Afrikan Student Union to create racial profiling database

The Afrikan Student Union is calling for members of the UCLA community to submit written accounts of any experiences of mistreatment and racial profiling by university police.

The student group, which serves students who identify as part of the Afrikan Diaspora, intends to use these accounts to create a database for its administrative staff, said Kamilah Moore, chair of ASU and fourth-year political science student.

“We’ve had lots of students coming to us, telling us their stories about discrimination,” Moore said. “We want these stories for our own. … For things to actually change, we need to have a record.”

The student group started asking for input after UCPD detained two UCLA students Tuesday while they were writing “White Supremacy Lives in the System” in chalk on the concrete wall near Drake Stadium, facing Bruin Walk. The students, who are black, wrote the message after one of them experienced racism firsthand earlier that day.

Jessica Rayside, the editor in chief of Nommo Magazine, said she got into an argument with another driver while sitting in her car at an intersection near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue. Rayside said she asked a woman in the other car if she was going to hit Rayside’s car and the women responded with “an air of superiority.”

At one point the woman in the other car asked if Rayside could not afford to go to school because she was on welfare and called her “nothing but a (N-word).”

“(She) saw that I was black and automatically assumed that I was on welfare … and called me a (N-word),” Rayside said. “That is a problem.”

Rayside, a third-year Afro-American studies student, said the heated conversation made her upset, and she told the woman that she wanted to get out of the car to confront her. The woman responded by asking who the police would side with if they got into a fight, implying that the woman had the upper hand because she was white, Rayside said.

Later that night, she told Adar Carver, a third-year philosophy student, about the conversation and broke down in tears.

The two decided to write “White Supremacy Lives in the System” on the wall near Bruin Walk because they wanted to start a conversation about racism still prevalent in today’s society.

“If she can blatantly suggest that white supremacy is acting in the system, we are going to put it up there,” said Carver, a member of ASU. “You should be able to read the words that you speak.”

The students specifically chose to write their message in chalk because they did not want to vandalize.

Nancy Greenstein, UCPD spokeswoman, said in an email statement the students were detained after the officers instructed them to stop chalking and they did not comply. Chalking is considered vandalism according to Section 594 of the California Penal Code. A case law under this section determined even temporary damage to be vandalism, Greenstein said in a statement.

UCPD put Carver in handcuffs when he refused to stop writing and detained him and Rayside for about 30 minutes on Bruin Walk. The message was erased by morning.

“The very system that I am criticizing is oppressing me,” Carver recalled thinking while he was detained. The students wrote about their experiences on Nommo Magazine.

UCPD contacting the dean of students after the incident was a routine procedure which they carry out whenever they come into contact with UCLA students, Greenstein said.

According to the UCLA Regulations on Activities, Registered Organizations, and Use of Properties, chalking is prohibited.

“No sign, poster, paint, chalk or ink messages may be placed, affixed or applied to the walls, windows, floors or other surfaces of campus buildings or structures,” according to the document.

Carver said he thought it was unfair that they would not let him write his message when other signs written in chalk are left up around campus for days.

Robert Naples, dean of students, said in an email statement any individuals who are guilty of violating the policy may receive consequences according to the Student Code of Conduct.

He added that he could not comment on any possible disciplinary actions for the students involved in the incident.

ASU called the detainment “extremely egregious” with “definite racial undertones” in a statement released Wednesday.

To improve the relationship between UCPD and the underrepresented minority student community at UCLA, ASU intends to create a UCPD-student task force, according to the statement.

Greenstein said in an email statement the police department remains committed to working with students to establish a dialogue about this incident and others similar to it.

She added that UCPD and ASU have been communicating about how to address conflicts between the two organizations to make sure UCPD achieves its mission.

“It is important that UCPD’s service to UCLA reflects our core values, which include respect and accountability,” Greenstein said in the statement.

ASU plans to collaborate with other cultural student groups, Greenstein and Janina Montero, vice chancellor of student affairs, in order to create the task force, Moore said.

Montero and Chancellor Gene Block met with ASU members on Wednesday to discuss the task force and the next steps for the project. Montero said in an email statement she was committed to discussing these issues with students to improve campus climate.

“While often difficult, conversations about race are essential as we continue work toward our mutual goal of ensuring an environment where all members of the campus community feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect,” she said in the statement.

Moore said ASU intends to continue collecting stories for the database and wants to hold a collective meeting with members of administration, UCPD and student groups next quarter.