Brown talks equality

Former California Assembly Speaker and current candidate for San Francisco mayor Willie Brown took time out from a busy campaign schedule to address SF State students about affirmative action Monday in Jack Adams Hall.

Before his arrival at the podium, Brown, an SF State alumnus, mingled with students in the Cesar Chavez Student Center and recorded a greeting message for health education major Jeannette Dillon's answering machine.

In his speech, which was sponsored by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Brown spoke about affirmative action and tied the issue to himself.

"I am not a product of affirmative action," he said. "Had I been a product of affirmative action, I'd probably be addressing you as either the governor or the president."

Brown used the speech to put affirmative action in a historical context.

"In this nation, for so many years there have been clearly sanctioned official and unofficial discrimination on the basis of race, on the basis of sex, on the basis of origin, and on the basis of religion," he said.

Brown said throughout history, America tried to correct these forms of discrimination, only to fail at finding a remedy for discrimination against race.

"How do you deal with 100 years of pure unadulterated discrimination based upon race?" asked Brown.

According to Brown the remedy, affirmative action, was brought about to combat the institutional racism minorities encountered when trying to gain access to schools and other institutions.

"All of the admission policies, and the rules, and the selection process had come from a context of discrimination," Brown said.

So the government, under former President Richard Nixon, invented affirmative action, he said.

"To think Richard Milhous Nixon would be considered as having done anything positive in the area of race relations is mind-boggling, but it is true history," Brown said.

Brown told the audience that "most white people in this nation were the beneficiaries of affirmative action (before the civil rights movement)."

"But that group of people (whites) who had preferential treatment all those years began to do the marvelous stuff for what you ought to do to protect what you had, even at the expense of those who tried to gain some degree of justice," Brown said. "They began to file lawsuits. They began to talk about reverse discrimination. They began to talk about exclusion of them because of race."

Brown said even though affirmative action has helped to even the playing field for minorities in the face of these challenges, the system still hasn't done enough. He cited the leadership of the California State University system as an example.

"Under no circumstances should you be so proud that you have a university system with fewer than five (of 20) campuses headed by people of color," said Brown.

During a brief interview with the Gater before his speech, Brown talked more about his mayoral bid than affirmative action. He said his administration would be more responsive to the needs of students.

"Students use the municipal services probably as much or more than any another group, percentage wise. And the mayor's office ought to be involved in making sure that this work force that comes out of this college, to help earn what is earned and what is contributed to this city, is a full participant."

Brown talked about the changes to the school since he was a student here in the early '50s.

"It's incredible. You're about three times the size of us when I was here, you're far more organized than we ever were, and you're far more mature than we ever were," Brown said.

Students' reactions to the prospects of a Brown mayorship were mixed.

"I'm going to vote for Roberta Achtenberg," said student Joel Schoening. "He (Brown) was a good speaker but (Achtenberg) has a lot more community plans for the neighborhoods."

One nursing student who did not wish to be identified had mixed feelings.

"He might be a good candidate, but I'm not sure about the ethical issues," she said, specifically citing Brown's ties to the tobacco industry. "I don't think it's setting a good example."

But some, like Lina Morales, a psychology major, thought Brown's experience was a plus.

"I think his strength is negotiation. He has experience in dealing with people at the state and federal level."

[ Golden Gater Online November 7, 1995 ]

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