UCLA was the first place I lived where whites were a minority, and where I met people who openly and proudly identified as Jewish. The fall of 1988 was where my adult life began. I was 22.
At Sierra Community College a year or two previous, my friend’s mom recalled that the UCLA Economics and Business program was dominated by “smart Jews.” That caught my attention. I was used to thinking of myself as the smartest person in the room (or close to it).
June 1988 at Sierra College
On my GF’s bed at Rieber Hall, UCLA March 1989
At UCLA, I proudly identified as “an atheistic communist.” I would talk about Marx to anyone who would listen and before Economics class with visiting professor Russell Roberts (a baal teshuva aka a Jew who became Orthodox), I would write my recommended books on the blackboard, including, Marx’s “On the Jewish Question“, which I thought was the best short introduction to Marx’s thought. A guy with a yarmulke questioned me about the book. With trepidation, I said that Marx saw the Jew as the embodiment of the bourgeoisie. I said there were anti-Semitic parts to his writings but they should be ignored.
I think the guy who asked that question, Steve S., was someone I’d get to know a decade later, but we could never nail down whether or not that was him.
This was my first experience of life in the big city. I felt like I belonged. I’ve lived in LA since 1994 (from 1989 to 1994, CFS forced me back to the country).
A heated exchange at the table. Students chanting "Black Bruins Matter" now. #UCLA pic.twitter.com/bTEecIftrl
— Tanner Walters (@tannerbwalters) May 3, 2017
UCLA student politics aren’t quite as hilarious as Claremont/Pomona’s, but they’re good for a laugh now and then.
Lately, UCLA student politics seem to be mostly The Diverse vs. The Jews.
For example, a high school friend of my son’s who got elected to UCLA student government by mobilizing his obscure Asian ethnic group made the front page of the New York Times for questioning a Jewish nominee to office over whether she could be fair on Israel-related issues. (You may wonder how often Israel comes up in UCLA student government. The answer is: all the time.)
Typical UCLA student and his Neapolitan caddy
Of course, the NYT edited the article and cropped the photo to leave out my son’s highly diverse friend and make it appear that only a blonde coed from Switzerland was, as it were, interrogating the Jewish sorority girl.
In U.C.L.A. Debate Over Jewish Student, Echoes on Campus of Old Biases
By ADAM NAGOURNEY MARCH 5, 2015
Anything else would be too complicated for NYT subscribers to deal with.
This week, the big brouhaha is over the Jewish student body president joking around in an old picture:
Students respond to leaked photo of USAC president making gang symbolStudents expressed concern and outrage over a photograph of the undergraduate student government president that began circulating Sunday on social media.
In the photo, Danny Siegel, the Undergraduate Students Association Council president, posed with the hand sign of a primarily African American street gang called the Bloods. Many students said they think the gesture was insensitive to individuals affected by gang violence.
Here’s Siegel’s Linked-In page. Does every college student have a Linked-In page these days?
Siegel is a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. I wonder if UCLA’s star QB Josh Rosen is a member? Do football players join fraternities these days, or do they not have time because everything is focused on being a first round draft pick?
Some students began sharing a screenshot of the photo Sunday, one day before voting for this year’s USAC election opened. The photo was originally posted in a GroupMe chat called “Protect the Crown” by Brian Kohaya, Siegel’s appointments director. In the chat, Kohaya commented, “Problematic Danny. (Don’t you dare repost that photo).”Siegel … posted an apology on Facebook Sunday afternoon:
“This is a result of my white privilege and lack of perspective, something that so many victims of gang violence don’t have the luxury of, in fact this behavior can put their lives at risk,” Siegel wrote in the post. “I should have known better and take full responsibility for my insensitivity.”
Robert Gardner, a fourth-year political science and African American studies student, said a group of African American students called an emergency community meeting Monday night and are discussing how they want to respond to the photo. The students are considering asking for another apology or demanding Siegel resign from the remainder of his term, which ends May 9.
Gardner, whose cousin died because of gang violence, said many African Americans in segregated neighborhoods join gangs for protection or income.
“When a white person throws up the gang sign, they’re basically making a mockery of the oppression that African Americans in hyper-segregated neighborhoods face,” he said. “A lot of black Bruins are extremely upset at this appropriation of our culture … that’s derived out of anti-black racism.”
Kosi Ogbuli, a first-year neuroscience student and incoming vice chair of the Afrikan Student Union, said he thinks the photo is inexcusable.
“From where I grew up, it’s a sign that implies a lot of things and a lot of danger,” Ogbuli said. “It’s like a name tag for what gang you’re in – that’s your set and you’re proud of being in it.” …
“That’s not something that should be mocked or even thought about by somebody that is a student leader,” Ogbuli said. “For some students, that might be a reality, a reason why their father or mother is not in the picture.”
Amy Shao, the USAC Cultural Affairs commissioner who ran with the slate Waves of Change last year, said:
“Being from communities of color, we can’t afford to not understand these things, because they impact us every day,” Shao said. “(Siegel) has the privilege to decide when to be informed and to pick what he knows. I don’t know if he understands that.” …
NJ Omorogieva, a second-year sociology and psychology student, said she knows people on campus who have been deeply affected by gang activity.
“Being part of the black community at UCLA, I know people who do have high stakes (in the issue),” she said. “For someone to mock it is extremely disrespectful. …
Omorogieva added posing with the sign is supposed to represent pride for what gang someone belongs to, and she could not imagine using the sign as someone outside gang culture.
“You know how long it takes to form your fingers into that?” she asked. “In all those minutes, you must have thought about doing it, positioned your fingers, posed for pictures – it takes a pretty long time for you to not realize it’s wrong.”
Siegel said he does not recall his thought process while taking the photo, but added he did know at the time that it was offensive to certain communities.
COMMENTS:
* Danny Segal will be handing off the UCLA student gov presidency later this year to Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh, who is running unopposed after completing a successful term as president of Bruins for Israel. Segal took office after the term of Heather Rosen, who succeeded Avinoam Baral. So the office is split between Jews with normal names and funny names.
Prior to that, in 2013, the office was held by John Joanino, a gay-looking filipino who is now executive VP of a cell-phone massage start-up.
* “Many students said they think the gesture was insensitive to individuals affected by gang violence.”
Right. And then, they went back to their dorms to listen to gangster rap about shooting homeys.
But I wonder… it’s more probable that some blacks are miffed that some white/Jewish kid ‘stole’ something considered ‘cool’ in the black community.
At any rate, it’s not the Jewish kids who are killing blacks. It is black kids making gang signs who are killing blacks. But when blacks make those signs, blacks don’t complain.
But I like this development. Maybe blacks should freak out anytime any white or Jew or non-black takes anything from black culture. Rule should be ONLY blacks can act black. Okay, let blacks be the only ones acting like rap thug morons. The hell do I care.
“You know how long it takes to form your fingers into that?” she asked. “In all those minutes, you must have thought about doing it, positioned your fingers, posed for pictures – it takes a pretty long time for you to not realize it’s wrong.”
So, it is a matter of pride. Sheeeeiiiit.
* It’s like a drug.
These morons get a high from finding something to get hysterical about. It gives them a rush of self-righteous sanctimony and superiority.
It is victim-crack or sniffing the KKKrazy Glue.
Jews vs Blacks are always funny because it’s high IQ people pretending to ‘understand’ low IQ people. When Jews apologize, it’s more practical than principled. Jews figure it makes no sense arguing logic with such people. They feel like a person being bit by a crazy dog. The best way is just go easy and ‘okay…. easy … easy’ in the hope that the dog will finally cool down and go away.
Blacks have this legacy of holy suffering, but the MOCKINGBIRD narrative hasn’t had relevance for a long time. So, most of what blacks bleat about is total BS. But we have to pretend as if it’s MOCKINGBIRD once again. But it’s actually more like Cuckoo, Cuckoo.
The tone of the article is revealing. Because of the cult of black moral authority, we have to be gushy-hushy about even the dumbest black rants.
Chutzpah must give way to Hoodspaw.
* Blacks like to vent their grievance at whites/Jews because if they talked that way to other blacks, a fight will break out and someone will get hurt bad… or even dead.
If gang violence is a problem, then shouldn’t that fat black woman be going to the gang-bangers and berating them to stop acting like thugs? But that would get her killed or whupped real bad.
Better to talk big to a bunch of people who will sit and listen.
‘White Privilege’ is the favored target because it’s like a dog that gets kicked and takes it.
* The media absolutely loves blowing up gangsterism to absurdly romantic levels. The Godfather practically rehabilitated the Mafia to most Americans, especially Italians, who suddenly saw those guys not as something to be ashamed of as Italians, but to be proud of. The Godfather was so popular that it literally invented many of the symbolic things in the Mafia that the Mafia began to copy: for example, heads of crime families never got their hands kissed until they started mimicking that film.
But the truth is more along the lines of Scorcese’s Goodfellas: psychotic local bullies who have no code but (1) loyalty to the in-group, only hanging with other tough guys; (2) forcing their victims to pay up, no matter what the circumstance (aka no mercy to the outgroup); and (3) wild spending , debauchery, and conspicuous consumption with little regard to making it the money last. And then you have to strip away all the glamor, intelligence, and bravery Scorcese infused into his guys in Goodfellas.
So the romanticism has occurred with black gangs, pushing them from local drug runners and extortion racketeers to some kind of mythical power. In truth, most gangs take a housing project and make it their own, but never get beyond that.
* Middle Eastern boy who hates both whites and Western culture pretends to be white Westerner when he gets in trouble and has to grovel. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
* Growing up in the “hyper-segregated” D.C. area there were a number of Country Club ‘gangs’. Which one your father belonged to ( in those days the baby mama had no say) determined who your friends were and where you could ‘go’. You couldn’t just hang around the swimming pool at a Country Club if your father wasn’t a member or unless someone whose father was, invited you as a ‘guest’. Only then could you enter that ‘gang’s’ territory.
There were no gang ‘colors’ or throwing of ‘signs’ between the teenage club ‘bangers’. It wasn’t necessary because only members had the right to ‘sign’ for cokes and cheeseburgers at the snack bar. You could tell who the ‘shot callers’ were in these gangs too by how many cheeseburgers and cokes they would sign for for their friends and guests. There were no shootings despite the intense social competition that went on because shooting someone gained you no status. You had to earn your status with fashionable clothing, knowing the prettiest girls and excelling at the club’s sports.
The negro wasn’t part of this world back then so they assume their struggle for status was unique. It wasn’t.
* I showed this to my kid who is going to UCLA in the fall, and my kid commented that the real concern should be how the Bloods are going to deal with Danny Siegel: he may have much, much bigger problems than the SJWs (and, no, I do not condone them doing something nasty to this clueless kid).
* Realistically they won’t give a shit and can’t be bothered. He’s not a threat or competition to them in any tangible way and he didn’t do it in their neighborhood or in their presence. As a middle-class (or higher) white he is not expected to know/abide by all the rules. He “ain’t ’bout dat life” as the saying goes– just a forgettable, rich, soft, dorky white boy.
* The Angry Black Lady style of interrogative discourse has now firmly established itself in academia, having previously been seen mostly in environs such as the DMV and fast-food outlets in downscale neighborhoods. I understand the video interrogation of Professor Christakis’ premises and privilege last year introduced this intellectual development to the wider world. I expect we will see it next at Stanford, because, as we all know, black lives matter a hundred times over, in Palo Alto.
* If South Africa is any guide, wealthy Jewish-Americans will still prefer the Vibrants over the Whites no matter how nasty the Vibrants get. Wealthy Jews of the West will only “take ownership” of the West when they literally take ownership. I mean, UCLA, Harvard, the USA and the West will only be defended by them to the extent that they feel it’s theirs: lock, stock and barrel. When they feel like they’re smashing their own things, then they’ll cut it out.
Hey, we’ve all made a lot of progress in the 100 to 150 years since Jews were given full civil rights. Maybe over the next hundred they’ll get comfy enough to stop smashing the institutions they now own? The UN gave them Israel a few years ago and they seem to have “taken ownership” of that; so there’s hope.
* There was a magazine which I used to read years ago (late 90′s, early oughts) called F.E.D.S. = Finally Every Dimension of the Streets. It was basically one long fanboy letter to drug dealers and gang bangers. It was a bestselling mag in the Black community for years and was only sold retail, so no subscription discount.
* I think the gang sign IS offensive, but the offended students are so inarticulate they can’t explain why, and maybe they don’t even know why or really think it’s offensive. The reason it’s offensive is that it glorifies brutal killers. Indeed, an apt comparison would be with young Siegel posting a photo of himself doing the Hitler salute. Proudly displaying a gang sign should be offensive to everyone, regardless of race. That reason is not cultural appropriation, of course, more the opposite.
I guess the problem is that none of these PC students want to actually criticize the Bloods, because (a) that might be dangerous, and they’re cowards, and (b) that would be to criticize black people.
* “You know how long it takes to form your fingers into that?” she asked. “In all those minutes, you must have thought about doing it, positioned your fingers, posed for pictures – it takes a pretty long time for you to not realize it’s wrong.”
I’m happy to report that it takes this arthritic middle-aged man 11 seconds, so perhaps half that for 22 year old.
* A Jew apologizing for “culturally appropriating” black gang signs? That’s hilarious!
Perhaps they’ve got it backwards, though: the Tribe is the oldest gang in human history. They’ve got initiation rites, symbols, territory, a language and a particular manner of dress. Instead of red or blue hoodies they wear yarmulkes. Instead of cuttings or tattoos, they’ve got circumcision as a physical indicator of initiation.
Maybe the blacks are trying to appropriate the gang culture of the Jews…
* It is morally outrageous for white people to throw gang signs, because gang signs are:
a) an authentic part of black culture, and thus cultural appropriation when thrown by whites.
b) an authentic part of black culture, and thus cultural mockery when thrown by whites.
c) an inauthentic part of black culture, and thus racist indoctrination when thrown by whites.
d) an inauthentic part of black culture, and thus gestural violence when thrown by whites.
e) whitey need to shut the f*ck up!
* How anyone could have sat through that fat lady’s lecture is beyond me. Oh, well, at least the Good Whites and Jews of UCLA are getting the full diversity experience that they likely deserve.
