Column: “Get Fucking Angry”

If you ask UC Davis student Sarah Raridon how she feels about the recent vandalism of the UC Davis LGBT Resource Center, she doesn’t mince words.

“Get fucking angry,” she advised the crowd of students at Monday’s anti-hate rally. When I asked for her input about fresh examples of bigotry on UC campuses over the last few weeks, she told me with exasperation about homophobia, “It’s not new.”

These most recent incidents may have been big enough to draw the attention of higher authorities – Chancellor Katehi, UC President Yudof and Gov. Schwarzenegger have all made statements to the effect of “plz advise: racism and homophobia are bad,” – but that does not mean they are unique. Yudof, et al, may have made their proclamations against hate, but these proclamations are in direct conflict with a system in the midst of privatizing education.

What I mean by that is, the administration has found a way to have its cake and eat it, too. By stating it has joined forces with student activist movements but allowing fees to crank up and resources to deplete, the UC administration (and the establishment itself) can say it’s on our side and still increase fees.

Vandalizing the LGBTRC is certainly shocking, but it’s not the only way to assault a community. By now you’ve heard of attempts by organizations and individuals to oppress marginalized groups with such tactics as the so-called “Compton Cookout” at UC San Diego, the appearance of a noose at the UCSD library, a swastika carved into the door of a UC Davis student and the destruction of ceramic pots in front of the Islamic Center of Davis (across Russell from campus), which happened Sunday morning.

A lot of talk about “intersectionality” has been taking place, most recently at the town hall meeting hosted Monday by the LGBTRC.

“This homophobia is very interconnected with other issues,” Raridon explained. “Systems of homophobia serve to hold up systems of racism,” and other methods of oppression, including sexism, that serve to disempower those who are not rich, white, heterosexual and male.

For all of the assurances of UC administrators and elected officials, and for all the lip service paid to such concepts as diversity, there are people who are suffering because they do not have access to the resources they need, especially in situations, like the aforementioned vandalism, that they are needed most.

The increase of fees and the cutting of programs limit everyone, but has special impact on people marginalized because of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, citizenship status and financial resources.

President Yudof condemned the “Compton Cookout,” and displays like it, but what solutions has he offered? “[It’s] really an insult to everyone, especially for African American students and faculty … We just have to work harder. Some of it is working on admission, some of it is working on campus processes.”

Vague exhortations to “work harder” are not what we need; concrete promises and acts to the effect that programs and fees for the most disenfranchised will be supplied is what we need.

Hearty encouragement for the student activists is coming from every imaginable source, but the conservative nature of the establishment is not with us, as much as it claims to be. To preserve itself, it must continue to find ways to reinforce elitism, to deny access to education to marginalized populations, and to maintain the primacy of the patriarchy. While they do what they can to deflect criticism, they do little else to actually help. What are you going to do about it?

HALEY DAVIS can be reached at hrdavis@ucdavis.edu.