amazingly ignorant student of his ilk. His
opinion is just the latest in a long line of people (past and
present) who never give a second thought to the assumptions they
are making when discussing affirmative action as it relates to
students of color. "Where in the Constitution does it say that
people have the right to attend college without any qualifications
and at someone else’s expense?"
Well Mr. Gever (and people of the like) let me ask you some
questions. Where in the Constitution does it say that indigenous
peoples can be murdered by the hundreds of thousands? Where in the
Constitution does it say that it’s perfectly alright to import
Africans, brutalize them, and force them to work this land and
build this country for free, and without any justice? I know what
you are thinking, ‘But that was a long time ago.’ Let me make it a
little more personal for you.
Where in the Constitution does it say that it’s all right to
limit my grandmother to a lifetime of cleaning up after white
people because every feasible door was closed to her color? Where
in the Constitution does it say that it’s alright to limit my
father to one of two career choices, a butcher at the local
slaughter house or the racist military, just because he is
black?
This is my lineage. I am a product of generations of strength
and perseverance set against an entire American history of
humiliation, degradation and hard-fought elevation. The
Constitution did nothing to protect and enforce what should have
been the natural rights of my grandmother or my father. "This
school was and still is an institution made for people of sound
mind and ability who have earned their way here."
I laughed openly at the brazen implications of your statement. I
wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt and just blame it on
ignorance. However, looking at your by-line and seeing that you are
a history major, there is no innocent excuse for such a statement.
I had to accept that you harbor that ‘good old boy’ superiority
complex, manifesting itself in a new generation of racist American
thought. Like it or not, the general belief in America was that
minorities in general, and black people in particular, did not have
the intellectual capacity to do anything useful save manual labor.
And yes, black athletes still fall under this realm of thinking. A
law does not change that kind of deep-seeded perception. The 1964
Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act merely give people
of color, and women, the means by which to fight discriminatory and
racist practices. Have you ever stepped back, and asked yourself
why we need such laws for so-called American citizens? Yet the
assumption has prevailed, and continues to permeate through Daily
Bruin editorials, that people of color are the problem.
‘Minorities are not qualified to attend University of California
schools.’ ‘Race-based admissions diminish the quality of the
institutions.’ You give absolutely no consideration to the fact
that the very word "merit" is socially constructed and is in place
only to protect and serve the privileged few like yourself, Mr.
Gever. Your very phrase, "token racial admissions" makes the
assumption that students of color are not qualified to attend UCLA.
If you would look at the statistics a little more closely, you
would find that nothing could be further from the truth.
I only wish that you would be so passionate about the
less-than-‘qualified’ sons and daughters of the alumni. How about
those UC regents who help get their less-than-‘qualified’ children
into UC schools? You can sit there and say that bothers you, but I
really can’t see you getting as hot under the collar as thinking
about us ‘unqualified minorities’ who, in your racist mind, don’t
belong here.
We have been jumping through hoops since the end of slavery to
rise above the color line. We have tried to get you, Mr. Gever (and
people of your flock), to see and accept us as Americans. We did
the manual and unskilled labor. It wasn’t enough. We took care of
your children. It wasn’t enough. We served in your military and
fought in your wars. It wasn’t enough. Now we are trying to get an
education, and it still isn’t enough. Nothing we do will ever be
enough until people like you gather up enough guts and just admit
that you are the problem.