Any calls yet to change the name of Brown?
No.
Thanks to former president Ruth Simmons, Brown has and is addressing the slavetrade past of its namesake.
@fireandrain You seem like someone with a lot of knowledge about Brown. I am a prospective Brown parent. I have a question for you. My son is very interested in social justice issues and would like to be involved with the Swearer Center. I just read on the Brown website that the students consider the Swearer to be a place where white kids go to volunteer to “make themselves feel good while doing nothing to remedy structural racism.” Is this true? Are the judgments this harsh and is it basically impossible to work for social justice at Brown unless you are a person of color?
I’m not sure who you ‘heard’ that from, is it a credible source for you? Then you decide.
One student here reporting admission to Brown from a low performing low ses family was greatly influenced by Brown students doing work in the Providence schools. Even if people only volunteer to make themselves feel good, and I think students have many more options so why bother, then they are still helping the community. Your comments sound like they are painted with a broad brush. I’m not sure all volunteering is meant to “remedy structural racism.” Are judgements by whom “this harsh”? Who are you talking about? I am sure that Brown doesn’t post any such thing on its website.
@555State If you have the option to choose between these fantastic schools, then really dig deep and try to put yourself in the shoes of a student and what life will be like for 4 years.
The Brown Committee on Slavery and Justice, formed under Ruth Simmons in 2003 released a report and initiatives in 2006 and you can read here about it
@BrownParent
Here’s the link to the Brown website: http://swearersparks.org/stories/5-questions-olivia-veira-17
I got to this interview by going to www.brown.edu.
My question is simply whether the students of Brown value the work that’s being done thru the Swearer Center. That’s all, just trying to find out if Brown is a good fit for my kid. I don’t know much about Brown and decided to check out the website.
I’ll take your word for it then. I don’t think anyone can speak for ‘Brown students’, only for individuals, the students there are really varied.
@rir206: Of course Brown students value the Swearer Center and its work. I won’t say that every single student feels exactly the same way, but in my time at Brown, there was a lot of respect for anyone who took the time to care about and work for issues off College Hill. There are many students working for social justice who aren’t POC, as well as many who are.
rir206: I wish you’d started a new thread, rather than piggybacking onto this one.
The quote from the student in your link: “More recently, over the summer I was given a general task to think about diversity at Swearer–to think about why the students who work at the Swearer Center tend to be a certain way, and how to confront the commonly held conceptions of Swearer as a place for white people who want to “do good” without thinking about structural issues. I took this on because honestly, as a person of color, I don’t think that’s what the Swearer Center is. I came to Swearer in the first place because I knew it would tackle those systemic issues. It encouraged me to think about my longevity, not just do canned food drives.”
This student is saying that there is a “commonly held conception” about Swearer – but just because outsiders believe something, doesn’t mean it’s true.
And then she says “I don’t think that’s what the Swearer Center is” – IOW, that stereotype, like many stereotypes, is wrong. In fact, she believes the center does tackle systemic issues. So your very link answers your questions.
I’m not a current student at Brown, so I can’t tell you from personal experience what happens to white students working towards social justice. I don’t have personal experience of the motivations of people who volunteer through the Swearer Center. But based on what I know about Brown, I would think that any student interested in socio-economic disparity could find a place to do that on campus. I know several current and very recent graduates who were very devoted to and passionate about political issues, and they are/were very involved (and they are not students of color). However, Brown – like many other campuses – does have an issue around what I’ll call (for lack of a better term) self-segregation. Students do tend to form affinity groups based on their color/ethnicity/background. This was an issue when I went to Brown decades ago, and is an issue today.
Your son might be interested in this: https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/11/structural.
@fireandrain
I apologize for not starting a new thread. It did not occur to me; obviously I am a complete CC novice.
Thank you for your responses. @FireandRain, I’m not sure I see that the very link answers my question, which is whether the “commonly held conception” alluded to in the article is in fact the commonly held conception at the university (even if the student says she doesn’t think it is), but I will read this as one take on the situation. Perhaps my original wording was poor.
Son is very passionate about these issues and has dug up all kinds of facts and stats and glowing blurbs about the university but doesn’t yet have a sense of how he’d fit in. Of course he may not be admitted, and he’s looking at lot of other schools.
(p.s.I think I am going to retire from CC!)
Ri206. Don’t retire from cc. Brown, like many other schools is teeming with tons of amazing, dedicated and idealistic kids who have a great desire to do good and possessing phenomenal talent. Anyone who believes that people who volunteer their time to help others just ‘to feel good about themselves’ is revealing much more about their own biases, cynicism and, yes, racism (as the supposed perception was directed at “white kids”) than about reality. The Swearer Center is an amazing facility offering a tremendous opportunity for those who actually want to do good works to actually accomplish their goal. Not that there is anything wrong with collecting canned goods, but through the Swearer Center much more meaningful work can be done. I think that the ‘perception’ expressed is probably held by some small number of prematurely jaded individuals, but, in the end, who cares? Nobody doing real social justice will care what people think. And there is definitely not a climate, on campus, where working through the Swearer Center subjects anyone to ridicule except maybe from people who are going to guilt white kids just for being white anyways.
rir206: Don’t take my comment as too critical – many new CC commenters don’t understand the value of starting a new thread. CC is really an invaluable resource for parents, to help guide their kids through this process.
I hope your son can visit Brown, even do an overnight, to get a better sense of the campus, the people, and whether he would fit in.
I wouldn’t judge the Swearer Center on one comment made by one individual.
In response to OP’s question – there hasn’t been any momentum to change the name (that I know of). I think the students working towards racial justice are all wise enough to know that renaming the entire university is a) an unreachable goal, and b) unlikely to actually accomplish anything concrete. There has, however, been a lot of criticism of President Paxon’s diversity initiative, along with a couple of things that have happened this semester that have highlighted the divide between white students and students of color. I’m not sure if those discussions are exactly in line with this thread, though.