Frustration, anger, sadness and fatigue were among the descriptions a group of 51ÁÔÆæ students used for how they were feeling about the recent unrest around racial and social justice happening in Milwaukee and across the nation.<\/p>\n
The panel of six students, both graduate and undergraduate, shared their opinions about past and current racial inequities and didn\u2019t hold back on their views of what the university needs to change as it seeks to improve the racial climate for Black students and others of color.<\/p>\n
The event, held virtually June 26, was the second in a series of events called 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Campus Dialogue on Racial Justice. The first event, on June 12, featured six 51ÁÔÆæ faculty members. Staff members will participate in the next event on July 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to take it a day at a time and trying to keep myself grounded,\u201d said Mia Heredia, who is beginning her master\u2019s degree in criminal justice. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to do when you’re looking at such large, spread out institutions \u2013like education, like health care, like the policing system \u2013 and trying to grapple with all that as an individual person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panelists said the amount of work necessary to explain their grievances to white people was draining and exhausting. White students, all panel members said, had the responsibility of educating themselves about oppression of people of color in the U.S., and explaining it to their families and friends.<\/p>\n
There also was no shortage of ideas on the solutions the members of the group hope to see, but all said the protests were necessary and should be only a first step.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t just listen and say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve done my part. Use your power and use your privilege to do something about it,\u201d said Paulina Lim, a graduate student in clinical psychology.<\/p>\n
Some felt that the only way to effect lasting change was to completely rebuild institutions, but with the inclusion of the voices of people of color.<\/p>\n
Legislative reforms will not be enough and are just an attempt to appease people of color, said Chris Chavez, a junior in comparative ethnic studies and Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latinx studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy community has been affected by police violence since the beginning of the existence of this country,\u201d Chavez said. \u201cIt has reminded me of how important it is that we stop fighting for useless liberal reforms that have been happening for 200 years. There has to be a total structural change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Destiny Brady, a senior in architecture, expressed concern about the \u201cschool-to-prison pipeline\u201d that begins with students who are policed in K-12 schools. She also worries whether her sister, who is expecting a baby, will get adequate health care because Black women die in childbirth at disproportionate rates to white women.<\/p>\n
Heredia also felt that institutional systems should be abolished and rebuilt from scratch, allowing people of color much more say in how the institutions are run. \u201cBurn it down and rebuild it,\u201d Heredia said, \u201cand when we do, I don\u2019t want to see anyone in the room (representing Black people) who isn\u2019t Black.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to stop making excuses for so little diversity in the teaching staff and for advertising the university\u2019s student diversity without cultivating it, the students said.<\/p>\n
If diversity and inclusion were as important at 51ÁÔÆæ says, then Brady wonders why she hasn\u2019t had a Black instructor in three years. \u201cTokenism is alive and very well in every single 51ÁÔÆæ ad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnti-blackness permeates every system in this country. 51ÁÔÆæ is a part of systematic racism,\u201d said Kentrell Washington, a graduate student in social welfare. \u201cIt has to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exposing all 51ÁÔÆæ students regardless of color to a more diverse variety of achievement is part of the solution, Heredia said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like that our curriculum supports the erasure of ethnography as much as it does,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s doing us all a disservice (because) then we go into our fields and we uphold these superficial ideals and it doesn\u2019t help anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three students on the panel advocated the abolition of the campus police department, including Student Association president Emma Mae Weber, a senior in women\u2019s and gender studies, who acknowledged that she is having to reflect on what safety means if Black students don\u2019t feel safe with a police presence and many white students do.<\/p>\n
A bigger problem, she said, is that students don\u2019t feel heard. Weber pointed to the absence of Chancellor Mark Mone from the panel discussion. \u201cYou need to be here with your students,\u201d she said, \u201cand you need to be listening to them in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mone gave the opening remarks, but then had to leave to for a meeting with the UW System leadership on the university\u2019s fall reopening during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cListening is very important to me, and I look forward to hearing how this conversation goes,\u201d said Mone, who promised to go back and listen to the recording of the event later. \u201cThis will be foundational as we take actions and implement suggestions from these dialogues both on campus and greater community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-moderators were Chia Youyee Vang, associate vice chancellor and professor of history, and Adam Jussel, dean of students. Also participating in the meeting were Johannes Britz, 51ÁÔÆæ provost; Joan Prince, vice chancellor of global inclusion and engagement; and Kelly Haag, chief student affairs officer.<\/p>\n
The event was sponsored by the Division of Global Inclusion & Engagement and the Division of Student Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Frustration, anger, sadness and fatigue were among the descriptions a group of 51ÁÔÆæ students used for how they were feeling about the recent unrest around racial and social justice happening in Milwaukee and across the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":84120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-84119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-students","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section"],"yoast_head":"\n