Trying to combat what they called racism and attacks on affirmative action, staff, students and faculty members from the California State University system met in Los Angeles last Friday and Saturday for the "Promoting Diversity in Times of Adversity" conference.
Sponsored by the California Faculty Association, the conference focused on defeating proposed amendments to the state Constitution aimed at ending affirmative action, such as the one sponsored by Assemblyman Bernie Richter. The conference also focused on how racist thoughts are formed and what university professors can do about them.
Although they united to discuss racial issues, they disagreed over how to begin the fight.
Richter's initiative would eliminate affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment based on race, gender or ethnic background.
Because of last November's elections that saw a political shift to the right, supporters of affirmative action are scared that Richter's proposed initiative might get on the November 1996 ballot and pass.
According to a January Los Angeles Times poll, 55 percent of those surveyed said they believed affirmative action programs designed to help minorities get better jobs and education were either "adequate" or "do not go far enough."
To counter underlying racist messages by politicians appearing in the media, speakers gave suggestions on how to present arguments for commercials and news.
"We are up against a slick campaign," UC Berkeley sociology Professor Pedro Noguera said.
He gave an example of how politicians disguised racial rhetoric by quoting David Duke as saying, "I don't hate blacks, I love whites."
Because there is so much information, people turn to trusted opinion leaders like teachers for guidance, Herb Chao Gunther, director of the Public Media Center, said. But since they are not acting like leaders, people turn to Rush Limbaugh for opinions.
"People don't make up their minds about anything," he said.
The American population is insecure and they want to be associated with a winner, Gunther said.
"Acting like a winner is three-fourths of winning," Gunther said. "Stop acting like losers."
But suggesting that teachers shape opinions drew some criticism by Sonoma State English Professor Robert Coleman.
"I am not going to tell my students what to think," he said.
So far, professors have been doing a poor job of teaching the importance of affirmative action, Noguera said.
"Over 20 years ago, there was a lot of struggle to gain access, but once we got that I think complacency set in," he said.
Even if the initiative doesn't pass, faculty still need to teach students about racism and diversity, he added.
Noguera said some whites feel they are marginalized because jobs are going to minorities. He added that this makes people feel there's an increased competition for resources, putting people on the defensive.
"At this phase, the main focus has to be on educating and organizing," Noguera said.
He said it's going to be difficult to defeat the proposed initiative because of the right wing's influence and momentum.
In one session, questions were raised as to how much money the CFA was willing to spend to buy newspaper and television commercials.
CFA President-elect Terry Jones said they are considering some kind of financial support but it has to be approved by the 19-member board.
San Marcos Professor Al Schwartz said he didn't know if the sessions to develop strategies to fight affirmative action were effective because a many different views were presented and little was accomplished.
"It was a discussion that academic people have when they get together," he said.
On the other hand, Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo English Professor Kenneth Brown said it's better to brainstorm and keep the flow going than to stop and try to edit yourself.
The conference also included seminars on topics such as how to end racism.
Although the conference focused on how to fight anti-affirmative action legislation, seminars also focused on racism in education.
Teachers have to start teaching the importance of diversity when children are young because after about age 13, it's too late, according to Britt Ortiz, an educational consultant from AWARE Educational Works, which specializes in cultural diversity training.
"Most people will deny that they have any kind of racism, especially in the educational arena," Ortiz said.
In his seminar, Ortiz passed out a questionnaire asking participants to write down their views of certain ethnic groups.
"What's kind of scary is when you do this with high school students, they tend to throw up 90 percent negative stereotypes about other groups and about themselves," he said.
Those informal studies show that society is based on racism, he said.
High school students say they learned negative stereotypes from the media, family and the education system, Ortiz said.
Because schools focus around European history, other groups learn indirectly that their history doesn't mean much and neither do they, he said.
"(The end of racism) will only come about once we accept that there is a real issue and there are real subconscious issues as well," Ortiz said.
People won't be able to deal with the deep-seated racism until they admit it's there, he said.
But trying to teach how to end racism in the time allowed was difficult for some presenters.
"I feel like I'm trying to teach the history of art in five minutes," said San Jose State Professor Roberta Alquist, who lead one in-depth seminar that was allotted 35 minutes.
SF State counseling Professor Wanda Lee said she hopes there are more conferences.
The coordinator of the event Nina Fendel said she received positive feedback from the conference because participants are inspired to go out and protect diversity.
She said they plan to promote more events on college campuses.