Stop Demanding, Start Succeeding

By Ed Hoffman

Last week, news broke that the Black Student Union at the University of California at Berkeley presented 10 demands of the school – mandates the group believes will prevent its members from feeling “isolated and oppressed.” Among these is the demand that the university will hire two black psychologists who understand “the racially hostile campus climate at this university.”

I can’t imagine how, at what is widely believed to be one of the most liberal universities in the country, there would be a hostile environment for black students. If that really is the case, then what does that say about liberalism? But regardless, this group feels that way – and wait, it gets better. The group also wants the university to rename a building after Assata Shakur, the first woman ever to grace the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists.

While she was active in the Black Liberation Army, Shakur (real name Joanne Byron) killed a New Jersey State Trooper and grievously assaulted another in 1973. A fellow BLA member of hers was also killed in the incident. The convicted murderer (Shakur was found guilty of first degree murder in 1977) was also charged with attempted murder, armed robbery, bank robbery and kidnapping over the next four years. So why does the Berkeley BSU want to rename the campus ethnic studies building after her? Because the fact that Shakur escaped from prison in 1979 and has been hiding out in Cuba since 1984 is “emblematic of the black freedom struggle in the nation.”

Seeking asylum in a country that doesn’t recognize an extradition treaty with the United States because you murdered, assaulted, robbed and kidnapped is representative of the struggles faced by average African Americans? Is that really what the Black Student Union believes? That idea should frighten the many law abiding black families who teach their children personal responsibility and respect for authority. Students in groups like these are America’s future race hustlers. They aim to be successors of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton – or more likely, successors of Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Lamont Hill, race hustlers who hide behind academia.

Last week I talked about Larry Elder, who attended college in the Black Panther era yet resisted the cries of the campus race hustlers, rose above generational obstacles and ignored racial prejudice when it came his way – all to become one of the most successful black voices in conservative media. Larry discussed these struggles on my March 13 radio show, which you can find on EdHoffman.net. Listen to that show, and then contrast it with the demands of the Black Student Union at U.C. Berkeley. Which type of person do you want your child to be? Parents of college students (no matter their race) should hope their kids are cultivating successes, rather than demands.

Ed Hoffman is the host of the Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30AM- 10:30AM and Sunday 4:00PM- 5:00PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.