Students say social change depends on education, dialogue in response to nationwide protests
A group of 250 Syracuse University students staged a “die-in” Monday, which lasted four and a half minutes to symbolize the four and a half hours Michael Brown’s body was in the streets of Ferguson, Mo., following his death.
More than 150 protesters, including many UC Berkeley students, were arrested the same day following a march on Interstate 80 that halted traffic during the third night of ongoing protests in Berkeley.
There were no students at the University of South Dakota holding up “I Can’t Breathe” signs in front of Old Main, but that does not mean students, faculty and staff are not interested in where race and law enforcement relations stand in the United States, said Lamont Sellers, director of USD’s new Center for Diversity and Community.
“Even though this might not be the activist campus that you’d see at a larger institution, it doesn’t mean people don’t pay attention to the news or that these conversations aren’t happening,” Sellers said.
It was with this in mind that history professors Sara Lampert and Elise Boxer approached Sellers and Associate Vice President of Diversity Jesus Trevino with the intention to facilitate a university group discussion about the recent deaths of unarmed black men by police force, subsequent grand jury decisions and nationwide protests.
“Dialogue: Race in America After Ferguson” was the result. At least 30 students and faculty participated in the small and large group discussions Tuesday in the center, which is located in the former Student Services suite on the second floor of the Muenster University Center. The dialogue was sponsored by the Office for Diversity and Center for Diversity and Community, along with professors from the history department.
Lampert told the group that growing protests across the country are revealing with the strong opinions expressed in how race relations, policing and justice are perceived.
“If anything, recent events are making us rethink what we already know about race in America. There is a tremendous amount of conversations happening right now, and it’s about time that we should start talking about it at USD,” she said.
Embracing the uncomfortable
Alafia Wright, a first-year law student and president of the Black Student Law Association, does not pretend to know the kind of social injustice his four-year-old daughter will experience because of her gender. But at Tuesday’s event, he said change — whether it is in regard to violence against women or police brutality — is about people being more willing to put themselves in an uncomfortable position.
“When I think about justice it’s not just for the oppressed classes, but justice for all,” Wright said. “The notions of freedom, liberty and justice for all — that includes white people, Native Americans, black people, the LGBT community, — it’s a shared interest.”
While some people in South Dakota may think what is going on around the country does not affect their community, Wright said it is a matter of talking to Native American students on campus to realize the level of institutional racism in the state.
Native Americans make up nearly a 10th of South Dakota’s population, but only one in 10 attempt to obtain a higher-education degree. Sellers said while national media may focus on black communities, race and law enforcement relations are just as relevant topics in South Dakota as they are in Missouri.
More access to legal recourse and more transparency in the police force were two arguments echoed during the center’s discussion about local solutions. Some USD students, such as senior Cassandra Backes, were angry at the “abuse of power” exhibited by law enforcement, and said this is the point of contention that needs to be immediately addressed.
“At what point did police think they were going to war and that they needed to dress for battle?” Backes said.
Moving forward at USD, Sellers said he believes social change relies on education. Seller, who came to USD in September, grew up in Hampton, Va., a community that is 45 percent black. He said his transition to South Dakota has been a noticeable one.
“In Hampton, I can’t go anywhere in the city and not see somebody who looks like me,” he said. “It is a very different experience for me there than what I experience here.”
There are things that Sellers has noticed and questioned, including would-be normal errands. The center’s director said he wonders why he has experienced police cars making a U-turn to drive behind him as he takes his kids to school in Vermillion.
“I’m under the speed limit, everybody has their seat belt on. So I wonder, what is this about? It definitely brings questions to my mind,” he said.
But these experiences, and the sharing of these experiences, are what need to happen, Sellars said. Lampert agreed with the center’s director and said the events unraveling in the media, it seems for many Americans, comes as a shock and surprise.
“We are trying to make sense what we, as white Americans, are not experiencing. We don’t feel endangered for our lives or assume we are in danger with the police. But there are many Americans that do feel this way. There is so much that we don’t understand,” she said.
Role of law enforcement
For some people at USD, the coverage of Michael Brown’s death and grand jury decision hits close to home. First-year law student Billy Coby is from St. Louis, Mo., which contains the suburb of Ferguson.
“As a resident, it was disturbing to see. It was disturbing on a basic level that we have to make a choice between two institutions that we feel like are there for your benefit — law enforcement and really, the right to exist,” he said.
Coby said it is a dangerous thing to consider this strictly a Ferguson issue. He said what happened in Ferguson and other areas in the country is going to cause institutions to re-examine their inclusiveness.
“There is a critical breakdown between law enforcement, perceptions of law enforcement and people between the ages of 15 and 25,” he said. “I don’t think that this is a new thing, but it has many serious consequences.”
When it comes to perceptions of law enforcement, Coby said he never grew up with the idea that he needed to protect himself from the police. He said his experience was to respect all people and respect authority.
Junior Will Armstead, who helped reinstate the Union of African American Students two years ago, said his parents never raised him to fear the police as a kid in Tulsa, Okla. But Armstead said he does not know what he would teach his kids one day with changing relationships between the police and civilians.
“It kind of depends on location, I think, for a lot of people. Some places, it might be more beneficial to not trust the police and record everything,” he said. “There is a sense that you can’t trust them, but I’ve kind of learned to just be on your best behavior and not give them a reason to get unlawfully searched.”
The topic of better policing in the U.S. has included the discussion of more officers being equipped with body cameras. President Obama proposed $263 million in funding Dec. 1 that includes a three-year funding package containing $75 million for a Body Worn Cameras Partnership, which would help states purchase and store the new equipment, such as body cameras.
But questions still remain about whether more technology is the answer improve the relationship between law enforcement and the people the institution is supposed to protect.
Armstead said the most recent UASS meeting included having students share their thoughts on where race relations stand in the U.S. Many shared the same opinion — that they did not agree with the grand jury decisions, but that forms of destructive rioting that included looting shops, was wrong.
He said since there are so few black people in South Dakota — barely 2 percent — the public will not see protests in the streets.
But that does not mean Armstead does not agree with the protests. The political science major said the right to assemble is one to cherish. While he said most students he interacts with care enough to not throw out racist assertions, some are too afraid they will say the wrong thing to offend him.
“It’s almost more insulting sometimes that they choose to not say anything versus sharing their opinion. I’m a levelheaded person, and I’m not going to bite their head for saying something I don’t agree with,” he said.
Armstead said he wishes more students did not worry so much about offending someone when it comes to talking about race in the U.S. because conversation about such topics are necessary.
“I might have been dealing with culture shock when I got here, but I integrated and became accustomed to South Dakota life. At the same time, though, I came here to raise awareness and I hope I leave people with knowledge about where I come from, too,” he said.
(Photo: First-year law student Alafia Wright says justice is not just for the oppressed classes, but instead, means justice for all. Wright attended the discussion held in the Center for Diversity and Community Tuesday for an event to talk about race in the United States following recent incidents in Missouri and New York. Megan Card / The Volante).
