March 16, 1995
Unified Student Movement's vice presidential candidate, Marisol Ruiz, chooses to answer the question of racial division in campus politics with yet another hysterical tirade against Zionism.
It's absolutely weird to have the politics of the Middle East dominating student government at SF State. Student representatives have spent most of the past decade blowing fog about nonexistent bogeymen, instead of working up front to do what's best for all of us here on campus. Meanwhile, activities fees keep creeping up -- they're now the highest in the state -- and we have little or nothing to show for it.
Ruiz attempts to water down her anti-Semitic response with a disclaimer: "...I think the Holocaust was horrible..." That's nice. I think the colonization of the Americas and stealing human beings from the African continent was horrible, too. But for me to put it in so many words sounds flip and condescending, especially considering I'm a white Jewish male.
Zionism is a belief in the connection between the Jews and the land of Israel. Calling Zionism "racism" is just as offensive and misguided as it would be to call the La Raza movement racist. Ruiz is guilty either of sloppy scholarship, deliberate misinformation, or outright anti-Semitism. In any case, she's ill-qualified to hold student office.
Ruiz's absurd rhetoric is doing nothing but distracting us from making real progress toward building a real community for all here at SF State. What does she plan to do for students here, at this school, on this campus? Does she plan to spend her term doing nothing but pointing fingers at "the Zionists?"
While she's in the library updating her facts, Ruiz might want to check out George Orwell's "Animal Farm." Right now, she seems to believe that "all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."