CAMPUS HATE SPEECH FAILS TO ROUSE UC OFFICIALS.

Byline: K.L. Billingsley

RICHARD Machado, a former UC Irvine student, failed to show up for his Nov. 25 arraignment on federal civil-rights charges that he sent computer messages to Asians warning that he would hunt them down and kill them. He signed the messages, ``Asian hater.''

While some expressed shock, the actions should come as no surprise to observers of the campus scene, where politically correct administrators statewide have allowed some groups to create a climate of racial hatred, sometimes using campus funds.

For example, Chicano students at UC Irvine produce Voz Mestiza, an officially approved publication funded with student fees, and one which bristles with racism.

``Mi Raza Primero'' - My First Race - screamed a headline on one issue. Another showed a picture of African-American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with a swastika over his face and labeled a ``Nazi.''

Many pieces present ``Anglos,'' a group presumably including Americans of Jewish, Irish and Italian extraction, as a malevolent presence in society. Americans of Hispanic extraction who do not share the paper's racial animosity, and buy into the notion that California is the ``occupied territory'' of ``Aztlan'' needing to be cleansed of Anglo filth by any means necessary, are slandered as vendidos, sellouts.

At UC San Diego, Asian student Peter Chang criticized similar sentiments in Voz Fronteriza, a sister publication of Voz Mestiza. That student then received a warning to ``watch out for the drive-by'' on his answering machine.

Editor Harry Barra further slandered Chang in print and refused to disassociate the publication from the death threat, explaining, ``people need to be more careful about what they say.'' There were no expulsions or disciplinary actions over the incident.

Voz Fronteriza also celebrated the accidental death of Luis Santiago, a U.S. Border Patrol officer from Puerto Rico. ``We're glad this pig died,'' said the piece, headlined ``Death of A Migra Pig,'' and went on to lament that more ``pig'' had not died with him.

If this is not hate literature it is hard to know what it would look like and, true to form, the hate-mongering authors did not find sufficient courage to identify themselves. UCSD took no disciplinary action and it was only after expressions of outrage from local officials and a U.S. congressman that campus spokesmen made a statement about the article celebrating Santiago's death.

More recently, at UC Berkeley, when the Daily Californian editorialized in favor of Proposition 209, a ballot measure passed by 54 percent of California voters, partisans of race and gender preferences barged into their office, tossed copies out the window and sabotaged nearly the entire printing.

This came on a campus known for dedication to free speech, and which just held a vigil for free-speech advocate Mario Savio.

The paper had notified campus police of their distribution plans but received virtually no protection.

Further, the editor received hate messages on his answering machine and the Berkeley police consider those messages a death threat.

One would think that such extremism would prompt a statement from campus officials who claim dedication to diversity, fairness and sensitivity, but it was not to be.

Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien issued no statement. Neither did UC president Richard Atkinson, who was chancellor at UCSD when the ``migra pig'' editorial was published. One may be certain that if, say, campus Republicans had defaced a Chicano newspaper, denounced minorities as ``pigs'' or editorialized ``My Race First,'' that campus authorities would have unleashed a blast of indignation and expelled or disciplined those responsible.

In 1993, in fact, UC Riverside banished a fraternity because one member wore a T-shirt that campus Chicanos didn't like, even though the shirt showed an anti-racism slogan from a Bob Marley song. But in the dynamics of political correctness, when the perpetrators of hatred and intolerance are from those designated as accredited victims and protected groups, campus officials suddenly find themselves struck mute.

By their silence, inaction, and double standards, politically correct administrators send students a message that hatred and sabotage are sometimes justified, a sure prescription for continued strife.

Richard Machado, now a fugitive pursued by the FBI, was not able to follow through on his threats. Next time someone like him may translate the threat into action.

If they want to stop such actions, those in charge of our public campuses should get a spine transplant and denounce all acts of racial hatred, whomever they come from.