SP-1, 2 protesters living in the past

  Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a first-year
philosophy student brining reason to the masses. E-mail him at
[email protected].
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There has been a disruption in the space-time continuum. It is
scientifically documented that while the rest of the Earth has
moved on and changed day by day, some college campuses have hit a
fourth-dimensional speed bump and gone flying off the road,
crashing into a wall covered with slogans of “We Shall
Overcome” and “Rebel Against Authority.” For the
students at these campuses, their sense of time is also reversed,
which makes for a tragicomic situation. While the world has
progressed beyond the bounds of the 1960s, many of those associated
with universities seem oblivious to the change.

This would explain the strange occurrence on March 14. On that
day, several influential Student Association Groups organized a
gigantic anti-SP-1 and SP-2 rally. Seeing over 1,000 protesters
getting together to march for diversity and equality was an
inspirational event ““ in the 1960s. Times have changed.
Policies have changed.

The misguided cries of hundreds upon hundreds of people chanting
such slogans as “Education is a right, not just for the rich
and white,” wearing stickers reading “Access
Denied” and holding signs accusing the UC Regents of racism
were intemperate, inaccurate and morally irresponsible. Having to
watch as leaders of the rally proclaimed that they were following
the path Martin Luther King Jr. paved by attempting to prevent the
reversal of “30 years of civil rights struggle” was not
only silly, but disrespectful to the memory of that great American
hero.

Instead of leading a debate on affirmative action to try and
come to a reasonable solution through intelligent dialogue, the
protesters shut down a mayoral debate, marched around campus, and
filled the air with their absurd shibboleths.

  Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin Take for
example, that most tolerant and diverse of all chants,
“education is a right, not just for the rich and
white.” Hmm. Since when was education in the Bill of Rights?
There is no possible way that college education is a right. In any
case it is a privilege! Freedom is a right. Education is not a
right.

As for the second half of the awful aphorism, it seems that the
last UCLA census showed that the Asian population is actually
larger than the white population, making up between 43 and 45
percent of the total student population.

Can the white community start claiming
“underrepresentation” yet?

Another favorite slogan was “This is what diversity looks
like.” Interesting. These are the people who say that
diversity is necessary to enrich the lives of the students
attending university.

Since when was skin color enriching? Martin Luther King Jr.
stated in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “I have a
dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by
the content of their character.” The actual law of SP-1
states, “The University of California shall not use race,
religion, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin as criteria for
admission to the University or to any program of study.”

Isn’t the message of that law a lot closer to that of
Martin Luther King than that of affirmative action, which states
that people should be admitted to universities based on race?

How about protesting for diversity of ideas? That would have
been something worth protesting for. That would enrich the college
experience ““ hearing from both sides on any given topic.

But where was the other side, protesting against the protest?
Where was diversity of opinion? Has the UC system, the same system
that brought us the “Free Speech Movement,” become free
speech only for the left?

Everyone on campus has at least one time or another seen the
“Access Denied” T-shirts and stickers, the chalk
scrawls “Resist Resegregation,” or the signs at the
rally saying “UC Regents ““ We See UC Racists.”
Really now.

Do these people really think that the UC Regents sit up nights
planning how to hurt African Americans, Latinos, or other
minorities? Can’t you just see Ward Connerly waking up in the
middle of the night, turning to his wife, and saying “Honey,
I just can’t sleep until I’ve found a way to hurt poor,
disadvantaged people?”

How about the statistic that of the minorities admitted to the
UC system under “special criteria” (i.e. affirmative
action), only 7.2 percent graduated in four years, and less than 50
percent in six years
(http://www.larryelder.com/racial/noaffirmative.htm)? And they say
that affirmative action won’t weaken the academic status of
the student pool.

Not to mention that the protesters conveniently ignored the fact
that even if SP-1 and SP-2 were repealed, affirmative action would
still be illegal under Proposition 209, which was passed by an
overwhelming margin in the state of California.

Since when was access denied to students who are deserving based
on their hard work and not just on their color? The top 12.5
percent of California high school students are automatically
admitted to the UC system, and every student from California who
applies through the Eligibility in the Local Context program,
meaning that they finished in the top 4 percent of their schools,
is admitted to at least one of the UC campuses.

Under the ELC program, if a certain school has a senior class
average of a D-plus and class size of 250, and someone finishes
ninth in the class with an average of a B-minus, they are
guaranteed admission to the UC system. America is still the land of
opportunity ““ hard work pays off.

Too bad that people who can get together for a cause like the
repeal of SP-1 and SP-2 couldn’t channel their energy in
other ways to do something more productive. Like attempting to make
elementary schools better in the first place. Like teaching
critical thinking skills to all of the brainwashed high-schoolers
who were bused to the rally to scream and shout about how tough
they have it.

Or better yet, why not send those same kids to a library so that
they can work hard and succeed on their own merits, not though the
charity of a liberal society eager to give handouts to the
“disadvantaged” few?

We don’t live in the 1960s anymore. The messages of the
’60s applied to a time when African Americans were forced to
the backs of buses, denied equal access to public institutions and
lynched for protesting their plight. The situation is different
now.

It is a wonderful thing that so many young people around the
country and right here at UCLA have the passion to go out and
change the world. But let them at least acknowledge that the world
has changed, that irreversible progress has been made.

To imitate protest from a different era is disingenuous. It is
impossible to say what Martin Luther King Jr. would have thought
had he lived to see this day, but he would have recognized that
things have changed.

May the day come when the students, teachers and administrators
of the universities acknowledge as much.