UCSD students walked out of lectures and into Price Center for a protest against Proposition 54, the Classification of Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin Initiative, on Oct. 1 at 12:15 p.m. Approximately 250 students held signs and chanted as they walked around Price Center Plaza at the beginning of the rally, ending in front of the stage to listen to a succession of five speakers.
Walkout: Students walked out of classes on Oct. 1 to protest Proposition 54 at a rally held in the Price Center.
The proposition, which would ban the collection of racial data in California, will appear on the Oct. 7 ballot.
The walkout and rally were organized by the Coalition Against the Information Ban, a combination of campus organizations and individual students who have been active in protesting the potential passage of the proposition since fall 2002.
“”We wanted to educate the students, because studies have found that the more students know about Proposition 54, the more will vote against it,”” Vice President of External Affairs Harish Nandagopal said. “”A lot of people don’t know what the campaign is. The wording of the proposition is confusing, and we wanted to make sure that people knew what it was all about.””
The first speaker was medicine professor Jeffrey Gordon, who explained the implications of Proposition 54 from the standpoint of the medical community. According to Gordon, both conservative and liberal health care providers are against the initiative since it makes the collection of data almost impossible, thus hindering advances in the field of public health. Because certain diseases occur more frequently in certain groups, it is necessary to know the background of the person diagnosed in order to prevent further spread, he said.
Gordon also stressed the negative effects of Proposition 54 on the college community.
“”I think the experience at the university is made more fruitful by the diversity of the student body,”” he said. “”To lose track of what the student body looks like would be disastrous to education.””
African American Student Union President Stephanie Akpa agreed with Gordon as she discussed the necessity for data collection in schools in order to remedy the inequalities that are found in certain areas populated by certain groups.
“”Realism is knowing that we live in a society where schools in South and Southeast San Diego don’t have the same resources as other schools and it just happens that the students there are mainly students of color,”” Akpa said. “”I want to ask why. I want answers, and that’s why I’m voting Œno.'””
David Artiss, director of the Academic Enrichment Program and president of the Ujima Network at UCSD, took the stage to promote another forum about Proposition 54. He echoed other speakers’ sentiments.
“”People who support this initiative call it the Œracial privacy initiative’,”” Artiss said. “”Let’s not pretend that we can have any privacy about race.””
Keith Morgan, vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of San Diego, also emphasized the necessity of statistics in combating racism in schools and in public life. Since Proposition 54 forbids the compiling of these statistics, this manner of fighting inequality would be lost, Morgan said. According to him, data collection by police is especially important in showing the numbers of minorities stopped by police. It is only with the collection of such information that racism can be seen, Morgan said.
The final speaker, ethnic studies professor Charles Briggs, gave a brief history of data collection in the United States as a means to show the existence of racism. According to Briggs, it was the use of these numbers by people fighting for equality in the 1960s and 1970s that allowed them to prove that racial discrimination existed and that it was not the fault of the minority populations. Briggs said that the need for such data remains today.
“”Proposition 54 wants to do away with the most important sources of numbers that demonstrate the pervasiveness of racism in our society,”” Briggs said. “”Neo-conservatives will be able to claim that no racism exists because they have outlawed, at least in California, the major source of evidence that disproves their claim.””
The rally finished with final chants led by the leaders of the rally.
“”We are pretty happy with the turnout and we are pretty positive that anyone who was there learned enough and will have enough common sense to vote against 54,”” Nandagopal said.
Since the administration notified the A.S. External Affairs Office that using student fees to campaign against Proposition 54 would be against university policy, the rally was made possible by personal student funds.
