How familiar does this sound: A white person called the police on a black person based on “suspicious actions” even though the individual did nothing wrong.
A black Yale graduate student had campus police called on her after a white student found her sleeping in a common room of their dorm.
Lolade Siyonbola, posted two videos on Facebook showing the police interrogating her and asking for her ID.
“I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else,” an annoyed Siyonbola told responding officers in one video. “I’m not going to justify my existence here.”
According to Siyonbola, she was working on a paper in the Hall of Graduate Studies when she fell asleep, soon after another female student came in and told her that she is “not supposed to be sleeping here. I’m going to call the police.”
Lolade Siyonbola
This “person” called the cops on my friend a few months ago for getting lost in my building. Today she messed-again-with the wrong one.
Siyonbola recorded the incident with the student and also her encounter with the police.
When police were asked by Siyonbola what the complaint was, one officer said, “She called us (and) said there’s somebody who appeared they weren’t … where they were supposed to be.”
The 34-year-old grad student in African studies showed the police that she is allowed in the area by unlocking her dorm room with her key. But, even with this, she still had to provide identification to ensure that she “belongs there.”
Lolade Siyonbola
Part 2 – Sarah Braasch, Philosophy PhD student, called the cops on my friend a few months ago for getting lost in my building. Today she messed-again-with the wrong one.
After some confusion and a misspelling of her name in the database, police finally confirmed that she’s a student and left. But just like the incident in Philadelphia with Starbucks, social media was in an uproar. The video of the situation has over 480,000 views, 7,500 shares and 12,000 comments, many of which claim that the police and the student racially profiled Siyonbola.
When will black people “belong” in dorm rooms at Ivy league schools? At Starbucks? And on golf courses? Based on recent incidents, probably no time soon because of the actions of a few.
