Mom, Dad: I have a confession. I skipped class Thursday.
I wasn’t hungover, nor did I sleep in, and I wasn’t watching “The Office” as I’m so prone to doing. Along with hundreds of other UCLA students, I decided to learn in a different environment, through exercising the power of our First Amendment rights.
Backstory time: As I was walking back from a TA’s office hours, I stopped and chatted with a friend, who asked me if I was going to attend the walkout planned by the Afrikan Student Union to show solidarity with black students at the University of Missouri. I hadn’t heard about it, but sure enough, after a quick Facebook search, I found the event page with details: 12:45 p.m. walkout, 1 p.m. rally at Powell Library. I was set.
My friend and I got up and left class at 12:45, awkwardly ditching our second-row seats in blatant view of our professor. I felt like we were the only ones leaving, and frankly, I was disappointed – especially because the class is GE Cluster 20A: “Interracial Dynamics in American Culture and Society.” Professor Vilma Ortiz, the cluster coordinator, said she knew about the protests beforehand, but didn’t have enough time to meet with the cluster team and decide how to address the protest in our lecture. She also said that she didn’t notice any abnormalities in attendance (verified through iClicker question participation), confirming what I noticed as I left: In a class of 220, no more than 10 people walked out.
So we made our way up to Powell Library, where we were greeted by an electric crowd of hundreds. Uncomfortably interspersed throughout the protest, however, were campus tour guides trying to tell impressionable groups of prospective students about the history of Royce Hall and Powell. Parents looked uneasy. Quelle horreur! A protest? On a college campus? God forbid!
Related: Bruins stand in solidarity with Mizzou students protesting racist incidents
While many students leaving Powell took pictures and chanted along with the protesters as they walked away, several other students left study sessions rolling their eyes. Even more just kept their heads down and walked by the protest, seemingly unaffected.
Something about the image of the rest of campus carrying on with their business as they avoided the massive and profound protest in front of them just didn’t sit right with me. As I walked back to the dorms, I had a lot to reflect on as a white girl born and raised in the Midwest.
Deep in thought, I passed a group of black high school students who made the trip to participate in the protest. A senior turned to his friend and said, “Man, this is the place. This is the campus. I need to work on my application this weekend!” I chuckled because, as a freshman, the trauma of the college application process is still too fresh in my mind. I told him he has some time, and he laughed. “I have to make sure my personal statement is strong. I have to be here.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that being here isn’t always enough. The problem is even though we’re here as a student body, not everyone is doing their role in standing up to racial injustice.
After Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Phi’s infamous “Kanye Western” party, the ASU released a list of 10 points they’re demanding of UCLA administration: concrete, specific actions our university can take to begin to ameliorate the racial climate here. Chancellor Gene Block emailed students Friday addressing UCLA’s plan for six of the 10 points, expressing that there is “more to come.” While it’s great that the administration is beginning to be supportive, it doesn’t mean anything unless the entire student body gets behind the movement, too. I’m willing to bet that the majority of students here couldn’t even name one of those points.
Related: Students protest Sig Ep, Alpha Phi raid, call on UCLA to address racism
If we, as a student body, are going to be here, we have a duty to make campus a space where black and other students of color are safe to pursue their goals without the fear of facing microaggressions and other forms of discrimination on a daily basis. Bruins get the privilege to call Westwood home, but like the protest leaders said, it’s not truly home if students of color are not openly welcomed and valued.
I am very aware of the fact I’m a white girl, born into a society that inherently favors being white. Despite that, I feel a great sense of responsibility. I, along with every one of the 43,293 students that attend UCLA, need to do everything in our power to make sure that not only black Bruins feel actively welcomed and valued on campus, but all oppressed groups do, too. As a group, we must move past the “opening up the discussion” discourse and do just as the ASU leaders implored on Friday: We must advocate, act and actively challenge societal and institutional racism.