Get involved with the #buyBlackbrowndebt initiative!

For the past decades, Black people have been calling for policy changes and attention to the rampant racism that still runs through American society, and such matters have especially come to the forefront of the media, especially with the political state of the nation and the increased exposure of the brutality that Black people face from police. Many stood in solidarity with Black people and did what they could do by donating to bail funds and Black relief funds as well as going into the streets to protest. 

Some Brown alumni, however, wanted to localize the matter by bringing awareness to the struggles faced by a great number of Black students at Brown—specifically, the burden of a disproportionately large student loan debt upon Black students’ shoulders. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter uprising in June, seventy Brown alumni came together to form the Brown Alumni Reparation Committee. This committee’s goal was to bring more equity and inclusivity to Black and Indigenous students at Brown and in the Providence community. Later, in August, four Black femmes created the #buyBlackbrowndebt initiative, inspired by the #buyBlackdebtmovement created by Sonya Reece Taylor. We at the Blognonian had the absolute privilege to talk to Kerlyne Jean Baptiste (‘16), one of the creators of this initiative, and are extremely grateful for the opportunity to bring your attention to such an initiative.

We are all at Brown because we know what it means to go here and graduate from Brown with a degree. We all recognize that because we go to this Ivy League school, we might have a better shot at getting to do what we want to do in the future. We also know that Brown prides itself on being a place for diversity and inclusion, and this is true, to an extent, but looking at Brown’s history, especially seeing its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, its use of Black slave labor, and its use of stolen land from Indigenous people, we need to recognize what Brown owes Black and Indigenous people, and at a minimum, what Brown owes its Black and Indigeous students.

The sorts of structural barriers that many Black students face in order to even get to Brown are absolutely unbelievable. Upon matriculation, however, they face the financial burden of attending college. Black people need to borrow more money for financial aid than any other demographic. Upon graduation, they also tend to have more student loan debt than their white counterparts four years after graduation. Brown boasts an endowment of over $4 billion, and yet, this student loan debt issue still occurs here on campus.

The #buyBlackbrowndebt initiative hopes to alleviate some of this burden. It calls for local and intimate reparative work for true accountability and healing. It is not meant to guilt non-BIPOC students and alumni into donating to this fund, but rather, asks that students and alumni recognize the role that debt plays in Black students during their time at Brown and afterwards.

Kerlyne shared the narrative of a Black student with us, wanting to clarify her vision for what she hopes the #buyBlackbrowndebt initiative will do.

In their senior year of undergrad, a Black student had a $2,000 balance in financial aid that needed to be paid before commencement if they were going to be allowed to walk. It didn’t matter that their mother was a single parent with three jobs. They ended up having to talk to four deans in order to get that debt paid off simply so they could graduate with their degree. It had nothing to do with their academic performance—it was only the debt. They doesn’t want another student to ever have to experience what they experienced in those moments of desperation. No one should have to experience that shame.  

But this student's account is not the only account of a Black student facing the chance of being unable to graduate due to balances in financial aid. This should absolutely not be the barrier keeping a student from graduating.

So Kerlyne and her team created the #buyBlackbrowndebt initiative and launched the website a few weeks ago. Black Brown students and alumni who have school loan debts are able to sign up for this debt relief. This initiative also calls for contributors to commit to this initiative and commit to debt redemption of BIPOC, and those who wish to and can are able to sign up and decide how and how much they wish to get involved. Contributions can be anything from a one time donation to a monthly donation. 

It’s important to recognize that this relationship is not meant to be transactional. The whole basis of reparations is one of accountability, and it’s important that those who wish to commit to this cause recognize that. If you’re not a BIPOC of the Brown community, or you are parents of alumni and students here at Brown with generational wealth, we strongly urge you to join this initiative. If you don’t know how you can get involved, spread the word about this initiative, and send people over to https://www.buyblackbrowndebt.com.

Images via.