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HALT THE HISTORY SNOW-JOB!

San Diego is not known as a hotbed of racial animosity. Naturally, it has shared in the general part of the bigotry to which this country is heir. Apart from the usual “genteel” residential, employment and other civic and social strictures, its coarse racist expression usually has been confined to a coarser element clinging to the outer reaches of East San Diego County. In a recent glaring incident, however, overt expressions of racial disparagement were brought into the prestigious halls of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD).

A UCSD fraternity held an off-campus “Compton Cookout in recognition of Black History Month. Women were told to come as ghetto chicks with nappy hair and a very limited vocabulary. Malt liquor and watermelon were to be serv When this came to light, the administration sought to disavow it as off-campus activity. A state legislator suggested that funding and certification might be withdrawn. The administration then announced a tolerance teach-in. Outraged student activists pulled a Sixties-style sit-in at administrative offices.

Defiantly, a note appeared on campus citing a “Compton lynching.” Additionally, racially offensive comments were made on the campus radio station and in the campus newspaper. To top it all off, a noose was displayed on campus, for good measure. This turned up the volume of the offended student protests, which were punctuated by emotional outbursts and tears.

This is just another indication of our inability and/or unwillingness to treat the shameful part of our history with the same gravitas as those things of which we are most proud. As long as we continue to hide the shame of this nation under the snows of February, while labeling the snow-job as “BLACK” History Month,  

young people will continue to react to this separate, unequal and devalued portion of American history with the same sense of privileged White entitlement as their ancestors.