Pitzer Professor's View on "Racial Equality"

Quote of the day from the Jena Six protest (courtesty of the DailyBulletin.com):

"We need to make sure the system treats everyone equal and not go back to the days when people were treated differently within the justice system simply because of the color of their skin." --Jose Calderon, Pitzer professor of sociology and Chicano studies, who joined Thursday's silent march in Claremont.

I agree with you one hundred percent, Professor Calderon. But why is that you support racial discrimination in academia, specifically in your own writings? Why, in 2001, did you write a pro-racial discrimination article in Newsday?

You wrote the following (and if anyone can find a link to this article , it would be greatly appreciated):

Critics also argue that we need "class-based" solutions such as full employment, national health care and quality education that can pull everyone up simultaneously. What they fail to point out is how people of color, even if they reach middle-class status, confront unequal resources and a glass ceiling that prevents them from moving into managerial positions.

Critics are hiding behind the argument that we need to strive for a "color blind" society, arguing that affirmative action only serves to divide working people by allowing one group to benefit at the expense of another. This logic leaves out that specific groups, because of racism and sexism, have been historically excluded or left at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
(Jose Calderon, "Suits Peril Last of Affirmative Action in Education," Newsday, March 21, 2001)

Perhaps, Professor Calderon could explain how some racial discrimination is good and while others are bad. That, after all, is his position. We know that colleges still use racial discrimination to keep out Asians, Indians, and Jews. A 2005 study by two Princeton researchers definitively showed that if racial discrimination were eliminated at the university level, Asian enrollment in college would grow.

We also know, from research Richard E. Sander, that racial discrimination (or affirmative action) also hurts black and Latino law students. So why do so many still support it?

Pomona Student Pres. Wants To Ban Sodexho?

I won't confess to liking Pomona's Frary Dining Hall. Besides the whole Hogwarts vibe, it's just plain creepy that Prometheus watches over us as we eat.

But, flipping through the pages of Pomona's The Student Life, I came across an article about a proposal from none other than the President of the Pomona student body.

Here she is quoted in the newspaper:

The ASPC President, Elspeth Hilton ’08, addressed sustainability by providing an example of a company supported by the College whose ideals may not align with those of the students, faculty, and administration.

“The impact of our contract and support of Sodexho goes far beyond our food quality,” read Hilton’s speech, which was delivered on September 4. “While there is little emphasis on locally grown food products, we must also look at the political impact of Sodexho’s policies, their history of employee rights and their stock holdings. By giving money to Sodexho, we are supporting their policies and actions, many of which go against the intentions of the students on campus.”

Her solution is less than democratic. She wants the task force:

...some of Sodexho’s policies have been questioned by Pomona students and the ASPC. ASPC’s Environmental Affairs Commissioner Kyle Edgerton ’08 and Community Affairs Commissioner Mollie Ruskin ’08 are putting together a task force that will lay out the policies with which the ASPC disagrees.

The task force is exploring several aspects of Sodexho’s practices and Pomona’s contract with them. They will be looking to quantify specific effects of Sodexho’s policies and determine the positive or negative impact of those policies. Also being studied is how these policies conform to student beliefs and the College’s ideals.

First off, if the issue is as important as we've been led to believe, why not put it to a vote?

Putting aside the bad journalism of the article in which the author never gets an answer for what measures the Pomona student president is prepared to do. Given the history of going after Sodexho by leftist activists, I'm assuming that they are hoping for a boycott or an early termination of a contract. It seems to be all the rage these days.

Don't like Sodexho at Frary?

Here's a thought. Don't eat there. Vote with your feet. There are four other dining halls to choose from. After all, Scripps College got 19th best food from the national survey, The Princeton Review.

I'm reminded of a quotation from one of my favorite movies: Ten Things I Hate About You.
It's from the black teacher, Mr. Morgan, and though I don't necessarily agree with his view vis a vis black authors, it's still a point worth considering. Here it is, taken from the transcript of the movie.

  MR. MORGAN
       (continuing)
I know how difficult it must be for you to overcome
all those years of upper middle class suburban oppression. 
It must be tough.

She deflates and becomes bitter again.

MR. MORGAN
(continuing)
But the next time you storm around the PTA 
crusading for better lunch meat,
or whatever it is you white girls complain about,
ask them why they can't buy a book written by a black man!

Exit questions: What is with those who want to imposing their own views on the rest of us? Whatever happened to using choice? More importantly, whatever happened to debate?

Spot on Quotation about Gore Vidal

In case you hadn't heard, Gore Vidal came to speak at Claremont McKenna College's Athenaeum. Unfortunately, I did not have the "pleasure" of hearing him speak, I'm waiting for the video!

If this kind of rhetoric is what passes for serious Athenaeum speakers, I'm glad I missed it. The priceless quotation is found below. The article is courtesy of the DailyBulletin.com.

"It's no accident the Europeans consider us the idiots of the Western World. We're off the map," Vidal said.

He imitated Bush's fast Texas twang: "`If we don't fight 'em over there, we'll have to fight 'em over here.' When I heard that, and people believed it, I washed my hands of this country.

"How are `they' going to get here? Greyhound bus?"

Vidal, who will turn 82 next month, spoke in patrician tones, quietly but devastatingly.

With the administration arguing that even American citizens can be detained indefinitely as enemy combatants, Vidal said, "we have no country, we have no legal system."

The country is in deep decline on virtually all fronts, in Vidal's view, yet Americans don't want to hear it: "We're perfect, you know. No low cloud obscures our horizon."

He decried today's poor state of affairs compared to the "golden age" of America's influence and culture, which he identified as 1945 to 1955. While he may be right, he also sounded like a more eloquent version of the cranky neighbor down the street shaking his rake.

In the question and answer portion, students were respectful and a trifle awed, even in the face of Vidal's overwhelming gloom.

One asked which leaders Vidal admired "besides Aristotle," whom he had invoked earlier.

"Pericles," Vidal responded dryly. "Hope he's not too modern for you."

With speakers like Vidal, Asim, and the ever magnificient, Bono, I keep asking myself if this school is truly the conservative outpost I thought it was.