White Fraternity Students Hold Racist Party in ‘Honor’ of Black History Month
This was written by D’Artagnan Scorza, the Director of the Social Justice Learning Institute.
African American students at UC San Diego were shocked and demoralized by a “Compton Cookout” that took place this past Monday February 15.
According to the Facebook invitation, students from several fraternities organized this party in honor of Black History Month, inviting guests to “experience the various elements of life in the ghetto.”
Males were encouraged to wear oversized clothing, chains, and display tattoos. As “ghetto chicks,” females were “to speak very loudly, while rolling their neck, and waving their finger.” They were also supposed to imitate other so-called characteristics of “ghetto chicks” such as having a limited vocabulary, using vulgarities, and smacking their lips.
After protests from the Black Student Union and African American students on campus, on the evening of February 18, 2010, several students broke into the university-funded television station SR-TV in support of the Compton cookout, calling the African American community “ungrateful niggers.” Upon investigation of the program host’s media offices, the campus discovered a note on the studio floor with the words “Compton lynching.”
The students involved with the initial event are currently planning a “Compton Cookout Part Deux” in March. This is in defiance of the frustration of African Americans and other underrepresented students of color.
These events have caused UCSD to earn the reputation of being a racist school and is a blow to recruitment efforts for Black students and other underrepresented minorities to the UCSD campus. Currently, UCSD’s African American student body comprises 2% of the total population, despite a much larger presence statewide. Our tax dollars are supporting an institution that has a reputation for tolerating such offensive behavior against Black students.
Responses
UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox issued a statement condemning the initial event as did the Associated Students (AS) organization. In addition, several hundred students have led protests on the UCSD campus. Fox agreed to a list of demands on the part of students and members of the community including the creation of a task force to improve the university climate for underrepresented students and launched an investigation into criminal activity and violations of the Student Code of Conduct.
What Is Needed
We need to raise awareness and apply pressure to the entire University system. As unfortunate as this circumstance is, it is not isolated to just one campus. Campuses such as UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz have faced similar problems in the past.
These types of events occur in part because of the small numbers of students of color. Without a critical mass of people of color, White students feel emboldened to allow their most base racist views manifest itself into incidents such as the “Compton Cookout.”
Organizers ask that letters of support and expressions of disapproval be directed to the UCSD Chancellor, Marye Anne Fox at University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093 and to the UC Board of Regents at University of California 111 Franklin Street Oakland, California 94607.
Furthermore, you can support the students by attending any sponsored event both on and off the campus. Finally, you can call on UCSD to explore disciplinary actions against perpetrators of hate and intolerance.
Ronald Takaki, pioneering scholar of race relations, dies at 70
We were saddened to hear this morning that Prof. Ron Takaki passed away yesterday. Below is the official statement from UC Berkeley and I set up a Facebook page so folks could share their thoughts about his legacy.
Ronald Takaki, a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and prolific scholar of U.S. race relations who taught UC’s first black history course, died at his home in Berkeley on Tuesday (May 26). He was 70.
Ronald Takaki During his more than four decades at UC Berkeley, Takaki joined the Free Speech Movement, established the nation’s first ethnic studies Ph.D. program as well as Berkeley’s American Cultures requirement for graduation, and advised President Clinton in 1997 on his major speech on race.
A descendent of Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii, Takaki left the islands in the late 1950s to study at Ohio’s College of Wooster, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in American history from UC Berkeley in 1967 and was hired at UCLA, where he taught the campus’s first black history course. He joined Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies department in 1971 and served as chair from 1975-77.
Among his numerous accolades for scholarship and activism, Takaki received a Pulitzer nomination for his book, “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” (Little Brown and Company, 1993); a Distinguished Teaching Award from UC Berkeley and the 2003 Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association.
“When I think of Ron, the words that come to mind are: solidarity, justice, easy-going, self-effacing, generous, creative,” said Beatriz Manz, chair of UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies. “He poked fun at himself and had a contagious laughter. He embodied kindness. He was agreeable, conciliatory and non-confrontational.”
He is survived by his wife, Carol, his three children and his grandchildren. Plans for a campus memorial service are pending. A complete obituary will be posted on Thursday.