Lumumba-Zapata College: B.S.C.-M.A.Y.A. Demands for the Third College, UCSD. March 14, 19695/18/2016 Lumumba-Zapata College
B.S.C.-M.A.Y.A. Demands for the Third College, UCSD (March 14, 1969) Contradictions which sustained America in the past are now threatening to annihilate the entire societal edifice. Black slave labor laid the basis of the American economy. Mexican-Americans in the Southwest and Black people in the industrial cities and the agrarian South continue to perform the dirty but necessary tasks of building a society of abundance, while systematically being denied the benefits of that society. Therefore, we must reject the entire oppressive structure of America. Racism runs rampant in the educational system, while America, in a pseudo-humanitarian stance, proudly proclaims that it is the key to ti equal opportunity for all. This is the hypocrisy our generation must now destroy. Having been admitted to the University, some of us though we had crashed through the barriers of racism and economic oppression. Instead, we found that we were accidently the chosen ones, the privileged few who, according to the powers that be, are the exceptions that challenge the rule -- the existence of White racism. This, however, is not the crux of the problem. The self-indictment of the American educational system lies not so much in the quantitative exclusion of people of color as in the quality of what is taught -- to the White as well as to the Brown and Black student. If the high schools and colleges are not devising more efficient techniques of mystifying the students with irrelevant inanities, then they are consciously subjecting them to a cold-blooded and calculated indoctrination into a dehumanized and unfree society. This is the perversion called mind-raping. In the case of minority students, it is a miseducation which has caused us to unconsciously sever ourselves from our communal and cultural roots, if not to be seduced into the system which exploits our own community. Black capitalism, especially as formulated by the Nixon administration, divides the minority people into exploiters and exploited, the exploiting class being the college-trained bourgeoisie. Each new Chicano or Black businessman has already been enlisted into the war army of exploiters. Together with our American brothers in struggle -- on the campuses and in the streets 00 and with our comrades throughout the Third World who are involved in wars of liberation, we reject a system which thrives on military technology and imperialist profit. At the University of California, San Diego, we will no longer insure the undisturbed existence of a false institution which consistently fails to respond to the needs of our people. Despite the Chicano rebellions in the Southwest and the Black revolts in the cities, the University of California, San Diego, which is part of the oppressive system, has not changed its institutional role. The puny reforms made so far are aimed at pacifying the revolts and sapping our strength. We therefore not only emphatically demand that radical change be made, we propose to execute these changes ourselves! We demand that the Third College be devoted to relevant education for minority youth and to the study of the contemporary social problems of all people. To do this authentically, this college must radically depart from the usual role as the ideological backbone of the social system, and must instead subject every part of the system to ruthless criticism. To reflect these aims of the college, it will be called Lumumba-Zapata College. To enhance the beauty of the name, we demand that the architecture be of Mexican and African style: and that its landscape be of the same nature. Since there has been and continues to be an overriding tradition of exclusion of minority personnel from the work force involved in planning and building of institutions, except on the most menial level, it is our demand that the architects, general contractors, sub-contractors, and all supervisory personnel must be from the minority community. The bonds for financing the construction of Lumumba-Zapata College must be held by minority financial institutions, and must be offered in such denominations that members of the minority community may participate in the funding of the college. In order to guarantee adequate funding of Lumumba-Zapata College:
Board of Directors:
All minority students attending Lumumba-Zapata College must be fully supported with funds supplied by the University to the extent that they will not have to work or take out loans. The following is a general outline of areas to be studied at Lumumba-Zapata College. So far, what education the few minority students have received has been from a colonial perspective. We now see to learn about ourselves from a minority perspective.
In the near future some fifty American cities will have a Black population of over 51% of their total and in the Southwest some five million Chicanos will reside. These people live in the so-called inner city, the area of greatest exploitation and therefore greatest explosive potential. The problems of the inner city are so deep that only revolutionary change will create a just solution. Among the topics to be covered are housing, transportation, environmental control, nutrient procurement and elimination of wastes, and fair government.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
UCSD