More than 60 students met in the Wonders Hall Kiva to hear four guest speakers voice their concerns about racial profiling Tuesday night.
The forum, “Racial Profiling: Police Harassment,” was sponsored by the Wonders Hall Black Caucus, Wilson Hall Black Caucus, Case Hall Black Caucus, Holden Hall Black Caucus and the Alpha Phi Alpha, Omega Psi Phi and Omega Delta Phi fraternities. The groups welcomed three university professors and an MSU police officer.
“We wanted an educational setting,” said C.D. Vaughn, an adviser to the Case Hall Black Caucus. “These people had done some research on the subject and we thought it would be beneficial to the students.”
Carl Taylor, a human ecology professor, said racial profiling is an issue that needs to be dealt with immediately.
“I think a forum will allow us to put the subject on the table to better understand how all parties feel about the issue,” he said. “It’s a sensitive subject, but it is not going to go away.”
The other guest speakers, Bill Lawson, a philosophy professor, and Curtis Stokes, an associate professor who teaches a class on African American politics in James Madison College, agreed that racial profiling should not be dealt with lightly.
“This is a new frontier for the battle for human rights for blacks and Latinos,” Stokes said. “This is a serious problem that plagues us all.”
Lawson spoke about how the state needs to protect all its citizens from racial profiling.
“If you can’t trust the police to protect you, then what good is the state?” he said.
MSU police Officer Steven Beard said police and the minority community need to work together toward a resolution.
Many of the students attending the forum agreed the topic is an issue that everyone needs to know about.
Shalene Amankrah, an interior design junior who hails from Canada, said she sees racial profiling a lot in East Lansing. And she believes it needs to be discussed more often to reach an resolution.
She said her hometown is more diverse, resulting in greater understanding of cultures.
“People come from neighborhoods where they’re all the same and when they come to a big place like MSU it’s hard to adjust.” Amankrah said.
Forums like Tuesday night’s are a good way for people of all cultures to learn about the issue, said Maximillian Monroy-Miller, a social relations and Chicano studies senior and the president of Omega Delta Phi.
“For the white students that came, it takes their possible ignorance on some of these issues and they can show their friends and roommates (what racial profiling is),” Monroy-Miller said.
“I think racial profiling is a problem everywhere. I think it is a complex issue that goes beyond the basic ‘The cop pulled me over and beat me up’ - it’s more on an imbedded mental level.”
Shannon Murphy can be reached at murphy78@msu.edu.
