Controversy stirred yesterday at Simpson as a gathering protested police brutality and racism. Students, staff, faculty and community members carried signs and shouted slogans like “no justice, no peace” as onlookers accumulated.
A small counter protest carried their own signs as some students shouted support. Detractors had defaced several slogans written in chalk on walkways in support of the protest. “Hands up, don’t shoot” was accompanied by “Pants up, don’t loot” and “Affirmative action is just racism” was written in large white letters.
The initiative to organize the protest came after the grand jury decision to not indict the New York Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner on December 3, said event organizer Bria Frame. Frame, junior with secondary education and English majors with minors in gender and women’s studies and the honor program, said “anti-blackness” has always been important to her and hoped the protest would raise awareness of racial issues.
“Racism exists in Laramie and if you think otherwise, you’re lying to yourself,” Frame said. “No one here talks about Michael [Brown], no one talks about Eric [Garner], no one talks about Treyvon [Martin] and we don’t talk about the countless black lives that have been lost in this supposed post-racial society we like to talk about.”
Professor Tracey Patton, the event’s main speaker, said the grand jury and police systems were not credible and police officers “are the ones who need to be watched.” Laramie, Patton said, is not an exception to national racial issues.
“My voice came into being when a black student on this campus said he is terrified that his white peers won’t treat him equally so he has to put on the happy black man face so white people on this campus won’t be afraid of him,” Patton said. “It’s completely unacceptable.”
Patton said Laramie has a history of oppression of African Americans, including two recent examples where professors had acted shamefully. One, she said, advised a black student to go to school in Colorado because “you blacks were never wanted in Wyoming anyway.” Another from this semester referred to African Americans as “boy,” “girl” and “colored.”
“Our last lynching was in 1904 on Grand and 6th avenue,” Patton said. “There’s no signifier, no marker that a black life died here.”
Timothy Mendoza, one of the counter protestors, said he did not agree with Patton and that Laramie does not have issues with race. Mendoza, a junior in the criminal justice program, carried a sign that said “Finish Half Acre.”
“I don’t think the protest needed to take place so I’m mocking it with a sign that matters to UW students,” Mendoza said. “I don’t know why this protest applies to us at all.”
Hunter McFarland, another event organizer, said she believed racism is an issue in Laramie and there are problems with the Laramie Police Department’s handling of minorities.
“Racism is definitely alive. I see it every single day of my life as a minority student on campus,” McFarland said. “I have never had experiences with police, but I have spoken to other students and apparently there is an extreme anti sentiment that we didn’t even realize. There’s definitely systematic targeting going on inside our communities.”
Frame also said racism does exist in Laramie.
“I agree 100 percent racism exists in Laramie and if you think otherwise, you’re lying to yourself,” Frame said.
The counter protest, Frame said, were within their rights to gather, but their presence was indicative of the problem she was protesting.
“I think a bunch of white men trying to talk over Tracey Patton’s speech has some racial implications,” she said.
Freshman Travis Repella said he thought there are issues with race in America, but he did not appreciate the confrontational nature of the protests. Repella, marketing and management major, said contending groups of people ought to work with each another.
“You look at the Eric Garner case and there are some obvious flaws, but in the Michael Brown case, it’s not so open and shut, “Repella said. “We need to come together to solve problems.”
