>The problem for the guests at Ohio State University was they were a
>small minority
Yes -- perhaps only about 50 graduating seniors walked out, while about another 30 held up red placards ("Struggle, Not Surrender," "Watts -- Act Affirmatively," "Watts' 'Diversity'?" "OSU Powered by Two Watts [references to J.C. Watts & Eugene Watts]," etc.), protesting against J.C. Watts as well as OSU Administration, and silently marched in the aisles during the commencement speech. The total number of graduating students was 5,400.
>and I believe another problem was that they are
>minorities.
Protesters were mainly African-American, feminist, and/or GLBT students, all of whom were also prominent in strike support during the recent strike by CWA Local 4501 (a union of about 2,000 service & skilled-trade OSU employees, about two thirds of whom are African-American). Oona Besman, the graduating M.A. student (in women's studies) whose family & friends got arrested, is a lesbian. Her partner Tamara who got arrested is Asian-American. At the OSU campus police station, some of us overheard Tamara being referred to as "the slit-eyed one" by one of the cops.
During the strike, the only person arrested was Andre Banks, an African-American student.
>Their arrests are a disciplinary gesture by the
>establishment, but it should backfire if this gets enough attention.
>People in the US should protest this repression. The speaker was a
>right-wing token prick. It takes guts to stand up against such
>hand-picked shills of the ruling order.
It's interesting that the OSU administration didn't even make any conciliatory gesture & attempt at cooptation by picking, for instance, Mayor Michael Coleman or NAACP President Kweisi Mfume (both made public gestures of solidarity with Local 4501 during the strike) as commencement speaker.
The university officials to whom letters/phone calls/etc. of protests should be directed are as follows:
President William Kirwan:
Email addresses: Kirwan.1 at osu.edu Address: 2416 Commonwealth Pa Columbus, Oh 43209 (614) 292-0433 Office Of The President: 205 Bricker Hall 190 N Oval Mall Columbus, Oh 43210 (614) 292-2424
Provost Ed Ray:
Email addresses: Ray.1 at osu.edu Address: 1977 Rosebery Dr Columbus, Oh 43220 (614) 457-6399 Office of Academic Affairs Admin: 203 Bricker Hall 190 N Oval Mall Columbus, Oh 43210 (614) 292-5881
OSU Police Chief Ron Michalec:
Email addresses: Michalec.1 at osu.edu University Police 128 Blankenship Hall 901 Woody Hayes Driv Columbus, Oh 43210 (614) 292-2121
Yoshie