Students at the University of California-Berkeley held a day of protest on Friday to demand the creation of additional
safe spaces for transgender and non-white students and during the protest they created a human chain to
prevent white students from getting to class some Asian students were also blocked from getting to class but
Hispanic Latino black students were allowed through and were allowed to go to class and I'm gonna play a little bit of video
where you can actually hear protestors shouting "go around" to white students who try to get through this blockade and
Students of color are greeted with "let him through, let her through, let them through" we have video. Let's take a look at that
Yeah, I was just wondering like what so what's it do you know
One protester actually complained that there were too many white students in classrooms saying quote "When you walk into a class,
what's the majority in there?" This is problematic to me. Not only because it doesn't account for racial differences in the population at large
Not only does it not consider that blaming individual white students who are already at the school solves. Absolutely nothing
But it's problematic to me because according to UC Berkeley's own website only one in four students in the incoming
2015 freshman class was actually white which makes this entire charade
Particularly misguided many white and Asian students forced to actually go through like the woods essentially, it was a dirt path
Through brush in order to make it to class while the protesters were shouting "go around" and it's not just against white people
It's against white and Asian students according to that article and that sort of changes the dynamic
I got one email from from someone saying David the issue is not necessarily just race and
Minorities versus non minorities because Asians are minorities but Asians
Maybe are seen as more successful in American society
So maybe there's a different feeling there
But we're also gonna block the Asians from getting through
It really makes no sense and we could talk a lot about the so called ideal immigrant that many Asian communities represent in the US
But can you imagine that, if the students blocked from getting to class actually
filed a lawsuit on the basis of having their title six rights violated because if you look at the
1964 Civil Rights Act title six
prohibits discrimination on the basis of race color and other
characteristics at any program that receives any federal financial assistance. Like for example,
UC Berkeley does that could actually happen here. Yeah, and there are some people who are of the opinion that
reverse racism just doesn't exist. And of course, it's a much less prevalent issue, but it's out there. I just call it racism
I'm either you're discriminating on the basis of race
or you're not and this idea of
Reverse racism is so bogus to me
And when you look at gender equality to of course some issues negatively affect men
But the bulk of it negatively affects women. Martin Luther King and so many others who fought for equality
Would see this would be my guess and they would say well hold on a second
What exactly are you doing by blocking white students?
Are you are you showing them what it was like at some prior point because now
non-white students aren't blocked from going to class. So what what is it exactly that you're trying to do?
Are you trying to wake people up to what was the experience of black students?
Before the 1964 Civil Rights Act because I just don't know
I always try to be as pragmatic as possible with these issues and I don't know what blocking white students is going to
Teach them
Today in terms of what the issues are that are trying to be brought to light and let me remind you also
That there is a demand being made here for the creation of safe spaces
Segregated by race where white people are not allowed which we've covered
What would be the punishment if white students formed a chain to block non-white students from getting to class?
What would be the reaction if white students created a no brown people allowed safe space on campus?
It would rightly be very negative and some will hear me say this and I'll say well the difference
David is that the white students aren't oppressed
but the other students are I'll
remind you that only one out of four students in the incoming UC Berkley 2015 freshman class was white
I don't get this Pat. I don't know what they're hoping to achieve by
inconveniencing
Realistically individuals that are already overworked stressed out and debt ridden. I don't see the wind