Submission unfairly singles out Houston

Meselson is a fourth-year classics and political science
student.

By Scott Meselson

I wanted to offer a brief response to the submission written by
Brighid Dwyer (“USAC president
shows bias in event promotion,” Daily Bruin, Viewpoint,
Feb. 22) since I feel as if the things that Dwyer said deserve some
sort of response.

Like many others who have observed UCLA’s student
government, I have seen our president make some mistakes (as has
much of the council, in my opinion), and although I do not
necessarily feel that she always does the best things, I cannot
allow Dwyer to focus all the blame on Elizabeth Houston for what is
really a campus-wide issue.

It seems awfully blind-sighted to criticize Elizabeth Houston
for selectively giving out flyers to certain students and not
others while seeking participants for the AAP scholarship
basketball tournament. At the same time nearly every single student
group that gives out flyers on Bruin Walk does the exact same
thing.

As a white male, I walk down Bruin Walk and am virtually ignored
by many students who are handing out flyers. Asian student groups
don’t give flyers to me. Latino student groups don’t
give flyers to me. Black student groups do not give flyers to me.
Why?

In the words of Dwyer, it’s “racial
profiling.”

Yet, when Elizabeth Houston, one person (albeit a prominent
one), doesn’t approach every member of a group, it’s
automatically racism or sexism or some other
“-ism.”

Wake up! If Dwyer is going to attack Elizabeth Houston for
giving a flyer for a basketball program to someone whom I assume
(and whom Dwyer seemed to indicate) is a member of the basketball
team, then we completely ignore a much wider range of issues.

As someone who has planned large programs in the past, I know
that when you see someone who would be an excellent participant,
you approach that person and that person alone, regardless of who
that person is with.

Simply put, that is how you recruit participation. It is not
racism. It is not racial profiling. It is not gender bias. It is
simply good planning.

The reason student groups don’t give flyers to one person
but give them to another is not because someone doesn’t have
a certain skin color, or because they’re not interested in a
certain activity; it’s simply because the groups want to
promote their events to the individuals who are most likely to
attend them.

Why waste your money on publicity that will just be thrown away?
Yes, I am very sad that many student groups automatically assume
that I am not interested or that I will not participate (even
though I usually am quite interested), but that is simply the way
it goes.

I cannot blame student groups for ignoring me; in fact, I blame
myself, for if I was truly interested in something one of the
groups was handing out, I should ask about it.

If Dwyer was interested in participating in the AAP scholarship
basketball tournament, she should have been proactive and asked for
information herself.

If Dwyer, or anyone else for that matter, wants to attack
Elizabeth Houston for things she does not do well as president,
then stick to that topic. But, if anyone tries to attack her for
trying to market a program to someone whom she hopes would
participate, then that attack must focus on all student groups and
not just prominent students like Elizabeth Houston, for she is not
the only one at fault.

We all must consider our own actions and intentions.