A Story of Institutional Racism

The following is an exchange with a friend of mine, Tony J. Harris, a Theatre student at DePaul University, which is the location of this story. Tony is a lovely person, a great actor, and a Black man whose experiences are, I believe, the epitome of what it is like to be a Person of Color in the United States today. This article is broken up into three parts: (1) the original statement Tony made on Facebook that got me interested in this as well as a communication he had with a faculty member around the time of the incident, (2) an exchange we had about the details of what happened to him and the futility of the law, and (3) his advice for those of us who want to learn more or help with this problem.

Here’s Tony’s story in his own words:

“I was in our theatre building sleeping in one of the hidden lounge areas (which is common culture in our building and I assume in many theatre departments). There was a patrol officer on duty who seemed to be new to patrolling our building because I didn’t recognize him. He stumbled upon me sleeping, questioned and harassed me, ID’d, and afterwards told me that someone called him to the scene because there was an “unidentified” person sleeping in the building.”

“Immediately after my exchange with the officer, I was walking back to my locker and a faculty member stopped me because she could sense that I was distraught. We exchanged a series of follow-up emails and this was my initial response.”

“[T]hank you for listening earlier. If I’m being honest, I am not doing well. I don’t feel safe at TTS [The Theatre School] at the moment. I feel like I was profiled and violated as a person and student of DePaul for something I have no control over; this being the mere fact that the color of my skin is brown. I was not doing anything suspicious. I was resting on the couch of a building and program that strives for diversity and zero tolerance for abuse and discrimination. TTS has become a second home to [me] due to the time and energy that is expended there on a daily basis, but it [is] currently much the opposite of a home.

I would love to speak to the dean/associate dean, etc. as well as know who placed the call. I simply want to know their thought process for calling security because a person of color led them to believe the building was at risk. This person[’]s actions lead me to believe that it was racially driven due to their own ignorance and bigotry. I felt ostracized and less than as if I fit the mold of someone that is not worthy of existing in the space of TTS (or in the world).

I would like to move forward and begin healing from this; however, my trust level of TTS has diminished, greatly. While I understand that this was the action of one particular individual, it still represents a microcosm of the life and situations that I have to encounter on daily basis — simply because of the color of my skin.”

Tony’s original story resumes:

“Obviously I was distraught that someone within the building that I spend most of my time in would make that call, because practically everyone knows everyone. So I reported it to the dean and had him look into it. And I also opened a case with HR. And they found that no call was on record at that time. And he just happened to be patrolling. There also aren’t any cameras in our building — nor in the location that I was in. And lastly, every person at that time had to be buzzed into the building by the person at the front desk.

I gave all of my statements of what I recounted as well as the additional details of the building and culture. And one day, I looked up and had [an] email from the person working on the case. I never heard updates along the way. I never heard the officers response. It was just up and closed.

Black people live out these types of scenarios in every moment of our lives.”

Here is the text of the emailed letter Tony received with DePaul University letterhead:

“March 11, 2019

Dear Mr. Harris:

Human Resources has completed its investigation that Officer [redacted] may have violated the the University’s Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Procedures.

After examining all of the available information, the evidence failed to demonstrate that he has violated the policy. Therefore, our office will close the investigation.

As a reminder, the policy states that those individuals, including parties and witnesses, who have exercised their rights and/or responsibilities under the policy may not be subject to retaliation or threat of retaliation. Therefore, if you feel you are being retaliated against because of this investigation, please contact our office as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at any time.”

I reached out to Tony after reading his post on social media and asked him some lawyerish questions. Here’s our (edited) exchange:

Me: Do you need a lawyer?

TJ: Hey! I don’t need a lawyer for this specific scenario but it is always great to have access to a lawyers mind and knowledge when questions arise. So thank you. I guess in this case, a question would be, can a case be closed by Human Resources without the person who opened the case seeing the defendant’s response? Because I never got to see documentation of the officer’s response to my claim before they closed it.

Me: Oh, how awful. This isn’t my area of expertise but I suspect that HR can do what they did and keep it mostly confidential. However, what you’ve described sounds like it falls under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Did your Dean ever investigate?

TJ: The only investigation that was done was sending it over to the campus pd to verify if a call was made. Other than that, everything was sent to HR

Me: I can refer you to an attorney if you want to follow up but I suspect this all happened too long ago to pursue legal action. I’m sorry. Do you want to publish something on this? Get the word out more?

TJ: Yea, I’m sure this well beyond the point of pursuing any legal action. But publishing it might be a good idea. This time last year I wanted to have the story published but I was more concerned about the well-being of how the university would look. But in my 2 years of being here, I’ve continuously encountered situations where the university overlooked the needs of its students for its own interests

Finally, here’s what Tony would like everyone to know:

“I’ve had many people reach out to me offering their help and support. And I know what support looks like for me at this moment. So how can you support?

The first way is by actually reading the entirety of this post.

Secondly, I ask you to do some soul-searching and be brave enough to ask yourself questions you might have been too afraid to ask in the past.

Questions like:
Who or what has led me to feel afraid at the sight of a black man?
When have I experienced thoughts of implicit bias while being in the presence of black people?
What thoughts have unconsciously crossed my mind when seeing black people portrayed in the media, television, music, etc.?
How long and why have I been afraid to openly discuss the topic race?
When have I been defensive in regards to the topic of race?
How am I having conversations about race when black people are not in my presence?
Who and what are the police actually “protecting” me from?
Who lives in a “bad” neighborhood?

Finally, if you’re committed to supporting me in the ways that you truly say you are, and you’ve reflected on those questions and found a recurring theme for yourself, Google the definitions of “institutional (or systematic) racism” and stay a-tuned to when you are seeing and experiencing those subtleties.

Soul searching, self-awareness, and bravery to acknowledge this reality is the best support that you can provide me with right now. Otherwise, your words are merely words shared for the sake of relieving your own guilty conscious. And if relieving yourself of guilt is your objective rather than actually supporting myself and the black community, then asking yourself “why do I feel guilty?” may be the most important question of them all.

Thank you.”