Letters to the editor

Counterprotest sign is unacceptable,
offensive

When progressive students at UCLA stand up in the face of unjust
war, American racism or discrimination in education, five to 10
young conservatives often appear to counterprotest.

The young conservative group consists mostly of white students,
but there is always an ethnic student or two to prove how accepting
the group is, just like the GOP.

When progressive students protested the UC Board of Regents, the
California Legislature, the U.S. Congress and the Bush
administration on Nov. 19, demanding access (a freeze on fees, no
enrollment caps, no cuts in funding for outreach programs and no
minimum progress) and pointing out the gross disparities between
funding for education and prisons, the young conservatives showed
their true colors.

The small group walked in front of the progressive rally and
carried a sign, painted in black and white, which read “This
Protest Needs Soap.”

For those who may not be aware of racism’s history, the
group claiming supremacy always argues that those whom they oppress
are unclean, stinky and, therefore, subhuman. Being subhuman
justifies the oppression they receive. Examples of such thought
appear both in the relationship between German Nazis and Jews and
between the American white supremacists and African slaves.

With the sign, I felt we got a taste, or should I say smell, of
old, old-school racism. In my mind, the implication of the sign was
that the progressive students were unclean and therefore
subhuman.

Michael Cox Fourth-year political science, director of
general programming, office of the USAC EVP