schwarzenegger lays down the law.

University of California is usually a fun, sunny campus. However, recently, racism has rocked the campus. The causing factor that started racist riots? A student admitted to hanging a noose from a campus library bookcase. A few days later, on Feb.15, an off campus party known as "Compton Cookout" apparently mocked Black History Month. Numerous protests broke out because of this. The escalating point was the party that defended this actions- on a campus television show, a "derogatory term about blacks" was used. On top of that, at another spot on campus and one month before, eleven students were arrested for disturbing a speech by the Israeli Ambassador. According to the article, "A New York City-based Zionist group quickly urged college bound students to drop the school as a consideration and asked donors to rethink their pledges." As a Muslim civil rights group asked for the charges to be dropped against these people, they were shocked with the information that no charges had been filed. Schwarzenegger is quoted to have said, "[he is] condemning the intolerable acts of racism and incivility that recently occurred on multiple campuses in the University of California higher education system."

The problem with this seems to be that this is not just one incident. Racism seems to be spreading like wildfire across the Californian campus. Why is this happening? Protest groups are breaking out everywhere. I can't help but wonder if this story was only made known because of Schwarzenegger's fame. The last straw with Schwarzenegger was the racial slur that was said on the campus television show. Though the slur goes unnamed, I'm sure we all have an idea of what it was. Schwarzenegger is teaming up with the President of the college and other important figures to make these actions stop. However, there is the argument of freedom of speech and freedom of press, press being the television show. However, freedom of speech and press is regulated and when it crosses the line into the degrading of others, government is allowed to step in, just as Schwarzenegger and other officials do here.

So...why does this matter and why should we care? Because millions of people go to college- is this what we go to college for? College is supposed to be a place of learning and education. Everyone is supposed to be treated the same and feel accepted. Hanging nooses and using degrading terms will cause schools to split and protests, such as the ones above, will explode out. Look how fast racism spread through that campus- there was more than one incident. Each student is affected by that- whether they are angry because they are black and don't want to be degraded or because they are white and they want their fellow white students to have their freedom. They turn against each other and are divided by color. What if we went back to times when blacks had their own entrances and we weren't allowed to mix races, whether it be in school or in relationships? This would affect all of us and would be a major step back in American history.



check out the website!


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/schwarzenegger-condemns-intolerable-acts-of-racism-at-uc-san-diego-other-campuses.html


-Audra