Three student leaders at the U share hopes for 2016

The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus has been the site of several demonstrations this school year. Students gathered in solidarity with Black Lives Matter after the shooting death of Jamar Clark. The campus group APIs for Equity and Diversity called for greater representation of students who are Asian-American and Pacific Islanders.

Campuses across the country have seen an increase in political activity and protests, including the protests at the University of Missouri that led to the resignation of the university's chancellor.

MPR News host Tom Weber met with three student leaders at the University of Minnesota to discuss life on campus, increased student activism and their hopes for 2016.

Highlights

"I think it's a beautiful thing that students at campuses across the U.S. are understanding the power that we possess as college students, and the things that we can achieve once we band together," said Javaris Bradford, president of the Black Student Union at the U.

Ken Gonzalez, an organizer with APIs for Equity and Diversity, who is originally from the Philippines, said he's been heartened to see African-American and Asian-American students joining together.

"I think Asian and black communities are often pitted against each other," Gonzalez said, but lately he's seen current student groups overcoming that.

Abeer Syedah, student body vice president at the U, said that protests often trigger a series of conversations with people who don't agree with or don't understand protesters' actions.

"I have this conversation quite a bit: Why must they protest? Why do they protest the way that they do? Why do they protest here and not there?" she said.

"I think drawing on empathy is the tactic that has worked best for me ... To say: Listen, if my brother was Tamir Rice, this is what I would do. I would scream from the mountain tops, I would shut down every highway in this country. I think that plays at different heart strings for students, and people in general, than just saying, 'This is the situation of systemic racism.' ... Empathy really works."

Bradford, Gonzalez and Syedah have each been involved in different organizing movements to improve life on campus for students of color. Each had a story about a time when he or she did not feel welcome — or even feel human, Bradford said.

Gonzalez, who is an undocumented immigrant, remembers a course during his freshman year in which he sat through a class debate. The question, he said, was "Should illegal immigrants be deported or not?"

Bradford remembers a time during his sophomore years when a crime alert went out about "an armed African-American male on campus." The description said it was a 6-foot tall man, medium build.

"I'm 6-feet, medium build. That's every black man, basically," Bradford said. He remembered riding the elevator in his residence hall, feeling that his fellow students saw him as a threat rather than their neighbor.

Syedah was part of the student movement that pushed the university to limit such descriptions of race and ethnicity in campus-wide crime alerts. That policy was put in place last February, after two years of consideration.

"That is a dehumanization of our students that we spent so much time trying to convince a handful of people this was even a relevant problem," Syedah said.

What's coming in 2016

Gonzalez noted that his group and others on campus are trying to involve more students in conversations about issues of race and inequality.

"Administration just waits for the loud mouths to graduate," Gonzalez said, a tactic which can cause a movement to lose momentum. He hopes building a larger base will counteract that.

Syedah said that no one should underestimate students in the coming year.

"People really need to take the time to stop taking the voice of the students for granted, the voice of young people and millennials for granted. We have shaped entire elections, we have shaped national conversations. Students have made presidents of universities resign. Students have gotten onto national news media outlets," she said. "So don't underestimate the things that we can do."

Bradford echoed the need for people to listen to students and others who are sharing their stories.

"The most important thing we can do is just to listen, and to not invalidate lived experiences," he said. "Ignorance is not an excuse, you have to use the Internet. ... If you don't want to start the conversation on your own, don't worry, I'll bring the conversation to you."

To listen to the full discussion with Javaris Bradford, Ken Gonzalez and Abeer Syedah, use the audio player above.