Reflections on #TheRealUW
Alyssa M. Ramírez Stege*
The recent incidents involving hate, racism, discrimination and bias at UW-Madison have highlighted deep-seated, chronic issues faced by students and faculty of color on this campus. The student-led movement #TheRealUW has highlighted the insidious everyday experiences of discrimination faced by students who embody disenfranchised identities. Back in March, the Isthmus writer Allison Geyer expressed it poignantly in their story: “Another day, another bias incident at UW-Madison.” The slew of racially-charged events this Spring has finally sparked a campus-wide response yet the recent event of a Black student being arrested in a classroom, allegedly responsible for graffiti protesting racism on campus, highlights how slowly change happens at a systemic level.
The campus climate issues go beyond understanding how to promote a diverse and inclusive community–students of color on UW-Madison are struggling to maintain and defend their dignity and personal safety. A recent article relates #TheRealUW to a Plantation “where graffiti, speaking out against the racism that students of color live everyday on campus is punished more than when a black woman is pushed and her face spat on.” Accounts of this event state arresting officers told the student “he’d had his say and now they would have theirs.” These statements provide a glimpse of the anger that might fuel similar responses such as the profane and racist message slipped under a student’s door that sparked vice provost for diversity and climate Patrick Sims’ video response and the hashtag Enough is Enough. When acting from initial anger reactions, majority or privileged individuals at UW-Madison have displayed actions that continue to harm and oppress students of color and foster an unsafe environment.
When students of color dare to speak up against the racism they encounter everyday, they are often discounted, dismissed or silenced. Dr. Karma Chávez recently featured the abundance of racist stories and the dearth of space for them in a predominantly White institution. In a clear example of dismissal, the students involved in an incident at Dejope residence hall wrote in their apology letter “this was not racially motivated or meant to exclude anyone from campus” despite the students being reported for disrupting with “stereotypical war chants” a healing ceremony involving a Ho-Chunk leader. The students’ response reads as disingenuous and displays a lack of awareness and responsibility-taking for the actual hurt these students have caused.
As a UW-Madison community it is our responsibility to denounce racist, hateful, discriminatory, and biased actions when they happen. Response should not fall solely on students, faculty and staff of color. The recent response from faculty and graduate students proves we need change. The incidents of hate and bias cannot change if the experiences of students of color continue to be unaddressed or downplayed. We need to open spaces for conversations that give voice to students who have been oppressed on this campus. We need to individually and collectively connect with the shame, guilt, and sadness at being immersed in an institutional culture where discriminatory actions are part of our everyday experiences so we can truly begin to make a cultural shift.
*Alyssa M. Ramírez Stege is a U.S.-born Mexican doctoral student in the Counseling Psychology department at UW-Madison. She is also a teaching assistant and instructor through the Chican@ & Latin@ studies program and co-leader of the CLS PASOS mentorship program. Her research focuses on the incorporation of culture in psychotherapeutic training and practice both in Mexico and the U.S.
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