Every other Sunday, a group of UW-Madison students gather at the Red Gym to discuss issues of race. Sitting around a conference table, the discussion is informal, as the agenda is never rigid. The conversations stem from observations about racial inequality, events on campus addressing racism and students’ roles in it all. A passion for creating a more inclusive campus and community is not all that connects these students — all of them are white.

Members of the Promoting Racial Equality and Awareness student group are people committed to exploring issues of racial inequality and privilege. In a small, tucked-away conference room, we have created a safe space for majority students to develop and grow as allies, using white privilege as a framework for learning how to break down cycles of oppression entrenched in our society today. PREA promotes white people talking about race and social justice, but emphasizes the importance of building relationships of trust and accountability with people of color. Every meeting is an amalgam of self-reflection, brainstorming, story-telling and planning that reflects our collective commitment to becoming anti-racist allies.

Earlier this month the National Day of Action was a quiet day here on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, but it did not go unnoticed by members of PREA. As students on college campuses across the nation mobilized to protest racial inequities in the public education system, PREA members were brainstorming how to foster the growth of this budding student organization.

PREA believes that as students at a public university, it is our responsibility to work toward creating a more inclusive environment. Racism is alive and well in this country, and at an internationally renowned public institution that prides itself on “forward thinking,” it is imperative that these discussions occur and that action soon follows.

PREA seeks to engage majority students, as well as students of color on this campus and in the community, in order to dismantle systems of oppression through dialogue, workshops and activism. PREA hopes to move forward with the support of this campus in continuing to work for social justice.

PREA meets every other Sunday from 4-5:30p.m. in the MSC in the Red Gym. Our next meeting is this Sunday, March 21.

Annie Crangle ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and African-American studies. She is a member of PREA.