Impassioned speeches and soft candlelight came together Wednesday night as UW-Madison's Project 433 held its first public event designed to raise awareness of hate crime in Madison.
The group, whose full name is Project 433: Confronting the Liberal Madison Myth, is a new organization affiliated with the Multicultural Student Coalition. Started last fall in response to an attack on UW-Madison senior and Project 433 founder Andrew Kahnke, the group is trying to raise awareness of the myriad hate crimes that go unnoticed in Madison.
All incidents of discrimination could be classified as a hate crime,\ Kahnke said, emphasizing that the point of the event was to raise awareness of discrimination in all its forms.
Speakers at the rally ranged from a woman who was fired for wanting to teach her fellow employees English to a man who watched a homeless woman get coins knocked from her hands. Each conveyed an emotional message about areas they feel Madison fails in providing fair, equal treatment to everyone.
The speeches helped draw a large crowd, which came as a pleasant surprise to Project 433 coordinator and UW-Madison freshman Stella Luong.
""To see nearly 200 students and people here just was shocking,"" Luong said. Other Project 433 members agreed, saying they anticipated no more than 50 people.
According to UW-Madison senior Megan Jensen, getting the message to as many people as possible is necessary.
""A lot of people just like to kind of throw a blanket over Madison and say, ‘Everything's all right, things like that don't happen here,'"" Jensen said. ""But obviously things are going on and we're not paying attention.""
Project 433 members hope the rally's attendance will help put the organization in better position to achieve their ultimate goal: establishing a campus office for hate crime support.
Kahnke said he hopes to meet with administrators to ""talk about what an office on campus would look like where students can be involved with incidences of hate—a hate crime task force.""
Until then Kahnke will continue educating people about Madison hate crimes.
""Everyone says this is such an accepting town,"" Kahnke said, ""but these things really do happen.""\
