BAMN up to Something on March 3
The Daily Cal has a letter from BAMNite Ronald Cruz, who writes:

It is in this spirit that we join students in declaring our support for the Day of Action to Reverse the Drop in Underrepresented Minority Enrollment at UC Berkeley to be held March 3, 2005...

On March 3, we will call for the utilization of all possible measures to reverse the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment, including expanded recruitment, admissions, and retention efforts and the use of meaningful affirmative action policies. We will show our support in a number of ways: canceling class, replacing normal curriculum with discussion on affirmative action or encouraging students to attend Day of Action events.

Sounds like it's going to be a fun day. I wonder if they got Abrams to sign on to the crusade, as there is a midterm scheduled for that day (one can only dream)... In all seriousness (and by that I mean completely unseriously), I wonder what type of stuff will be going down that day. Busloads of Berkeley High (or junior high? or grade school?) students? Rioting and/or looting? Sit-ins? I'm curious whether that whole "canceling class" thing is going to be voluntary or not.

Seriously though, the struggle for increasing minorities at Berkeley (a cause I support) is in serious trouble. The black community on campus is about as small and marginalized as it can be. Not to mention the Latino or other URM communities. Administrators have very little leeway in using various factors to sneak around the ban on affirmative action, and the tide of public opinion seems to be moving more and more toward Connerly's position.

I don't really have an answer to all of this. Any constructive advice I might offer would probably focus on improving things in the 17 years before someone applies to college, and I think there is very little that BAMN can accomplish here at Berkeley to further those reforms. In a general sense, raising awareness about inequalities in education would seem to me to be the best approach, and in that regard I think BAMN's normal confrontational/combatitive style is just as likely to cause more of a backlash than bring in more people to support their goals. Also, they would probably have to abandon their rhetoric supporting affirmative action, because at least rhetorically, affirmative action = quotas to many people. My commentary is probably extraneous anyway, as I don't really think BAMN is interested in helping to create a broader movement that includes mainstream students... (remember what I said about extremist wackjobs making poor leaders?)Email This Post!