UC Riverside Women's Studies Department Supports "Irvine Eleven"

There is a website that is dedicated to rounding up support for the so-called "Irvine Eleven", which consist of eight UC-Irvine students and three UC Riverside students who were arrested for disrupting the speech of the Israeli ambassador to the US at UCI on February 8. The site basically consists of gathering letters of support from various student groups in universities around the country, the usual groups like Students for Peace and Justice and Workers Rights and Free Beer etc.

Previously, the Ethnic Studies Dean at UC Riverside sent a letter of support for the students, who are facing possible criminal prosecution and suspension or expulsion.

Now comes the Women's Studies Department at UC Riverside weighing in not surprisingly on the side of the arrested students. Here is their letter.

http://standwiththeeleven.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/ucr-womens-studies-department-issues-statement-of-support/

UCR WOMEN’S STUDIES DEPARTMENT STATEMENT ON RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

March 19, 2010

The Women’s Studies Department at the University of California, Riverside strongly condemns acts of homophobia, hate, racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism that have occurred on the UCSD, UCR, UCD, UCI, and other UC campuses. We stand in solidarity with those assaulted or denied freedom of speech, or otherwise silenced by the vicious attacks.

On February 10, 2010, two UCR students were brutally attacked. They were targeted because of their sexual orientation – for daring to hold hands in public. In early March, racist graffiti was found on a poster at UCR: “a devout Democrat” called for “No More Asians and Mexicans” in California. This horrific act of homophobic violence and cowardly example of racist xenophobia occurred within a wider context of deleterious hostility. A few weeks prior, the UCSD, and the entire UC-system, had to account for several despicable episodes of anti-black racism. In late February and early March, severely queer-phobic graffiti defaced the LGBT Resource center at UC Davis and a swastika was carved on a Jewish student’s door.

Concurrently, UC administrators are advocating the punishment of student demonstrators, dubbed the “Irvine-11,” who exercised their right of free speech at a talk at UCI in early February. Instead of following the example of the President of the United States, who, when heckled by demonstrators during a speech at Notre Dame University, defended their freedom of speech, the UCI administration is suppressing freedom of speech, threatening the student protesters – a few of whom are UCR students — with serious charges and expulsion. This denial of rights contributes to an atmosphere that permits hate crimes, rather than setting an example of universities as defenders of human and civil rights.

As scholars and teachers who are committed to antiviolence, and to intersectional analysis, we do not see these events as separate—they are powerfully connected in what they tell us about dominance and marginalization. They ask us to consider the daily experiences of exclusion experienced by queer students, students of African and Palestinian descent, and other minoritized bodies in the UC system.

We believe that these acts are also linked to the dismantling of California’s great public education system. As the gates close rapidly on communities of color and low income peoples, the ugly face of structural exclusion reveals itself. These events are not accidental outbursts—they reveal an institutional and cultural climate that creates a deep sense of marginalization for those “different” from a dominant norm. However, now in the current climate of increased economic stress and scarce resources, there is a sense that such enactments of dominance and cruelty can take place with impunity. We demand accountability—not only for the individual perpetrators of these incidents, but to the entire cultural system of the UC which is allowing this to happen. We seek redress and action that is beyond rhetoric.


We affirm our compassion for, and outrage on behalf of all members of the UC community who have been wounded by these attacks. We stand with members of our UCR community who have been traumatized, targeted, and silenced. We publicly offer our support to the particular students who are recovering from the attack. We reach out to the entire LGBTQ community here at UCR and in the wider UC community and underscore our continuing commitment as allies. We do so with the hope that we can together address the daily issues of inequity and structural injustice that permit these expressions of hostility and enforced normativity to happen. We seek a process of healing which places questions of institutional accountability and social justice at its very core. We ask that the UC administration, including our UCR administration, do all that is possible to restore the rights of those who face denial of them, and to work collectively with students, faculty, and staff to ensure a climate of peace, not simply tolerance and civility.

Alicia Arrizón

Professor and Chair

Amalia L. Cabezas

Associate Professor

Piya Chatterjee

Associate Professor

Tracy Fisher

Assistant Professor

Christine Ward Gailey

Professor (Women’s Studies and Anthropology)

Sherine Hafez

Assistant Professor

Tamara Ho

Assistant Professor

Chikako Takeshita

Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies

Caroline Tushabe

Assistant Professor

Jane Ward

Associate Professor

Marguerite R. Waller

Professor (Women’s Studies and Comparative Literature)
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First of all, I have no issue with the first couple of paragraphs in the letter. I agree with those sentiments. I do disagree with what seems to be these writers' overall dark impression of American society. Yes, there have been some regrettable incidents on UC campuses in recent weeks which I also deplore. The problem, however, is that in my view, the February 8th incident was one of them. It is interesting to watch all the university figures on the left deplore the recent incidents at UC Davis, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego, yet act as advocates for the 11 students arrested at UCI. This is a disturbing pattern, which indicates to me that judgements on these incidents are determined by the identity of the perpetrators and victims.

As a part-time teacher at UCI for the past 12 years, I think I know more about the situation on our campus than these ladies do. I am heartened that they referred to the swastikas that appeared on other UC campuses. What these ladies have overlooked is the fact that (in my opinion), the only group at UCI that has been subjected to acts and words of hate in recent years have been Jews. It has brought both national and international attention to UCI, and it must be confronted.

Wake up, ladies.