Incidents of Racism at UC Berkeley: Testimony of Derwyn Johnson

Hello, my name is Derwyn Johnson and I was born and raised in Oakland. My whole life I’ve been living in Oakland, and I’m one of eight brothers and two sisters. So I have a big family. That’s always been nice.

I had the privilege of going to the three main types of schooling in California: majority white, majority black, and now, integrated. And majority white and very black, everybody knows the differences between those two. Poor funding; no books at all; poor classrooms; people had to sit on the floor; and all that other stuff.

At the majority-white school, you still could like feel a hostile climate. And at a young age, I already feel I’m not called on, and I could feel the experiences that the people testifying before me at such a young age.

But now I have the privilege of going to Berkeley High School, which is a very integrated school, flat out. Everybody is proportionate there, and integration really does make a big difference.

My experiences at Berkeley High for the past few months has been one of the best experiences of my life. You get to experience like a whole bunch of, I don’t know, just diversity and all these different cultures and classroom discussions. And everybody gets called on and everybody is speaking out. Really have an intellectual discussion at a high school level.

That’s not really portrayed at this college campus. Walking around on this campus, it’s kind of sad that you can go one day and count the number of black and Latino students, in one day, and the number doesn't change. You can do it again and again, and keep coming up with the same low number.

And during presentation in classrooms, all the classrooms look the same. The racial background of the classrooms, in a random classroom that you go to, is the same. Which doesn't reflect the Bay Area or California as a whole.

Being a high school student, you look at different colleges you want to go to. And Berkeley is one of the top colleges that keeps coming up from parents, students, teachers, and friends. But being on this cam¬pus, and getting “the look” and everything, I ask myself if I want to put myself in this position. Do I want to put myself in this hostile climate? I ask myself, “Am I what they're looking for?”

But that shouldn't be the question. This is what I’m looking for. And this campus needs more students like me who will stand up and fight for their numbers. And you just feel that same kind of climate every day when you come on campus. And I swear, immediately, when you go off the campus, it changes. You can go two blocks and it changes.

As soon as you come on this campus, nobody is talking to each other, everybody is segregated. Every¬body is very devoted, nobody is in the classroom because they want to learn. One day, when I was orga¬nizing on campus, I saw a high school tour. I was wondering what high school they came from, so I asked. And I hadn't heard of the high school that they came from, but it was a majority-white group get¬ting a tour, of high school students.

And I was wondering, “Wow, you come from an Oakland school. We never got a tour from Berkeley.” Everybody got a sheet, and we never got somebody to bring us up here and take a tour, and show what Berkeley has to offer.

And I want to speak on the debate that just happened a couple of weeks ago, that really did show the hos¬tility on this campus. There was so much racist crap that went on. But that thing is, this kind of stuff happens every day on this campus.

But the thing that was so significant about the debate, there was actual discussion, where black and Lati¬nos felt the power that they could speak out on the kinds of racist stuff that was being said. And that clearly showed the weaknesses of our opponents and the strength that we have, and the strength that we need from the numbers to reverse.

Still seeing what kind of college you want to go to, you start asking your peers what kinds of colleges they want to go to. And UCB keeps coming up, and I keep saying, “No, I’m not gonna like it there.” Just by looking at the numbers, and not even knowing the hostile climate that’s on campus, but the numbers alone scare them. And not wanting to feel like they have to represent their race, or thinking that the only way they could come to UCB is through community college, and say that they'll never get in if they apply right out of high school.

That shouldn't be the case. Community college shouldn't have to be our only way of getting in. And another reason why people don't feel they could come in are the burdens being put on our shoulders by coming from a black-majority -- black-majority-Latino school -- and graduating, you should get an award for doing that, because that shows how much determination you have to graduate from this crappy school.

Or even being bilingual, that should also be a privilege that people should be proud of. They speak two languages, but it’s not just recognized as an honor or a privilege, that someone should have.

That’s all I have to say.