Lolade Siyonbola: Black Yale Student Who Had The Cops Called On Her Napping Speaks Out


Lolade Siyonbola just wanted to take a nap.

The black Yale student, who became the center of a racism controversy last week, spoke to ABC News Monday to open up about the controversy that started a conversation about racial profiling on campus.

As you may recall, last week Siyonbola posted a video, which immediately went viral, of her encounter with Yale University police. As reported by the Inquisitr, the 34-year-old African Studies student had been working on a “marathon of papers” last week in her dorm’s common room when she became exhausted and decided to catch a few winks. A white student called the cops on her, and thus began a 20-minute ordeal during which she was repeatedly questioned, even after opening the door to her dorm room in order to prove to the cops that she had the right to be there.

“I am not going to justify my existence here.”

Siyonbola says the she filmed her encounter with the police for her own safety.

“I have always said to myself since Sandra Bland was killed. I said to myself if I ever have an encounter with police I’ll film myself.”

She identified the woman who called the cops on her as “Sarah,” and says that the white woman had called the police on her (Siyonbola’s) friends before.

In fact, the friend, Reneson Jean-Louis, confirmed to WTNH-TV (Hartford) that “Sarah” had called the police on him for no good reason three months ago. He later submitted a complaint, which he claims the Ivy League university failed to act on.

According to WTNH, there may be even more to the story of “Sarah” and her calls to the cops on black students than meets the eye. Reneson claims that these 911 calls on black students at Yale go back as much as two years.

“You have alumni saying that this woman has called police on them prior.”

Siyonbola’s ordeal was one of several similar stories to make the news in the past couple of months of police being called on black people who were doing nothing wrong. For example, in April, two black men were at Starbucks, waiting for a friend to arrive when the manager called the cops on them. Similarly, in Oakland, a white woman called the police on a black family having a barbecue.

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