When I first got to college, I found myself in a place where there were few people who looked like me. I son got involved in Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA). Suddenly, I was busy working on several of MEChA’s projects, none of which involved taking up arms in an effort to return Aztlan to Mexico. It was much more tame. I tutored students at a local high school and called college representatives to organize a college fair at our annual conference for high school students. Although most the students in MEChA were Latino, we also worked closely with other ethnic student groups. Through this coalition, I learned about the common links between Chicanos and other people of color.

My peers in MEChA became my close friends. Several years out of college, they’ve gone on to careers as professors, lawyers, doctors, urban planners, teachers, counselors, and policy analysts for local and state government. Undoubtedly, the work we did through MEChA helped shape our career paths. MEChA has its flaws just like any other nearly 40-year-old organization, but the pros largely outweigh the cons.

Thus, when I learned of an Arizona Senate Bill 1108 last week, I was disgusted. I’ve read a lot of inaccurate — to put it nicely — posts online about MEChA. I’ve seen my college’s Republican student group try their best to get the school’s MEChA chapter de-funded. Luckily, they didn’t get far. I shrugged off most of the words, but now someone’s gone and proposed a policy change to get rid of MEChA and similar ethnic student groups. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

An Arizona legislative committee has passed an amendment to a routine homeland-security bill that would prohibit students at the state’s public universities and community colleges from organizing groups based on race. The amendment was approved by the Arizona House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. It still awaits a vote by the state’s full House and Senate.

The amendment, introduced by State Rep. Russell K. Pearce, a Republican, would also allow state officials to withhold funds from public schools sponsoring activities that “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.”

The author of the bill admitted that the provision to ban organizations “based in whole or in part on race-based criteria” is aimed specifically at MEChA (link).

Oliver Wang cheekily points out that Pearce’s effort to eliminate MEChA may not work on some technicalities:

By the way, given that “Hispanic” isn’t technically a racial category under the U.S. Census, I’m not sure how this bill would be able to go after a group like MEChA (though I suppose, African and Asian American groups might have problems). And let’s not even mention the obvious First Amendment issues.

I hope this doesn’t get far. In a time when students still face a negative racial climate, and affirmative action is under attack (or has been eliminated) in several states, we need ethnic student groups to help create a welcoming environment for students of color.

Via // Poplicks