Yale College Student

  In the article, "What It's Like to Be Black on Campus Now" there are ten solid examples of what it's like to be black on a college campus. Out of these ten stories in the article the one that stands out the most to me is actually the first story told. It begins talking about the well know idea of how academically challenging Ivy League schools are. Along with that, finals week is an especially challenging academic time. So, during finals week a black female that attended Yale was in the common area of her dorm to do some studying. She happened to fall asleep due to her lack of sleep during the most exhausting time of the semester. Anyone who is currently in college or ever has been in college can relate to this exhausting experience of finals week. The black women was then woken up by someone she probably didn't expected. She was woken up by the police and was interrogated.  She was being interrogated about who she was and what she was doing. The police insisted on verifying that she had a right to be on campus. It does not seem to me that it is a coincidence that the police needed to verify her right to be on campus considering it is a predominantly white school. The police were obviously questioning why she was on campus because she was black. She was in her dorm building as previously mentioned, so she would have no reason to be there if she didn't live at that dorm or go to school at Yale. It really can't be any more obvious that they were targeting her because she was black. This concerns me for many reasons but especially because a close friend of mine is a black student at Yale. We played football in high school together and became close friends. He plays football at Yale and has always made his academics a priority. I can only hope that he or any other black student does not find themselves in this situation. Looking back on this article I can honestly say that I've never had to worry about verifying the fact that I have a right to be on campus. I feel that if I as a nineteen year old white male fell asleep in the common area of my dorm someone would just wake me up. From my perspective its crazy to think that depending on who is in that situation, things could unfold much differently.

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