Herald archives
To think my acceptance to this university was one of the happiest moments of my life.
I didn’t pay attention to the underlying issues that I’d be facing my freshman year of college. Considering I was trying to balance being an artist and a student, my race would be and continues to be the deciding factor in what spaces I feel safe in. Ironically, a part of me knew that moving from Atlanta to Madison would be a huge culture shock.
The first thing I noticed once I settled into my dorm is that the only people of color seemed to be found in spaces like my floor, the Red Gym or Ingraham Hall. The problem with University of Wisconsin is the belief that we are inclusive.
If you place this into the context of white students, of course they’re inclusive. Their community is built around the privilege they seem to forget when they ask me, “What part of Mexico are you from,” “Can you help me on my Spanish homework?” and “Are you allowed to vote?”
I know that physical retaliation will only allow them to further prosper in life, so I will not stoop down to their level of ignorance. Mainly because I’m here on an artistic scholarship and I refuse to put my parents through any more trauma, although I keep living it every single day I’m here.
I am part of the OMAI First Wave scholarship — a hip hop and urban arts scholarship that allows students to further pursue their artistry while still studying anything they please. You might have seen the First Wave group at SOAR. Also, you wouldn’t have seen people of color any other days besides July 13 and 14, the designated days that SOAR is made for students of color. Odd right? Nah, they just wanted to show us that people of color actually do exist here!
I came here knowing that I had to protest. Isn’t that sad? Knowing that every single day you wake up, your existence is a protest, almost a cry for help.
I found community in spaces that I felt safe in and somehow, I still feel insecure in all these spaces. I walk into a lecture hall of students that look nothing like me and are studying the history of my people and still feel the need to put their opinions on those that struggled to exist here today. Ironically, today is St. Patrick’s day, in other words, the only holiday white people will claim. It gives them an excuse to drink and slander other races, so basically any other day of the year.
The racial climate here lacks diversity. Photoshopping a black student into a UW booklet won’t bring more students of color here, but it will make your school what it truly is: exclusive to the white majority.
I want this campus to have a zero tolerance for racial discrimination just like they do for drugs and alcohol.
If you have enough time to bring dogs to smell our hallways and bookbags, you have the time to include conversation about race among white people.
We as people of color do not need dialogue among each other — we know our struggles. I understand that this will not make white people care, but it will bring more respectability to their own ego. One thing I can guarantee is that no white person on this campus will know what it means to feel that your education is deemed less valuable because of the color of your skin.
Being told that I don’t belong here because I’m here on a scholarship is by all means inaccurate. I actually belong here more than anyone else who pays tuition. Why? Because not only did I have to get into UW, I had to fill an entire separate application for a scholarship that could have easily denied me. I earned my place into this university and I earned a place in these classrooms.
I want white people to speak up in a classroom setting. Too often I am a witness to racial discrimination online by anonymous people, but hear nothing in person. I want those who are saying these racially charged statements to speak up in class while we’re discussing the erasure of black and brown voices in the media.
Having a letter emailed to me saying “we’re working on these issues” isn’t going to fix anything. Look at the past biased incidents that have occurred on this campus alone. I haven’t heard about anything changing. The fact that students are only required to take three credits of ethnic studies out of the 120 credits to graduate is alarming. Being told by my Afro-American professor that this is now a campus-wide requirement because studies have shown white people don’t know how to “interact” with people of color in the real world is by far the least surprising fact.
This campus needs a culture shock — a diverse one. I want change on this campus to happen in and outside of the classroom. I’m tired of walking on any street (NOT just Langdon) and putting my earphones in because I want to keep myself safe from hearing anymore racial slurs. This is ridiculous.
I am tired of black and brown people fighting for their education, like we didn’t have to fight all our lives before, just to make it here. I’m tired of fighting for rights that were promised to me by the First Amendment. I’m tired of this school not living up to its proclaimed standards and still allowing racism to occur. I’m tired of complaining about my race when I should be complaining about the lack of substantial education I’ve been taught here. I’m tired of feeling like my race is a skin disorder that needs to be fixed.
I do not need to be fixed, this campus does.
Francisco Velazquez ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in journalism and mass communication.


