Diag rally promotes political action

In response to the recent lawsuit challenging affirmative action policies at the University, students on the Diag and across the country gathered for a National Day of Action in Defense of Affirmative Action yesterday.

The demonstration was called by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH coalition and Students for Access and Opportunity at the University of Texas. While students rallied on campuses across the country, Jackson led a march in defense of affirmative action in Sacramento, Calif.

Braving the bitter winds, about 70 students attended the rally, which consisted mostly of BAMN members who spoke about organizing a new civil rights movement to defend affirmative action.

BRYAN MCLELLAN/Daily BAMN members hold an affirmative action banner at yesterday's rally on the Diag which was part of a National Day of Action.

"The problem is that the tendency of a lot of the organizations defending affirmative action is to continue their more conservative traditions and not take that much political action," said BAMN member Jessica Curtin.

"That's something we've got to change. I mean, if we still go along business as usual, we will lose affirmative action," she said. "We have to start being aggressive and assertive and get people out there and do something."

The Diag rally began with a speech by Lee Felarca, a 1995 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, who helped to organize the California chapter of BAMN.

"What the media usually doesn't show is that Proposition 209 in California, which set groundwork for the attack on affirmative action, was won by a margin of 54 (percent) to 46 (percent)," Felarca said. "What this means is that it was a small margin, very closely split, so it was not a done deal."

BAMN member Shanta Driver compared the issues surrounding affirmative action to the civil rights movement in the '50s and '60s.

She said the techniques used to fight segregation must be employed in today's struggle to support affirmative action, including mass protests to sway courts.

"We are part of an emerging civil rights movement that is forming across the nation for full and real equality in America," Driver said.

"We can defend and hold on to affirmative action only by being aggressive. We will not stop fighting until full equality is achieved," she said.

"The fight for affirmative action is the fight for equality, the fight for dignity, the fight for the future of America. We need to remind America about its racist past."

Curtin said the University has a critical role to play in the country's future in terms of achieving equality across the nation.

"This is the place we are going to turn this around," Curtin said. "Michigan has a great advantage. We have been given a sight into the future. We know what will happen if we lose this case.

"We are affirmative action's single hope in the country. The losing of affirmative action will resegregate the University, the country, not only in higher education but in all aspects of life."

The rally also gave students a chance to give personal statements of how affirmative action had affected their lives.

Law second-year student Kevin Pimentel was one of the students who expressed his support for affirmative action near the end of the rally.

"Since a lot of people of color are denied these opportunities from the very beginning, they don't really have these opportunities for the rest of their lives," Pimentel said. "Affirmative action creates these opportunities, which is why we must defend it."

LSA senior Jennifer Polan attended the rally to actively participate in defending affirmative action.

"I want to support affirmative action," Polan said. "I really think we're in danger of losing it. It's a step toward helping to get rid of the inequalities that exist."

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