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Sunday, May 26, 2002
# posted by Kevin @ 5:57 PM
On a whim, I searched for BAMN on LexisNexis. Here's the earliest article I could find about them, written in September of 1997. Note how little their tactics have changed. September 18, 1997
LENGTH: 836 words
HEADLINE: Students protest for affirmative action
BYLINE: By Katie Plona, Michigan Daily
SOURCE: U. Michigan
DATELINE: Ann Arbor, Mich.
BODY:
More than 50 students strategically marched past several campus sites yesterday, chanting rallying cries to create a student movement to defend affirmative action at the University.
A newly formed group, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, organized a rally that began at 1 p.m. on the Diag and progressed through the campus area.
"We formed because U of M is going to be the next great battleground for the war on affirmative action," said BAMN member Jessica Curtin. "So, it's up to us to turn the war around and begin to win and fight for affirmative action." Curtin said the rally, as well as the coalition, was formed in response to threats against affirmative action - including a potential lawsuit against University affirmative action policies, incidents at the Nectarine Ballroom, the drawing of swastikas on Mary Markley residence hall doors and a cartoon that appeared in The Michigan Daily on Sept. 9.
Curtin stressed that joining students and student groups together will be the most effective way to respond to criticism of affirmative action practices.
"If we don't organize, we're sure to lose. No student group is strong enough to do this by itself," Curtin said.
Law second-year student Russ Abrutyn, a BAMN member, said the groups need to not only defend affirmative action against threats, but also strengthen it.
Abrutyn blamed legislators and University officials for not defending affirmative action with enough vigor.
"I think they're doing very little, and instead of attacking it, they should make it stronger," Abrutyn said.
Abrutyn said he is concerned about a potential lawsuit that would challenge the University's affirmative action policies. Spearheaded by four state legislators, the suit would seek to echo the results of the Hopwood case that ended affirmative action policies at the University of Texas. Abrutyn said the only way for the University to win a possible lawsuit is by creating a student movement supporting affirmative action.
Some students decided spontaneously to join the rally. After passing through the Diag around noon, LSA sophomore Sharonda Ayers received a flier promoting the rally, and she decided to attend.
"I think it needs to be done," she said. "It gives a lot of people opportunities. They might not have them otherwise."
LSA junior Chris Levi, who sat near the rally on one of the Diag benches, said he supports BAMN's cause, but questions its means.
"I'm like for affirmative action, but by for any means necessary is kind of scary," Levi said. "That sort of hints at violence, and I'm not a violent person."
Rackham student N. Kim, who attended the University of California at Santa Barbara when Proposition 209 passed, said the fight for affirmative action is especially important because of the precedent set by the passage of 209.
"I support affirmative action because this is the only tool we have to counter institutionalized discrimination against people of color," Kim said. "Activists of the civil rights movement died. We're not just going to let it go so easy."
While some observers applauded the protesters, not all passersby agreed with their stance.
One man, who would not give his name, made a thumbs down gesture with his hand as the marchers crossed State Street on route to the Diag.
"They're free to do whatever. I support their right to demonstrate, but I do not support anything else to do with it," he said.
After passing the Nectarine Ballroom, the marchers congregated in front of the Student Publications Building to confront The Michigan Daily staff members regarding a cartoon the group branded as racist.
The group demanded the Daily print a retraction for the cartoon, which depicted a squirrel protesting a lack of rights.
"It was a blatant racist attempt," Curtin said. "It equated black people and minorities with squirrels trying to get a nut. It's disgusting."
Coalition member Shanta Driver, who also is a national chair of the National Women's Rights Organizing Coalition, said that if the Daily defends affirmative action policies, it needs to stand behind its positions.
"We're not advocating that the Daily refrain from publishing the commentary of people that oppose affirmative action," Driver said. "But what we are saying is that with the Daily having a clear position for affirmative action, which we absolutely applaud, that the Daily should rally students in favor of this critical, critical issue."
Curtin said yesterday's rally was the first of several organizational attempts to create a student movement to defend affirmative action. The coalition may conduct a protest outside the Nectarine Ballroom demanding that the bouncer involved in a recent allegedly racist incident be fired, Curtin said.
Curtin said the next rally, tentatively scheduled for a few weeks from now, will target the undergraduate admissions office in the Student Activities Building and the Fleming Administration Building. Email This
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