by Brandon Buchanan, The Culture Co-op, Edwin Edebiri, Leanne Friedman, Nathan Ellstrand, Tracy Fauver, David Greenwald, Alexandra Lee-Jobe, David Lichtenhan, Gloria Partida and Tracy Tomasky
Many will want to dismiss the assault of a Black woman in West Village on Monday, February 15, by three men, all of whom were under the influence, to another late night alcohol-fueled incident. It is this type of collective response that stagnates communities in the movement toward understanding and combating racism.
The destructive power of hate language and crimes against marginalized groups causes the targets of those groups to live in constant anticipation of when they will be reminded that, no matter how much they strive for their own pursuit of happiness, they are still second-class citizens in the minds of many. Current politics serve as an affirmation that this is not an unreasonable delusion. As a result, the larger community becomes splintered, defensive and isolated.
It goes without saying that actions of this kind are not acceptable in any way, and it is up to everyone to denounce such acts, that they not only affect our community, but represent a larger marginalization of Black people, and specifically Black women, in our society as a whole. As a community we can help by supporting the demands brought forth at a rally on the UC Davis campus, where ASUCD President Mariah Watson stated, in the wake of the hate crime, “The Black community here in Davis DOES NOT FEEL safe.” No one should feel unsafe in our community and we need to work to ensure that every resident, every visitor, and every student feels safe and valued.
As community members, this is concerning. Students pushed for six very realistic and achievable demands.
- Emergency Call Boxes on Campus
- Improved Lighting
- Safer Transportation at Night
- A UC-Wide Policy that Addresses Anti-Blackness and Racism
- A Statement about the Hate Crime from the West Village Management
- University to Finish Previously Presented Plans (which can be found here: http://bit.ly/1oFtFPT)
We join in this call and, where applicable, we ask that the city of Davis pursue the first three options within the city as well.
We also would like to call attention to an additional hate crime that took place at the train station on Tuesday, February 23, where an Ethiopian man was assaulted and battered by a White male, while receiving racially derogatory comments. As with the incident just mentioned above, we condemn hate crimes, and particularly hate crimes against the Black community, in our city.
In light of these incidents, we encourage community members to utilize resources to report hate crimes and hate incidents:
-City of Davis: http://cityofdavis.org/city-hall/police-department/hate-incidents
-UC Davis: http://reporthateandbias.ucdavis.edu/
We ask that everyone stand in solidarity with the Black community as allies and support them as they negotiate these difficult times.
I like your first three bullet points for an action plan (I remember when I was a grad student at UC Davis and my girlfriend sometimes worked very late in the biology lab, I would insist on driving her home after midnite rather than her riding her bike–she did not have a car; and bike-riding around for a woman alone after midnite made me feel uneasy about her safety).
I’m not sure about your last three bullet points–recall that in each of the last two derogatory name-calling incidents and assaults, the perps were not UC Davis students; I’m not even sure if the perps in either incident were Davis residents (as I understand it, the train station perp was a drunken homeless man).
I hope more details of these incidents are released, particularly the assault on the woman–what did the perps throw at her, and was she injured? Did she require emergency room or other medical service as a result of the assault? Did the woman and the perps know each other; or what (if anything) led up to the assault?
The sixth bullet is simply that UC Davis completes what they committed to already, that seems very reasonable. The fourth represents a much broader perspective of UC-wide incidents. The only one I’m really not that sure about then is the call for West Village to make a statement, but perhaps there are specific concerns that I’m not aware of.
Have you read some of the requests in the sixth bullet? It sounds to me like this group wants special treatment, not just the same treatment as all of the other students.
But they’ve already been granted that. The university agreed to it. What is that you object to in that list?
Many things. I don’t think we should be admitting students or hiring teachers and staff according to a race quota system.
Have you looked at the list of requests? Are the things that they demand offered to all students?
” I don’t think we should be admitting students or hiring teachers and staff according to a race quota system.”
I see that comment as a red herring, they’ve called for an increase in the numbers of students and faculty. That seems reasonable.
UCD has 28% white students when the current CA consensus shows 38% white, should UCD then have to actively recruit more white students?
UCD has 37% Asian students when CA consensus shows CA 14% Asian, should UCD stop Asian admissions?
You’re again arguing by shifting and deflecting. The question should be: are we doing enough to recruit and retain students of color from disaffected communities. Instead it becomes an exercise in comparative statics.
So twice now because you have no answer and know I’m right the best you can come up with is I’m deflecting and shifting? Okay, got it. So much for evidence based calculations, I guess that’s only applicable if the evidence happens to fit one’s agenda.
You also realize that I’m still writing another article and cleaning up a kid that had an accident while addressing your questions – but in general, your response to every suggestion has been to minimize the problem and superimpose a different narrative. Am I wrong? Have you ever approached a problem by attempting to address that problem without bringing in other considerations that may or may not be relevant?
You wanted a more detailed response, BP, and I will do it probably in another article.
So when black students at UCD are underrepresented by 3% and something should be done about that and it’s pointed out that white students are underrepresented by 10% that’s somehow just deflection and shifting the issue? Do I have that right?
BP… your “stats” would be more convincing if they were UC system-wide, rather than a given campus… they may be equally valid system-wide… I just don’t have that info available…
Why Hpierce, if you read the black student demands they are UC Davis specific:
You’d be the one shifting and deflecting DG, unless you wish to have 120% of students enrolled so that all groups are more equal than all others.
Cogent points BP. Admitting more black students won’t stop drunk fools from being fools, and it won’t stop the George Soros hysteria. As our former police chief noted, call boxes are old technology, and practically every student has a cell phone. Besides, more violent and frequent crimes seem to be committed against white and asian students.
White and asian students are often threanted or the recepient of a knife, gun, or pipe, and those violent crimes get basically ignored. But a black students gets shoved to the ground by a drunk, and the hysteria starts. #AllLivesMatter
“Admitting more black students won’t stop drunk fools from being fools”
Those list of demands were not in response to this latest incident, they were drafted in May 2015.
“it won’t stop the George Soros hysteria”
Certainly not on your part, I don’t believe anyone other than you has George Soros hysteria, lol, given that you mention him in almost ever post.
Yes, the demands spawned off of these incidents, if you can call them that:
The worst of those imo was the name calling incident. So over a 4 year period some drive by group twice shouted a slur, a Jungle Fever article, ethnic food and supposed bad advice leads to all of this?
“So over a 4 year period some drive by group twice shouted a slur, a Jungle Fever article, ethnic food and supposed bad advice leads to all of this?”
I think those are just the notable incidents, if you read the prelude, I think the bigger issue is that graduation rate and the fact that the students do not feel supported by the university.
” but in general, your response to every suggestion has been to minimize the problem and superimpose a different narrative.”
But that’s ” The Davis Way.”
We should take a look at PhillipColeman’s response to this on a previous thread:
“Local governments everywhere have deliberately done the opposite; police call boxes are gone, fire alarm boxes are gone, even the iconic phone booths are gone except for those iconic British models used an ornaments. The reason is simple, cell phones. Nobody was using call boxes anymore, months would elapse without even a single usage. So this obsolete communication system was removed and precious tax dollars were transferred to greater public needs.”
We discussed this last night with Chief Pytel – he pointed out numerous advantages of using a cell to call 911. I’m not sure the specific issue related to this case, however, it was also pointed out that many campus buildings and perhaps spots on campus do not have cell reception.
Simple… I believe it will be cheaper and more effective to spend money to improve cell reception than it will be to add call boxes… by far…
Won’t happen tho’, because the students demanded call boxes… it appears that’s all they’ll be satisfied with at this point.
Hpierce, your suggestion is on the mark. We shouldn’t care that they have to get what will satisfy them, any upgrades should be the most cost feasible and give the most bang for the buck.
I graduated in 1997 and the years I was there good lighting on campus was a major concern that never got resolved. Some lighting was pur in but it was not sufficient. Here we are in 2016 and it’s a concern for the same reasons. I hope UCD does wait for another incident or hate crime to occur on campus and state “We wish there had been benter lighting…” It’s an easy solution. I hope they take action quickly on the lighting and the other demands. The demands are very reasonable. Thank you Chancellor Katehi for recognizing the seriousness of this hate crime and other hate crimes. As alums we await your response.
What about violent hate crimes against white and asian students, which appear to more more frequent and violent?
This smells of Soros and PepperGate.
“Many things. I don’t think we should be admitting students or hiring teachers and staff according to a race quota system.”
Still fighting Bakke are you. Too bad. Without Scalia anti-affirmative action cases are not going to be as well received as they have been for the last 30 years. As Scalia said about Bush V Gore “Get over it.”
Then I guess underrepresented white students can look forward to UCD having to admit more of them.
Brandon wrote:
> Many will want to dismiss the assault of a Black
> woman in West Village on Monday
Have you met (or even heard of) a single person that wants to “dismiss” the assault of a Black woman in the West Village this week?
There are many in town that think calling Davis “unsafe” a stretch and there are many (including David) that are “not really keen on the notion of exclusionary spaces” on campus but I don’t think you can say that “many” in town (I don’t think you can find even a single person) don’t want the guys who assaulted the women punished (and are even close to “dismissing” an incident that is not only violent but racist).
Well, David and others have asserted/implied I wish to “dismiss” the incident (and the one at Amtrak)… but that’s a damn lie (or, if you prefer, ‘grossly untrue’)… I do happen to believe the alcohol mis-use played a significant factor… in both… which excuses the violent behaviors NOT AT ALL!
I agree with both of you.
BP wrote:
> UCD has 28% white students when the current CA
> consensus shows 38% white,
> UCD has 37% Asian students when CA consensus
>shows CA 14% Asian
Then hpierce wrote:
> BP… your “stats” would be more convincing if they
> were UC system-wide, rather than a given campus…
The “stats” are even worse at many other UC schools (like UC Irvine that is 44% Asian).
At Cal only 11% of the students are white males (and less than 10% of them are from California). My nephew graduated in the top four of his class at a Northern California prep school and got in to Cal, but not a single other white male from his school got in.
With UC getting ~$38K per kid for out of state and only ~$13K per kid for in state more and more of the white spaces are going to wealthy out of state whites (the number of out of state spots have doubled in 10 years).
It seems like the “current plan” for public colleges is to make California white parents pay CA Property, Income and Sales taxes, but then spend an “extra” $50K+/year (including room and board) to sent their kids to OR, AZ and CO for school while UC gets $50K+ (including room and board) from white parents in OR, AZ and CO.
http://opa.berkeley.edu/uc-berkeley-fall-enrollment-data