[ Golden Gater Online - December 4, 1997 ]
In his speech to faculty at the beginning of this semester, university President Robert Corrigan called SF State "the most anti-semetic campus in the country," which left some members of the campus community wondering where he got his information.
Although it's probably impossible to conduct formal analysis of people's prejudices, Corrigan was undoubtedly referring to a series of incidents that occurred on campus last semester, including a speech by racist hate-monger Khallid Muhammad and a banner that was placed in Malcolm X Plaza by members of the Pan Afrikan Student Union that showed an Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle of it.
Also, the national spotlight was focused on SF State in 1994 when the original Malcolm X mural, which featured dollar signs superimposed over stars of David, was sandblasted away under police protection.
While this semester has been relatively quiet, a recent incident should not go unnoticed.
Carlos Corea, a Jewish student, was running for election to the student center governing board. After passing out flyers advocating his candidacy, someone clipped his picture off one of the flyers and created a new one, which was posted around the Cesar Chavez Student Center.
The new flyer read:
"Uncle Tom Colonial Carlos Corea is running for Student Center Governing Board," and went on to say that Corea was "a member of the Zionist student group Hillel."
The flyer then made a series of accusations about Israeli politics, Hillel and the Anti-Defamation League, saying Hillel and the ADL were caught spying on campus.
While whoever wrote the flyer didn't claim authorship, the rhetoric echoed a flyer created by PASU promoting the Khallid Muhammad speech, which stated that tickets would be sold on a sliding scale, costing more for Uncle Toms, Zionists and white supremacists.
Hillel says some Jewish students don't feel comfortable walking around campus. Maybe incidents like these are why.
There is a racist thread on this campus, which runs right through the student center.
Penny Saffold, dean of student affairs, denies there is anything "broken" about campus race relations, characterizing SF State's racial problems more as growing pains.
Along with all the other incidents, SF State is first in the CSU in the number of campus hate crimes. These are some awfully ugly growing pains.
Multiculturalism, touted by Corrigan and reflected in the attitudes of his top administrators, is showing its seamy underbelly at SF State.
One would think that "multiculturalism" means a convergence of world outlooks. But that promise isn't playing itself out here. Instead, there is division, mistrust and fear. And, as the old adage goes, a house divided among itself cannot stand.
That's why some houses have rules.
While employees of the university have to sign a commitment to multiculturalism, there is no campus policy on acts of racial or ethnic discrimination. It makes you wonder why ... there's plenty of it.
And the office of the dean of human relations, which was supposed to smooth out differences when there was racial, political or ethnic conflicts among the students, remains unfilled since Joe Julian left office.
It seems like SF State is taking a non-confrontational attitude toward the problems on campus. It should do more, though.
By the way, Corea lost his bid for a seat on the student center board.
[ Golden Gater - December 4, 1997 ]