Los Angeles, Alta California, January 8, 2005 - (ACN)
Mexican-American and other students at Southwestern
College, located between the City of San Diego and the
US/Mexico border, were extremely offended recently
when the campus newspaper published a crude, vile, and
xenophobic article directed against the large
immigrant community served by the college. The racist
article by "The Southwestern Sun" staff writer
Nathaniel Pownell included the sentence, "It is time
to burn the leeches (sic) off our society and crack
down on these people . . ." and a quote from a
non-existent Latina he named Marjorie de la Cruz that
read " The government needs to . . .close our southern
borders in order to protect its citizens . . . from
disease these people bring". The irresponsible article
that was published on December 8th of last year has
resulted in a major headache for the insensitive
college administration.

The college MEChA Chapter and a student group named
Students for Community Action are asking that "The
Southwestern Sun" publish a retraction or an apology
but the campus newspaper, run by conservative bigots,
have refused to do so. MEChA and Students for
Community Action have responded by organizing a "Rally
Against Racism" scheduled for this Thursday February
10th at 100: AM. A flyer being distributed by the
students states, "The school administration, the
newspaper and the entire city need to understand that
this will not be tolerated! Hopefully this action will
remind those who need reminding and teach those who
have not learned: That this country was built on the
backs of immigrants, that the land was stolen form the
indigenous people who inhabited it before the
immigrants arrived, and above all that THERE ARE NO
BORDERS IN THE WORKERS STRUGGLE!" The
flyer also urges participants to brings POTS AND PANS
AND DRUMS TO BANG ON!

It is heartening to know that, at least on some
college campuses, students are taking action against
local, state and national anti-immigrant bigots who
have conveniently forgotten the history of this nation.
Anti-immigrant hysteria, especially in Alta California,
is becoming increasingly intolerable and must be
confronted accordingly. Students at Southwestern
College in Chula Vista are showing the rest of us the
way.

The college administration at Southwestern College are
implicated in the racism published on their campus
newspaper. The faculty advisor Max Branscomb is just
as guilty as the junior bigot Nathaniel Pownell. It
appears that there is an urgent need for an
alternative campus newspaper that will provide a voice
for the majority of students. "The Southwestern Sun"
has become an exclusive organ for intolerance and a
voice for racists and xenophobes. The college
administration should divide the monies going to"The
Southwestern Sun" and give at least half to an
independent student newspaper run by a consortium of
student groups that presently have no voice on campus.