Edgewood students discuss race relations
11:24 PM 3/25/04
Karen Rivedal Wisconsin State Journal

For two hours Thursday, the usual barriers between people of different races eased a bit as some 50 Edgewood College students took time out of their day to talk frankly about race. <

And not just "race" in generic terms, as in the troubled history of black-white relations in this country. They talked about "race" in very personal terms - the daily interactions that can upset, confuse, isolate or frighten students of any color. <

"We just want common courtesy," Queen Watson said with more than a hint of exasperation in her voice. "You don't have to speak to me if you don't want to. Just don't make my life harder. Don't stare at me like something you've never seen before." <

White students shared their frustrations, too. Rejecting the stereotype - aired more than once during the discussion - that white people from rural towns are racially insensitive or ignorant because they didn't grow up with minorities, Eric Tranberg said he didn't judge anyone based on their skin color. <

"I can talk to anyone," he said. "We should treat everyone like a person, and that's coming from someone from a small town." <

The forum, held in a conference room of the Predolin Center on the Edgewood campus, was sponsored by Edgewood senior Jocelynn Hosea-Davis. She said she asked students, staff and faculty members to come together for an "open and honest conversation about race" after a recent incident in which she and three of her friends, all of them black, were denied admission to a college fitness center by center director Brian Hoefer when they couldn't produce IDs. <

Hosea-Davis and her friends later suggested in a campus e-mail that Hoefer's action may have been racially motivated, or at least was unfair to students, after they saw him admit a white staff member who also didn't have her ID. That e-mail prompted several responses, many defending Hoefer and some accusing Hosea-Davis' group of reverse racism. <

College officials this week said Hoefer did not uniformly enforce the admittance policy, which requires all gym users to show IDs. But they also said the evidence did not show that his actions were based on race. <

College newspaper coverage of the incident also stirred controversy when an editorial and a letter to the editor suggested black students were being overly sensitive. Those opinion pieces also charged that white students were not welcome at the college's Center for Diversity, frequented by many of Edgewood's roughly 50 black students, and contributed to racial tension by giving minorities a place to "hide out" from the rest of campus. <

On Thursday, several black students defended the center as a sanctuary, not an escape hatch. They said it was a respite from what they described as frequent insensitive remarks about their hair or skin and hostile or indifferent treatment in class by some faculty. <

When Chelsea Kirschbaum, a white student, suggested people of different races needed to "grow out" of the idea that they were so different - "We're all flesh and blood," she said - Marc Manley, a black staff member, offered a strong response. <

He described her comment as "sugar-coated innocence" and "kindergarten nonsense about 'Let's all get along.'