“I was scared to come here, but now this place is just pathetic to me.”

For one freshman, the first few weeks of fall semester were marred by feelings of disappointment and anxiety. Zyhair Burkes came to UWM from Milwaukee Lutheran High School, where she says she encountered racism and insensitivity from staff and fellow students.

In September, a video circulated of a UWM student using racial and homophobic slurs on social media. In response, Chancellor Mark Mone and Dean of Students Adam Jussel partnered with the Black Student Union to host a forum where students could ask questions and raise concerns about racism on campus. 

Zyhair Burkes addressed the chancellor in an impassioned speech at the forum. Through tears, she asked when he was going to do something, and why he didn’t care about his Black students.

At the forum, when I said I had experienced racism and colorism for my entire life as a dark-skinned Black woman, I meant it.

I didn’t like [Milwaukee Lutheran High School], so I applied to a lot of HBCUs because I thought I would feel more comfortable there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford my dream school, so I settled on UW-Milwaukee.

On the second day of my African American history class, I saw the N-word carved into my seat. I was just praying to God this wasn’t how things were going to be. Soon after that, Emma Longacre’s video came out with the homophobic and racist remarks. I wasn’t surprised, but I believed the university when they said that they cared about their students of color and would find a solution.

If they cared about us, they wouldn’t have kept her here. She knows not to come back to campus because she woulda get her ass whooped. They gave her an option, but didn’t give us one, and thats fucking ridiculous. Then, after that, there was another racist remark regarding Asian people.

[At that point] I’m like, ‘this is going to be like this for years.’

I know that this isn’t the first racist incident at UWM, so I’ve been thinking of transferring to the cheapest HBCU I can find. Any HBCU – I do not even care where it is. If that doesn’t work out, I guess I’m going to stay here and work it out.

Wisconsin is a racist state in general. I didn’t even know we had Neo-Nazis in Milwaukee until I did some research during my senior year, but we do. I don’t understand why you would come here to the most diverse university in a racist state, say racist shit, and then act all scared and leave. What makes it worse is UWM is protecting [the student].

I was scared to come here, but now this place is just pathetic to me. [At the forum] my emotions were all over the place, and when I looked the chancellor in the eyes, it seemed like he didn’t care. It really irritated me to the point where I just snapped.

My mom always tells me that I cannot let racist people push over me, and I didn’t, but I’m also a sensitive person. Profanity usually doesn’t come out of my mouth unless I’m joking with someone or when I’m really pissed off — that’s what they got. It made me want to apologize for the way I spoke, but not for what I said. I exploded so much that I forgot the question I went up to ask.

Black women always get the angry stereotype, so I tried so hard not to come off that way. When I walked away, I turned around to look at the chancellor, and he looked irritated. If they have another conference like that, I’m getting back up there. I’m gonna try to keep my cool, but I’m gonna come back up there if this happens again.

UWM uses Black students as a diversity token to lure more Black kids here. I still love Milwaukee. I know it’s dumb, but it’s beautiful shit here. UWM represents Milwaukee, and that proves just how segregated my city is.

What if this keeps happening my sophomore, junior and senior years? I think about that every single day and it puts a lot of stress and heartbreak on me. I blame the chancellor for the struggle, and the people defending the racist video. He should have shown up to the forum with a plan, not a script. They better do something about it before all that diversity they are so proud of gets up and leaves.