The
Largest State in the Country with a flagship university......... And there are
not black men in college what a shock????????? That’s because your job is to
play basketball & Football......... SMH
THE
VIDEO
The black students at University of California, Los Angeles,
sent a strong message about diversity at their school. Namely, the fact that
there isn't much when it comes to African-American males, a troubling fact for
one of the state's most elite institutions.
A group of students, led by Sy
Stokes, posted a video voicing their concerns about the number of black
students on campus, and their message is hard to ignore. Stokes, a third-year
Afro-American studies student who identifies as black, Cherokee and
Chinese, recites a spoken word poem in the video, citing blaring
statistics about the university's diversity issue.
According to the school's
enrollment statistics, African-Americans make up 3.8 percent of the student
population. In the video, Stokes points out that black males make up 3.3
percent of the male student population, and that 65 percent of those black
males are undergraduate athletes. Of the incoming men in the freshmen class,
only 1.9 percent of them were black.
In an interview with the
Daily Bruin, Stokes
said he almost dropped out of UCLA during his first year because he felt
isolated and uncomfortable. Although he eventually found his
niche in the minority community, he said he wanted to raise awareness about the
school's lack of diversity before the university's application deadline on Nov.
30.
“We had to do something to put our issues on the map,” Stokes
said.
In an email statement to the school paper, Janina Montero, vice
chancellor of student affairs, said administrators acknowledge the need for
more diversity and are attempting to work within the state's admission
parameters.
“We certainly recognize that the low numbers of African
Americans and other underrepresented students on campus does lead to a sense of
isolation and invisibility,” Montero said in her email statement. “It is
difficult to eliminate this painful imbalance without considering race in the
admissions process.”
The state
of California voted down affirmative action in 1996 and passed Proposition 209,
which banned state schools from considering race, gender, ethnicity or national
origins in their admissions processes. Black student enrollment has severely
decreased since that
provision and critics are saying that has to change.
The students' video adds to the ongoing affirmative action
debate both inside and outside of the state, raising awareness about diversity
at institutions around the country. Stokes said he feels responsible for
spreading the word about the unknown challenges of being a minority student at
UCLA and the ongoing lack of diversity on campus.
"Being the cousin of Arthur Ashe, I feel as though it is my
responsibility to uphold the strong voices of the Black Bruin community,"
he said. This school has experienced unacceptable instances of injustice
recently, and many people are not aware of what is happening at this
university."
