Everybody Had an Opinion on Duke Debate

Several hours before physical violence erupted on the Cal State Northridge campus, longtime rabble-rouser Irv Rubin of the Jewish Defense League got a phone call through on Michael Jackson’s ABC talk radio, talking about plans for an idiotic protest.

He wanted people to come in the white robes of the Ku Klux Klan. “It’s a shtick to embarrass David Duke,” he explained later.

Rubin and compatriot Mike Canale showed up, carrying a banner and a robe that apparently was never worn, for safety’s sake. The courtyard of the student union had become a marketplace of angry ideas. Microphones were wielded by would-be Communist revolutionaries as well as a Bay Area-based group called By Any Means Necessary.

“No on Duke, yes on 209!” shouted Rubin in response. Briefly, he found allies in a group called Campus Republicans. They walked behind Rubin’s banner, loudly confronting the Commies. But when there was some pushing and shoving, the Republicans wisely retreated.

A few minutes later, the first violence broke out.

“The Klan’s here!” shouted one woman into her microphone. Was there confusion about the white sheet under Canale’s arm? He took several blows and kicks before campus police waded through the crowd and escorted him and Rubin to safety.

Everybody wanted to get in on the act Wednesday. But then, that’s been true ever since Cal State Northridge’s student senate decided to invite former Klan leader Duke to a debate on affirmative action. In this exercise in political theater, there’s been a role for everybody from Gov. Pete Wilson to the bloodied protesters and the police who bloodied them. And, of course, the media has had a big role, too.

*

It has been suggested that if Wilson hadn’t made such a fuss about Duke, if Yes-on-209 chairman Ward Connerly hadn’t made wild, unfounded charges about a “conspiracy,” the controversy would have been minimized and not as much media would have cared. There wouldn’t have been more than a dozen TV trucks or print reporters from Tokyo and Washington.

Maybe not as much, but there still would have been plenty. The stakes are large in Proposition 209 and the Duke invitation helped put the issues in stark relief: Is America, with its history of racism, ready to wipe out affirmative action? Or is that just a euphemism for reverse discrimination? Emotion overwhelmed the serious questions. Most of the students and visitors who gathered around the student union, it seemed, were as interested in the spectacle as the political debate. Before things got ugly, the mood was tensely cheerful.

An elderly African American man in a neat blue suit wore a sandwich board: “A black friend for the white middle class.” So was he for 209? No, he was against it. One young man’s sign suggested he saw the cause in narrow terms: “Movie Industry Unfair to Chicanos.” The young Republicans summed up their feelings thusly: “David Duke stands for hate, we want a fair debate.” And three women wanted the world to know something else: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re against 209.”

One person admitted to being a David Duke fan. Brooke Brown said she hitchhiked down from Bakersfield for the occasion because somebody needs to speak up for white people. “Do we get to be proud of our culture?” she asked. “No!”

Inside the auditorium and another room where the debate was shown on closed-circuit TV, the mood was relatively civil. The real action was outside, where the protesters and police were forming their skirmish lines.

Many students grew troubled, especially after the first violence. Kristi Ann Nelson, an 18-year-old freshman from Olney, Md., watched impassively. She is white, but soon it became apparent she is a member of another minority group. When I asked her a question, she smiled and pointed to her ear. Cal State Northridge is known for its programs for deaf students. So the interview was performed by passing the notebook back and forth.

What do you think of all this? What side do you take?

“Definitely not Duke’s. But at the same time, I think that it’s important that we be exposed to all kinds of philosophies.”

Is affirmative action relevant to the deaf and others with disabilities?

“Yes. It helps us a lot. It gives us an opportunity to be able to succeed in later life.”

Did you see the violence? Is this worth it? Is having Duke here worth it?

“I see a lot of tension here. No, I don’t think it’s worth it. Look at what it has caused this past two weeks. Too many problems.”

That was Kristi Ann Nelson’s opinion before the rest of us could hear what sounded like some sort of gunfire to the north.