With tears in her eyes, Selam Abbady stared down at the table as she remembered the two incidents that forever changed her student experience. As she told the story of these unfortunate events in which she was called racial slurs, it’s evident she was feeling a lot of pain and sadness.
The first time she was called the ‘n’ word, she was walking on campus near the Hill. All she can remember is a black car yelling racial slurs as they quickly drove off. At this moment, her and her friends were shocked and confused as to how to respond. The second incident occurred while she was walking to one of her friends dorms around Farrand Field. She recalls a group of female students saying the ‘n’ word and laughing about it. It was at this moment when Selam’s college experience changed forever.
“I don’t know how to explain it, it just hurt me. I was like ‘How can anyone just do that?’” said Abbady, “You don’t know me.”
Selam Abbady, Biology major has experienced racial discrimination at CU.
Abbady is a second year biology student at the University of Colorado Boulder who has big dreams of becoming a doctor. More specifically, she wants to focus on HIV and AIDS prevention because she wants to make a difference in her community. HIV/AIDS is a disease that greatly affects the African American community, and Abbady wants to help bring more medical awareness.
Although, Abbady has tried to remain strong and succeed in her academics, she admits it has been difficult. The racial slurs she was called during her freshman year continue to impact and hurt her. Since last year, she admits to feeling more insecure. She’s afraid of speaking up in her classes because she doesn’t know what or how her classmates will respond to her. Instead, she tries to attract the least attention so that no one notices her.
“If I ask a question I feel like my question or input is not as important as anyone else’s,” said Selam Abbady.
Although, those experiences made Abbady feel unwelcome and unsafe, she never reported either incident to the university. Even after the second time she was called a racial slur, Abbady says the only person she confided in were in her friends and family. Instead of reporting this to the school, Abbady felt lost and confused as to how and where to make a report. Another reason why she failed to say anything is because she felt the university didn’t care and wasn’t wasn’t going to do anything about the matter. Even a year after all of this, Abbady continues to feel the same way. She wishes the university would do more to create and maintain a safe space for students of color.
Ore Folarin is another student who has witnessed similar experiences. Although, she has never been directly racially discriminated on campus, some of her friends have also been called racial slurs. Folarin says not only have her friends been called hurtful words, but they have seen these written in bathroom stalls. Unlike Abbady, Folarin’s friends immediately reported this to the university. Instead of publicly addressing the matter and doing more to protect these students, Folarin says the university simply ‘covered’ the slurs in the bathroom stalls. She wishes the school would have done more to protect her friends and other students who were and are victims of racial discrimination.
Ore Folarin is a psychology major at CU.
According to the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) at CU, any type of discrimination is unacceptable on our campus. Teresa Wroe, the Title IX coordinator of OIEC says their office is a resource students or anyone on campus can use if they experience discrimination. Wroe explains that both CU and OIEC have continued to make efforts towards ending discrimination on campus, but knows this is not always inevitable.
Teresa Wroe, Title IX Coordinator at OIEC.
“Our office is a resource in terms of being able to support people in addressing these kinds of things,” said Wroe, “People can report this to our office.”
Despite the efforts CU says it has done to protect its students, staff, and faculty from any type of discrimination, people like Abbady don’t think it has been enough. Regardless, Abbady is planning on transferring to another university, one where there’s more diversity and inclusivity. She’s already submitted her application to Georgia State, and hopes to be a student there the following school year.
Natalie Torres 