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His message was simple: We are all one race.
Actor and community activist Edward James Olmos animatedly shared his longtime message with a crowd of 969 in his talk, "We're All in the Same Gang."
"We still think that there is a Latino race, an African race, an Asian race, a Caucasian race," he said. "There is no such thing as a Latino race; there is only one race: the human race. Inside of that race, there are beautiful cultures."
Olmos, 60, spoke Wednesday in the auditorium of McAllister Fine Arts Center as part of the college's Fine Arts and Cultural Events Series.
"When someone says 'that was racial discrimination,' I say, 'there is no race.' When a bug doesn't like you, that's racial discrimination."
In a mixture of Spanish and English, Olmos explained to the crowd that he was no more special than anyone else. He said he came out of the womb without any special abilities, but what makes him different is he found out early what it takes to succeed. "I disciplined myself to do the things I loved to do when I didn't want to do them and I did them seven days a week."
Olmos' career spans stage and film acting, directing and producing as well as producing albums for B.B. King and Eric Clapton. His credits include "Zoot Suit," "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," "Stand and Deliver," "Blade Runner" and the television series "Battlestar Galactica" and "American Family." His latest film is HBO's "Walkout" about a Chicano student protest in 1968 in Los Angeles.
Olmos also expressed the need to study more U.S. heroes of color. He challenged the audience to name one national hero of Latino descent born in the United States that they've studied in school. "Martin Luther King is the only person of color that we study for at least five minutes a year. We've been here longer than the Europeans, and we don't have one person of color other than Martin Luther King," he said. "That is what's wrong with this country. They are still making us believe in a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus."
To stress the point, he added, "He came from Africa. What comes from Africa? Africans!"
Olmos joked that if you have ever heard him speak previously, you have heard his message. One message he has repeated through the years is the misallocation of funds to war instead of education and community development.
His suggestion that college professors should be paid $1.5 million per semester was warmly received. He said high school teachers should earn more than college professors and junior high teachers should earn more than high school teachers. In turn, elementary teachers should be paid more than junior high, teachers and kindergarten teachers should earn $6 million per year.
He rued the $1 million per week contract soccer player David Beckham has negotiated. "He can't even play anymore," he said. "And they pay teachers like nothing."
He said this country is in the biggest mess it has ever been in mired in the Iraq war. "Do you think the Muslims will forget in a thousand years that we did this?" he asked, noting the thousands of years of conflict between Palestinians and Jews.
In a press conference before his speech, Olmos voiced his political views on the war, saying that violence breeds more violence, repeating the proverb "an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind."
He also said he believed a woman in the White House would help stop all the violence, but he made it clear that he has never and never will back a politician publicly.
Olmos also said George Bush is the only president since Jimmy Carter not to call him to ask for advice. "I called the White House and asked them not to use two words, war and crusade," he said.
Many expressed astonishment to hear that he was so well connected. "So are you," he responded. "Anyone can call the White House."
He also expressed his hope for a president to be elected who hadn't spent money on a campaign. "If they don't spend money, then they're not indebted to anyone."
The audience came out of McAllister Fine Arts Center enthralled and motivated by Olmos' words.
"He inspired me to believe in myself and do what I love," sociology sophomore Alison Reynolds, 21, said. "He also said 'the more you give, the more you receive' and that's my personal belief, too."
The audience was allowed to ask Olmos questions, and Edna Escamilla was delighted to get the chance.
"My parents taught me you learn from other's experiences," the 26-year-old psychology sophomore said.
Escamilla asked Olmos why he had decided to share his views and opinions with others.
In response, Olmos took the audience back to his first public speaking experience in front of a high school classroom.
Though the students seemed bored and the teacher asked all the questions, when he returned to a play he was performing in, he felt alive and got a rush out of it. "What you do comes back," he said, noting his excitement at the discovery. He began asking to speak at schools, nursing homes and juvenile delinquent homes. "I'd speak anywhere."
Another of Olmos' recurring messages is that immigration needs another approach. "Nobody wants to leave their home so when are we going to grow up and help them stay in their homes?"
Noting the 40,000-year history of indigenous people on this continent and migration across the Bering Strait from Asia and Africa before that, Olmos ended the night with a wrapup of his message. "I am African first, I'm Asian second, I'm indigenous mixed with European and that's what makes me brown."
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