BAMN Victories

Video: UCLA Occupiers Speak Out!

BAMN June 3, 2012 Affirmative Action, Dream Act, Featured, Occupy Movement, Social Justice 9 Comments

On Friday, June 1, 2012, several dozen students and civil rights activists participated in a BAMN-organized occupation of the UCLA admissions office to demand:

Double Latina/o, black and other underrepresented minority student enrollment
Admit more Latina/o, black, and other underrepresented minority students including some of the students we are submitting (on appeal).
Reopen the Appeals process to allow the more than deserving Latina/o, black, Native American and other underrepresented minority who have been denied once or twice already the chance to be reconsidered.

Below are some of the inspiring statements made during the occupation.

(Also read the FLYER for the Campaign to Double Underrepresented Minority Enrollment in UC)

About The Author

BAMN

BAMN is a mass, democratic, integrated, national organization dedicated to building a new mass civil rights movement to defend affirmative action,integration, and the other gains of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and to advance the struggle for equality in American society by any means necessary.

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Maricruz Lopez

Hello, my name is Maricruz Lopez, Im an organizer from Los Angeles, and here is a translation of my statement from Spanish to English:

We are the Coalition to defend affirmative action integration,
integration, immigrant rights and fight for equality by any means necessary,
and we are serious when we say that we are going to fight for these principles
by any means necessary.

We are here demanding that UCLA increase the number of
Latino, black, Native American and other underrepresented minority students
they admit this year and the upcoming years because we want this university to in
reality represent the Los Angeles community. Los Angeles is integrated,
diverse, with cultures from all around the world. But if you come to this
university you don’t see that, all you see is segregation. You come to this
university and you’re like “oh, so here is where all the white people are
hidden.” Hiding from the rest of the Los Angeles population. Us fighting we can
break the back of the racist admissions policies of these universities because that’s
what we need to do for our communities to progress.

I come from Detroit, MI where there have been many attacks
against the black community, and the Latino community, and the immigrant community
in Detroit. But here in CA is where the militant movement will start to defend
public education, win immigration reform, to fight for equality for all, not
just the Latino community, not just the immigrant community, not just the black
community, but rather unite our communities because that’s the only way that we
will win real victories for our communities, only united will we win these
things, and that movement must start in CA. Right now the powers that be of the
country know that very soon white people will be the minority, and the Latino
people, the black people, the Native American people, and other minority
communities will soon be the majority of the U.S. population and the white
people fear that power that we have.

We ourselves must not fear our own power. In 2006 we
expressed our massive power when we did a boycott not just in individual cities
but all across the country. For the first time we could express ourselves and
express our liberty without fear of police repression because they simply
couldn’t do that, we had power in our numbers.

That is why today we demand that WE, the communities of Los
Angeles, be the people who decide who will be the leaders because right now the
administration has the power to decide who they will admit, and right now, in
reality, they are only admitting students they know they can make into the sold
out leaders that we have had day after day since when? A long time. Its time to
stop this system of the university deciding who will be the sell out leaders
and now WE decide who will be the leaders to represent our communities and will
fight for progress for our communities, and fight for real equality for our
communities, and that it be made concrete and real in our society.

Right now unfortunately its
obvious that we don’t have enough representatives here from the black community
but we have to make whatever effort is necessary to reach out to the black
community and unite with the black community and unite our communities. If we do
not do this we ourselves will be the cause of our communities continuing to be
exploited. We have the power to put an end to the exploitation of our
communities, we simply have to defeat our own fear of our power, and assert our
power, here in this university, and build the new movement that now exists,
build the new movement here at this university and in Los Angeles in order to
be able to move forward for progress and equality for all.
- people, not races.
  
  BAMN is a racist organization. They fight for accepted racism and inequality. If you are denied something because of the merits of your character, accept it. “I have a dream that… they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King Jr. BAMN seeks to judge people based on their skin color, rather than their merits. You cannot claim to be the new civil rights movement when you defy the wishes and hopes of one of the most important civil rights proponents ever known to the earth. Wake up and see that you are racists in the face of true human equality.
  - BAMN
    
    Racism cannot be eliminated by ignoring it. We need race-conscious measures to eliminate the effects of past and present institutional racism. School admissions systems do not judge prospective students on their “merits” – they judge them by a series of criteria that incorporate, reflect and perpetuate racial bias. A black or Latino/a student cannot get a 5.0 GPA if their inferior school does not offer AP courses. Standardized tests have a proven racial bias. The experience of being a racial minority in this country, of living with racism every day, is part of a person’s identity – they cannot be seen or understood outside of that context and how it has shaped their opportunities in our society.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Donna-Stern/100000959110458 Donna Stern
    
    Racism cannot be eliminated by ignoring it. We need race-conscious measures to eliminate the effects of past and present institutional racism. School admissions systems do not judge prospective students on their “merits” – they judge them by a series of criteria that incorporate, reflect and perpetuate racial bias. A black or Latino/a student cannot get a 5.0 GPA if their inferior school does not offer AP courses. Standardized tests have a proven racial bias. The experience of being a racial minority in this country, of living with racism every day, is part of a person’s identity – they cannot be seen or understood outside of that context and how it has shaped their opportunities in our society
    - Kendi
      
      Hi Donna, In terms of UC’s and CalStates (I’m not sure about private, or Ivy League) — the student at the inferior school can always attend community college for a couple years and apply as a transfer student. I applied as a transfer student, and I was accepted. I originally had a GED. I never took an AP class in my life. Also, students can apply for majors that have a low average GPA, so that they have a higher rate of acceptance into that department in the college of their choice. I didn’t get into the psychology department myself, because it was very competitive — but in the end, I think it was for the best. Life is short.
      
      Mentioning “inferior” schools… I don’t know what the family culture is like in all the white or hispanic or black or asian families, but in my own “personal belief culture”, at a general level, a public school teacher’s job is not to teach discipline (and proper respect for teachers and academia) nor to teach motivation for academics. These are things that the student themself and their support system – such as the family and friends – might be responsible for. In terms of motivation, it is best when there is a true love for the subject and a resulting high degree of interest from the student him/her-self. Even if teachers aren’t the best or most knowledgeable, there are lots of online resources that can be accessed at the library and elsewhere — free online college coursework from even Ivy Leagues, like Yale University! Also, facilities can be an issue. Sometimes, this requires some community effort, is all I can say. I wish you luck.
      
      I have noticed that there is was HUGE difference between the cleanliness of students’ restrooms and faculty restrooms at the Community College where I attended. The faculty restrooms were MUCH cleaner. I don’t know if it was because the janitors cleaned it more often, or if the faculty just used the restrooms more responsibly. Maybe intelligence has to do with pooping in the right place. I have to admit, I think I am smarter than my son.
      
      My point is, that like Obama and Gandhi said, one has to be the change that one wishes to see in the world. One day, I was talking about how my life was difficult, and my uncle said the most profound thing to me — that everything was my fault. At first I was a little sad, because I felt like nobody was on my side. Then, I got a little angry and disappointed. Then – once I found my faith in virtue – I found the wisdom in his words. And since then, I have always told my son that everything is his fault, too. You see, if EVERYTHING is MY fault, then that means I am god and am a King/Queen/Emperor, because I am the one who is all powerful. I had to change my way of thinking, before I could change my actions/behavior. Instead of blaming others, I had to learn to blame myself – after all, only problems can be fixed! And, if I have control over anything, it is definitely over me, so I’d rather be in that position of power so that I can make a change very quickly and effectively.
      
      Also, I’m a little proud, and very romantic. I wouldn’t like my lover to be a robot, because otherwise it wouldn’t be true love. I am proud in that way. So then because I’m proud and romantic, but I also want to love and be loved, I have to be careful so that I don’t force the situation and kill the love with aggression.
  - Benrussak
    
    Racism is a system which possesses the power to restrict access and resources to people based on the color of their skin. I’ll tell you where I see that power in society: 1) in our criminal justice system which overwhelmingly polices nonwhite communities and jails black and brown people for drug offenses even though drug usage is equally prevalent among whites; 2) the history of discrimination– slavery, the Indian Removal Act; sharecropping during the reconstruction, The Homestead Act, seizing the land of the Californios in violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Delgado, the Oriental Exclusion Act, racial deed restrictions, redlining (just to name a few) — that resulted in trillions of dollars in wealth disparities between whites and nonwhites; 3) the dismantling of Affirmative Action and many of the gains of the civil rights movement after 20 years, under the claims of a ‘colorblind’ society and a meritocracy that has supposedly leveled the playing field for all after over 300 years of stacking the deck for whiteness; 4) disallowing public schools to teach this ‘anti-american’ history and labeling the passing on of this knowledge as ‘seditious’ as they are currently doing in Arizona; 5) the discrepancy of education quality consistent with the racial demographics of neighborhoods. I could go on…
    Where do you see that power to oppress in BAMN?
Kendi

What do you think about this? Make your daily habits the MOST important thing in the WHOLE WORLD. Think about changing that, as if it were the center of the universe – as if it were holy, like god. Don’t try to change the world yet. Just yourself first. Just try it, and see what happens. Just try it, that’s all. If worst comes to worst, you will have stopped drinking soda forever and that is not such a bad thing.

Ready? So imagine this:

“If 99% of the world STOPPED DRINKING SODA, soda corporations would go BANKRUPT.”

What do you think?
Sit-ins and occupations are so last year.
I think bankrupting PEPSI-CO for example, by abstaining from soda and chips and their snack products, people could really make a statement about the balance of power in this world, don’t you think? We could make a statement about the strength of our unity/solidarity, and also our determination and the strength of our will-power.

Don’t just do it for a day, or a week or show some nominal “symbolism” of support for what you believe in. MAKE IT LAST A LIFETIME. Let’s see those soda stocks go DOWN.

Just try it. It will kill nobody to stop drinking soda. It costs nothing to stop buying a product, that you don’t need. It will not damage your health or social life to stop drinking soda. There are also alternative things you can rely on for small happinesses to replace your soda-fetish, like eating crunchy nuts, or drinking fresh tea, or drinking more water, or fruit juices, or even coffee. Just try quitting soda, for the principle of the matter. It’s literally “just ONE thing” – AND, most importantly, YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER IT.
Kendi

Try this link. There are free University Lectures, from MIT, Yale, even UC Berkeley and UCLA.

http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

BAMN Victories

Video: UCLA Occupiers Speak Out!

(Also read the FLYER for the Campaign to Double Underrepresented Minority Enrollment in UC)

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