RACIAL ISSUES HEATING UP AT MY ALMA MATER: A Few Thoughts

Royce Hall, the centerpiece of my collegiate alma mater…

UCLA, THE INSTITUTION WHERE I RECEIVED MY BACHELOR’S DEGREE THIRTY YEARS AGO, HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS FOR SOME NOT-GOOD REASONS.

HERE’S MY ONE AND A HALF CENTS ABOUT IT…

I reckon everyone in Bruin Nation has heard about,

• Christian Secor, a far-right student who matriculated at UCLA who founded a campus organization called “America First Bruins”, having stated that this country should be a “Whites Only” nation, being one of the multitudes who stormed the Capitol on January 6th as part of an insurrection, even sitting in former Vice President Mike Pence’s chair during that riot, and…
• Chris Weiland, a member of the Bruin track and field/cross country team, being dismissed from that program for using nasty bigoted language, including the “N” word, in a text message and video

In addition to that, the UCLA women’s gymnastics team’s plan to wear “Black Lives Matter” leotards in an upcoming meet has stirred a bit of controversy on Facebook as when a photo of such leotard was posted onto that site, the comments were divided between supporters and the “All Lives Matter”, “shut up and play” crowd that has been polarized ever since “Black Lives Matter” began.

These are the thoughts that have been prevalent in my mind regarding this issue that has reared its head in Westwood…

Though I’m sure that many, many folks, Bruin students and alums and otherwise, are shocked over what has been happening, I’m not.

Because as everyone knows (or should know), racism is everywhere; no place or institution on this earth is completely, 100,000% racism-free.

Here’s a good illustration;

Does anyone remember the classic 1971 movie Billy Jack, featuring a half-Native American with wicked martial arts skills who uses such skills to fight bigots?

In one key scene, in answering his friend who suggests that they find a place that’s not racist/sexist/etc., Billy answers,

“In what corner of the entire…planet exists where men truly care about each other and truly love each other. You name me such a place and I’ll never harm another human being as long as I live. JUST ONE PLACE! That’s what I thought (when the friend couldn’t name anywhere).”

In a university with nearly 45,000 students, with over 31,000 of them being undergrads,

To expect all of them to be completely non-racist/sexist/homophobic or completely culturally sensitive is, to be honest, unrealistic as the only difference between Secor and Weiland and others on the Westwood campus who share their views – and there are at least some, as evidenced by the presence of the America First Bruins – is that Secor and Weiland were outwardly blatant in their views and got caught.

As not only a UCLA alum, but also an African American, of course I’m glad that action was taken with those guys – that should go without saying – though if I were Secor’s coach I would have expelled him from the team at the onset, rather than suspend him and bring him back in giving him what was essentially a “second chance”.

My most prevalent thought regarding all of this:

That it’s my fervent hope that the African American community, particularly Black high school students and families who aspire to attend a prestigious college (UCLA has been ranked as the #1 public university in the nation for the past four years and counting),

Does not get put off or scared off by what has happened in Westwood in the form of, “UCLA’s a school full of bigots, I’m sure not going to send my child there!” or “I’m not going to apply there!”

Because of such ends up being the case, the racist bigots who don’t want the diversity that UCLA has been long heralded for, who wants UCLA to be a white school, will have won.

In fact, I want to see more African American students apply and get accepted into the Bruin Nation, to show those far right racists that “We’re not going anywhere!”

An increase of Black students at UCLA would really show those bigots, and drive them crazy.

And make me even prouder of being a member of Bruin Nation than I already am.

So I guess my message to all those Black high school seniors out there who are considering attending my alma mater is this:

“Apply to UCLA! And if you get accepted, come to Westwood! Join the Bruin Nation! Because we can’t let the bigots who don’t want us there win; we can’t give them the satisfaction! We must make our presence felt and let people know that we’re not going anywhere!”

A nice view of UCLA’s Royce Hall, Powell Library, and Bruin Walk as well as Century City and Downtown L.A…

MENTAL ABUSE: A Personal Epiphany and Declaration

I’ve felt like this quite a bit throughout my life. Photo courtesy of thelcbridge.com

SOMETHING ABOUT MYSELF THAT I RECENTLY FOUND OUT

A few weeks ago while I was on Facebook,

I came upon a post that stated the characteristics of people who are have been mentally abused.

Much like when I read about that guy having Asperger’s Syndrome in the Los Angeles Times back in the mid-1990s while riding the bus on my way to work, discovering that his personality traits and descriptions of him being on the autism spectrum almost completely matched mine,

Which resulted in me discovering that I was on the spectrum,

These seven descriptions of someone who has been or is currently abused mentally match mine pretty much exactly:

• Constantly apologizes
• Feels like they’re “not enough”
• Hides their feelings
• Hypersensitive to criticism
• Breaks down during small arguments
• Needs a lot of reassurance, and…
• Struggles to put their guard down

This is an ABSOLUTE truth that EVERYONE must know! Image courtesy of drshaileshthaker.co.in

Every one of those descriptions describes me perfectly and has done such for a long time, about three decades by my speculations.

The “hypersensitivity to criticism” is one characteristic that has particularly described me, as it was a main factor in my ultimately not being successful in the mainstream, top-down hierarchy workforce as I always took criticism from bosses and supervisors personally and felt bullied.

Examples of my feeling like this are featured in my book, WALKING ON EGGSHELLS.

I’ve also felt like I’m “not enough” or don’t meet the standards for being successful in mainstream American society for, I dare say, the bulk of my life in more or less every aspect, including (in this case, being that as of this typing, today is Valentine’s Day) matters of the heart as while its always said that one should always be themselves, my being myself has evidently not been “good enough” for a woman to be attracted to me to the point to wanting a relationship.

Apologizing all the time and constantly needing reassurance has also described me pretty accurately.

I think it all came from me being mentally abused – or in layman’s terms, bullied – as a kid due to my being on the autism spectrum as even though I’ve forgiven all those who abused me so during my formative years, the memories have stayed with me in a post-traumatic way.

It’s similar, I feel, to the PTSD common in military troops who were in combat.

Anyhow,

I was glad to find out about this mental abuse, the characteristics of such.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m less of a depressed wreck than I was at times in the past, though there are times when I still need reassurance that I’m a good guy, liked, loved, and cared about.

And I think it will always be that way every once in a while.

While it’s not my intention to use this post as a plug to buy WALKING ON EGGSHELLS (can’t believe it’s already been two years since I published that book),

I have detailed many of the instances where I was mentally abused in that time, if you want to read about such;

You can buy it at Amazon.com or Lulu.com, the official title being,

WALKING ON EGGSHELLS: Having Asperger’s Syndrome in a Non-Asperger’s World

If you do buy my book, I hope you like what you read.

I have been called about 90% of the things listed in this pic. Photo courtesy of citinewsroom.com

MY ANNUAL BLACK HISTORY MONTH TRIBUTE

What in my opinion is the perfect poster for Black History Month, provided by my former hometown. Image courtesy of santamonica.gov

COMMEMORATING ANOTHER BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Here it is, the second day of February as I type this.

And for the next 26 days the community of the forty million Black people of African descent in this country – our history and many, many contributions to these fifty states to the point where it can be said that America was built by blacks – will be celebrated.

Indeed, I came across a post on Facebook which listed many everyday items that were invented by African Americans, such as the…

• Air Conditioning Unit
• Clothes dryer
• Fire Extinguisher
• Folding Chair
• Guitar
• Hair Brush
• Key Chain
• Mail Box
• Peanut Butter
• Mop
• Traffic Light

Most of these items having been invented in the late 1800s,

I don’t doubt that this knowledge is a source of pride to me, along with the many, many other contributions that Blacks of African descent have made over the past four hundred years, essentially building America.

I also don’t doubt that given the many, many attacks, injustices and just plain brutalities that have been suffered among my fellow African Americans (read; George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake, Trayvon Martin, and far too many others), a period of time that celebrates Black people in this country is needed more than ever.

And I never will doubt either of those two facts.

A timeline of Black History! I sure wish I could get this poster! Image courtesy of ansa.novascotia.ca

However…

It wasn’t my intention to write another Black History Month commemoration celebrating the so many things African Americans have done; so many websites, blogs, and other news sources have and will be doing that over the next four-plus weeks.

Instead, and to be bluntly honest,

I just can’t help these thoughts of how every February, for 28 days (29 in a leap year), African Americans are highlighted and celebrated while being more or less ignored for the other 337 days of the year.

336 if you count Martin Luther King Day.

And 335 if you count Juneteenth.

Every year at around this time, I always think,

“How come it can’t be Black History Month – Or Latino History Month or Women’s History Month or Jewish History Month or Asian American History Month or Native American History month or LGBTQ History Month – EVERY month?”

Why does society set aside 28 or 30 or 31 days to pay attention to a certain race/culture/gender/ethnicity while Caucasians of European descent are seemingly celebrated and focused on during all 365 days.

To me, it comes down to these five words as far as people of color/women/LGBTQs/Jewish people are concerned,

“Hey, thanks for the crumb (or the 28 crumbs in the case of African Americans).”

It’s my firm opinion and belief that EVERY month needs to be,

• Black History Month
• Latino/a History month
• Asian American History Month
• Native American History Month (in particular, as these are the TRULY ORIGINAL Americans)
• Women’s History Month
• Jewish History Month
• LGBTQ History Month

If such came to pass, there wouldn’t be any need to set aside a certain number of days each month to celebrate a certain race/gender/culture/ethnicity, as every month would be focused on those groups and intertwined with the stories of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, etc.

In other words, every race, ethnicity, and culture needs to be focused on, commemorated and celebrated during all twelve months of the year.

Not just during one month.

Having said all of that…

Here’s to a great Black History Month.

As for me, while I’ll certainly do my commemorating and celebrating my African American community, as well as the other communities that I’ve mentioned in this post,

I will also not stop doing such after February 28th.

This certainly sums up my sentiments. Image courtesy of commongoodcityfarm.org