Photograph by Robert Scheer
Saratoga High School students (from left) Kieli Joplin, Ellie Jones, Devin Joplin and Bianca Patterson protested the March 8 issue of the Saratoga Falcon.
By Tim Persyn
An anti-affirmative action article and cartoon in the March 8 edition of the Saratoga Falcon, Saratoga High School's student newspaper, outraged six African American students and their parents. The students responded to the material in a letter to the editor published in the April 5 issue.
The cartoon depicted a beneficiary of affirmative action holding a spear and dressed in primitive clothing. In their letter, the students said, "The depiction of the African American, Hispanic and Native American was deplorable."
Bianca Patterson, a sophomore who cowrote the letter, commented, "The cartoon was obvious."
Kerry Mohnike, adviser to the student newspaper, said the paper will run an apology for the cartoon. "In hindsight, we regret running it. Our intention was not to offend," Mohnike said.
Parents of the students met with Mohnike, the principal and the editor of the student paper to discuss the content of both the cartoon and the article. Tina Hubbard, a parent, said all three were receptive to the parents' concerns.
The opinion article, written by student Jason Min, asserted that affirmative action improperly uses racial categories such as quotas to benefit minority groups.
The African American students thought Min's argument wasn't properly grounded in fact.
"Maybe he should have studied affirmative action and found out what it was," Patterson said.
The students and parents were particularly concerned that the article perpetuated myths about affirmative action, including the idea that such programs accept applicants based on race and not ability.
In one section of the piece, Min wrote, "Affirmative action doesn't allow hiring/acceptance [to college] to be based on skill and ability, but forces it to be based on race."
Min commented, "The main point of the article was that we shouldn't use race. I know the workplace isn't completely fair, but if we start basing things on race rather than actual credentials, we're going backwards."
One of the main assertions of the students' response to Min's article was that affirmative action beneficiaries do have qualifications.
Ellie Jones, a sophomore, searched on the Internet with her mother Edith and acquired the article "Four Affirmative Action Myths" by Paul Rockwell. This article formed the body of much of the students' argument.
"I wanted to base our article in facts," said the younger Jones.
The students' letter refuted the claim that affirmative action lowers standards to help minority students by referring to evidence that 95 per cent of students admitted to UC Berkeley meet or exceed minimum admissions requirements, and that the remaining 5 per cent include students from every ethnic group.
The students also wrote that Berkeley has achieved its highest graduation rates while using affirmative action.
Debates over affirmative action often hit nerves and increase feelings of division, and this exchange was no exception.
Devin Joplin, a sophomore who helped write the rebuttal and who describes SHS's campus environment as segregated, was left feeling self-conscious and somewhat betrayed by the original opinion article.
"It made us aware of what they think about you," she said. "Even though the writer is my friend, he's against me."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved