Racism continues
Before anyone presumes anything, let me clarify a few things. I
am not a conservative and I am not white. I am a liberal Asian.
Recently, there has been much discussion over the issue of
affirmative action. Those who oppose it are labeled as
“racists” who are trying to “usurp” the
gains made by the Civil Rights Movement. Well, I disagree.
How can one claim to be fighting racism while supporting its
implementation in state universities? That’s what affirmative
action is: racism and discrimination. It gives several races
preference over others. If affirmative action were applied to
whites instead of blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans, the outcry
would be deafening. How can this be called fair?
Don’t get me wrong, there can be no denying the hardships
that many minorities face. But, admitting those who have been
disadvantaged into a competitive school would be like letting the
Chinese basketball team compete in the NBA.
Let me put it another way: if the adversity and poor quality of
public schools many minorities face exist ““ as they
undeniably do ““ then those same students are not prepared to
compete with others at top universities.
One statistic pro-affirmative action activists use is the drop
in admissions of minorities to top UC campuses. One that is never
used is the number of minorities that dropped out after being
admitted.
I would be willing to wager that many will fervently oppose my
views. I have one question for those people: how would you feel if
you knew that the only reason you were admitted to this university
was because of your race?
Color-blindness is the only fair solution, and the only policy
that should be pursued.
W. John Lo
First-year
Undeclared
Distortion in cartoon
I found the cartoon regrading the Middle East in
Wednesday’s Viewpoint section particularly appalling. It is
an attempt to demonize Israel, implying that Israel is a monster
that is disallowing a Palestinian State to exist.
This could not be farther from the truth and demonstrates a
shameless, baseless hatred for Israel. Israel has always and even
now made incredible concessions for peace, compromising its very
security time and time again and allowing the Palestinians in
Palestine every right to do as they please.
Israel currently is defending itself from Palestinian attackers
trying to murder Jews in Jewish settlements while Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat fuels hatred of Israelis and Jews.
Perhaps it is the Palestinian State which should be depicted as
the monster, since more and more of Israel is disappearing to make
room for an ever-growing Palestinian State, which still does not
even recognize Israel’s right to exist and released
terrorists by the dozen. The picture is not even related to any
article, and is merely there giving a completely skewed and wrong
view of what Israel is currently doing. The picture does not relate
to Nemeth-Brown’s article either since he’s only
speaking about minimizing the effect of religion in the conflict,
not demonizing Israel in any way.
The top register of the picture relates more to the article
since it has the symbols of both Judaism and Islam but again
depicts Israel fighting Palestinian rioters with tanks.
This is a blatant fallacy since Israelis, though using tanks for
defense, have not fired their cannons at demonstrators. I demand an
apology for the hate-driven, biased picture. It borders on
anti-semitism and has no place in UCLA’s newspaper.
Kevin Lev
Fourth-year
Business economics