“Kill the Mexicans!” my friend hollered as we watched a movie. Some of my housemates groaned. Others chuckled. I stayed quiet even though I’m Mexican American. We all continued watching the movie; it’s easy to shrug off discrimination when it’s not directly targeted at you.

Where I used to live, choosing not to challenge racist remarks was one of the compromises I made to fit in. I was a resident of a student housing cooperative where most of my housemates were white. And to be honest, not speaking up about racism wasn’t a compromise as much as it was a requirement. For instance, my housemates wanted to throw a “White Trash” party. In high school my friends called each other white trash, but I never thought I could, because I wasn’t white and didn’t live in a trailer park, as they did. Thinking about my high school friends, I opposed the party. Because of my position, I was booed. My housemates complained about not having the party until I moved out.

Racist remarks were also commonplace at my former co-op. During lunch, one of my friends, a humanities student with a 4.0, talked about interning with “dumb” blacks. Another housemate, a popular guy, posted a flier on his door depicting black graduate students laughing. It read: “Excellence Through Despite Diversity.” My housemates tolerated and ignored racist remarks such as this. Like minorities with strong cultural differences, individuals who were racists were seen as “transitioning” into a cooperative environment. The problem here is that minorities were the victims while racist individuals were the opposite. In putting up with these racist remarks, we effectively tolerated racism.

Some of my well-meaning housemates claimed that we live in a post-racial America and that thus, racism doesn’t exist. Yet students of color still face racist prejudice, meaning we can’t overcompensate for our progress toward racial equality by claiming racism doesn’t exist. Rather than condemning discrimination, other housemates told me to develop a “thicker” skin. Students of color are told this all the time. This may be well-intended advice, because we, like everyone else in the world, should learn how to deal with adversity maturely. It’s unfair, however, to say students of color need to be bullied into maturity. Certain students have the privilege of using discrimination to one-up others. They discriminate to make others feel bad. They also discriminate “jokingly,” as when my housemate hollered, “Kill the Mexicans!”

While it’s easy to show that remarks such as this are prejudiced, it’s much more difficult to prove that the actions of an institution are prejudiced. In the words of professor Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, individuals have the privilege “to be prejudiced without having to admit to themselves or others that race plays any part.” The pervasiveness of this privilege fuels the ambiguity and anxiety surrounding institutional racism. For instance, two years ago, the Berkeley College Republicans staged an “Increase Diversity Bake Sale.” They believed this could start a “debate” on campus. Mocking policies that give admissions preference to underprivileged communities under the guise of “starting a debate” is no less racist and equally problematic.

One way our university shows our enduring commitment to diversity is hanging up banners of nonwhite students on campus. Yet over the past few years, state funding for public education has been drastically reduced. As a result, UC Berkeley has more and more out-of-state students as well as reduced access to spaces intended for students of color. In other words, UC Berkeley had to choose between having nice things or nonrich Californians of color. As the banners demonstrate, underprivileged students are considered part of the university’s “nice things”; something it gets to parade around without having to answer for the consequences of what ensuring diversity actually means.

The problem here is not that the university doesn’t want to enroll more underprivileged students. It’s that in a time of economic hardship, our university was able to forgo its mission to educate Californians of different economic and racial backgrounds. It’s that, despite the university’s best efforts, budget cuts were not distributed equally. It’s unclear now whether an undergraduate education will be as affordable or accessible as it once was or whether international and out-of-state students will be pitted against Californians for enrollment.

Public institutions should operate on the same principles their constituents do. Their actions should be evaluated not only on the intent behind them but also on the impact they have on the communities they serve. And as I experienced, racist attitudes are still present and can go unchallenged throughout the community — whether it’s in a Berkeley housing co-op or at an event organized by college Republicans. Like most American cities, our campus struggles to integrate the student body racially even though diversity increases overall. It’s time we paid attention to what this means.

Josh Escobar writes the Monday column on the intersection of student and urban life. You can contact him at jescobar@dailycal.org or follow him on Twitter: @urbananimale.

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Michael Drummond/Senior Staff

More than 40,000 Bay Area residents took to Shattuck Avenue on Sunday in celebration of Berkeley’s second Sunday Streets event.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Shattuck Avenue closed to cars and welcomed pedestrians and cyclists instead. Between Haste and Rose streets, participants could engage in a variety of activities, including live art and salsa dancing, as well as watch various performance groups.

“It’s about getting people to experience their urban environment in a totally different way and appreciate Berkeley in a new way,” said Sunday Streets Berkeley director Emunah Hauser.

The event is organized by Livable Berkeley, a coalition which strives to make Berkeley a more sustainable place, and a few partner organizations. According to Hauser, more than 150 organizations and activity leaders, including several UC Berkeley clubs and organizations, participated in Sunday Streets.

Sunday Streets drew people not only from Berkeley but from surrounding cities as well.

“It’s a really special feeling to have so much of a main street shut down,” said Oakland resident Tina Marie. “People look at each other differently. You’re taking people in.”

Because the street was closed off, several bus lines scheduled detours and added temporary stops near University Avenue and Oxford Street.

For Berkeley resident Michael Marchant, the absence of cars created a safer environment for his children.

“We look forward to any of these events where they block off streets to cars,” he said. “It makes it easier as a parent if you don’t have to worry about traffic.”

Hauser said this year’s Sunday Streets had a larger focus on transportation outreach than last year’s. Bay Area Bike Share allowed people to test bikes, and goBerkeley, a pilot program aiming to improve transportation in the city, asked for feedback from residents about public amenities.

To focus on physical activity and active transportation, Livable Berkeley does not invite street vendors to set up booths. Instead, many stores along Shattuck set up tables themselves, providing free samples or selling smaller store items.

Belli Osteria, a restaurant which does not normally open on Sundays, set up a pasta-making demonstration. Its co-owner Damien Morrison said Sunday Streets increased the restaurant’s exposure.

While some businesses had lines out the door, others saw a decrease in customers.

“There are plenty of distractions, so probably not as many people want to hang out in the comic book store,” said Mike Courtright, an employee at Fantastic Comics. While Courtright saw some new faces in the store, he saw fewer of his regular customers.

Sunday Streets, however, does not come without cost for the event’s organizers. Hauser estimates the event cost about $65,000 this year.

Although fundraising and private sponsorship cover a large part of this cost, Berkeley City Council pledged in January to provide Sunday Streets about $59,000 to split between 2013 and 2014.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington predicts the council will continue funding the event for subsequent years. Still, he feels the city’s contribution is a little high.

“It’s unfortunate that the other longtime community events don’t get more funding,” Worthington said. “This event gets as much as 20 other city events, so there’s a degree of unfairness.”

But for Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, Sunday Streets is “money well spent.”

“Everything shouldn’t be business,” Capitelli said. “Sometimes we should just celebrate as a community, and that’s important.”

Contact Tahmina Achekzai at tachekzai@dailycal.org.

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The Daily Cal captures the soundtrack of Berkeley by asking students on Sproul to show us a song from their playlist.

Songs featured:
The Love Club – Lorde
Where The Story Ends – The Fray
Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
International (Skrillex Remix) – Chase & Status
Go Crazy – HBK Gang + Iamsu!
1812 Overture – Tchaikovsky
Clocks – Coldplay
Silhouettes – Avicii
Thinkin’ Bout You – Frank Ocean
ADHD – Kendrick Lamar
Torino – Mehr Ensemble
Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor
Baby – Justin Bieber
Blood On The Leaves – Kanye West
Greenback Boogie – Ima Robot
Money Trees – Kendrick Lamar
Don’t You Give Up On Me – Milo Greene
Gas Pedal – Iamsu! + Sage The Gemini

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The bill, AB 10, will raise the state’s minimum wage from the current level of $8 an hour to $9 an hour by July 1, 2014. The next increase will be implemented Jan. 1, 2016, bumping up the minimum wage to $10.

Brown signed the bill at a ceremony in Los Angeles, where he was accompanied by members of the California State Assembly and dozens of workers.

“It’s my goal and it’s my moral responsibility to do what I can to make our society more harmonious, to make our social fabric tighter and closer and to work toward a solidarity that every day appears to become more distant,” Brown said in a press release.

The Public Policy Institute of California reports that more than 6 million California residents were living under the federal poverty line in 2011. At the same time, the cost of living in many cities in California is well above the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Because of the state’s high cost of living, Berkeley City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin strongly supported the bill.

“This bill provides a long overdue increase to help working families and working people in the state,” he said. “I think it’s a huge step forward.”

The city of Berkeley does not have a minimum wage. Since May, however, Berkeley City Council has been considering a proposal to implement a citywide minimum wage of $10.55 an hour.

After the state bill’s approval, Arreguin met with a representative of Berkeley’s Commission on Labor to discuss the relationship between AB 10 and the city proposal.

A 2013 report by the city’s economic development manager, Michael Caplan, suggests that many people may not be able to afford living in Berkeley. According to the study, only 17.1 percent of those who work in Berkeley are city residents.

“Whatever minimum wage we adopt should exceed the state minimum wage,” he said. “It is much more expensive to live in Berkeley than in other areas of the state.”

Contact Tahmina Achekzai at tachekzai@dailycal.org.

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Michael Burton/Courtesy

This is the second installment of a series highlighting independent bookstores located near the Berkeley campus.

Midway between the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph and the Recreational Sports Facility, University Press Books waits. Over the course of 40 years, Cal students and Berkeley residents alike have walked past the store, disregarding its presence. But through its doors is an oasis for bibliophiles.

Located in a city as brainy as Berkeley, University Press Books should be succeeding. The store is a treasury of texts. Flooding the shelves, glossy hardcovers tower over haiku folios and academic journals. And yet, the store is imperiled.

“Within a given year, we might only sell three or four copies of the same title,” explains Sorayya Carr, the store’s manager of operations.

University Press Books, one of the last scholarly book stores in the country, holds a comprehensive assortment of tomes by intellectuals ranging from Foucault to Butler to Chomsky. The store prides itself on its vast stock of university press publications from Oxford, Harvard and the University of California.

But academic books, by virtue of narrow readership and heavy prices, have translated into pitiful returns on profit. “We are hanging on by our fingertips,” Sorayya says.

Battered but not out, the store isn’t going down without a fight. Embarking on a series of transformations to better meet its bottom line, evidence of change is everywhere.

At the store’s front, a collection of e-readers replaces a display of analyses on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” T-shirts with classic book jackets hang from a clothesline above their paperback cousins.

University Press Books has even become an alternative to the Cal Student Store. Students are often found at the front desk, purchasing textbooks for subjects ranging from East Asian studies to quantum physics. University Press Books has aggressively remade itself into a marketplace for budding scholars.

And the innovation doesn’t end there.

“This bookstore is a place where things happen,” says William McClung, co-founder of University Press Books. “We want this store to be a place of social and intellectual interaction.”

Weaving through a throng of students, McClung makes his way to the back of the store. He points at a massive beechwood centerpiece.

William McClung and Vita Wells, Berkeley artist, sit at the great table.

“This is the great table. We have slow reading dinners around this table,” McClung says proudly, tapping his fingers against its warm surface, “We invite people to read what they love, and they all come together.”

Phyllis Schafer, a retired bookbinder, and Peter Burghardt, University Press Book’s events and program manager, host the monthly gatherings around the great table. Slow reading dinners, a banquet catered by Musical Offering Cafe, invite all to congregate over a common passion for books. Between a beet-dressing tossed salad, rose wine and an artisanal pizza embellished with kalamata olives, diners discuss their most-loved stories at length, often moved to reflect on their own lives and the intangible human condition.

“Ruth, would you be willing to begin?” prompts Phyllis at a recent meeting, eyeing the text resting beneath her thin fingers.

Ruth, an author, gingerly flips the pages of her book, falling on “The Silence that is not there and the Silence that is”  — a prose poem by longtime naturalist Diane Ackerman. As she begins to read, the others listen as if in prayer.

“There are many forms of silence,” Ruth chants, “The silence of neurons sparkling underneath an electron microscope. The silence of thick, furry oceans. The silence of ‘B’ in the word doubt.”

She finishes. The group — composed of graduate students, retirees and young professionals — drinks in a quiet calm. The atmosphere is serene, magical.

One by one, stories on silence emerge. A meditation on growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. A trek to the ruins of an ancient empire. The death of a national hero. A lonely walk underneath a starry night. A granddaughter trying to connect to her distant grandmother but lost between layers of translation.

Over plates of raspberry-glazed bread pudding and beneath a flock of airborne books hanging from translucent lines, diners turn the solitary affair of reading into a community-building experience. In the soft glow of the room, a fervent warmth is ignited. Eyes, some of which have seen through the centuries, sparkle.

Airborne books of Vita Well’s artistic endeavor “Flights of Mind.”

“Why is our logo ‘Ten Thousand Minds on Fire’?” McClung asks with a toothy grin.

“Because when we read together, we set our minds on fire.”

When the dialogue dies down and the dishes are put away, the guests take a moment to celebrate interconnectivity. For a store that once catered exclusively to the academic elite, change has democratized the University Press Book’s character and widened its future.

“This is more than a bookstore,” McClung says, fingers caressing the table’s edge. “We are a place to be discovered.”

Image Source: Photos courtesy of Vita Wells

Contact Sabrina Werts and Alex Mabanta at blog@dailycal.org.

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Video produced by Kai Ridenoure and Mira Nguyen. Music by Walter Zarnowitz.

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One morning this past August, at 5:07 a.m. in Farmington Hills, Mich., it seemed the only thing that would get me out of bed after the lousy three hours of sleep I got would either be some magical burst of inhuman strength or an earthquake (and I wasn’t so sure about the earthquake). As I plopped a second pillow on my head to block out my mom’s reminder that I was the one who didn’t want to be late, I remembered: I’m flying back to California today. That was all the incentive I needed. I immediately got up, got dressed and was in the car with my suitcases in the trunk by 5:19.

At the airport, while I tried to retrieve my friend’s ZIP code from my horrific memory, as my bags would be sent to her house in case they were lost, I heard the United Airlines employee uncertainly say, “Um … Ms. … Dad-Ouch? Is that how you pronounce your name?” Looking up smiling, as I always am when people mispronounce my name, I said, “Sure, that works.” Her face lights up when she notices my numerous flights’ final destination, and she says, “San Francisco! Is that home?”

She looks at me expecting a simple yes or no, not realizing how her question has prompted my brain to go through a slideshow of a hundred different images and memory snippets. I’m sure my eyes glazed over during the few seconds it took me to answer her, each second adding to the almost tangible awkwardness. I finally laugh the moment away and say, “Yes, I suppose in some ways it is.”

I am Syrian. Born in Connecticut but raised in Damascus, I am lucky enough to have dual citizenship. My American passport, and the fact that I look and sound American, prompts both my Berkeley and Damascus friends to tease me about how I cannot deny my true American identity. But just because my mother gave birth to me in New Haven does not mean I culturally identify as an American.

I have spent the majority of my last three years in Berkeley, meaning I have naturally picked up words and expressions used here. Now, I find that pest of a word “like” worming itself into a growing number of my sentences, and I once mistakenly used the word “hella” — but I’m pushing the blame on Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop,” which was on repeat in my brain last semester. But a friend whom I met here once told me a language is considered your first if you think in that language. And I still think and dream in Arabic, and I occasionally revert to it when I distractedly answer someone’s questions.

When I first moved here in 2010, I got furrowed brows and quizzical looks whenever I mentioned my hometown or country of origin; the change in that reaction over the past three years would be comical if the reason behind that transformation weren’t sad. There is no equivalent for the word “home” in Arabic, but if I got to pick a word that carries that meaning, it would be Dimashq (Damascus).

Everything about that city — its markets, its mountains, its old streets, its generous people — blends together and forms home. But although I belong to Damascus and miss her every day, I still fell in love with Berkeley. I love its crazy weather, how on Tuesday I was rocking shorts and a T-shirt and today am seriously contemplating getting an overpriced Cal sweater because it is just so cold. I love being able to bike everywhere — as long as I’m not going uphill for more than three blocks — and I love the neon pink carstaches that pop up every once in awhile. But most of all, I love the freedom.

I love the freedom of choosing how to dress and the diversity that abounds in Berkeley. I see this when I walk into a classroom to find a skinny-jeans-wearing hipster, a blond sorority girl, a hijabi and a foreign exchange student seated next to one another. Where I’m from, you have Syrians. And that’s it.

I also love the freedom that comes with picking classes on my own, although I am convinced Tele-BEARS has nurtured a secret vendetta against me due to my indecisiveness this semester. There was also the freedom that offered me the chance to vote on propositions last year and the freedom that prompts me to speak out on politics in class, at restaurants or in my apartment. This is something that was and in some ways still is unthinkable where I’m from.

If this Syrian had to pick her favorite thing about this odd little town called Berkeley, it would be just that: freedom.

And Ici. Because Ici is the bomb.

Sarah Dadouch writes the Friday column on international perspectives of Berkeley. You can contact her at sdadouch@dailycal.org.

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1. League of Legends Game Theory or To Infinity and Beyond: The Evolution of Pixar?

Answer: League of Legends Game Theory

2. TeaCal: A Full Tea Leaf Experience or The Merits of Being a Grammar Nazi?

Answer: TeaCal: A Full Leaf Tea Experience

3. Scrabble DeCal or Pokemon Academy 4?

Answer: Both!

4. Introduction to the Harmonica or All of Time and Space: A Doctor Who DeCal?

Answer: All of Time and Space: A Doctor Who DeCal

How’d you do? What DeCals do you wish existed? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Source: mrwynd, raneko, Maks Karochkin, Eli Reusch, Chie Gondo, Jonathan Colman, Boyce Duprey, Steven Depolo under Creative Commons and Fotor

Contact Sabrina Werts at swerts@dailycal.org.

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On behalf of the university and city police departments, we would like to welcome you back to UC Berkeley and to the city of Berkeley. Our two police departments are working closely to ensure your safety on and off campus.

Teams of university and city police officers work jointly to patrol neighborhoods surrounding the campus.  These patrols run Thursday through Saturday nights. Having these directed patrols nearby will allow us to respond more quickly to calls for service. While our priority is protecting you from violent crime, our officers also focus on preserving the community’s overall quality of life.

We will continue to increase the number of university and city officers patrolling before and after UC Berkeley’s home football games. Our officers strictly enforce all laws relating to underage drinking, use of false identification, public possession of open containers of alcohol and public drunkenness.

Ensuring the safety and enjoyment of our campus and surrounding neighborhoods is a community-wide effort, and we ask that you take an active role in ensuring your own personal safety as well as being mindful of how your decisions affect your community.  We encourage students to “Be Aware, Be Safe and Be Respectful.”

Be Aware: While Berkeley is generally a safe city, crime does occur in our neighborhoods, and theft is a significant, ongoing issue affecting students. Be mindful of your belongings; do not leave them unattended in public areas like campus buildings and local coffee shops. When you are away from your residence, make sure you lock your doors and windows. And always be aware of your surroundings: Headphones and other gadgets act as distractions, causing you to pay less attention to what’s going on around you and possible risks.

Be Safe: Avoid high-risk situations, especially after dark. The campus provides a variety of nighttime safety services, including BearWALK escorts who will walk you from campus to your residence. The Night Safety Shuttle provides transportation well into the night and early morning.

If you drink alcohol, be responsible. Many crimes that harm students stem from irresponsible alcohol consumption. If you notice unsafe situations, contact the police.

Be Respectful: UC Berkeley students are expected to be good neighbors. Introduce yourself to your neighbors; join a neighborhood watch group or your local neighborhood association. This can also be a great way to meet other Berkeley residents and open doors to lasting connections with this diverse and creative community.

Please keep in mind that loud, unruly parties disturb the peace, making it hard for neighbors to sleep or study. Officers may issue citations for significant disturbances that carry fines ranging from $750 to $2500 for subsequent violations during a 120-day period. Please be a responsible host or guest, respect the neighborhood and keep the noise down and the party indoors.

Also be aware that if you are cited for a violation of city ordinances and state laws, the police will share that information with UC’s Center for Student Conduct and Community Standards. The UC Code of Student Conduct applies both on and off campus, and serious violations can jeopardize your status as a student.

We want you to achieve great success at Cal and enjoy your time in Berkeley. UC and Berkeley police will continue to work hard to make our city a safe and peaceful place.

Margo Bennett is the chief of UCPD, and Michael Meehan is the chief of Berkeley Police Department.

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