Coalition stands with other minorities

Yip is a fourth-year communication studies student and director
of the APC. Chung is a fourth-year political science student and
external director of the APC.

By Cheryl Yip and David Chung

In his article, “Position
of APC contains contradictions,” (Daily Bruin, Nov. 14),
Andrew Jones has once again demonstrated the need for a diversity
requirement on this campus. His narrow analysis of the situation is
a result of an institution that does not allow diversity in the
realm of higher education.

Jones uses the tired “Divide and Conquer” strategy
““ a tactic that can be traced back to the shameful days of
slavery. The strategy seeks to disunify oppressed groups sharing a
common struggle in order to maintain conditions of injustice.

Historically, the Asian Pacific Islander community has been
pitted against other people of color to advance the agenda of
dominant structures. This malicious misrepresentation of Asian
Pacific Islanders continues to this day. But our communities refuse
to be kept subservient within any structure, and today we as the
Asian Pacific Coalition refuse to be used.

We speak for ourselves, and the API community on this campus
will not allow outside “observers” to speak for us. As
a coalition, we understand very clearly where our place is in terms
of ideology, visions and beliefs. These binds have been cultivated
through 25 years of coalition work, and have proved themselves to
us time and again as a means to resist the disenfranchised
positions of education and economics in our communities.

Our collective voice as a diverse coalition is guided by our
Principles of Unity. Each of the 20 organizations agrees to these
seven points of unity that provide our communities with direction.
The organizations engage in coalition work for reasons of community
and education ““ campus funding has no place in these
principles.

All our cultural, social and political programming stems from
our Principles of Unity. The diversity of representation,
experience and thought in APC is united by these principles, which
has been and remains our ideological stance since our
inception.

Point V of our principles state: “We support the positive
and accurate portrayals of Asian Pacific peoples, women and
minorities.”

Because of this, APIs inherit a legacy of struggle. With regards
to access to higher education, we cite the days of San Francisco
State University in 1968 as one of countless times where we have
stood in solidarity with students of color to demand an open
admissions system. We condemn Jones’ blatantly racist,
inaccurate account of the “black days of affirmative
action.” This remark exposes his narrow lack of understanding
about affirmative action.

Our immigration histories and realities are not a simple
dichotomy, as Jones purports. This country has experienced
successive waves of immigration from Asian Pacific peoples. Often
times these were spurred by U.S. foreign policy, which included
racist legislation on one end, and declarations of war in our
homelands on the other.

Furthermore, Point VI of our principles states:
“Recognizing that women and minorities have historically been
denied full access to the educational system, we support their
right to higher education.”

In this point we acknowledge that generations of Asian Americans
have benefited from affirmative action, thus opening the gates of
admission to institutions of higher education. We recognize that it
was the processes of affirmative action that brought us here, and
cite the need for such programs to seek justice for our brothers
and sisters who are not yet in our classrooms. We are speaking of
Pacific Islanders, African American, Hmong, Native American, Mien,
Chicano/a, Cambodian, Thai and many other underrepresented
communities on this campus. For those of us who are here, our
coalition is dedicated to realizing our principles of unity through
our struggles to promote diversity on this campus.

These are the communities that our coalition represents. We
determine our own paths by knowing our histories, our communities
and where we want to progress with them. Our role in the
Affirmative Action Coalition is one such path. The AAC is the
present-day manifestation of the Third World Coalition formed
decades ago. To not understand this history and pass judgment based
on perception is blinding oneself to the wide range of issues that
the coalition has addressed. APC works in the Affirmative Action
Coalition because we share the same levels of consciousness with
those who recognize the need to engage in issues of social justice.
For 26 years, we have stood and will continue to stand in
solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are represented in the
AAC.

As the Asian Pacific Islander voice on campus, APC will not be
used to promote a racist, offensive and deceptive agenda. We affirm
the right to seek appropriate affiliations to achieve our
principles of unity. For this reason, we reserve AAC the right to
speak on our own behalf. We will not tolerate the arrogance of
those who feel that they can speak ignorantly and paternalistically
on our behalf.