http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-lewis/whats-really-going-on-at-yale_b_8512736.html


By now, you've probably seen the video of a Yale student yelling at a professor, the Facebook post about a "white girls only" party, or the email about offensive Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, the short YouTube clips and articles I've seen don't even come close to painting an accurate picture of what's happening at Yale. I'm a senior here, and I've experienced the controversy firsthand over the past week (and years). I want to tell a more complete story and set a few facts straight.

For starters: the protests are not really about Halloween costumes or a frat party. They're about a mismatch between the Yale we find in admissions brochures and the Yale we experience every day. They're about real experiences with racism on this campus that have gone unacknowledged for far too long. The university sells itself as a welcoming and inclusive place for people of all backgrounds. Unfortunately, it often isn't.

Much of the media's coverage of Yale has made it seem like students are only rallying because of an email sent by Professor Erika Christakis. (Her email suggested that culturally insensitive costumes should be allowed because they spark healthy, intellectual dialogue). However, students have had serious and legitimate concerns about race at Yale far before Christakis sent her email. They have been speaking up about the issue for years and, up to this point, have been largely ignored. Chronic racism isn't newsworthy. It quietly whittles away at the hearts and minds of people who feel like they're not being heard.

On Wednesday night, I sat in the Afro-American Cultural Center with several hundred students and listened to people of color share their stories. For three hours, my friends spoke out about the racial discrimination they've experienced at Yale -- in and out of the classroom. Many people (especially women of color) said they feel physically and psychologically unsafe here. Just last weekend, several women said they were turned away from a social event at SAE because it was for "white girls only." The truth about what happened at SAE is important, but it's not what students of color are protesting about. They've encountered racial discrimination far too often and for far too long on this campus. These experiences are not imagined, nor are they trivial.

Last year, there were swastikas found outside a freshman dorm. The Yale College Dean, Jonathan Holloway, sent an email to the entire student body condemning this "shameful defacement" within one day.

It took almost a full week for Yale's president to formally acknowledge students' legitimate concerns about racism and the incident at SAE. Here's what happened while we waited for a sign of support from the administration.

cont'd...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-lewis/whats-really-going-on-at-yale_b_8512736.html