Adelphi addresses Trayvon Martin case

Adelphi University sophomore Jamal Wyse remembers that night well. He was on his way home to Harlem with some buddies when a police officer pulled them over.

They were at a stop light near the campus. They weren't speeding and they weren't breaking the law, Wyse said, but he wasn't surprised that young black college students were being questioned in a mostly white neighborhood.

"This is something that all African-American males go through on a daily basis," he told a group of more than 100 students, faculty and staff during a campus discussion Wednesday about racism and the Trayvon Martin case.

To contrast Wyse's story, Christopher Ladka, a junior who commutes from his home in Levittown, admitted "there are certain privileges offered to me because of my whiteness."

The afternoon event, "Who Are We As a Nation? The Trayvon Martin Tragedy," featured three students and four faculty speakers weighing in on social and legal issues surrounding the fatal shooting of a black Florida teenager.

Martin, 17, was unarmed when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, allegedly shot Martin Feb. 26 inside a gated community in Sanford, Fla.

In the past two months, the incident and the controversy over why police did not immediately charge Zimmerman, who is Latino and white, has received national attention.

On Long Island, there have been petitions, candlelight church vigils and a march in North Amityville that drew more than 500 people.

Adelphi psychology professor Jean Lau Chin, who chairs the committee that hosted the event, said the campus community has been grappling to find a meaningful way to address the case.

"There were enough people moved about this, so we felt like we had to do something. Students are talking about it, and it is one of the things we should be thinking about on a college campus," Chin said.

With an enrollment of 8,000, most Adelphi students -- 63.6 percent -- are white. About 15 percent are black, 12 percent are Hispanic and 6.6 percent are Asian.

Mark Clayton, 25, of Harlem, an environmental studies graduate student who is African-American and West Indian, wondered whether it's possible for Zimmerman to get a fair trial in such a media spotlight.

"It's interesting," he said. "I guess we'll see once we've cycled through all the news stories what the impact will be on society."

Another student, Ptahra Jeppe, 22, of Brooklyn, hadn't planned to attend but decided she couldn't help but show up to support a discussion about race.

"To be honest, a lot of these talks don't have a great turnout," Jeppe said. "I think we really need a collective call-to-action because this stuff isn't talked about enough here."