A submission for White Whine: “My Ivy League School doesn’t foster colonialism dialogues.”

wow! harsh blog post.
I’m a Columbia student. We’re also doing hurricane relief events to raise money to send to Domincian Republic, Mexico and Haiti. We’re having Immigration related events to educate others on campus. And going to our respective classes.
1.Dinners, food drives, clothing drives, going door to door to ask for monetary donations, etc. This is all done by the Dominican group on campus (Grupo Quisqueyano), the Haitian Students Association, the Chicano Caucus and LUCHA. In the midst of raising as much money as we can from now until next Tuesday.
2. This Hunger Strike had been planned for months. After endless meetings with the administration and no response to the demands, this hunger strike is one of the last steps.
3. It’s not only what these six people think. It’s part of a greater movement to defend our community in Harlem, our right to have more resources, our right to learn something else besides what dead white men wrote, and our right to have an administration that responds to racist incidents quickly and addresses our concerns regarding them.
4. It’s not part of the list of demands. But students have also demanded divestment of Columbia’s investment/involvement corporations exploiting people in other countries. I don’t know a lot about this, but it has been demanded.

Don’t judge Columbia if you haven’t been around here lately.
thank you. Any questions about the strike visit http://cu-strike.blogspot.com/

i used to do this to voice my opinions on issues i cared deeply about, in an effort to create what i felt were positive changes.

when i was five.

One more thing…
Part of the demands is to expand the Latino Studies Program. There is no Ethnic Studies Department at Columbia.Very few (this semester like 2/3) Latino Studies classes are offered. Getting a senior faculty, more resources, an endowment, probably a department, etc.

Last thing, just because it’s an ivy league institution, Don’t assume that everyone here will be an elitist that only cares about himself/herself. Many of us have worked our butts to be here. It is only fair that we try to stop the spread of ignorance within the elitist class.

If you have any questions about anything related to the strike, contact one of the bloggers on http://cu-strike.blogspot.com/

Oy, Columbian. Do your research on who is writing this blog before saying stuff like “if you haven’t been around here in a while.”

As a recent Columbia grad myself, you all DO have a terribly inflated sense of self. I don’t want the Core changed, but I’m eating. Do I have any say in this? Way to assume everyone thinks this is an important issue. Moron.

No one cares what you think, least of all the administration.

You’re a complete idiot. Dead white men? Yeah, Plato et al have been pretty unimportant in the Western tradition. Its true, James Baldwin is a much more influential dude. There are countless classes that do address colonialism and race at Columbia, even if the ethnic studies department (which was a major 10 people had), has been dissolved.

I’m sorry you woke up one morning and decided you hated yourself, and that its whitey’s fault.

I kind of hope they starve. Is that mean?

je je .. why waste your money in Columbia, go to Hunter… home of the Centro de estudios Puerto Riqueños and “pluralism and diversity requirements” :-)

ajem: “defend our community in Harlem?” You guys probably grew up in Jersey…. or the west coast… eek… JK

good luck in your struggle and go volunteer somewhere in your community if you haven’t done so already, that’s where the need is…

solidarity is dead and over forever. and ever. i for one don’t think this is stupid, but don’t expect other people to be super psyched about your hobby.

looks like a recent Columbia grad isn’t too happy with how things have turned out nor is he much of a speller. do they teach spelling as part of the core? or just for fun? do you like fun?

as for the strike, enjoy! there’s no better time to try your very own hunger strike than college—even if it’s for a worthy cause. the almost consequence free bubble of the higher ed world is to angry-about-their-privilege-resulting-in-a-constant-struggle-for-cred-kids what scotland is to nalga-thirsty mexicans. or something like that. either way, their demands will probably be met with pizza delivery from the administration.

i have an issue with this post. what the hell is the point of using a site dedicated to covering latino-related entertainment, media, and pop culture (ahem guanabee) to berate/ take offense with activism taking place at an institution of higher education?? i mean, you guys hold no reservations about expressing your opinions regarding the hunger strike at CU, so why not cut the bullshit and be transparent about the logic that went behind choosing to write up this event. in attempting to reconcile the hunger strike @ CU by six anonymous students and its coverage on guanabee, i’m led to believe that the following thought process took place: “hey, people of color at columbia be protesting and hey, latinos are also considered people of color, and this is latino website, so let’s write about it on guanabee!” or “dang. nothing to write about today…so fuck it, i’ll hate on the hungerstrikers at cu.” i read guanabee cuz it’s a funny voice on (overwhelmingly) banal and trivial subject matter (look, jlo is preggers! it’s noelia’s sex video! etc). i don’t read guanabee for an informed voice on shit that really matters….so please, either rework and redefine your company’s value proposition to include deep shit topics with substantial and informed, deep shit analysis or stick to writing about the shit your good at. if not, i’ll be forced to file ya away with other garbage propositions like the mindless mencia.

I agree 100% with bordersound.
This post was totally irrelevant to Guanabee.
To the haters… I really don’t care what you think. You do your thing and I’ll do whatever I want. If you graduated last year, your point is valid. If you didn’t, don’t say you know what’s going on unless you work here. If you don’t know how we want the core to be reformed or the specifics of the Latino Studies Program, don’t just assume your “knowledge.” They won’t starve ‘cause we’re taking care of them.
To the Supporters… thank you the support and not hating.
To those who don’t care… thanks for not hating too.
To anybody else who is wondering why Guanabee is hating on Activism at Columbia (you call it whatever you want. I don’t care)… I’m with you on this one.

btw, I’m a happy minority. Me gusta mas to be called “una happy Latina”

[ps. I already volunteer with a mentoring program downtown.]

They clearly need to get back to class: it’s “effect change”, not “affect change”. And if anyone figures out exactly how to “expand ethically”, be sure to drop me a line, o.k.?

They clearly need to get back to class: it’s “effect change”, not “affect change”.

And if anyone figures out exactly how to “expand ethically”, be sure to drop me a line, o.k.?

I put my name so you can look me up on Facebook to confirm my Columbia email address, since it’s obviously mandatory to have an opinion. This topic is relevant to Guanabee because the girl who wrote it (not me, but a good friend of mine) is a recent Columbia grad and is also (believe it or not) Hispanic. I am also Hispanic (Mexican, anyway) and I also do not support the hunger strikers. If they hate the Core Curriculum so much they should give up their potential ivy league degree and transfer to a better, less ivy league school that already has the courses they want. Also, the Manhattanville expansion issue is already being address in other avenues, I don’t think a hunger strike is necessary or relevant.

I personally have a quibble with the demand for more “race” and “colonialism” discussions because I did finish my Major Cultures requirement and I know for a fact that there is PLENTY of discussion about race and colonialism in Columbia’s classrooms. Take African Civilizations (I did) if you really want to discuss Rhodesia vs Zimbabwe.

Also, I can vouch for Marco as a recent Columbia grad because I totes know him too.

PS
My response is late because I only superficially support my friend’s writing career. Also, I hate anonymous dissenters.

While your in college all you wanna do is damn the man and put down whitey. Then you graduate and realize you have to work for a living (not that any of these kids dont have to work while going to school, we can’t know for sure they are remaining annonymous. Which by the way how are you supposed to garner sympathy for your cause if you won’t say who you are?) and then so many other things seem more important than protesting the fact that your school doesn’t have enough discussion on colonialism, etc. While I applaud their efforts at trying to change a situation they feel could be better I do think there are other means to this end than to have a hunger strike. Like petitions and having more students ask for the classes they want taught at school.

my two cents.