Black UVA students have been engaged in the activism that erupted after the events in Ferguson, but last week’s bloody arrest of one of their own brought the national debate to their home turf.
Students protest at the University of Virginia on March 20 after the arrest of student Martese Johnson outside a bar in Charlottesville, Virginia.
J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
In November 2012, during her first year as a student at the University of Virginia, Kelsey Williams and her friends gathered to watch the presidential election results trickle in. Williams, now 20, had moved from New York to UVA where she was promptly called a Yankee upon arrival.
"My hall mates were hysterically crying when Obama was reelected," Williams told BuzzFeed News. "We were all celebrating in one room and our RA came in and told us that we needed to calm down because our hall mates were all upset and we were making it worse."
One of just two black girls in her hall, she had quickly noticed a different racial dynamic on campus than what she was used to.
In the aftermath of the arrest of student Martese Johnson last week, Williams is one of several black students at the Charlottesville campus who is pausing to reflect on her place within UVA. The 20-year-old's bloody arrest at the hands of Alcoholic Beverage Control law enforcement officers sparked outrage among black students who felt Johnson had been racially profiled. Suddenly, young people who had spent months on campus protesting about far-away events in Ferguson and New York City now found themselves grappling with an event much closer to home.
For many black UVA students, though, the incident also brought to the fore preexisting racial divides on campus and ignited deeply held, complex feelings that come with being a minority member of an elite, predominately white school like UVA, which has a fraught racial history: The grounds of the school, which was chartered by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, now sit atop unmarked graves for the enslaved people who once built it. The school did not admit a black student until 1950, when its hand was forced by a federal lawsuit. Black student enrollment rose steadily for decades after that, topping out at about 10% of the student body in 1990 – since then is had decreased to about 7%.
"I became significantly more aware of my blackness after coming to UVA," Williams said. "It's one thing to read about social justice and think you know about it than to come to a school when it becomes a reality for you."
Williams, a third-year student studying history (a major she described as "very white"), speaks with passion for her school and is proud of her admittance to UVA, but can easily rattle off incidents which made her uncomfortable. She recounted her hurt when classmates laughed at clips from minstrel and blackface productions her professor had screened in class. She said another black friend was asked during a discussion on family during a sociology class if she had a father. "Of course she has a father!" Williams said. "The lack of thought behind that question, the lack of sensitivity… These are experiences that I don't know I would have had if I went to a different university."
"Not that this is unique to UVA," she said, leaping to defend her school, "but I think it's a very specific experience."
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Immediately following Johnson's arrest, the UVA Black Student Alliance, for which he and Williams both serve on the executive board, mostly closed itself off to the droves of reporters from around the country that descended on the campus.
"It was just such a sensitive time," BSA President Joy Omenyi, 21, told BuzzFeed News. "Also there's the fact that there's a criminal and civil investigation happening, but after a lot of the craziness settled down we asked Martese if he was OK with us speaking out."
On Thursday, after Virginia's governor had ordered an inquiry into the arrest, Johnson delivered a statement to reporters through his lawyer, Daniel Watkins, who serves as the BSA's main legal representative.
"I'm shocked that my face was slammed into the brick pavement just across the street from where I attend school," he said. "My head lay bloodied, but unbowed. I still believe in our community. I know this community will support me during this time."
Omenyi said her friend is "doing alright" and "holding strong" since last week's events. "He's being so strong," she said, "which is a testament to the kind of student he is."
"As you can imagine, though, it's simply overwhelming," Omenyi said. "Eveytime you turn on the TV you have to relive what happened, relive the blood splattered all over your face. In some cases, rehearing it everyday traumatizes you again."
As his story received national attention, some commentators questioned whether Johnson had provoked the agents, while others said they lacked sympathy for him because early reports suggested he had tried to use a fake ID to gain entry to a local bar — a claim Johnson denies. (The bar's managing owner, who said in a statement this weekend he was the one who carded Johnson, said the student's behavior was "cordial and respectful" and that he did "not appear to be intoxicated in the least.")
"His name is suddenly everywhere and not all of it's positive," Omenyi said. "People are bringing into question his character, his background, the entire incident, without knowing the full story."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1N68J9D
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