Minority students need aid to overcome disadvantages

Guzman is a fifth-year Chicana/o studies and sociology
student.

By Juan Antonio Guzman

How many of you know that on Nov. 16, hundreds of UCLA students
marched from Royce Quad to Covel Commons, site of the UC Regents
meeting, with the purpose of demanding an appeal of the
anti-affirmative action initiatives, SP-1 and SP-2? Perhaps many of
you saw or heard the throng of chanting students, many dressed in
black and carrying signs, heading down Bruin Walk during lunch
time. And if you looked closely, you noticed that the majority of
the students marching down Bruin Walk were either African American,
Latino/Chicano, Pilipino or Native American.

I was among those marching toward the regents meeting, eager to
let the regents know what was on my mind. Like everyone else, I was
there because there is a serious problem unfolding at UCLA and
throughout the UC system. We, students of minority status and of
color, are being slowly erased from the great plan of the UC
system. We have been told many times that diversity is an issue of
prime importance on the UC Regents’ agenda and that, as
minority students, we are an integral part of the growth and
vitality of this institution. Well, Mr. Chancellor and the UC
Regents, don’t you think it’s time to put your money
where your mouth is?

If we are such an integral part of this institution, why is
nothing being done as our numbers continue to dwindle? Will we have
to wait until we make up zero percent of the campus population?
Numbers don’t lie. The last time I looked at the statistics,
our numbers were headed in only one direction ““ down.

Those who are against affirmative action believe it is racist
because it gives preference in admission to students of certain
ethnicities, while disregarding the academic achievements of
others. For example, if affirmative action were reinstated, many
white and/or Asian students with very high academic numbers would
be denied admission to allow for the admission of minority students
with lower academic numbers. How racist! Why in the world would we
ever allow this to happen? How can we tell deserving students that
they might not be accepted to UCLA because of affirmative
action?

  Illustration by HINGYI KHONG/Daily Bruin I’ll tell
you how: the same way we tell African American and Latino/Chicano
high school students in the inner cities that even though they want
Advanced Placement classes to help them get into college, they
can’t have them. At Thomas Jefferson High School in South
Central, two AP classes are offered, and one of them is,
conveniently, Spanish.

I grew up two blocks away form Jefferson High, but I was lucky
enough to be bused to Taft High School in Woodland Hills where I
had the luxury to choose from 15 different AP classes. Would I be
at UCLA if it wasn’t for the nine AP classes that I
completed? Perhaps I would. I like to think that my academic
achievements are a result of my hard work, and not because I was
given a chance ““ a better chance.

But the truth is, I was given a better chance. I know my chances
of getting into UCLA were greatly enhanced, and not only because I
had more college-prep classes to take. I had other things that
minority students in the inner city don’t have. I had a class
with less than 40 students in which my voice was heard and
considered. I had my own textbooks to take home. I had quality
teachers. I had a college counselor who motivated me to take these
classes, to take these tests, and to fill out those
applications.

How many inner-city high school students do you think are lucky
enough to have such an opportunity ““ an opportunity I am sure
many of you shared as high school students? Not very many.

It’s funny how in the same year that I and 12 other Latino
seniors from Taft High got into UCLA, only three Latino seniors
from Jefferson High were accepted.

That is why we don’t find many minority students here at
UCLA, even though we make up nearly 90 percent of the Los Angeles
Unified School District and the majority of most other school
districts in Southern California. It is not because we do not merit
acceptance into UCLA. We are not biologically inferior, nor are we
incapable of achieving the same academic numbers other UCLA
students have. We simply are not given the same chance to do
so.

Our starting block is placed far behind the starting line. When
the gun fires, we have an extra 10 meters to run. Those inner-city
minority students who made it to UCLA were accepted because they
worked that much harder to overcome the inequalities they
faced.

So, for those of you who think that our acceptance into UCLA is
racist and based on ethnic preference, take a good look at society
outside of campus and you will see real racism. There lies the
racism that explains the numbers at UCLA ““ why African
Americans and Latinos make up only about 10 percent of the campus
population, while simultaneously we are the majority outside of
campus.

Perhaps you don’t see this because you never go past
Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Brentwood. While these neighborhoods
surround UCLA, there is a vast area beyond them in this great city.
It is in these larger areas where minority students in minority
high schools are given minority educations.

Why would the numbers at UCLA be any different? I understand the
numbers. I understand why only 525 of my fellow Latinos and
Chicanos got into UCLA this year. What I don’t understand is
why we are denied the same educational opportunities that would
allow us to get into college.

A student’s education does not begin the day he arrives on
campus at UCLA. It begins the day he walks into kindergarten, and
it continues throughout elementary school and high school. At these
levels we are continually denied the same quality of education
other deserving students are given.

Yes, white and Asian students with high academic achievements do
merit acceptance into UCLA. My question is, how can we be expected
to achieve those same numbers in an educational system that does
not even give us a fair chance?

If you want us to stop complaining about the numbers, you should
join us in addressing the racism that exists outside of UCLA, and
that affects the numbers at this institution. Until that racism is
gone, the numbers will not change. Until then, we will keep
fighting for affirmative action and for the equality we merit as
human beings.