Double Black, Latina/o, Native American, and Other Underrepresented Minority Enrollment at UC Berkeley NOW!
Drop the Charges Against Occupy Cal Protesters!
Rally and Sit-In at UC Berkeley
Friday, April 6th, 12 NOON at Sproul Plaza
- Defend Dr. King’s Dream for America Real at UC Berkeley!
- Restore Affirmative Action and Overturn Prop 209!
- BUILD the New Civil Rights Movement! Public Education Is a Right, Not a Privilege!
It’s time to make Martin Luther King’s Dream for America real at UC Berkeley. In recent years, the flagship campuses UC Berkeley and UCLA have refused to admit more than a tiny proportion of the state’s majority Latina/o and black student population, despite the fact that every year more Latina/o and black students are qualified and apply. The current freshman class at Cal has only 139 black students out almost 4000 all together. Latino students make up 50% of all of California’s public school students, yet are only 12% of Cal’s freshman class. For public education to be a right for all, UC Berkeley needs admit the state’s majority minority students. We can change this, but only if we act.
To win we must take direct mass action. Join us on Friday, April 6th at 12 pm on Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley to demand that UC Berkeley double the number of black, Latina/o, Native American, and other underrepresented minority students admitted in the Fall 2012 freshman class. The current admission’s process that relies on racially biased standardized tests and inflated GPA’s reflects privilege, not merit. Black and Latina/o students are the peers and equals of all students and have an equal right to be at UC Berkeley. Our movement has the power to change this discriminatory admissions process. Every person who wants UC Berkeley to integrate its student body should come out. What we do can alter the character of history.
The movement, not the courts, politicians, or administrators, can change the current situation. BAMN sued on behalf of minority students against the anti-affirmative action initiative, Prop 209, arguing against the racism in the admissions process and the need to restore affirmative action policies. While that suit moves through the courts, that alone will not be sufficient to get a change. None of the politicians or administrators have done anything to increase underrepresented minority enrollment, even though they know it can and must be done. They believe that the only people who get to decide the future of public education in California are the bankers and billionaires who have been systematically segregating our schools, universities, and neighborhoods.
The politicians and administrators are wrong. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and the other great leaders of the last civil rights movement did not have the money or the support of the mainstream politicians. They defeated the old Jim Crow through the masses of people who supported their action, who were themselves prepared to act, and their determination to win. Dr. King understood that our strength is in our numbers and our conviction.
We do not have to let this phase of the new Jim Crow set in. To win the battle to double underrepresented minority student enrollment, our generation must ignore any advice we hear that tells us to limit our actions to whatever those currently in power would find acceptable. We must understand and act on the truth that we cannot win a bright or hope filled future by only fighting for our immediate self-interest. Our future is bound with each others’ shared future.
We have the power to make UC Berkeley the public university that we want it to be, a model for progress and equality, not the beginning of the end of public education and the entrenchment of the new Jim Crow. We are the only force that can prevent the further destruction of public education and make sure that it serves the interests of the vast majority of Californians. That is our responsibility and challenge. Let’s fight to win!
