Does ethnic separatism foster prejudice in society?
By Kamily Graham
and Diane Ichikawa
Every day, we open up the Daily Bruin to read the Viewpoint section. And every day, we hear from one more disgruntled liberal regarding the passing of the "racist" Proposition 187. To quote Dink, "Frankly, I'm getting a little ticked off."
The article, "Latino/a activism awakens 'Sleeping Giant,'" (Dec. 5) by Nikolai Garcia-Ingistov, among others that have been printed, have raised concern among the Republican minority on campus. These liberals seem so concerned about prejudice, and yet their articles make sweeping generalizations about the conservatives who voted for this measure.
We could argue all day about the implications of Proposition 187, but why bother? It's been passed, for those who refuse to admit it. For now, we'd like to focus our attention on Garcia-Ingistov's article.
* In the first sentence, four Spanish words are used without giving their English equivalent. This alienates the gringos who could be reading the article. If he is so worried about the Latinos being persecuted and alienated why does he do the same to non-Spanish speaking readers?
* Garcia-Ingistov consistently capitalizes "Brown" and not "white." Since when is the color of one's skin capitalized? If this does not promote ethnocentric views, we don't know what does.
* Yes, we did see the "12-year-old boy from the junior high ... who carried the Mexican flag with pride." Excuse us if we are mistaken, but this young man is living in the United States of America. We understand that he is proud of his ethnic background, but he should also be proud of the country that gave him the right to protest in the first place the USA. And by carrying this flag, he is promoting a separatist society which is doing no better than parading through the South with a Dixie flag.
Garcia-Ingistov is very adamant about the unification of the Latino people, but what California needs and what we are all trying to achieve is a unified state regardless of color barriers.
By reducing this to a color issue, we are fostering prejudiced behavior and ideas within our state. As one great scholar once said, "After all, there is but one race humanity."
Graham is a first-year student majoring in political science; Ichikawa is a first-year student majoring in English.