The War on Homogeneity Continues

In case you missed it before, I'm now referring to "diversity" as "the War on Homogeneity." I think it sounds cooler. In any case, it looks like UC Berkeley is on the front lines. Discriminations points us to an article about the problem, which I will now cover.

Just to give credit where credit is due, a lot of the things I'm about to say have already been said at Discriminations, but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to write about the WoH. Let's take a look:

She is young, smart and black. And she is mad.

By one measure, Renita Chaney is fortunate indeed. She's one of the elite students who won a coveted place at the most prestigious public university in America: UC Berkeley.

*COUGH* Hippies *COUGH COUGH*

But the campus that has long prided itself on diversity -- only 31 percent of undergraduates were white at the beginning of this school year...

Interesting...so there are less whites at the school than in the general population? You racists! (thanks again to Discriminations for that link)

...has become increasingly less diverse for certain minority groups, particularly for Chaney and her African American peers.

How can a single group become less diverse? Are they chameleons?

"Where is the diversity promised to my community by UC Berkeley when we decided to come here?" she demanded at an April 22 rally in front of the chancellor's office after the latest fall admission figures were released.

Uh...shouldn't you be more worried about academics than how many non-whites are at the school? I know I would be. But I guess it never occurred to them that college is supposed to be for learning facts, not meeting "diverse" groups of people.

Those figures vividly illustrated the continuing legacy of Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure by which voters banned affirmative action, or racial preferences, in public education, contracting and employment in California.

At least they'll admit that affirmative action is the same as racial preferences. But that still doesn't mean that they'll accept racial preferences as a Bad Thing™.

Chicano/Latino admissions for this fall fell 7 percent from last fall, American Indians declined 22 percent and African Americans dropped the most --

29 percent.

Oh no! It must be the racism present in every single American that caused the admissions personnel to purposely reject black students! What will we do now?!

Of 8,676 acceptance letters, blacks received 211, or 2.4 percent. At Harvard, African Americans account for 10.3 percent of this fall's admissions. Blacks make up 6.7 percent of California's population and 12.3 percent of the nation as a whole, according to the 2000 Census.

Why are they even keeping track of these things if they don't use racial preferences anymore?

"I don't want to say 'segregated,' " senior La'Cole Martin said in an interview...

Good, because that would imply that they did this intentionally.

"...but it's kind of discouraging when you don't see a lot of faces in the classroom that look like you."

And there's the kicker, folks. They want more "diversity," as long as "diversity" means "more people like us." Isn't that the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the Anti-Homogeneity Warriors are always trying to accomplish?

"You need diversity so you meet people from different backgrounds with different views!"

So how does having more of one group contribute to that, unless, as I've stated a few times before, "diverse" means "black?"

Student Aquelia Lewis told the UC regents in March: "Ever since I stepped onto this campus, I've had to fight racism, negativity and questions about why I should be here."

The voices in your head don't count, if that's what you mean.

Insert leftist here: "You bigot! You just implied that all African-Americans are schizophrenic!"

There. I saved them some time.

The distress is compounded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's austere budget and its proposed elimination of state funds for UC outreach programs, which are designed to recruit disadvantaged students to campus.

And there's the "only minorities can be disadvantaged because of 'white privilege'" thing illustrated quite effectively. I love it.

The shrinking number of black faces has created extra stress not only because of the resulting alienation...

Are you saying that people of different races can't get along? That's news to me.

...but also because many African American students feel driven to do what they can to stop the trend.

How is that anyone else's problem? If they "feel" it, it's their own dang fault.

Many of them devote long hours to volunteer outreach efforts in addition to their schoolwork and jobs.

Kindly direct me to the people who put a gun to their head and forced them to do so, and maybe I'll help with your sacred mission to eliminate racism.

Working at the recruitment and retention center "is like a full-time job on top of being a student," said senior James Drake. "If we didn't do stuff like that, things would be worse. It's really, really stressful having all these commitments.

Don't. Make. Commitments. If. You. Can't. Handle. Them.

Everyone should know that by the time they get to frickin' college. I don't know how you can even get into college without knowing that.

"You would think being a Berkeley student, 'Wow! I get to do all these things' -- but being a black student, you can't really enjoy that."

So...the school is racist because some black students choose to do more work?

...My brain hurts.

Martin, an American studies major applying to law school, has worked part time since she came to Cal, while also volunteering to help pre-college youth in her Oakland community around McClymonds High School, where she herself benefited from UC outreach programs.

"A lot of us go to different places and volunteer our time, different schools and community centers," she said Friday before meeting with fellow seniors to plan next Saturday's African American Studies graduation ceremony, a major annual event for families and members of the Cal black community.

Do you hear that? It's the Double Standard Alarm! This sounds a lot like segregation, doesn't it? Oh, but it only discriminates against non-blacks, so it's okay.

"I want to be sure when I leave Cal that there will be students like me coming here."

If only "students like me" meant "intelligent and hard-working students," not "students who just happen to look like me."

The new admissions numbers follow a long decline since 1998, the first year that the Proposition 209 ban took full effect.

Underrepresented minorities at Berkeley fell to 11.2 percent of entering freshmen in 1998 from 24.3 percent just three years earlier, a plunge rivaled only by UCLA's in the nine-campus UC system.

Shouldn't someone be checking to see how many were qualified to be there before and after the proposition? I'd guess the numbers would be about the same.

Among all undergraduates at Cal, the number of African Americans has fallen from 1,543 in 1995 to 924 this school year, or 4.1 percent of the current nonforeign total.

The latest admission figures have fanned a growing sense of alarm among not just African American students, but the black community at large.

But it's the school's fault, not theirs, right?

Several dozen Bay Area black leaders invited UC President Robert Dynes to a private Oakland home Tuesday night to express concern about the declining admissions, particularly at UC's flagship campus, Berkeley.

Yep. It is the school's fault. Those horrible Berkeley administrators, forcing everyone to meet the same requirements. What kind of world are we living in?

"President Dynes is concerned about the representation of African American students and wants to understand personally the factors affecting the declines we've seen," said UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman.

For the UC system as a whole, African Americans received 3.7 percent of admission offers in 1997 (1,435) compared with 3.1 percent this coming fall (1, 469).

I still want to know who's counting and why.

But acceptance letters don't reflect the entire problem. Many highly qualified black students are choosing not to apply in the first place, said UC Berkeley's director of public affairs, George Strait.

Nobody saw that coming.

Applicants to Berkeley from King Drew Magnet High School in Los Angeles, a source of many gifted black seniors, fell 45 percent this year, Strait said.

"Part of that is they're going to Harvard," he said. Their decisions are influenced by UC's rapidly rising fees, cuts in financial aid and the "perception problem" that they won't feel welcome at Cal.

"Perception problem?" Again, isn't that their fault, not the school's? Or do universities have control over the students' precious feeeeeeelings now?

UC Berkeley is going out of its way to try to raise the numbers of African Americans on campus and to make sure they feel supported after they arrive, he said.

Nope, no racial preferences here...

Chancellor Robert Berdahl, who is retiring at the end of this school year, is "going to spend his final weeks with this as his No. 1 priority," Strait said. The campus is expected to officially announce this week, for example, that it will finally establish the long-promised student multicultural center this fall, Strait said.

I still don't understand how they can have that. What happened to AMERICAN culture? Is that evil and racist and not good for diversity?

When the new admissions figures were announced, Berdahl called them "flat- out unacceptable."

"Reality doesn't match my fantasy world! We can't have that! The pink unicorns specifically told me that we can't have that, and I don't think you want to defy the pink unicorns...which doesn't mean that the green unicorns aren't also appreciated...but they're overrepresented in my fantasy world, and...*THUD*"

I guess Berdahl forgot to inhale.

Dynes wants to address all the sources of the decline, including the factors causing similar declines at other universities, deficiencies in the public schools and laws that need remedying, Eisenman said.

It's not an issue just for minorities. A newly formed group of white male students also is raising the banner. A dozen members donned "White Male for Diversity" T-shirts Wednesday at a campus plaza.

I already wrote about them.

"We wanted to show the campus that diversity is important to the whole student body," said senior Adam Balinger.

Which you accomplished by gathering a bunch of white guys. O....kay.

Senior Melissa Geddis, another planner of the African American Studies graduation, said the problem starts in poorly funded public schools.

"The issue is California has a poor education system," she said. "A lot of the schools where the income and property values are low don't get the resources they need."

So, logically, shouldn't they be up in arms over this, not the supposed lack of diversity at universities? I thought that quality of education was more important than what color the students are.

Then again, maybe I'm just a Privileged White Male™ who's never had to deal with oppression and a feeling that I don't belong.

Yeah, that must be it.

Posted by CD on May 11, 2004 09:41 PM
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