Marine Recruiting Protest Proves Berkeley's Personality Disorder
Commentary and Video, Words: Jazmyne Young // Video: Ann Bassette,
YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, Mar 03, 2008
Editor's Note: As Berkeley's streets erupted into protest this week over the City Council's aggression towards a Marine recruiting office, a young African American woman who grew up in Berkeley talks about her irritation with the symbolic progressiveness of her hometown. Meanwhile, YO!TV spoke to pro-military and anti-military protesters in front of Berkeley's City Hall. Jazmyne Young and Ann Bassette are content producers for YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia.
Berkeley, California is a city with a multiple personality disorder. Growing up there, I have come to know two Berkeleys. On one hand it’s Home Sweet Home: the Ashby flea market, Juneteenth in the summer, the place that holds all of my fondest of childhood memories. Then there’s the Berkeley where everything is politically correct and protesting is every resident’s favorite pastime. The recent media blitz surrounding the Berkeley City Council and the Marine recruiting office proves that the city hasn’t shed its image of Hippie Town, USA.
On January 29th, the City Council passed a resolution to send an “unwelcome intruder” letter to a new neighbor, the Marines recruiting office. The controversial decision gained attention from both sides, leading up to a showdown between patriots and protestors this week. After threats from Republican senators – vowing to cut funding for lunches in public schools as well as programs at UC Berkeley – the council was urged to rethink it’s decision, which was called “harsh and inappropriate.” After long deliberation and a very heated protest with numbers said to be as high as 2,000 people, the city rescinded its decision and agreed not to interfere with the recruitment office.
Video: Outside of Berkeley's City Hall, YO!TV found young and old protesters on both sides of the issue.
This is a streaming MP4 video - you'll need Quicktime 6 or later to view it.
Granted, the City Council members and the protesters took a noble stand against the War in Iraq, however, I agree with Berkeley city council member Gordon Wozniak who said: “We failed our city, we embarrassed our city.” This incident does nothing for the perception that all Berkeley people do is protest and hang out on Telegraph.
If I can speak critically of the city that I love for a moment, the place that nurtured and cultured me, I have to say: I believe this type of things is all for show. Although Berkeley is super diverse, demographically, it can be divided into four main areas: South Berkeley, West Berkeley, The Hills, and North Berkeley. These areas can also be divided socioeconomically, which means that everywhere in Berkeley ain’t so diverse!
My great-grandmother lived in Berkeley from the time she was born in 1922, until her death in 2007, during which time she raised three generations of children out of her same little green and white house on the corner of Derby and Sacramento Streets in South Berkeley. That means four generations of my family went to Berkeley High School. This school represents the city in its diversity, but shows the same trends of inequity as the rest of the city as well. At Berkeley High, there is a difference among the people who succeed and go on to attend Cal or those that end up down the street at Berkeley Alternative High School – a continuation school where 69 percent of the students are African American, and 21 percent of the students are Latino.
To remix an old saying: “All that glitters is not gold,” I say about Berkeley: “All that protest are not progressive!” Instead of the City Council is spending legislative time writing angry letters to the Marine recruiting office – not to mention the hordes of people who came out and got into altercations in the street – what if those same efforts could be used to provide resources to underprivileged young people of color who are likely to attend college and therefore more susceptible to join the armed forces?
While I am in no way supporting the recruitment efforts of the Marines, I am equally opposed to the Berkeley’s pretentiousness in needing to prove how “liberal” they are by these symbolic actions, while there are so many more productive ways to affect change in the community. My advice to them: Leave dead fish wrapped in newspaper outside the Marine recruiting office everyday for a month. They’ll be outta there in no time.
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