AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND, ER, SNEAKERS!

Priceless story I somehow missed last Thursday about a rally at Berkeley in defense of racial preferences in higher education. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “about 2,000 young people, many of them high school students, converged on Berkeley for a noontime rally in support of a return to affirmative action programs. After some of the speeches began at the gate to the UC Berkeley campus, a group of students ran into and started looting an Athlete’s Foot shoe store on Telegraph.” It seems the students want affirmative action, women’s rights, aid for East Timor, and a pair of those really cool new sneakers. Reminds me of the equally priceless Onion headline in their compilation of spoof newspaper covers, “Our Dumb Century.” For the L.A. riots in 1992, the Onion’s headline was: “L.A. RIOTERS DEMAND JUSTICE, TAPE DECKS.” The text, in part, read: “Calling for an end to racial prejudice and oppression, an estimated 15,000 people marched on Al’s Electronics Emporium on the corner of Slauson Avenue and Avalon Boulevard at noon Wednesday. The historic march climaxed in a stirring “I Have A TV” speech by Compton resident Melvin Haskins, who told the crowd that he envisions the day when “white men and black men, Jews and gentiles have 27 inch RCA ProScan televisions with Dolby sound.” Oh and a pair of Nikes to make a mother proud.