As another spring comes to UCLA, graduating students try to
ponder and decide where their futures might take them.
However, as some students decide whether their futures lie in
corporations, students of color have a more daunting task. Many
have to make decisions that do not only dictate their futures, but
the futures of their communities as well.
For people of color, graduating from UCLA is a privilege that
must be shared with those in their communities. Many UCLA graduates
were expected to get degrees from prestigious institutions like
UCLA. However, there are thousands of students who are only the
first or second generation in their families to receive college
degrees. For some, this degree is not just the next step, but a
symbol of achievement won at the cost of the lives of those who
lived and died so that Latinas/os, blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders
and others would have access to degrees in the United States.
Students of color have to understand that their success hinges
on the success of their own communities and peoples. The notion of
linked fate states that people are not just individuals, but part
of a collective identity that, no matter the circumstances,
experience the same destiny in the end.
History shows the truth of this. The United States did not
separate out educated Japanese people when they rounded up all
Japanese and placed them in internment camps during World War II.
It didn’t matter if you had a master’s degree in 1960;
if you were a person of color you still didn’t drink from the
same water fountain as your white counterparts. Thanks to the
Patriot Act, anyone looking “Middle Eastern” today is
perceived as a terrorist by our society and can be questioned,
regardless of educational status.
No matter how much education you have, your community is a part
of you whether you like it or not.
As students of color enter the ranks of corporate America and
join the upper crust, most can’t divorce the fact that most
of their relatives, friends and communities will never live like
that. So, students must continue to look after the interests of the
whole rather than just their own interests.
What will you do with a degree when you graduate? Some students
take out the braids and shave off the dreadlocks, and adopt that
weave and fresh cut once they realize they must fit a certain mold
in order to get a job. Others will drop their Spanish surnames,
changing from Ricardo to Richard and from Maria to Mary in the wake
of that next promotion. In this era, where we have been fed the
idea that the American dream is now wide open to us all, shall we
forsake our collective dream for a piece of this country’s
gold?
We must not allow our communities to perish as we find success.
We have never seen communities more divided. As Latino and Asian
communities increase in numbers and gain political clout, these
same communities are victim to brutal, cheap labor practices that
our economy thrives on here in the United States.
Los Angeles now holds the richest and poorest black communities
in the nation (Ladera Heights and Watts). As more women of color
have broken barriers through positions, salaries and possessions,
more women of color are also seeing the inside of jail cells and
prisons. The only reason we are here is because of the sacrifices
of those who have come before us. We pay homage to them not just by
recognizing their contributions, but contributing to this
university and this world.
What will you do with your UCLA degree? Will you, like thousands
of people, work hard while making others richer, or will you
reinvest in your community? You do not have to be the director of a
non-profit organization to give back. You only need to empower one
person to receive the same opportunities that you have been given.
There will always be a disadvantaged person who needs your guidance
and support. It is important to understand that your education
means freedom to many of those not given the same opportunities.
You have been given the power to make a difference, and hopefully
that will not not go to waste.
So, as we all go buy our tassels, seal our invitations, and make
our first steps toward the future, remember the education you have
earned here at UCLA, and remember that our legacies depend on our
community’s legacy in the end.
Remember Frederick Douglass’ motto: “Without
struggle, there is no progress” ““ for our lives, as
well as the lives of our communities.