BLK PWR Coalition Leads UW Campus Protests Over Racist Speech: Enough Is Enough
Members of the BLK PWR Group: Jeremy (l-r), Steph, Noah, Grace, Elaine, Heaven, Mason,
Lisa, and Dorian
Part 2 of 2
Jonathan Gramling
It can be a challenge being a member of an underrepresented group on the UW-Madison campus, especially for Black students. While Black people represent almost seven percent of Wisconsin’s population, for years, the African American student representation on campus has stood around two percent. Take away the African American student athletes, and the numbers feel even smaller.
In a society that is race conscious and uses race to define so many aspects of life, Black students feel scrutinized and judged and are impacted by the socio-psychological pressures of being a minority on campus. Add in the micro-aggressions and verbal racial slurs they may experience as a course of everyday academic life, it leads many to feel like they don’t belong even though their tax-paying ancestors helped build UW-Madison just like anyone else. It can cause Black students to experience “imposter syndrome,” where they feel they aren’t qualified to be on campus even though they academically competed for the right to be on campus.
And then sometimes an incident happens, which is almost like throwing gasoline on an already smoldering fire. During the first week of May a racist video posted by a white UW-Madison student was posted that went viral until it was taken down. It felt threatening to Black students on campus and so they demonstrated several days after the UW-Madison administration said it could do nothing because the student’s comments were protected free speech. It made the students feel even more insecure.
The marches themselves were almost therapeutic because Black students are often times “the only one” in their classes and in time feel isolated.
“The protest yesterday was a powerful representation of what John Lewis called, ‘Good Trouble,’” Dorian said. “And it is important to acknowledge that the BLK PWR Coalition is here to stay. The Black student population has been suppressing their emotions for a while. We will continually fight for the rights of Black students on this campus and demand action. We wanted to showcase Black joy and intentionally took that space. We are very proud of the way our community came together and this is what two percent looks like here on this campus.”
The UW-Madison campus sits on 936 acres in the heart of the city of Madison. Yet Black students, on a whole, feel safe — emotionally as well as physically — in a relatively few spaces.
“I’m a first-year student,” said Steph. “In my whole year’s experience on campus, this is the most sacred place that I have found, the Black Culture Center. And this whole year here, I would say my dorm because I am on the international floor. There are Black people who speak the same language as me. I’m surrounded by people who know me and can relate to me. I would also say the Center for Academic Excellence because once again, those are people who are there for students who are underrepresented and for marginalized communities.”
“Some places where I do feel safe are the Black Culture Center, the Center for Cultural Enrichment, and the Essence floor of Witte Hall,” Elain said.
“I would also say the Essence floor of Witte, the BCC, the Multicultural Business Center within the business school and my apartment and the gym,” Jeremy chimed in.
All of these safe spaces are on the southeastern part of campus.
“That is a problem that has been spoken to on campus where a lot of the resources for students of color are all located on the southeast side of campus and there isn’t a lot of resources for students who might be in the Lakeshore side of campus,” Elain said.
The students would like to see the number of “safe spaces” increased on campus.
“We would definitely like to ask for more funding for those programs,” Elaine said. “As you can see, right now, we are in the Red Gym and all of this area that we are in is the Black Culture Center. But this is the only on campus space for us. If you go upstairs, you will find more multicultural centers. If you go all the way to the back is where you will find the Gender and Sexuality Center. There are a lot of different centers in here that are all grouped into one building. And we are all tightly on top of each other. And this can also lead to some safety concerns because it puts a target on this building due to us all being in one place and there have been some things that have occurred. We want more funding to be able to have more spaces and more funding for our programs and to be able to make our voices more well-known.”
While the university has implemented an ethnic studies credit requirement and has implemented Get Wise, a video on diversity and inclusion that students must go through, the BLK PWR Coalition feels that it isn’t enough, that the requirements don’t spur engagement between the students of different backgrounds. It’s like two ships passing in the night.
“This is why we pushed so much in our demands for more education surrounding racial biases that is mandatory for students on this campus because people come from different areas,” Elaine said. “Sometimes they may come from areas that don’t have these conversations or these kinds of interactions. And that is why there is such a need for more education surrounding discrimination and racial tensions. There is a class called Get Wise. However, none of the classes are focused on racial biases. The students actually get to choose which ethnic studies class they take. None of these focus on the racial tendencies of the campus.”
While the Get Wise video class on its face is a good diversity and inclusion vehicle — if students actually engage with it.
“It’s important to acknowledge that the Get Wise program isn’t something that is necessarily monitored in the sense that you have to take it and actually pay attention and be present,” Steph said. “This is something that you can put on your computer, let it play through, click through it and not actually need to actively participate. And I think it is important to be aware of the fact that the majority of students — due to the fact that it is a several hour course — not to be pessimistic, probably don’t sit through the entire course. You can let the videos play. There are things in there that are beneficial and are a learning experience. However, I don’t think folks are sitting down and completely absorbing the information that is being put out. And I think if we were to introduce something in regards to understanding prejudice and understanding bias and things like that, it would need to be something in-person on campus. I believe that if we can have students show up and be present, it gives them the opportunity to learn and see faces and see people who have experienced these things because it is so easy to shut things down when they are on a screen in front of you and you can take the course to get the requirement checked off and say, ‘Oh I’m done with that.’ But you don’t actually understand the experiences that the students are discussing and talking about and the experiences that Black students go through on this campus.”
“I think we need seminars and workshops that are going to educate us outside of just the diversity programs that we are in, just to spread the word and spread the message that this isn’t okay,” Dorian said about the racist video. “People need to be educated on the things that they can control and their actions.”
One of the biggest concerns of the members of the BLK PWR Coalition is the availability of quality mental health services, which Black students need on a predominantly white campus.
“The wait list for UHS is somewhere from 4-6 months long before you are able to see someone,” Steph said. “On top of that, you are only allowed 20 sessions for all four years. I don’t think that is very realistic because mental health is not something that you just get to choose. ‘I’m stopping this now and I am feeling better.’ It’s a continuous thing. I think that is something that needs to be addressed. You can’t expect students to have a limited number of sessions to feel better and deal with situations that are ongoing such as situations with racism and prejudice within our campus.”
And the group feels that more Black and other people of color therapists and mental health counselors need to be employed by the university.
“I feel like we should just have more academic and mental health resources for students of color and international students,” Mason said. “I’m just speaking from my personal experience first semester. I met with a campus resource. After a few conversations, he and I had the discussion that the issues that I face he couldn’t relate to. And so meeting with him was no longer beneficial. The position I was in and the vulnerability I felt at that moment, I don’t want another student of color or international student to feel that way. Added resources and more diverse resources are important for people to be able to talk about what actually goes on outside of an academic space on campus and more on a more personal level.”
“There are only eight specialist for mental health services for people of color at this whole university,” Elaine said. “And I believe not all of them are people of color. We are asking for more funding to go towards these programs. We are also asking that we have more academic counselors who are people of color who are here to support us and that more funding goes towards those programs. For example, there is a program called the Center for Academic Excellence. It is a support group for students of color. However, their program does not get that much funding and many counselors have to leave better positions elsewhere. Since I’ve been there, we’ve seen eight counselors leave.”
And so while the campus climate is often times not conducive to them learning and can be hostile, the BLK PWR Coalition says that they are at UW-Madison to stay.
“I think it is very important to note that this is what that two-percent looks like,” Grace said. “This is who we are. We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. And I think that’s one of the most powerful statements we can make. ‘This is what that two-percent looks like.’ It might not feel like a large number. But I think we represented that and we showed up and showed out yesterday. And I think that is a beautiful and powerful thing that we have been able to do in the community.”
Enough is enough and Black students on campus want change.