The purpose was to educate the college community to stand up against bigotry and to begin to create structures and programs which would have an ongoing effect in this direction. We got moral and financial support from our college president to organize an Anti-Bigotry Teach-In, and quickly some progressive faculty began to reach out to potential student activists. When two Orthodox Jewish students were attacked by white anti-semites outside the campus Hillel building, the perceived need for such a movement grew considerably. Two years ago, when Yusuf Hawkins was murdered in Bensonhurst, a group of faculty began to organize around bias-related violence. The constant reinforcement of these contradictions by family and community, traditional faculty, and the pressure to conform to the present competitive employment scene, all make political activism difficult at best These students do not have the leisure to investigate ideas and ideologies or test them out in the arena of college student activism, as might more privileged students from more elite colleges. Students and faculty bring the hopes and aspirations as well as the prejudices and antagonisms that characterize the city. The vast majority of the students live with their parents, and most are employed more than twenty hours weekly at paid jobs while carrying fuiltime academic loads. Presently, 55% of its 15,000 students are Euro-Americans (mostly Jewish, Italian, and Irish, in order of representation), 45% are people of color (African-Americans split about evenly between United States and Caribbean-born Latinos, mostly Puerto Rican and Asian-Americans representing the smallest percentage). Historically, Brooklyn College has served a predominantly white, Jewish working class with certain upward mobility.
The following is a report on how these issues have developed at a large, urban, working class college-Brooklyn College of the City University of New York What started out as a politically broad, faculty-dominated movement against bigotry has evolved into a more politically progressive and multiracial group, significantly led by students. From increased racist and sexist incidents throughout the country (from President Bush on down), to anti-racist efforts described by the media as “politically correct censorship,” the focus has been on elite campuses. RACISM, SEXISM, BIAS-RELATED violence and the efforts to challenge these on college campuses are a major media item today.
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