Today I was racially profiled at Northwestern University, a school I have proudly attended since September of 2006 and would encourage anyone to attend — at least until what just happened to me today. I was walking around the Kellogg School of Management, a building on campus that welcomes all students and faculty. Three people came up to me and asked why I was in the building. The first lady was an administrator for Kellogg and asked if she could help me with anything. As kind of a gesture as this may seem, her tone of voice was more racially motivated than anything else. I told her I was fine, and she suspiciously walked away. I assume she went to get authorities.
The next lady who asked me about my belonging was apparently doing an interview in the building and asked if I was there for the interview. I told her no, and that was that.
The third person who approached me was very much racially profiling. He, I assumed, was contacted by the first lady who approached and was told to follow me around. We had a five-minute conversation as to why I should (or shouldn’t) be walking around the building. The tone of his voice and the language his used seemed to suggest that he were asking me questions due to my race. I asked him if he stops everyone in the building and interrogates them. I also told him I was a student. He shrugged me off and gave me the same suspicious look that I received from his colleague. Had he asked for my identification card, he would have proved himself wrong. Instead he decided that there is no way this black boy dressed in baggy clothing could attend a school like this.
I was so offended and got tired of being interrogated that I walked out of the building. Not five minutes later, I was stopped by a Northwestern police officer who then called an Evanston detective for backup. He interrogated me and I simply ignored him and handed him my identification. He actually called it in to see if it was a stolen Northwestern ID card or if it was fake. I told him he was participating in an act of racial profiling. He explained he was just doing his job.
I decided to come to Northwestern my sophomore year of high school. It was my dream school. What a nightmare it has been in regards to experiences such as the above. The amount of racial profiling that goes on in Evanston, and specifically at Northwestern, is disgusting. Students are students, no matter what their appearance is, especially in terms of race. I’d like to be treated like all other students and I should not regret coming here based on these circumstances. I doubt that I will recommend Northwestern to many of the young black students who I come in contact with. The “prestigious” education is not worth the dehumanizing environment, especially when this comes from faculty at the school. It is sad that I have to deal with the b.s. just to get a B.S.
-Joshua Williams, Communication junior