Dozing off while Black

I'm not sure if this is true everywhere, but in many places in the US if you call 911 for the fire dept and it isn't an emergency you get fined. I'd say this would be a good first step for calling 911 because ohnoblackperson, but there are too many police who believe that is an emergency. ��

Well, she must have been dozing in a threatening manner. Surely nobody would call the police for no reason at all.



FFS, sleeping in common areas is a time-honored college tradition.

I saw this just before and was pondering it -- the student who called the cops seems either just racist or racist and unhinged. In the video, the student who had the cops called on her says clearly that the student who called is unstable (though she may not mean that in a literal way) -- and that she'd called the cops on a black male student who was walking down the stairs for being black and in the stairwell and thus being menacing and 'not belonging there,' so....

I dunno what to think.

Also not sure what to think about Yale not making VERY clear to her that this shit is unacceptable, and issuing some kind of 'let's realize this is an inclusive place' statement, when they've got one student calling the actual cops (not even campus security, not that that'd be acceptable) on students doing student things. Would never have occurred to me either to call anyone over seeing a person asleep in a student rec area. A (black) friend of mine once took Nyquil for a cold after staying up studying (don't do that -- hot tip) and passed out facedown over the arm of a couch in the lounge (like if you'd been standing by the side of the couch looking at the seat and tipped onto it) for 14 hours. People just walked around her, and occasionally checked to make sure she was breathing, heh.

cornflake said:

Also not sure what to think about Yale not making VERY clear to her that this shit is unacceptable, and issuing some kind of 'let's realize this is an inclusive place' statement, when they've got one student calling the actual cops (not even campus security, not that that'd be acceptable) on students doing student things.

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An email was sent to the student body last night, basically saying this. I think a fast (as in, should have been sent out last night) and clear public statement is needed, some type of disciplinary procedure for the student who called, along with repercussions for any future incidents along these lines.

The part of me that wants to live in a world with fluffy clouds and bunnies gamboling on green fields wonders "could the white student possibly been warned about people from off campus sleeping in Yale public spaces? And perhaps it wasn't racially motivated, just a simple security check? Young women away from home for what may be the first time, can be more concerned about stranger danger than people with more experience."

Then that part reads that the white student had previously reported a black student for walking in the stairwell. It's now under the bed crying in disillusionment.

But seriously, Yale needs to get this woman out of there. It's one thing to be cautious about strangers, its another to have the idea that "black people can't be students at Yale."

Twick said:

The part of me that wants to live in a world with fluffy clouds and bunnies gamboling on green fields wonders "could the white student possibly been warned about people from off campus sleeping in Yale public spaces? And perhaps it wasn't racially motivated, just a simple security check? Young women away from home for what may be the first time, can be more concerned about stranger danger than people with more experience."

Then that part reads that the white student had previously reported a black student for walking in the stairwell. It's now under the bed crying in disillusionment.

But seriously, Yale needs to get this woman out of there. It's one thing to be cautious about strangers, its another to have the idea that "black people can't be students at Yale."

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They're also grad students (so not so young or likely away for the first time) and it wasn't really a public space, as I understand it from the video -- it was the lounge/study area within a Yale housing/dorm type building. The student being questioned tells the cops her ID works fine to get into the bldg, when they ask if it's current or whatever, as apparently there was a discrepancy with the spelling of her name in one db or the other when they called it in off her ID.

Sorry optimistic otter!

cornflake said:

They're also grad students (so not so young or likely away for the first time) and it wasn't really a public space, as I understand it from the video -- it was the lounge/study area within a Yale housing/dorm type building. The student being questioned tells the cops her ID works fine to get into the bldg, when they ask if it's current or whatever, as apparently there was a discrepancy with the spelling of her name in one db or the other when they called it in off her ID.

Sorry optimistic otter!

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Ah. I went to university in a time so long ago that one could attend classes, go to the library (without checking out books), go to the Grad House for a beer, doze off on a sofa at the Student Union, all without ever showing your student ID. So we did occasionally have people hanging around who weren't actually students. Most were harmless, although one did attack a women in the library with a hammer one night.

And incidents like that are, I suppose, why this generation can't go anywhere without ID.

Twick said:

Then that part reads that the white student had previously reported a black student for walking in the stairwell. It's now under the bed crying in disillusionment.

But seriously, Yale needs to get this woman out of there. It's one thing to be cautious about strangers, its another to have the idea that "black people can't be students at Yale."

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A quick Google of the white student's name brings up her Yale bio that says she is also an attorney and women's rights advocate. Talk about somebody who should know better.

Twick said:

Ah. I went to university in a time so long ago that one could attend classes, go to the library (without checking out books), go to the Grad House for a beer, doze off on a sofa at the Student Union, all without ever showing your student ID. So we did occasionally have people hanging around who weren't actually students. Most were harmless, although one did attack a women in the library with a hammer one night.

And incidents like that are, I suppose, why this generation can't go anywhere without ID.

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Yeah all IDs have chips -- you have to tap them at gates/doors to get into the bldg.

"You're not supposed to be sleeping here. I'm going to call the police."

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Seconding Putputt that this quote is absolutely infuriating, hard not to read a lot of ugly motive in it.

Putputt said:

She is the epitome of white feminism.

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I'm sorry, that's offensive as hell. If a black man beat a white woman, would we say "he's the epitome of a black civil rights activist"?

Putputt said:

From a blog post that Sarah Braasch wrote for The Humanist years ago:



She is the epitome of white feminism. Not amused by Yale not making it very clear that calling the cops on students for nothing is not acceptable. All they’ve done so far is released some lovey-dovey statement about how Yale needs to work on being more inclusive blah blah blah. So far it’s just lip service with no action. I’ve got a great suggestion on how to make it more inclusive—kick the racists out.

ETA: I’ve always seen calling the cops as a last resort. Something I would do if I felt like there was a genuine threat to my safety, or others’. I’ve only done so once in my life, when I witnessed a car accident. Since when did calling the cops become something people do ‘cause they’re affronted by the mere presence of other people, and why is this okay? Shouldn’t the cops be like, “Btw here is a nice big fine for wasting our time when we could be responding to actual emergencies”??

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People call 911 for bullshit allllll the time. Youtube is filled with released 911 calls concerning 'I'm at a drivethrough and they didn't give me all my nuggets,' and other such inanities.

I'm in the same boat as you -- was taught 911 is for *emergencies*, and was also taught to call the precinct for non-emergencies, which I learned fairly recently when I suggested it to someone who was pondering whether something warranted calling the cops, is not something everyone knows you can do.

I called 911 when I saw a manhole explode (shoot into the air, giant boom, followed by spewing fire) right in front of me, as that seemed to warrant it. I once called the precinct for something else and when the cops responded, they told me I should've called 911, heh.

Twick said:

I'm sorry, that's offensive as hell. If a black man beat a white woman, would we say "he's the epitome of a black civil rights activist"?

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Not that the hippo can't answer for herself, but 'white feminism' is a specific thing, not what I think you're thinking. I don't think Put was suggesting that it was just the response of a feminist who was white. Emma Watson discusses the whole white feminism/intersection thing here.

OK, I'm talking about things I probably shouldn't have. I am respectfully leaving to go do more reading.

cornflake said:

Not that the hippo can't answer for herself, but 'white feminism' is a specific thing, not what I think you're thinking. I don't think Put was suggesting that it was just the response of a feminist who was white. Emma Watson discusses the whole white feminism/intersection thing here.

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Interesting. While I've been familiar with the concept of "white feminism" for a while, I didn't realize there was a specific name for it.

Having just read up on it a bit, I'd agree that this woman sounds like a textbook example of a white feminist, as originally posted.

However, I was initially confused because I interpreted the comment to mean this particular incident was directly caused by/associated with feminism, which didn't really make sense to me, seeing as both parties were female and the incident itself didn't hinge on the sleeping student's gender. The caller would undoubtedly have called the cops on a male student just as readily (if not more so, as 1 - men get this treatment more often in general and 2 - it's a female dorm).

My final conclusion. This incident is straight racism, perpetrated by someone who considers herself a feminist, and whose racist views and conduct conclusively place her in the sub-category of white feminism.

Is that correct?

I could see checking if the 'sleeping' person was sleeping, and not dead or dying of an OD, but just to wake some student up to hassle them? And, call the cops?
Agreeing with everyone who says that she should be fined for wasting police time. And, hey, why not ban her from the public areas of the dorm, if she can't tell the difference between a sleeping student and an actual threat?
I'm surprised that she didn't have to push sleeping white kids out of the way to get to the sleeping black kid.
If this isn't racism, I'd like to know what else she'd call it.

Putputt said:

...
Since when did calling the cops become something people do ‘cause they’re affronted by the mere presence of other people, and why is this okay? Shouldn’t the cops be like, “Btw here is a nice big fine for wasting our time when we could be responding to actual emergencies”??

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cornflake said:

People call 911 for bullshit allllll the time. Youtube is filled with released 911 calls concerning 'I'm at a drivethrough and they didn't give me all my nuggets,' and other such inanities.

I'm in the same boat as you -- was taught 911 is for *emergencies*, and was also taught to call the precinct for non-emergencies, which I learned fairly recently when I suggested it to someone who was pondering whether something warranted calling the cops, is not something everyone knows you can do.

I called 911 when I saw a manhole explode (shoot into the air, giant boom, followed by spewing fire) right in front of me, as that seemed to warrant it. I once called the precinct for something else and when the cops responded, they told me I should've called 911, heh.

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I work in telecommunications and can tell you with a fair amount of certainty that if someone were to call 911 and the situation ends up not being an emergency, that is not only something that the caller can be fined for, but in certain localities, these are also considered to be offenses that warrant arrest themselves.

I actually heard that YouTube one about getting overcharged for chicken nuggets at a Mickey Dee's too....SMH

You'd think that in these days of school shootings, calling police into an institute of higher learning for no reason at all would warrant special (negative) attention. Causing alarm, etc.

I was half afraid this would end with the black student being shot.

CWatts said:

A quick Google of the white student's name brings up her Yale bio that says she is also an attorney and women's rights advocate. Talk about somebody who should know better.

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And all the more reason she would refuse a demand to see her ID (she already unlocked her room door proving she lived there). The police did not have reasonable suspicion of anything other than the unhinged and/or overreacting person who called.