DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974 | 1973-04-14 Workshop IV, Chicano: Legal Process Page 8

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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1973-04-14 Workshop IV, Chicano: Legal Process Page 8

Audience Response: One of the major problems that we have especially in an urban area like Chicago is that we are coming in second and third in some cases in terms of Latinos. For instance, we have a thing going in Chicago with C.T.A. The C.T.A. effectively has something like 60 percent Black working force. So when Chicanos come in they state they only have 1 percent Latino working force there. They say, "Well we do have a lot of Blacks here!" We begin to talk with the government agencies, state agencies saying they are not really breaking the law because the guidelines are very nebulous. You have to put in minorities where they get one minority overload it and then the other minority has to fight for the same token effort as everyone else. So we find ourselves fighting with Blacks. The guidelines are such that the agency can do very little.

Audience Response: Like in the administration of schools one way to get around it is that they hire janitors who are Mexicans or in the offices and that takes care of these quotas. Isn't there a law where you can go through administrations other than that type of quota? If we play the number game we will never get any place.

Pete Rael: I am not sure what you can do if they say they filled their minority slots but there are no Chicanos whatsoever in there. In notice the same problem exists here at the University of Iowa Law School. They do accept some Chicanos, but most of the time half of them do not actually come to school here. But I remember the last time I was here I went and asked the assistant Dean, "How many Chicanos are you getting this year?" He said, we do not have any opening for Chicanos, we have openings for minorities. It can become a problem because the different groups begin hassling over the positions.

One of the purposes of these workshops is that you can get some information and get some ideas and when you get back to your communities you will have some useful information.

I would like now to discuss some of the other problems that you run into is the area of coming into contact with the police at one time or another. To open this area to discussion I would like to direct just one question to all "Do you think we would be better off with or without a police force, or are we better off with what we have?"

Audience Response: When it comes to police I really think that one of the things we have got to do is community control. If we can't break down police forces, education and other areas, so that they are relevant on a barrio basis, if we can't say the policeman must come out of here then we are always going to be hit by the gavacho, the Irishman or whatever because they are now the ones who are always the police. We are at the bottom now. We are the ones receiving all the blows. If we can't begin to think in terms of community control in everything from economics

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Audience Response: One of the major problems that we have especially in an urban area like Chicago is that we are coming in second and third in some cases in terms of Latinos. For instance, we have a thing going in Chicago with C.T.A. The C.T.A. effectively has something like 60 percent Black working force. So when Chicanos come in they state they only have 1 percent Latino working force there. They say, "Well we do have a lot of Blacks here!" We begin to talk with the government agencies, state agencies saying they are not really breaking the law because the guidelines are very nebulous. You have to put in minorities where they get one minority overload it and then the other minority has to fight for the same token effort as everyone else. So we find ourselves fighting with Blacks. The guidelines are such that the agency can do very little. Audience Response: Like in the administration of schools one way to get around it is that they hire janitors who are Mexicans or in the offices and that takes care of these quotas. Isn't there a law where you can go through administrations other than that type of quota? If we play the number game we will never get any place. Pete Rael: I am not sure what you can do if they say they filled their minority slots but there are no Chicanos whatsoever in there. In notice the same problem exists here at the University of Iowa Law School. They do accept some Chicanos, but most of the time half of them do not actually come to school here. But I remember the last time I was here I went and asked the assistant Dean, "How many Chicanos are you getting this year?" He said, we do not have any opening for Chicanos, we have openings for minorities. It can become a problem because the different groups begin hassling over the positions. One of the purposes of these workshops is that you can get some information and get some ideas and when you get back to your communities you will have some useful information. I would like now to discuss some of the other problems that you run into is the area of coming into contact with the police at one time or another. To open this area to discussion I would like to direct just one question to all "Do you think we would be better off with or without a police force, or are we better off with what we have?" Audience Response: When it comes to police I really think that one of the things we have got to do is community control. If we can't break down police forces, education and other areas, so that they are relevant on a barrio basis, if we can't say the policeman must come out of here then we are always going to be hit by the gavacho, the Irishman or whatever because they are now the ones who are always the police. We are at the bottom now. We are the ones receiving all the blows. If we can't begin to think in terms of community control in everything from economics