The fatal shooting of 19-year-old Tony Robinson by a Madison Police Department officer encouraged the Center for Cultural Enrichment to host an informal dialogue for UW-Madison housing students Monday.
The CCE, a program that works with students in residence halls to inform them about multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion on campus, held the event in Witte Hall.
Assistant Director of Residence Life and Inclusion Magpie Martinez asked students to share their reactions to the shooting and said she hoped to see both majority and minority students attend to hear multiple viewpoints.
UW-Madison freshman Yusra Murad said she was surprised by the lack of student-based discussion on social media and in classes about the shooting.
“I feel like people are becoming desensitized to this type of stuff … I sort of expected that on a campus that is fairly political, that people would be talking about it,” Murad said.
While UW-Madison released a statement surrounding Robinson’s death, Murad suggested the university go further by creating a student-run forum for the UW-Madison community.
“You don’t have to acknowledge that your opinion might be different, you don’t have to acknowledge that people might not feel safe,” Murad said. “You just get to say ‘Wow, this shooting happened at my school … I think that’s super simple.”
UW-Madison senior Samera Jome recognized the administration’s response in the release, but said she hopes for further interaction beyond a campus wide meeting. She said the meetings usually lack diversity as they are often run by minority students.
“Stand up and talk about it,” Jome said. “Enough with the ‘Let’s have a diversity and inclusion talk.’ Action, please. It’s been one email, and I feel like that email was specifically targeted to students of color like me, to appease me, so that I can be quiet, and everything in the campus can keep going on.”
Jome said students should be able to talk about racial events on campus in a way where the entire community can get involved, not just minority students.
“You pay attention to the school [university],” Jome said. “If the Dean says something or the Chancellor says something, you pay attention. It lets you know this is important, coming from that area is more important than a forum-based discussion, because I don’t think there will be much attendance.”
