“Money talks … especially to black people.” Imagine if this was in the budget waiver of an organization that was ‘dedicated to social justice.’ Would a student organization that released this sort of rhetoric and make other racially motivated comments be likely to receive funding from a public institution in the heart of one of the United States most liberal cities? Not damn likely.
So my question is this: Does it matter that the quote instead reads “money talks … especially to white people”? Only a racist would think that one statement is justified and the other is not. So how can the MCSC, an organization which is supposedly an “alliance of students deeply committed to social justice and the principles of unity, integrity, responsibility, and respect,” have blatantly racially motivated statements on its budget waiver?
This is not a quote taken out of context, or a mischaracterization of the general intent and direction of the waiver. Do not take my word for it – go to the Badger Herald website and check it out for yourself. What strikes me as particularly ironic and repugnant is that this very organization, which implies that all white people care about is money, is asking for an astonishing $1.27 million dollar budget, the largest monetary request from a University of Wisconsin student organization. Apparently money talks … especially to people who work at MCSC.
In response to a question on the prioritization of funding, the waiver has this to say: “To even ask an organization like MCSC to list a number of most important programs is atrocious. … It seems like the Eurocentric white supremacist spirit behind those assumptions, implications and expectations is the same spirit with which this question is asked.” It is interesting that a white supremacist organization such as the SSFC has, in past two years alone, given $464,900 to this Multicultural Student Coalition.
The waiver contends that “everything that students are learning in this university is through a filter of whiteness, even African American studies. This is because history has been written through white culture’s filter. All people, politics and buildings have been created around how white culture has seen them and wanted them to be built.” Apparently the UW campus is full of white buildings and white ideas. According to MCSC, there is not physics, mathematics, business and philosophy. Instead there is white science, white mathematics, white business and white philosophy.
The racial diatribe continues, hinting that there might be too many ‘white people’ around “looking at the SAC space, MCSC has no place there, students of color rarely frequent the SAC, because it is an especially white space.” The MCSC is in effect asking for segregation, arguing that because there are too many white people in the SAC, people of color do not want to come to the MCSC location. They are asking for cultural separation and implying people of other skin colors are frightening. This is exactly opposite of what a progressive forward thinking society would want to promote!
The statements and opinions expressed in the MCSC waiver confirm a deep misunderstanding of the true meaning of equality in a classically liberal society. They are promoting a position of ‘separate but equal.’ In a truly fair and equal society, the law, the schools, policies and the entire social structure is color blind. It is true that this has not yet been fully realized in America, but Madison, Wis., is getting pretty damn close.
Furthermore, MCSC’s approach on these issues is the exact reverse of what a fair and just society would desire. They see color as an instrument of detection of biases and prejudices, instead of seeing through the guise of color as an organization truly dedicated to equality would. MCSC actually focuses on skin color and fixates their entire organization around it. The MCSC proposals and budget requests are themselves a step in the wrong direction, for they are judging people not ‘on the content of their character, but on the color of their skin.’ The SSFC ought to not approve any funding or budget proposal of MCSC until they apologize for racist statements made in the waiver and affirm an authentic position on equality.
Matt Jeffers ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in economics and philosophy.
