On Monday, the Bruin Republicans made a bold political statement
on Bruin Walk, which the Daily Bruin chose to ignore. Our
Affirmative Action Bake Sale was intended to drive home to students
the absurdity of deciding college admissions by race through the
pricing structure of the cookies we were selling. The structure per
cookie was: 25 cents for black, Latina and American Indian female
students; 50 cents for black, Latino and American Indian males;
$1.00 for white females; and $2.00 for white males and all Asian
Americans.
Having been a Viewpoint columnist for three years with The
Bruin, I know what makes a news story, and our event had it
all.
The “peg” was the Michigan affirmative action case
placed on the Supreme Court docket. The “controversy”
was overflowing ““ hundreds of students smiling and laughing
at our point, and hundreds of students scowling and cursing at
us.
Other Bruin Republicans and I were called “racist”
and “evil” and were told at one point that the only way
we could take this view was because none of us had ever met a black
person. Yet we talked with two black people that very day who
supported what we were doing. One told us he didn’t fall into
our categories because he was a “member of the human
race,” illustrating our point that affirmative action is
about racial division, not racial reconciliation.
Another black man, after we told him his cookies would be only
50 cents, told us he would rather earn a good price for the cookies
on his own merit. Yet his other comment was even more amazing; he
refused to let us take his photograph, saying he could not be
identified with those views as a member of the black community.
It illustrates perfectly a point that the Bruin Republicans keep
making. Being a conservative ““ even more a minority
conservative ““ is a more closeted role in modern society than
being lesbian or gay.
We posted one of our signs, stating simply “Affirmative
Action Bake Sale, Today, Bruin Walk” next to Campbell Hall.
Campbell Hall is also the home of the Academic Advancement Program,
or, as the Bruin Republicans in the program call it, the
“Affirmative Action Program”.
Yes, it was a deliberate challenge to the radicals in Campbell
Hall: could they accept the existence of political views different
from their own? We had our answer at the end of the day, when we
went to pick up our sign and found it gone. Not moved, not defaced,
but gone. We believe our sign was stolen because of its
controversial political message.
Returning to the Bruin Walk table for our last pickup, we found
our more provocative menu sign defaced. We had been gone from our
table for less than 15 minutes. But while we were on Bruin Walk, we
did get more civilized debate.
People stopped to exchange ideas and views with us, as was our
plan. A Bruin photographer took dozens of pictures of one such
heated exchange. The photographs, and the event, were wholly
newsworthy.
But The Bruin refused to provide any coverage, even on inside
pages.
Given the facts of the situation ““ thousands of students
supportive or hostile to our ideas ““ and the defacement and
theft of our signs, the students of UCLA deserved to get a better
idea of what had happened and what we meant to accomplish.
Since we have been denied that opportunity, I think a white
female student’s response to being told she would have to pay
a dollar per cookie under affirmative action pricing, illustrates
it best: “Affirmative action sucks.” And it’s
true not just for white females, but for all students who must
degrade themselves by participating in such a divisive, racist
program.
Jones is a fourth-year political science student, former Daily
Bruin Viewpoint columnist and president of Bruin Republicans.