Hundreds of students flooded the streets of Westwood and blocked traffic on part of Westwood Boulevard for about an hour Saturday afternoon as part of the annual Student of Color Conference.
The conference, hosted by the University of California Student Association, allows students from minority racial backgrounds and their allies to meet, discuss cultural inequalities and make plans for how to address them.
Students marched from Le Conte Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard chanting “You see, you see, can’t you see? We need more diversity” to protest what they call a lack of racial diversity in higher education.
Many of the demonstrators expressed their support for the UCSA campaign Invest in Graduations, Not Incarceration, Transform Education, commonly referred to as IGNITE. The campaign is aimed at promoting diversity in higher education and ensuring that members of underrepresented communities are not disproportionately represented in state prisons.
“It’s all about steering our own future. The school-to-prison pipeline and diversity go hand in hand. There’s a lack of diversity (in higher education) because minorities are getting pushed into prisons,” said John Joanino, president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council who helped organize the protest.
The students carried signs that read “Invest in education, not incarcerations” and also chanted “The students united will never be divided” as they walked from UCLA’s campus down Westwood Boulevard.
Sy Stokes, a third-year Afro-American studies student who recently posted a viral video about the small percentage of black male students at UCLA, was one of the students participating in the protest.
“A lot of people just don’t know about the issues that are going on, even if you are a student of color,” Stokes said. “I mean, we’re all in college, it’s hard to keep up with everything, but (that is why) we have stuff like this where people come together.”
Morris Sarafian, a second-year political science student at UCLA, also participated in the protest.
“This is my first conference, and to see this many people, this many students unified on a single cause is extremely inspiring and it gives me hope that we can actually better ourselves,” Sarafian said.
The weekend-long conference will continue Saturday and Sunday, as the students involved participate in a number of workshops geared toward sharing personal experiences and learning about ways to take action against structural injustices.
by the way it was “UC UC can’t you see, we need more diversity!”
look. guys i came to this school all down for the liberal agenda. maybe its with age maybe its come with just frustration over the reality of the actual situation of higher education. but look when you judge the success of a basketball team, you dont look by what country the players are from, you look at the overall talent of the team. and sadly race is a no factor in higher education. i dont care if people are Martians, only the best should go to the top schools. and it is not UCLA’s responsibilities to help disadvantaged high school students get a second chance at the school. UCLA isnt a place where racial inequity should be solved. but a place where elite minds work together. and affirmative action really has to place at this university end of story.