Does ethnic separatism foster prejudice in society?
By Daily Bruin Staff
Dec. 7, 1994 9:00 p.m.
Does ethnic separatism foster prejudice in society?
By Kamily Graham
and Diane Ichikawa
Every day, we open up the Daily Bruin to read the Viewpoint
section. And every day, we hear from one more disgruntled liberal
regarding the passing of the "racist" Proposition 187. To quote
Dink, "Frankly, I’m getting a little ticked off."
The article, "Latino/a activism awakens ‘Sleeping Giant,’" (Dec.
5) by Nikolai Garcia-Ingistov, among others that have been printed,
have raised concern among the Republican minority on campus. These
liberals seem so concerned about prejudice, and yet their articles
make sweeping generalizations about the conservatives who voted for
this measure.
We could argue all day about the implications of Proposition
187, but why bother? It’s been passed, for those who refuse to
admit it. For now, we’d like to focus our attention on
Garcia-Ingistov’s article.
* In the first sentence, four Spanish words are used without
giving their English equivalent. This alienates the gringos who
could be reading the article. If he is so worried about the Latinos
being persecuted and alienated why does he do the same to
non-Spanish speaking readers?
* Garcia-Ingistov consistently capitalizes "Brown" and not
"white." Since when is the color of one’s skin capitalized? If this
does not promote ethnocentric views, we don’t know what does.
* Yes, we did see the "12-year-old boy from the junior high …
who carried the Mexican flag with pride." Excuse us if we are
mistaken, but this young man is living in the United States of
America. We understand that he is proud of his ethnic background,
but he should also be proud of the country that gave him the right
to protest in the first place  the USA. And by carrying this
flag, he is promoting a separatist society which is doing no better
than parading through the South with a Dixie flag.
Garcia-Ingistov is very adamant about the unification of the
Latino people, but what California needs and what we are all trying
to achieve is a unified state regardless of color barriers.
By reducing this to a color issue, we are fostering prejudiced
behavior and ideas within our state. As one great scholar once
said, "After all, there is but one race  humanity."
Graham is a first-year student majoring in political science;
Ichikawa is a first-year student majoring in English.
