Brown students organize walkout as part of #OurCampus movement
At 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Brown University students walked out of class, many of them stating the following: "I am walking out to call on Brown University to protect its students, particularly Black, Native & Indigenous, Asian, undocumented, Muslim, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ students. Please join me if you would like to do the same." Many did join—and they joined by the hundreds. Students first gathered on Wriston Quad, where organizers spoke to a crowd of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. Almost all were dressed in black.
The organizers climbed in front of the Caesar Augustus statue outside of the Ratty where they contextualized and explained the goals of the protest. “We affirm everyone here and validate your bravery, righteous anger, and radical love for the people,” an organizer noted. “This walkout is for our family, our friends, our communities, for us. While this march is not solely directed at the election results, we recognize that recent events have instilled fear...in marginalized communities by institutions like the police, ICE, the KKK, and the Trump administration. However, there is hope. Today, students from middle schools, high schools, and universities across the nation are protesting on the streets and in the classroom to say that no form of white supremacy will be tolerated. The walkout today stands in solidarity with folks who have been attacked by racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic rhetoric, and demands that this institution protects its most vulnerable students: undocumented immigrants, Muslim people, Black people, trans and queer people, all people of color, all low income people, and all people with disabilities.”
The protest was part of a series of #OurCampus protests happening on hundreds of college campuses across the country. From Wriston, students turned to march through Wayland Arch, onto the Main Green, and around University Hall towards the Quiet Green. While walking, students chanted, “Brick by brick, wall by wall, this whole damn system’s got to fall,” “No human is illegal,” and “Black Lives Matter.” On the Quiet Green, protesters surrounded the slavery memorial. The circle, at the center of which organizers stood, extended from Waterman Street to the Rock.
Here, organizers read their demands. Primarily, they stated that “Brown University must re-channel its resources and money to its most basic requirement: to protect its community.” Brown’s protest has similar demands to those of other #OurCampus movements, calling for a coordinated effort to address and stand in solidarity with the #NoDAPL and #SanctuaryCampus movements. The #NoDAPL movement opposes the Dakota Access Pipeline that would disturb the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s access to water. #SanctuaryCampus references the movement to allow college campuses to serve as a sanctuary for “our peers, our staff, our faculty, and their family members who face imminent deportation.” (The petition to make Brown a sanctuary campus has reached over 1,400 signatures and can be found here).
However, organizers were clear in distinguishing between the two movements in their demands. “We must not co-opt their movements. We will uplift #NoDAPL and #SanctuaryCampus as much as possible during our march, by creating signs, fundraising, and gathering support for both movements.”
Students called for Brown to divest from “any investments in financial institutions or any of the 30 banks that contribute to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or Energy Transfer Partners, L.P.” In regard to the #SanctuaryCampus movement, students demanded that the undocumented community be protected by refusing “all voluntary information sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)/Customs Border Protection (CBP) across all aspects of the University to the fullest extent possible under the law.” They also demanded more protection, physical spaces, and representation within the University for Black, Muslim, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ students.
Students were conscious of history, remembering Black protesters at Brown in 1968 who demanded that the University increase its Black student population to meet that of the United States. “The University has failed to meet this threshold for forty-eight consecutive years,” an organizer stated. After the demands were read, hundreds of students began to circle University Hall, chanting, “Administration, come out.” A group of organizers entered the building—seemingly without obstruction—and reappeared stating that they had delivered the demands to President Christina Paxson’s office.
The protest ended with students forming a semicircle around University Hall. Organizers stood and sat on the steps of Brown's oldest building and opened up a forum for students to share their feelings with the crowd. Organizers stated that the informal discussion would serve as a platform to amplify marginalized voices.
While the protest was purposefully not explicitly anti-Trump—organizers encouraged student to leave their election-related signs at home—many of the students who spoke referenced the election and its aftermath. One student, who works in the District Attorney’s Office and is a member of Brown University Students Against the Prison Industrial Complex, said that “the elections on Tuesday didn’t really mean much for people who spend their lives behind bars or checking a box on a job application.” Another student’s take was that “the struggle for liberation doesn’t come every four years...it comes everyday.”
With Thanksgiving approaching, students were mindful that for many, going home is a time for them to hide their identity. Others urged students to use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to talk across political lines. The message that the protest extended beyond Brown was clear, as students told others to “spread these messages in [their] hometowns when [they] go home for Thanksgiving.” One protester became very emotional as she explained: “we’re fighting for all the little kids around this country who look like us.” The last hour of the protest served mostly as a space for students to express their support for one another. Many pledged to step up and speak up for those in danger. Students persistently repeated their message that marginalized communities deserve a space at Brown, even if their “existence is an act of resistance.”
One student seemed awed by the turnout and dedication of his peers. “What a truly beautiful thing that we can all come together right now...to give marginalized people a voice. What an amazing thing that we can all stand together today against white supremacy.” Images via Danielle Perelman '17 and Huayu Ouyang '20.