Dear Editor,

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary

congratulates the Black Student Union and all of the black, Latino, American Indian and other students who have waged the brave and inspiring struggle against overt racism and hostility at UCSD. We know from our own experience that each student had to reach deep inside to overcome the fears and threats and to summon the courage needed to stand up for minority students’ rights.

Because you fought, Ward Connerly has now declared that he will be “reviewing” the settlement that you have reached with the administration. As always, Connerly says nothing about the nooses, the hoods or the climate of racism — his only concern is to end the slightest step toward restoring fairness, equality and affirmative action.

If Ward Connerly threatens one syllable of the agreement you reached with UCSD, we would be proud to provide whatever legal and political support you need to defeat him.

Connerly’s Proposition 209 remains the crucial obstacle to our

shared fight to stop the re-segregation of the University of California, to increase minority student enrollment and to restore the UC system’s historical commitment to educate the next generation of leaders for California and the nation. In a state that is now a majority-minority state, it is simply unacceptable to have only a tiny number of black and Latino students attending the UC campuses.

At the UC Regents meeting that will be held in San Francisco from March 23 to 25, we and other organizations will be demanding that the regents put their own words into action. We demand that the regents take the following steps:

1) Use all lawful means to increase underrepresented minority enrollment immediately,

2) Pass the Bernal-Block motion to provide UC institutional financial aid to undocumented AB 540 students.

3) Follow California Attorney General Jerry Brown’s lead by stating as their position in the federal court that Proposition 209 is unconstitutional and discriminatory, stand on their own 2001 unanimous resolution opposing the ban on affirmative action and tell the plain truth that after experimenting with all conceivable admissions policies, Prop. 209 still creates an unfathomable barrier to the UC system’s ability to admit thousands of fully qualified black, Latino and American Indian students.

Taking these simple measures would provide a systemwide body blow to the racists and bigots who are trying to drive us off our own

campuses. Getting the UC system’s support for overturning Prop. 209 and creating a UC Dream Scholarship would provide our new student movement with huge victories in our struggle to defend public education.

We can win if all those who want to fight for equality unite. Join with us in the lawsuit against Proposition 209 and in demanding action by the regents.

­—Shanta Driver

National Chair, Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary