<p>"Aren't we all equal? "
No. At UCLA, "we" are 3%.</p>
<p>I use the expression "we" loosely; I do not leave a student there. My D was rejected.</p>
<p>FWIW, there would be a better yield of "qualified" Black admits, if they could get an attractive (to "qualified" Black admits") student profile going.</p>
<p>It is impossible for everyone to be equal.</p>
<p>I still hear racist / genderist comments from people all the time. It is a reality. Really stupid offensive expressions about price haggling referred to as "jewing a person down", and comments about asian drivers or asian robot students, or about sexual preferences, or on and on.</p>
<p>Much of our society was born and raised before the civil rights and human rights movements even existed. It was only in the early 1900s that women were even granted the right to vote.... that's right, when my 88 year old grandmother was born in Texas, she was a 2nd class citizen. </p>
<p>This being a UCLA section, it might interest you to know that when Walt Hazzard (as he was known in 1963) was playing for the legendary John Wooden, they had a game scheduled in (can't remember it if was Texas or the deep south, in 1963. He told of how he and another black teammate were barred from staying in the same hotel, so they had to sneak up the fire escape stairs and let in by a teammate. Can you imagine Coach Wooden observing this? Had he been as famous then as he is now, he might have been able to intercede on behalf of those two players.</p>
<p>My gosh I thought... I was ALIVE when this was going on and wasn't even aware of it. A lot has changed since then.</p>
<p>Groups that have historically felt the impact of prejudice or exclusion from opportunity of every kind (basically being born not white and male, and sometimes not Christian) have a practical, reasonable, and economic reason for supporting one another.</p>
<p>Hopefully the current environment will create an atmosphere where in 50 years there will be no reason for "support groups" to exist. There will still be groups, but born out of the positive motivation of mutual interest... like birding clubs, math club, lbook of the month club, religious societies, etc.</p>
<p>Oh, and I should clarify I am white, male and Christian, so really, what's it to me? It's funny but part of that faith motivates me to help make things better wherever I can. I'm also not very good at turning a blind eye. Hundreds and truthfully thousands of years of prejudice leaves a lot of opportunity for my involvement :)</p>
<p>"I think it's a different experience. Growing up in tough conditions, family with no money, growing up in a neighborhood violence, staying away from trouble, battling the lack of concern of inner city teacher, learning on your own, holding multiple jobs to support the family ... I think these outweigh the uncomfortable situation of being the only white student in the class."</p>
<p>What makes you think that the black students who were admitted to UCLA fit the above description? Isn't this a bit of a stereotype?</p>
<p>I have known plenty of black and Hispanic students who have been admitted to UC schools and who have not grown up in anywhere near the circumstances that you describe. I doubt that these students had anything to do with something as ridiculous as "Black Admit Week" or "Hispanic Admit Week."</p>
<p>Congratulations to all newly admitted students. I hope that those of you who decide to attend UCLA have a rewarding, successful, and FUN time as UCLA Bruins.</p>
<p>"All people are equal." </p>
<p>So you'd like to think. Socioeconomic levels, cultural influences, lifestyles, past history: all contribute to the variety of students attending UCLA. While ethnically-inclined student organizations at UCLA may support one particular group over another, they also exist to promote awareness about one's culture (via Japanese/African/Thai/Armenian Culture Nights, for example) and to provide a group of people which one may be more familiar with. Personally, it's easier for me to talk with someone who has been through the same cultural experiences and life experiences that my upbringing has afforded me.</p>
<p>Race still has a big part in determining what kind of life you live. While government discrimination of race has more or less ended, that does not mean that your life will not still be influenced by the traditions you had as a child, the family you were surrounded by as you grow up, or the rich heritage that your predecessors have had. </p>
<p>I'm writing this with my community service in mind. I work in an organization at UCLA which promotes awareness of health risk factors for the Asian and Pacific Islander population by hosting health fairs and training undergraduates to provide blood pressure and body mass screenings. These API groups tend to have limited English proficiency and cultural distrust of Western medicine. On a similar vein, different organizations have the same goal we do, but target the Black population or the Latino/a population. All three target populations (Asian, Black, or Latino/a) share socioeconomic disparity, and all three have drawn in students who align with our goals and share a desire to help out our target populations because we identify with a common culture. </p>
<p>In the end, I feel that student groups are all about affiliation. If you wish to join an ethnic group (ASU, ACA, NSU, etc.), then go for it. Same goes for Bruin Republicans, Bruin Democrats, LGBT, Latin Dance, Rowing, and other organizations. They all are groups which band together its members under a common banner. The key difference is that race is still a controversial issue.</p>
<p>"In the end, I feel that student groups are all about affiliation. If you wish to join an ethnic group (ASU, ACA, NSU, etc.), then go for it."</p>
<p>Ever heard of "Balkanization?"</p>
<p>^There's a difference between forming a group with a specific focus in mind, and forming a group that restricts anyone but those affiliated.</p>
<p>"There's a difference between forming a group with a specific focus in mind, and forming a group that restricts anyone but those affiliated."</p>
<p>Actually, that is a distinction without a difference.</p>
<p>UCLA's damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. If it doesn't do anything to specially attract black students it ends up with classes with less than 100 black students in an incoming class and a lot of criticism. If it does do something, it's racist.</p>
<p>"UCLA's damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. If it doesn't do anything to specially attract black students it ends up with classes with less than 100 black students in an incoming class and a lot of criticism. If it does do something, it's racist."</p>
<p>Since UCLA will be criticized no matter what it does, it should do the right thing and pursue a race-blind policy. Yes, I know UCLA says that it already does that, but if you believe that, you also believe in the tooth fairy.</p>
<p>Don't get too upset at westerndad's earlier comment. At UCLA you can actually walk in a large number of graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. You can walk in six ceremonies if you want. His comment was pretty much right on the mark.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Since UCLA will be criticized no matter what it does, it should do the right thing and pursue a race-blind policy. Yes, I know UCLA says that it already does that, but if you believe that, you also believe in the tooth fairy.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So it's not in UCLA's best-interest to maximize its yield?</p>
<p>"At UCLA you can actually walk in a large number of graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. You can walk in six ceremonies if you want."</p>
<p>If this isn't Balkanization, I don't know what is.</p>
<p>lol. there isn’t one for white. we both know that whites are not the minority but the majority next to asians. i mean there’s not even one for asians. just southeast asians cuz there aren’t a lot of them. the point of this weekend is to get more minorities to the school. more blacks, more southeast asians, more mexicans. cuz those are the ones that there aren’t a lot of at UCLA. i’m sure you were probably joking, but i do have other white friends and i know this joke stems from something real. go get a group of your friends and tour the campus yourselves i guess. =)</p>
<p>first of all it’s not “still” this is like a brand new thing because there are not a lot of these races on campus. yes were are all equal. but it’s not as easy when they are only 300 black students compared to 18,000 whites. that’s not equal at all. so by giving them a weekend and showing them what it’s like here, we are actually trying to make it more equal. trying to show you that there are some smart black eduated people that attend UCLA. because let’s get serious, there aren’t enough of us for you to actually see us everyday or even remember that UCLA is not just a white campus. although it is predominately white. yes we are all equal and it’s great that you agree with that. but some people even at UCLA are still prejudicious. so when 300 black people out of 45,000 students decide to get together so that we can meet, know each other and have each other’s backs, don’t think it’s because we’re trying to be racist or we don’t think we’re equal. the reason IS because we know we are all equal and should all have the same rights. and it harder to fight against the system as one person than as a group.</p>
<p>bbolden:</p>
<p>I’m not arguing against your main point but your numbers are way off - </p>
<ul>
<li><p>There aren’t 45,000 students. There are about 26,536 UG and 12K grad and interns/residents for a total of 39,650 students.</p></li>
<li><p>There are 938 UG AfAms so it’s 938 AfAms out of 26K UG students.</p></li>
<li><p>There are in UG 9,006 Caucasians and 9135 Asians so it’s not anywhere close to “300 blacks compared to 18,000 whites”, it’s actually 938 compared to 9,006, and the campus isn’t predominantly white since white/non-hispanics are actually a minority there with Asians outnumbering them. </p></li>
<li><p>A side note - AfAms are roughly 6.2% of the state of California and white/non-hispanic is roughly 43% and their demographics at UCLA are 3.7% and 35.53% respectively so the two groups really aren’t that far apart is terms of relative representation at UCLA in comparison to their representation in the population of the state.</p></li>
</ul>
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<p>The good news for you, I assume, is that AfAms aren’t in nearly the small minority you thought they were although it’s still a small number.</p>
<p>I love this self-segregation, don’t you?</p>
<p>“AfAms are roughly 6.2% of the state of California and white/non-hispanic is roughly 43% and their demographics at UCLA are 3.7%and 35.53%respectively”</p>
<p>So given it’s only REALLY 6.2% around here, 3.7% is really not THAT bad…</p>
<p>To be fair, my kids, born and raised in California, don’t seem to care at all, God bless 'em. And for me, growing up in a different demographic wasn’t “all that”, so who knows? I don’t. Do you?</p>
<p>Sorry dude, but this idea is a bit stupid. How are we going to overcome racial barriers if we take time off to segregate?</p>
<p>Once my parents invited a family to our house just because they spoke the same language as us. We had never seen them before in our lives. This situation is just as absurd. Choose your friends based on how you get along, not your race.</p>
<p>I believe the vast majority of people in this day and age, especially in diverse California, see people as people. Nobody’s going to discriminate against you.</p>
<p>And what are you talking about? You “don’t have the same rights?” You have to “fight against the system?” You got into UCLA! Why are you so paranoid about the minority of students who might be racist? Most people aren’t that racist.</p>
<p>African American’s aren’t the only ones who have a seperate weekend. No, we aren’t trying to self-seggregate. Our numbers are extremely low compared to other races. So, sue us for trying to meet people who we can relate to at first. The rare sighting of colored faces can be a little intimidating, and I think that a weekend with your cultural/racial group is the best way to learn how to assimilate into campus life. </p>
<p>I went and had a fun time. I don’t regret my decision to atttend: in fact, this weekend confirmed my desire to attend UCLA. I think we should just drop it, because complaining about “Balkanization” and “self-segragation” won’t stop the weekend from happening.</p>