Jeff Charis-Carlson

jcharisc@press-citizen.com

An Iowa State University senior said she and a group of Latina friends were recently the targets of a "Build the wall" chant outside a popular pizza restaurant in Ames, an incident that has prompted her to speak out against such behavior in the broader university community.

“Ideally, I want people to realize that if they see that something is happening, it’s not OK just to keep silent,” Stephanie Caceres told the Register on Wednesday.

Caceres' Facebook post describing the experience is gaining attention online in the final days of the presidential election and as ISU and other predominately white universities work to hire new administrators, establish multicultural liaisons with the campus police and take other steps to expand diversity and inclusion efforts for students of color.

While standing in a long line outside Jeff’s Pizza after 1 a.m. Saturday, Caceres said she heard five men began chanting, “Build the wall! Build the wall! Build the wall!” — in reference to the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico advocated by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The group of men walked passed and made eye contact with Caceres and her friends and then began encouraging a majority of the other 20 people in line outside to join in the chant before they walked off.

Although chants of “Build the wall” are heard often at rallies for Trump, Caceres said there was nothing else about the five men to identify them as supporters of the Republican presidential candidate.

Caceres described the chanting as the most overt example of racism she has experienced in the broader ISU community since last year’s altercation between some ISU students and Trump supporters before before the 2015 Cy-Hawk game. But she worries that such actions — in addition to the microagressions she experiences regularly — are becoming more commonplace on and around the campus.

Because of the chanting, Caceres and her friends decided to leave the line, buy a pizza at a grocery store and go back to one of their apartments. She said she doesn't believe anyone in the restaurant even heard what has happening outside.

“We really couldn’t be there anymore,” said Caceres, a graduate of Denison High School. “It was too uncomfortable. It was too nerve-wracking. It was heart-breaking. We felt completely alone and scared, and we left.”

On Sunday, she described the events in a Facebook post that, as of Thursday morning, had received more than 1,900 reactions and been shared more than 700 times.

“To the White female who walked by as the incident was happening with disgust in her face and said, ‘White people suck,’ — your comment was appreciated," she wrote.

“To the White people in line who chose not to laugh and chant along — God bless you.

“To the ‘friends’ who will read this and find humor in it — you make me sick.

“To the people who will read this and find a way to justify the actions that my friends and I encountered that night — you overwhelm me with frustration.

“To the ones who truly and sincerely believe this election has nothing to do with racism — bullshit.”

The post attracted the attention of university officials, said Caceres, who is majoring in public relations. She said the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dean of Students’ Office and the multicultural liaison with the ISU police department all contacted her.

“My reason for sharing that post was kind of a mix between I want others to know that we’re not alone — that this stuff is happening in 2016 and that a lot of why it’s happening is because of the election — and because we need more people to speak up,” she said.

Caceres’ post came days after ISU officials removed white heritage posters from about 20 locations on the ISU campus. Student groups have criticized the university’s initial response to the posters — which began by stating that the posters were being removed, not for their content, but for violating the campus’ facilities policy.

Reginald Stewart, ISU’s vice president for diversity and inclusion, said he and other administrators are working to improve the overall climate at the university so that such incidents come to be viewed by students as aberrations rather than common occurrences on campus.

Stewart said the university’s focus also is on helping students learn how they "can be vigilant and support each other" — moving from fear to empowerment.

Caceres spent Tuesday in several meetings on campus in which she said administrators were checking whether she was OK. Because neither she nor her friends could offer any more specific identification of men who offered the chant Saturday, she said it’s unlikely anything more will happen in response.

It all happened so quickly, Caceres said, that there wasn’t even time for them to get out their phones to take a video.

Caceres said the responses to her post have been mostly positive, but there have been some hostile reactions as well.

“I’ve received more support, and I think that has helped keep the negative comments limited,” she said.

The situation also has renewed Caceres’ resolve to live up to the example of her paternal grandmother, Martha Lopez, who crossed the border herself many years ago seeking to improve the options for her family.

“To my grandma who went through hell and back for me, my future, my education — I chose my adventure,” she wrote in the post. “And it sucks. And it hurts. And it hasn't just been one or two circumstances on this campus where I've cried and I've feared all because my skin is brown and I speak Spanish and walls and #Trump because that's literally all some people see when they see me. But I'm here. And I'm going to finish. And I'm going to finish strong.”

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffCharis.