New London — When RasAmen Oladuwa’s father sat her down for “the talk,” when she was younger, the Connecticut College senior said it wasn’t a speech about the birds and bees.

The talk was a warning about how to interact with a police officer — “the words to say, where to hold my hands … .”

Oladuwa was among about 75 people to share stories and frustrations during a candlelight vigil Friday outside the school’s student center. The frustrations focused on what some called an institutional problem regarding the heavy-handed treatment of minorities by police.

Under the theme “Black Lives Matter,” the show of solidarity with other protesters taking to the streets across the country comes on the heels of a decision by a grand jury in New York not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of 44-year-old Eric Garner. Video of the incident shows Pantaleo taking Garner down to the ground in an apparent chokehold and Garner uttering the words, “I can’t breathe.”

Jasmine Kelekay, a senior at Connecticut College and one of the organizers for Friday’s event, said Garner’s death was only the latest incident to spark outrage. She started reaching out to fellow students following the announcement there would be no indictment for Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

“We were having conversations, processing our own feelings,” Kelekay said. “I just felt like students on campus wanted to have a venue to express their feelings, their anger, their sadness.”

Kelekay is co-chairwoman of the Society Organized Against Racism on campus and said the effort to hold a vigil became a collective project with members of the college’s black student union and gay-straight alliance, among other student groups.

To drive home the point that the protests nationwide are about “a bigger problem in the system,” Kelekay read a long list of “black and brown” people who have died at the hands of police through the years. Those gathered stood in silence holding candles amid a cold drizzle.

“This list is way too long, but that’s the point,” Kelekay said. “The fact that we have to say ‘black lives matter’ is a problem. This is not just about the case of Michael Brown. It’s something that has been going on for a long time and doesn’t usually reach the mainstream media.”

Others agreed, sharing stories from their hometowns about how they have to be wary of where they walk or who they are walking with to avoid undue attention by police and to protect themselves.

Chakena Sims, a junior from Chicago, said she had reached the peak of her frustration over the nonindictments and that black lives are being devalued, sending the wrong message to the younger generation.

“There is a failure in the structure that needs to be addressed,” Sims said. “What am I supposed to tell young kids? ‘It will be OK,’ when it’s not going to be OK?”

Oladuwa, who is from Fort Wayne, Ind., said her 17-year-old brother was “profiled” recently by police and held at gunpoint.

“I didn’t know how to explain to him this happens all the time,” she said. “It’s a cycle within my own family. If we don’t raise awareness and speak out, it’s going to continue to happen.”

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay