Yale graduate student Lolade Siyonbola fell asleep in a common room on Monday night during a study session. When she woke up, university police officers were trying to escort her from the building.
Siyonbola, a Yale graduate student who founded the Yoruba Cultural Institute in Brooklyn, was up late in a Yale common room working on papers when another student called university police. In a video captured by Siyonbola, the white graduate student is seen telling the police that Siyonbola is an intruder in the building. In reality, Siyonbola lives in the building that she was accused of trespassing in.
In a clip from WTNH News 8, another black student claimed that the same woman also called the cops on him, accusing him of being an intruder at the school.
Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said that the university believes that the campus police properly followed protocols. “We believe the Yale police who responded followed procedures,” he said. “As we do with every incident, we will be reviewing the call and the response of the police officers to ensure that the proper protocol was followed, and to determine if there was anything we could have done better.”
The entire ordeal took place over almost 30 minutes. It remains unclear why Yale police refused to leave Siyonbola alone after she showed them her key and university ID card.
“This is what happens every day in America,” Siyonbola said in a comment to the New York Times. “These things are unfortunate, they’re disappointing, they’re disheartening, but they’re not shocking anymore.”
In February, Yale introduced a course that aims to combat narratives on “whiteness.” In March, Yale hosted “fat activist” Virgie Tovar, who argues that being fat is a revolutionary political act.
“My fat is political because when I show it off it really seems to piss people off,” Tovar wrote in a recent essay. “My fat is political because I’m keeping it. My fat is political because it’s fucking hot. My fat is my flag, my claim to fame, my battle scar, my secret fat girl society badge.”