The Event

Hearing UCSD students discuss the race-based riots that occurred on campus last March 4th, I’m guessing, mirrored the reality of the riots: energizing, soaked with purpose, but confused about direction and lazy about analyzation.

A fraternity on campus had a “Comptom Cookout” and explicitly printed that attendees should wear ghetto clothes, nappy hair, talk loudly, in ebonics- watermelon will be provided. Shortly after, a noose was found in the library. What could (and often is) brushed off as a harmless joke was brutally shoved into an act of intimidation and blatant racism.

UCSD had proposed 30% fee hikes, and students had already planned a protest for March 4th. So, students mobilized to merge protests- thousands gathered to demand more African American representation on campus and African American themes integrated into the curriculum. When retelling this story, though, people often comment that the African American population at UCSD is 2%- and they emphasize, that’s not to say that the events were justified in any way, but the population victimized was not a sizable number. And the students report that now, almost a year later, nothing noticeable has changed. Just as few black students roam the campus and just as much racism circulates.

That day, March 4th, people report, was more of a spectacle than a genuine protest. People occupied the dean’s office, demanded for more African American Studies classes and an increased dedication to diversity in the admissions process...but when 5pm rolled in, the students left...peacefully, with very little accomplished. The news I read about this event definitely reported differently- it reported fights and fireworks. And I don’t doubt that many students were (rightfully so) enraged and argued passionately for their values. But, the students I interviewed, some of whom were present in the dean’s office during negotiations, dejectedly said that it seemed like playing out scenes from a movie. A protest must include x, y, and z- and so they went through the motions.

The March 4th protest is well documented. The UCSD community got out their video cameras, audio recorders, iphone cameras, and everything in between to record every speech, every step in the march. Those involved were aware that this was an event to remember, an event that they’d later recount to their children (or at least, to interested anthropologists conducting interviews about racism) and say “I was there.”

It may be too soon to tell, but several people that I interviewed speculated that it was an event contained in itself. It had very little build up (things exploded rather quickly in a short amount of time) and produced no noticeable difference. That’s not to say that the event itself wasn’t important. It sparked awareness and discussions across the country about the US’s racial reality in an (incorrectly) self-proclaimed post-racial world. But that is to say that events like these, in isolation and with no ripple effect, don't automatically push us into equality in the way one-day protesters might hope.