Written by Emile Guillermo
How America’s first ethnic studies college, which integrates Latino, African American, and Asian American specialties, came to be is a story about the current state of affairs on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. It may provide hints on how to alleviate confusion.
Student protesters blocked off and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic action early Tuesday morning after a deadline to end the encampment at Columbia University by 2 p.m. Monday passed.
Protesters did the same thing in 1968.
Then I remembered San Francisco State University in 1968.
As hundreds of people were arrested on nearly 20 campuses across the country, the news was filled with callbacks to nearly every student protest movement of the past 60 years.
In 1970, protests over the Vietnam War erupted in Kent State. Ohio National Guard troops burst in and opened fire, killing four students.
Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists confronted armed police outside a Jackson State University dormitory. Two African American students were killed and 12 others were injured.
But again, no one mentioned San Francisco State in 1968.
The protests addressed all the issues of the time and more. The SFSU student strike opposed the Vietnam War.
That end goal was eventually achieved, but violence broke out, mainly instigated by “external agitators” who confronted the police.
Daniel Phil Gonzalez, one of the 1968 strikers, said, “People used the phrase ‘get out of the pigs,’ but it wasn’t so much a call to action[to actually kill the police]. It was rallying rhetoric.”
Gonzalez was known as a go-to source for Filipino American scholars for decades and continued to teach in the Department of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, which was a positive outcome of the strike. This is believed to be the first of its kind in the country. Gonzalez recently retired after more than 50 years as a professor.
As for today’s protests, Gonzalez is disappointed in how students have consistently faced accusations of anti-Semitism.
“It impedes conversation and fosters further polarization and the potential for violent conflict,” he said. “You will be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”
That’s happening now. But we forget that we are not dealing with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.
Gonzalez said this was an important lesson in the SF State strike. The main coalition driving the strike was supported by self-policing from within the movement. “This is very difficult to sustain. When you start this kind of activity, you never know who will participate,” he said.
González believes that in the current situation, there are some commonalities of humanity that can be both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel. He said that would be difficult if he opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s militant policies. If you do, you are more likely to be labeled an anti-Semite.
Nevertheless, Gonzalez stands in solidarity with protesters and Gaza residents in general. Not Hamas. And he saw how shocked most of the young protesters were by what he called “the continuing and completely inhumane persecution and prosecution of Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.” ing.
As a survivor of campus protests decades ago, Gonzalez offered some advice to 2024 student protesters.
“You have to have a clear goal, but the path to that goal is currently unclear,” he says.
About the author
Emile Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran television and print newsman, he is also the former host of NPR’s “All Things Thoughted.”
