Yet the protests were too little and too late. The initial protests should have happened at the ballot box when Pataki and Giuliani ran for election. We know what these men stand for, and part of what they stand for is the slamming of doors to opportunities.
Further protests should have taken place when these men appointed trustees who were likely to carry out the Republicans' policies. And when Pataki and Giuliani interfered with the process of setting policy by lobbying their trustees, there also ought to have been protests. The CUNY trustees felt free to exclude because those who need access to public higher education have encouraged that feeling.
There are lots of projections about the workforce of the future, a workforce that has a need for well-educated scientists and computer technicians. But we will also need hundreds of thousands of cashiers, home health aides, and other low-wage workers. Those who have access to higher education can escape the low-wage option. This is not the time, it seems, to he slamming doors and snatching opportunities away from those who need them most.
But perhaps it is the time for those who don't want to see people of color matriculating, They are, perhaps, wondering who will take care of their elderly, who will empty the bedpans, who will slide fast food dinners across a counter for them. And perhaps they are ensuring that those who have the lowest wage jobs will be the Black and Brown people they would exclude from higher education. It's a scary -- but not an outlandish -- thought.
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