Panelists argue for affirmative action

Nine years after Proposition 209 outlawed the use of affirmative
action in public institutions in California, a group of panelists
expressed Tuesday evening their reasons as to why the program is
still necessary at UCLA.

The speakers, composed of faculty members and guests, said
Proposition 209 has caused a decline in minority enrollment at UCLA
and other California colleges.

Panelists at the discussion, which took place at the UCLA School
of Law and was hosted by the Chicano-Latino Law Review, said that
as much as people want to be color-blind, bias is still inherent
within them, and affirmative action is needed to correct that
problem.

“We still desperately need affirmative action,” said
Kimberly West-Faulcon, a professor at Loyola Law School. “The
numbers are still declining and seem to get worse and
worse.”

To illustrate the decrease in minority enrollment since the
elimination of affirmative action, the panelists displayed a graph
showing the numbers of minority students in 1994 compared to
2005.

In 1994, the School of Law enrolled 46 first-year black students
and only nine in 2005, according to the UC Office of the
President.

Law Professor Cheryl Harris, who has worked at UCLA since before
Proposition 209 took effect, described how she has seen the
differences this drop in minority enrollment has made to the
appearance of the student body.

“There was no racial majority (in 1995),” she
said.

UCLA law Professor Jerry Kang said there needs to be affirmative
action because discrimination is natural within humans.

In an ideal world, humans would not make decisions based on
race, so there would be no need for affirmative action, he
said.

But studies show that people still carry some stereotypes,
called implicit bias, even though they openly declare that they do
not, Kang said.

He said experiments have shown discrimination does exist, even
if only on a subconscious level, and that is why affirmative action
is so necessary in California.

Kang said there is “rampant discrimination,” and
affirmative action is a justified method for correcting this
problem and leveling the playing field.

Students who were present at the event said the panelists
presented some new ideas they had not previously thought about.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of implicit
bias,” said Claudia Bena, a first-year student at the UCLA
law school.

The panelists also delved into the history and origin of
Proposition 209, and for some the discussion provided an
explanation for the decreased presence of minority students on
campus.

“I wanted an explanation for why the numbers for minority
enrollment have dropped so much,” UCLA alumna Malou Chavez
said.