Hate speech, lies will not be tolerated on campus

Monday, May 11, 1998

Hate speech, lies will not be tolerated on campus

LETTER: Column takes actions at meeting with Carnesale out of
context

By Ruben Garcia

As a student who participated in the meeting with Chancellor
Albert Carnesale, I find Mr. Jacks’ column ("Childish tactics can
only hurt cause," May 4) filled with lies and full of hate speech
toward the students of color at this university. Yes, I will call
him a liar. He was not even present at this meeting. The
information he read was totally out of context. And yes, a dialogue
was established between students of color and the chancellor.

They asked him about the crucial shortage of housing needs for
the disabled students on campus (with the closure of Hershey Hall),
and the discrepancies on qualifications for the Blue and Gold
Scholarships that appeared in the Daily Bruin. Yes, we were
outraged with the impact of Proposition 209 at UCLA. Yes, we
demanded the leader of a major institution to publicly denounce the
atrocities of Proposition 209. The chancellor did admit that
Proposition 209 was a mistake for the California educational
system. Yes, pro-affirmative action students asked him to sign a
petition in support of the Equal Education Opportunity Initiative .
He declined to do so.

Now, let me move on to the hate speech portion of Mr. Jacks’
column. You defend the chancellor, a person who makes over
$180,000, as a poor, defenseless soul. You call him a "high ranking
official." Correction – an "appointed college administrator." At
the same time, you spew hate toward the students of color who are
fighting for their educations in a post-Proposition 209 educational
system, calling them "self-righteous," "foolish," " shameful,"
"childish" (twice), "extreme," "laughable" (twice), "desperate,"
"insane," "preposterous," "inane" and "insipid." You fail to give
anyone the respect of giving us a face with a name. You even went
so far as to tell us to go to the "mall or the beaches" to get more
people to support our cause.

To you, students of color are faceless and nameless, and
according to you, the only way we will get your "people" to align
themselves with us, is by getting your "people" to sign our
petitions. Mr. Jacks, you believe only your white "people" can
force your chancellor’s hand at this university. How dare we speak
to your white chancellor this way?

How dare we take it into our own hands to demand he reject an
unjust law? We should have known better. Why don’t we stay in our
place and quietly go away? As you said, "The people of California
have spoken."

But there is no way in hell we are going to sit around and wait
for your people to save us. You forget how your people
systematically denied students of color admission to your
colleges.

Why did you do this, Mr. Jacks? I’ll tell you why: you did this
because you associate yourself with the rich, white man in power,
and not with the disenfranchised students who will not stand idly
by and allow your "people" to eliminate us again.