Submission: People of Color Tour maps UCLA’s social justice history
By Lizzy Naameh
April 22, 2014 11:55 p.m.
Student politics are often the catalysts for social change and the betterment of societies. UCLA is no exception.
From the anti-Vietnam War protests to the establishment of ethnic studies departments, conscious students have been at the forefront of positive change on our campus and beyond.
But these stories are not recorded in traditional campus tours. Instead, they are part of the student-initiated People of Color Tour, an informal tour that seeks to uncover the hidden histories of student of color activism that transformed our campus to what it is today. For example, it is only on the People of Color Tour that students can learn about the hunger strike that helped establish the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, or about the anti-apartheid divestment protests in Royce Quad. Students can also hear how the Black Power movement remains ingrained in our campus after the murders of John Huggins and Bunchy Carter, two former UCLA students and Black Panther members, in Campbell Hall in 1969.
These historical memories of student of color struggle, activism and resistance critically inform the university’s evolving landscape. The exclusion of these narratives from the general campus tour does a disservice to our campus as a whole – especially today.
Since the passage of Proposition 209, which banned race-conscious admissions in higher education, the numbers of students of color at UCLA have reached historic lows. UCLA remains the only UC campus without a diversity requirement for undergraduates. The underrepresentation of students of color underpins the ongoing hostile campus climate as evidenced by homophobic and racist hate crimes that continue to occur year after year.
Ironically, diversity is a central tenet of UCLA’s mission statement: “In all of our pursuits, we strive at once for excellence and diversity, recognizing that openness and inclusion produce true quality.” But where the university falls short, students of color have taken the helm of protecting their own diverse histories of activism and resistance on our campus.
The People of Color Tour should be incorporated into every student’s experience at UCLA as an example of the transformative powers of social justice advocacy and ally-ship. Its narrative helps to re-politicize what is too often seen as the ‘natural’ absence of black and brown students on campus, the lack of university-sponsored access and retention programs, and the chronic disinvestment of our university in the success of its students of color. It reminds us how our existence at this institution of higher learning is implicated in a politics of exclusion, a history of activism and a future of change.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative 3 office is seeking to institutionalize the People of Color Tour in the hopes that it will inspire future students to take action and demand justice as has been the legacy of UCLA’s student activists for decades. Interested students can catch a tour today or Thursday at 12 p.m. at the Bruin Bear. Food will be provided, and all students are welcome!
Naameh is the USAC general representative 3 and a fourth-year international development studies student. Aschyan is a second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and a member of the general representative 3 social justice team. Lakhia is a second-year economics student and a member of the general representative 3 social justice team.
