…the Attack of the Clones.

Who isn’t one? As I showed before, CalSERVE candidates offer little variation in their platforms. But like CalSERVE, Student Action has its share of diversity mongers. You may be wondering why I haven’t included the Defend Affirmative Action Party in the Race for the ASUC series, but it really goes without saying that DAAP’s entire existence is centered on racial conflict. It’s blatantly obvious in their party name so I’m not going to spend a separate post on them. Besides, when a party is pulling elementary school kids out of class to campaign for college students, you’ve got something way more interesting to talk about.

But back to Student Action. First up is Meghana Dhar, #108. Her platform includes a plan to “Engage cultural communities”

As a senator, I will promote an active and involved campus and cultural community through intergroup networking and relations that allow for more campus-wide events and multicultural coalition-building. Specifically, I want to bring together the South Asian community in order to grant greater access to university funding and provide more opportunities for community-building events.

What she is really saying: I want to bring the campus together, and by “campus” I mean the students who identify as South Asian, and by “bring together” I mean give them more money. I would have preferred that she cut to the chase like a CalSERVE candidate and just say she was primarily concerned about South Asian students.

Tara Raffi, #117, will use the ASUC to enhance Jewish community life.

The Jewish community is a large and active component of our diverse campus. I will work closely with JSU leadership and its subsidiary groups to develop and enrich cultural life for the Jewish community. As a senator, I will work diligently to foster cross-cultural interactions through continued support for funding and activities.

Again, the issue is not individuals maintaining strong ties to their cultural identities, but individuals using government to favor some groups over others. Even at the lowly level of the ASUC, government should not grant special privileges to any group or individual.

For Sarah Cho, #118, an ASUC Senate seat is small potatoes compared to the very prominent position of power she already holds.

Cultural Solidarity
As a representative of the Korean-American community, I realize the importance of cohesion in fighting for common goals on our campus and beyond. As a senator, I will collaborate with students active within different cultural groups to form ties between communities (through multicultural events), and thus better represent the wide variety of students that Berkeley proudly embodies.

When were the elections for Korean-American community representative? Do other Korean-Americans know Sarah is their representative? Hopefully I can cast a provisional ballot in the next election, since I missed the election for the Filipino-American community representative.

Will Smelko, #183, managed to combine Diversity with Entertainment, thus demonstrating that he has the political intuition to make it through an ASUC election.

Diverse Entertainment
The ASUC can provide the student body with a diverse array of quality entertainment. It is my goal to bring in bigger bands at lower prices, and also to open up space to allow for an expansion of events like multicultural art shows and film festivals. Also, I want to increase the students’ voice, allowing them to influence what kind of entertainment is provided to them.

He is clearly more concerned about the Entertainment part of his platform, but throws a bone to the multiculturalists just in case he comes off as too culturally unaware for the Senate. That is the work of a true politician; he feels your pain and is thinking of the children even when he is talking about something totally unrelated.

One could argue that the diversity peddling in these candidate’s platforms isn’t a big deal. But the ASUC’s bias toward achieving diversity at all costs isn’t imagined; we’ve been there before. And if we don’t pay attention, we just might be there again.