Friday, February 5th, 2021

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, February 5, 2021

VOLUME CLV, ISSUE 37

METRO

METRO

Local Black restaurant owners talk mission

Black History Month celebrations shift in 2021 Some say pandemic has allowed programming to reach more people

BY KATY PICKENS CONTRIBUTING WRITER Celebrations of Black History Month will look different this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite challenges posed by mostly-remote operations, organizations focused on Black, Indigenous and people of color plan on reaching more people this year than they have in the past.

Though some organizations found difficulty fundraising in a virtual format, national conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement and the accessibility of events through Zoom have increased participation in events about Black history and racism throughout the year.

This renewed interest will likely continue throughout Black History Month, said Soni Stokes, executive director for the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. “We’ve done several virtual events and actually doubled the attendance” compared to past events,

Stokes said.

In the past, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society has held walking tours, lectures, exhibits and workshops during Black History Month and throughout the year. This February, the organization will debut an online exhibit on Black entrepreneurs and lead anti-racism workshops for private companies and schools over Zoom. Additionally, the organization will continue to work with Mayor Jorge Elorza’s African American Ambassador Group Truth Telling Committee, which examines the historical experiences of BIPOC in the state.

Stokes explained that though the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society had planned on transitioning all in-person activities to a digital format prior to the pandemic, the switch to virtual operations nevertheless came at a cost due to the loss of ticket sales and presentation fees for free online events.

Still, “there has been a slight uptick in grant availability that perhaps wasn’t there before, so we’ve sort of broken even through the whole thing,” Stokes said.

For the non-profit Stages of Free-

COURTESY OF GLOW CAFE & JUICE BAR

The Glow Cafe & Juice Bar, The Afro-Indigenous Vegan and Island House, three Black-owned restaurants in Providence, are each rooted in missions to serve their communities, even through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Owners reflect on experience through pandemic, backstory of restaurants

BY VICTORIA YIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Local businesses across the country are struggling financially and adapting to new circumstances amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants in Providence

SEE CELEBRATIONS PAGE 2

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Revisiting legacies of U.’s first Black grads Inman Page, George Washington Milford graduated from Brown in June 1877

are no exception. The owners of three Black-owned restaurants, The Glow Cafe & Juice Bar, The Afro-Indigenous Vegan and Island House, shared their stories with The Herald.

The Glow Cafe & Juice Bar Priscilla Edwards is a former athlete who had an impressive basketball career at St. Bonaventure University after playing at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, New York. Through an entrepreneurial program at her high

ARCHIVE PHOTOS / BROWN UNIVERSITY

After graduating from Brown, Page went on to a long career in education while Milford became a successful lawyer. events — speeches, sermons, alumni meetings — all building anticipation toward this final honor for the departing students.

But this particular commencement ceremony was different from all those before it. For the first time, two Black graduates would accept their diplomas: Inman Page, class of 1877, and George Washington Milford, class of 1877.

Page, known for his skills in rhetoric, would give one of the commencement speeches in his elected role as class orator. He spoke on the merits of education and how cultivating minds,

no matter a person’s lot in life, would continue to move America forward into a new age. These individuals, prepared with modern knowledge, would have the capabilities to lead the US forward — whether in politics or the literary canon.

“In a country like ours where similar opportunities for distinction and usefulness are presented to all, to the highest and the lowest alike, it is unnatural to suppose that with the advantages of education, which the schools

SEE ALUMS PAGE 1

News

News

Commentary

Brown’s decades-long parternship with Tougaloo College persists in face of COVID-19 pandemic. Page 3

Black cultural affinity groups adapt to constraints of pandemic, forge virtual connections. Page 7

Walsh ’23: Ideas and speech that incite violence do not belong in the marketplace of ideas. Page 7

SEE RESTAURANTS PAGE 3

Pawtucket community calls for in-person learning

BY SOPHIE BUTCHER STAFF WRITER

This article is the first in a profile series celebrating Brown’s Black alumni throughout Black History Month.

school, she started a business selling smoothies after practice.

Now, she is not only the associate head basketball coach at Providence College, but also the founder and owner of The Glow Café & Juice Bar on Admiral Street near the college. The café, she said, seeks to introduce and provide healthy and affordable plantbased options to Edwards’ community, specifically Black and brown people.

METRO

Black Lives Matter Rhode Island, RIDE call for in-person learning in spring semester

BY CAELYN PENDER UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

On a Wednesday in June 1877, a procession of hundreds of students, alumni and community members marched across the campus of Brown University.

Led by a marching band and a Providence sheriff, they crossed College, Benefit, Waterman and Main streets on the way to the First Baptist Meeting House.

The building filled quickly with an audience prepared to watch 59 students graduate in the University’s 109th annual commencement.

A popular and often boisterous affair, the commencement ceremony in Meeting House would have been packed with graduates and audience members alike, preparing to listen to the customary orations of the graduating men. The previous days had been filled with Commencement week

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Pawtucket, which has Rhode Island’s highest population of Black students, remains the only city in the state without an in-person learning plan for the semester.

The Pawtucket School Committee recently resolved to keep schools closed for in-person learning until September, despite calls from the Rhode Island Department of Education and community organizations including Black Lives Matter Rhode Island for the district to open classrooms sooner, according to Founder and Executive Director of BLM RI Brother Gary Dantzler, who is also the father of three children in the Pawtucket school system.

“It’s embarrassing for the community,” Dantzler said. “These young Black kids are suffering; these mi-

nority kids are suffering.” Because of the city’s large minority population, Dantzler thinks that the School Committee’s lack of a reopening plan is rooted in systemic inequality.

The School Committee is unwilling to act “because of the Black kids,” Dantzler said. “What are we supposed to say, that they’re doing this because of COVID? The rate of COVID in schools is low; if it was high, kids in other districts wouldn’t be in school right now.”

The problems in the Pawtucket School District extend beyond its current lack of a reopening plan. According to RIDE, while 66 percent of the district’s students identify as nonwhite, only 10 percent of its teachers do.

Pawtucket has also historically underperformed in state-wide assessments, according to a Jan. 16 presentation by RIDE reviewed by The Herald: 86 percent of Black and Hispanic students did not meet performance expectations on math assignments in the 2018-19 school year, and a similar number did not meet English language arts performance expectations.

But others dispute the idea that a

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CELEBRATIONS FROM PAGE 1 dom, which provides community and mentorship services to POC youth as well as year-round educational programming for the public, grants have been harder to come by and fundraising for online events has been difficult.

Finding people to attend events has always been hard work; the same is true now that these events are mostly online, Executive Director of Stages of Freedom Ray Rickman said.

In the past, Stages of Freedom has hosted lectures, organized book giveaways to local students and created pop-up exhibits in honor of Black History Month. The organization also hosted a luncheon to fundraise for its swim lesson program for POC youth and to finance its museum and other community programs.

While educational presentations and lectures translate easily to Zoom, Rickman said that the same was not true of a virtual meal: “If we had had a (remote) luncheon, people would not have paid.”

Despite there being fewer traditional fundraising opportunities, Rickman added that there continues to be substantial interest in Stages of Freedom’s online programming. The organization will host a lecture by Elizabeth Anderson, a University of Michigan philosophy professor, on housing integration in America on Feb. 12. Rickman said they hope to have 400 people attend the lecture live on Zoom and have thousands more watch the recording on YouTube.

“If this was a normal Black History

Month, we’d have it at the (Rhode Island School of Design) museum auditorium, which only seats 208 people,” Rickman said. He explained that the content of the lecture will be just as impactful as it would have been in-person, and that participation will be just as high.

“Nothing is lost,” he said.

While the pandemic has prompted nonprofits to shift their programming online, some community groups have maintained in-person programming and also reached more people than in the past.

“The pandemic has made our programming grow,” said Heather Hole Strout, executive director of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Newport. “We’ve served more people than we ever have in our 99-year history.

We’ve had to just continuously pivot in how we do things to meet the demand as well as the restrictions that were placed before us.”

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center has continued in-person educational, community and hunger services, such as operating a food pantry, throughout the pandemic.

“We’ll continue (providing our services) in February and beyond safely,” Hole Strout said.

In the past, the center’s programming for Black History Month included screening the documentary film “Freedom Riders,” hosting a Black history trivia night and teaching kids in their afterschool program how to make soul food.

While the center won’t be hosting events for the community this year,

return to in-person learning would be better for everyone. “A reset now with new students, new challenges and a new setting starts (teachers) back at square one” after they just adapted to virtual teaching, Deputy Chairperson of the Pawtucket School Committee Erin Dube wrote in an email to The Herald, adding that the district’s teachers have been receiving professional development

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

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Historic Brown-Tougaloo partnership adapts amid COVID-19 pandemic Brown, Tougaloo maintain strong ties despite paused initiatives

BY ALEX NADIRASHVILI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

BEN GLICKMAN / HERALD

Despite challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, local nonprofits have adapted to find new ways to fundraise and host events celebrating Black History Month — finding greater audiences than before. their in-person enrichment and education programs will incorporate Black history throughout the month, “especially in our preschool,” Hole Strout said.

As the pandemic has changed the way that groups are teaching Black history, it has also changed awareness of racial issues in general, according to Rickman. He said the pandemic led to a surge in racial awareness that hadn’t been seen before because “we have had time to pause and think.”

“For the first time in my life, in my

NAT HARDY / HERALD

training and developing virtual teaching strategies utilizing online programs such as Zoom.

Additionally, not all of the district’s students are learning remotely, Dube said. “We have our special-needs … students in school, as well as our English Language Learners and our (Pre-Kindergarteners) and (Kindergarteners).”

But for Dantzler, this is not enough.

BLM RI released a public statement calling for the reopening of schools

Friday, February 5, 2021

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Pawtucket is the only city in the Ocean State without an in-person learning plan for the spring semester. BLM RI and the Rhode Island Department of Education have called for the district to open classrooms sooner.

PAWTUCKET FROM PAGE 1

Friday, February 5, 2021

and plans to hold a protest Saturday in conjunction with the Pawtucket Parents Alliance. They hope these efforts will put further pressure on the School Committee to consider their demands, especially after BLM RI was unable to comment at the Jan. 12 meeting when the decision to keep schools closed was announced.

BLM RI Policy Advocate Bernice Morris said that while she, Dantzler and a few other community members

long, wonderful, African-American lifetime, the majority of white people are saying they care,” Rickman said.

He called for continued concrete action and said that the anti-racism work of the past year is only the beginning.

“I am impressed with the American people’s ability to say it is time to deal with racism and inequality,” Rickman said. “I am impressed with all these institutions promising to create change.

But I am not impressed with what we’ve done in the last eight or nine months.

It’s really too little.”

Stokes agreed that the increased dialogue around racial justice in 2020 was a positive step, and emphasized the importance of discussing and celebrating the Black experience beyond Black History Month.

“The importance of Black History is simple: It is American history,” Stokes said. “If we’re not teaching it, we’re not really teaching American history.”

were at the Jan. 12 meeting, which was held virtually, they were not allowed to “make public comment, although Black Lives Matter Rhode Island was prepared to.”

Dantzler added that his three children’s online learning experience has been nothing short of miserable. “I’m honestly watching my kids break down,” he said. “It’s like they’re in prison.”

He sympathizes greatly with students attempting to complete their schooling through remote learning.

“They’re getting bored very fast, they’re getting agitated,” Dantzler said of his own children. “Some of the teachers are not being sensitive to these kids, they’re writing them up, brothers and sisters are fighting with each other, they’re having meltdowns, breakdowns. It’s hard for these kids today.”

But Dube wrote that in-person learning in a post-COVID world may have isolating effects similar to those of online learning. “Learning in a class socially-distanced from your friends, often on a computer screen, is not conducive to building social skills,” she wrote.

Moreover, Dube believes the return to classrooms is unlikely to be a smooth transition and may cause further confusion for families. “The unpredictability of quarantines and the need to keep students out of school, for even mild symptoms like allergies, hamper working class parents who do not have the flexibility to be suddenly taking days off,” she wrote.

The Pawtucket School Committee

believes that “in the midst of a chaotic time, we should be looking to find a consistent way to deliver education,” Dube wrote, concluding that the online learning model offers that consistency in a way in-person learning cannot guarantee.

But members of BLM RI feel that the School Committee is failing to take into account the views of not only RIDE, but also local parents and families.

“When the city asked parents, 70 percent said that they would choose in-person learning if they had access to it,” Morris said. “That had no bearing on what the school committee decided to do, unanimously deciding to say, ‘We’ll see you in September.’”

According to Dube, a separate “district-wide” survey conducted by the committee showed inconclusive levels of support from parents regarding in-person learning for the spring semester.

Ultimately, BLM RI’s line is simple: “It is the right thing to do to open schools for kids that need it, period,” Morris said.

The Pawtucket School Committee will vote again on whether to reopen schools at a committee meeting on Feb. 9.

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During the height of the Civil Rights Movement in May 1964, the Mississippi state legislature threatened to revoke the charter of Tougaloo College, one of the nation’s oldest historically Black colleges and universities, for “fostering ‘agitation’ rather than education.”

Brown stepped in to help, forming a partnership that would eventually blossom into an academic and cultural exchange between the two schools.

Fifty-seven years later, the partnership between Brown and Tougaloo persists, but in the face of a global pandemic, the schools have been forced to reshape their collaboration.

Certain programs that have developed since the partnership’s inception have moved fully online in order to ensure continued opportunities for students on both campuses, while other programs have yet to decide if they will be able to be held in person.

In recent decades, the two colleges have not only worked together on political issues, bringing attention to the need for more federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities, but they have also developed numerous exchange programs to provide students with necessary opportunities for academic development.

These student-focused programs include the annual Civil Rights Trip to Tougaloo College, a week-long immersion program into Jackson, MS, and the iProv Fellowship, which is an opportunity for Tougaloo students to work with

RESTAURANTS FROM PAGE 1 “We try to really, really change the narrative behind fruits and vegetables and grains,” Edwards said. “I wanted to bring something that would uplift the community and bring awareness to their health and well-being.”

The café’s motto, “Eat. Drink. Glow.” guides its nutritious menu options.

Available now are wellness shots, fresh juice, fruit and protein smoothies, açaí bowls, vegan Belgian waffles and something most might not expect to find at a juice bar: vegan Jamaican patties.

The inspiration for the patties comes from Edwards’ West African heritage and New York City’s Jamaican restaurants, many of which offer vegan patties and juices, she said.

“I wanted to combine my West African culture but also pay homage to the Caribbean culture as well because they have really, really good vegan food,” Edwards said.

Edwards added that the community has embraced her business and its mission to spread the gospel of nutritious, healthy and price-conscious food. Currently, customers can order online for pickup or delivery.

The Afro-Indigenous Vegan Bree Smith, founder and owner of The Afro-Indigenous Vegan, describes herself as a chef, food alchemist, healer and teacher. Smith, a full-time teacher, started an Instagram food blog when she transitioned to a plant-based diet in 2017, she said.

Providence nonprofit organizations. In addition, the Bonner Scholars Fellowship, a four-year program that gives students the opportunity to engage in non-profit work, normally hosts a visit to Tougaloo for sophomores each winter.

The partnership has had a positive impact on students from both Brown and Tougaloo. “Brown students just get so much out of this (partnership): understanding the Civil Rights movement, having the chance to be in the South and the opportunity to be on a campus that’s really different from Brown’s,” said Betsy Shimberg, interim director of the Swearer Center, which houses the Bonner Community Fellowship and the iProv Fellowship.

Since its founding, more than 300 students have participated in the Brown-Tougaloo Semester Exchange Program, according to the program website.

In March 2020, there were four Tougaloo students on exchange at Brown.

When the pandemic closed universities across the nation, these students were forced to return home and finish the semester remotely, wrote Shontay Delalue, vice president for institutional equity and diversity and BTP program director at Brown, in an email to The Herald.

Since March, most of these student-based partnership programs have either halted or have slowly adapted to fully remote engagement.

Through the iProv Fellowship, the University was still able to provide three Tougaloo students remote nonprofit work experience during summer 2020, an increase from the typical two students normally given the fellowship each summer, Shimberg said. These students were given an opportunity to connect with Providence-based non-

profits and participate in reflection seminars with Brown students, creating a cross-campus community even online.

The University plans to host iProv this summer, but has not yet decided

Nirva LaFortune, assistant director of scholars programs and diversity initiatives, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Meanwhile, other programs have been paused, such as the University’s

whether it will be remote or in person. Though the pandemic has forced the University to reimagine what participation in the program looks like, Tougaloo students are “still providing an important capacity for Providence nonprofit organizations.”

Other initiatives, such as the Early Identification Program in Medicine, which allows Tougaloo students a route to early admission to Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School, have also managed to adapt. The University is considering allowing students in the program to attend classes remotely,

Bonner Scholars Program. The program’s week-long trip to Tougaloo each January typically includes a tour of Jackson’s Civil Rights history, an experience of life on campus and even the opportunity to attend a Tougaloo class.

No plans have been finalized for the 2021 trip, Shimberg said. Depending on public health conditions, the trip could be postponed until August. Bonner students who were slated to attend the trip this year will be given an opportunity to do so in the future. “It’s too special not to go,” Shimberg said.

Students who have been on trips to

Two years later, she warmed to the idea of selling her vegan dishes to the broader Providence community. She said hadn’t seriously entertained the idea until her fiancé tasted her now-famous coconut curry lentil soup and said: “You have to sell this.”

Like Edwards, Smith’s goal is to “make plant-based foods accessible to communities of color …(and) to make dishes that are familiar and meat free,” she said. “That’s important for all of us.

Our health is our wealth.”

One of her early recipes includes vegan soul food-inspired baked mac and cheese, which she says she has perfected. Her mac and cheese “still tastes familiar, looks familiar and smells familiar,” she said. Even her non-vegan fourteen-year-old daughter A’ssata enjoyed the dish, Smith added.

Recreating familiar dishes like soul food or Caribbean cuisine, such as her Jamaican-inspired vegan oxtail soup, is to “show people you really don’t need meat,” Smith said. “I can cook any genre … you name it, I’ve pretty much made it.”

Smith said she “really learned to cook with (her) Nana.” Smith’s meatloaf and other dishes are the result of long hours in the kitchen, and are dedicated to her grandmother through her “Sunday Supper at Nana’s” bowls.

Each week, Smith cooks, packages and hand-delivers her Sunday Suppers to customers in the Providence area.

The menu changes weekly and generally offers an entree, soup, drinks and Sata’s sweets, desserts baked by A’ssata. But some staples, like her hibiscus tea and

tamarind agua fresca, are mainstays.

Smith tries to distribute any leftovers to those in need, particularly older people, she said. When explaining why she personally delivers her food, Smith said, “I’m a people person. I hug people.

I love meeting my customers because I want (them) to know how their meal was made … and that I use the best ingredients I can find. It’s a true labor of love for me.”

Customers can order through Instagram, Facebook or email and soon,

School and Classical High School, come to Island House Restaurant after school to hang out and have a bite to eat, owner Ricky Bernard said. He said he has a good relationship with the students, and his affordable five dollar menu and student menus offer them a cheap after-school snack.

“We became the fry spot,” he said.

Bernard opened his first restaurant, Rhode to the Island, 14 years ago and opened Island House about four years ago. The name comes from his Island

SUMMER ZHANG / HERALD

The partnership between Brown and Tougaloo College began in May 1964, and has only grown stronger in the 57 years since.

COURTESY OF GLOW CAFE & JUICE BAR

Glow Cafe & Juice Bar’s menu reflects its motto of “Eat. Drink.

Glow.”offering wellness shots, acai bowls and vegan Jamaican patties. through the restaurant’s website.

Island House Restaurant Island House Restaurant, a Jamaican-fusion restaurant on Broad Street, offers a variety of options including soul food, burgers and fries in addition to classic Jamaican dishes.

Students at the nearby high schools, which include Providence Career & Technical Academy, Central High

House Promotions business that promotes live shows, often reggae, and parties, he said.

For Bernard, opening a restaurant just made sense. His mother owned Sylvia’s, a traditional Jamaican restaurant in Kingston, Jamaica when he was growing up, and at home, he cooked every day and hosted Sunday meals for family and friends each week, he said.

“It’s a known thing in Jamaica —

Tougaloo in previous years agreed with this sentiment.

“We learned about the history of the college and its impact on the Civil Rights movement,” wrote Kimberly Collins ’22 in an email to The Herald.

Collins visited the college in January 2020 during one of the week-long visits offered by the University. “The experience contextualized a lot of my former studies about the Civil Rights Movement but also expanded my exposure to the significance of HBCUs like Tougaloo.”

Alumni who participated in the program decades ago still reflect on its importance in their lives today. “We have Brown-Tougaloo Council members who participated in the program in the ‘60s and the ‘80s, and they continue to share how the opportunity changed their lives,” Delalue wrote.

The exchange program also provides an invaluable way for Brown students to “engage in the scholarship and academic experiences that an HBCU like Tougaloo can provide,” Collins wrote.

“Brown’s connection to Tougaloo is critical to upholding its commitment to racial justice and supporting Black communities.”

While the partnership’s programs will continue to fluctuate to accommodate these unprecedented circumstances, the relationship between the two institutions remains strong. Leaders at both institutions are dedicated to finding “unique opportunities to maintain the progression and sustainability of the partnership,” LaFortune wrote.

“The partnership is going on 57 years,” Delalue wrote. “While the pandemic has impacted both campuses in tremendous ways, the partnership will continue to thrive beyond this historic period.”

Sunday is the most popular day of home cooked meals. Everybody goes all out on Sunday dinner,” Bernard said. “Every Sunday we would make our own natural juices.”

Currently, Bernard is working with Hope & Main, a non-profit dedicated to helping local food entrepreneurs, to bottle and sell his own fresh juices at grocery stores like Whole Foods.

In addition to being a restaurant owner, Bernard also cares for his community, particularly individuals on Broad Street experiencing homelessness.

“That’s the next thing I took from my mom. She used to feed all the homeless people back in Jamaica … she was known for that. I guess I didn’t even notice it, but I started doing it at Broad Street,” which has a large population of people experiencing homelessness, Bernard said. “For the last four years we’ve been feeding the whole entire Broad Street out the back of the restaurant.”

Island House Restaurant is a family business, and Bernard said he’s training his son to eventually take over at the helm.

Some advice he imparted onto his son is that “at the end of the day, this is the easiest job I’ve ever had,” Bernard said. “Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. I love to cook; I’ve always been cooking, and now I’m getting paid to do it.”

The restaurant is currently open for dining in, carry-out and delivery.

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ALUMS FROM PAGE 4 and the universities afford aspirants for the highest political honors, will not be possessed of the qualities which are essential to true statesmanship,” Page said in his oration, which was immortalized in The Providence Press on June 15, 1877.

Trailblazers: Page and Milford take up their place at Brown Black students began attending the University in the 1870s, and Page and Milford became the first recorded Black graduates in 1877, said University Archivist Jennifer Betts.

While the University does not have any admissions records for Page and Milford, nor do they know the exact year they began studying at Brown, they both “had the academic coursework in order to get in,” Betts said. They would have passed the annual June examinations required to secure admission to the University, and they would have been versed in subjects ranging from literature to philosophy.

Page and Milford were both accomplished men, but they still would have had a difficult time securing admission to Brown on account of their race. “I’ve wondered for a very long time how (they) got in,” said Ray Rickman, director of the nonprofit Stages of Freedom. “That’s always the question with anybody Black.”

Black students who were historically admitted to institutions like Brown were held to even higher standards than their white peers, Rickman explained. They would often have to be athletes or the children of prominent Black families to set themselves apart. “What they used

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS to do is take the children of college presidents and administrators who look like they could be a college president of one of the Black schools,” Rickman said. “You have to be perfect, and then you have to stay perfect, too.”

It is unclear why exactly the University chose this specific time to expand their admission demographics, though “it was always something that was thought about at Brown,” Betts said. “There were a lot of discussions, in particular around slavery, over the years.”

“It’s a strange phenomena,” Rickman said. “A school that practices discrimination for 120 years, absolute racial discrimination from 1764 forward, and then they let two (Black) people in. I just have question after question.”

From slavery to success: Page makes his way to College Hill and beyond Inman Page was born into slavery in 1853 in Warrenton, Virginia where, until he was 10 years old, he worked as a house boy. When the Civil War began, Page and his family escaped, fleeing to Washington, D.C. to evade the Confederacy.

There, Page began his education, first studying at a private school for Black children then continuing to attend school at night while working to support his family. Soon after Howard University opened, he began working there to help level the ground of the newly constructed campus for 15 cents per hour so he could afford to enroll in the university’s classes.

In 1872, Page began his studies at Brown. “It was an incredible achievement at that time,” Rickman said.

Page faced considerable racism in

his first two years at Brown. He was able to win the respect of his white classmates after winning an oration contest in his sophomore year.

He continued to hone those skills throughout his time at Brown. Eventually, he was elected by his graduating class to give a speech at Commencement.

“Mr. Page did not receive his position as class orator from a chivalrous recognition of his race by his white associates, although the choice is nonetheless creditable to them,” said an 1877 article about Page’s speaking skills in The Providence Journal.

“He is an orator of rare ability, speaking with weight and sententiousness without effort at display and at times rising to a profound and impressive eloquence.”

Page lived in Hope College, sharing Room 3 with Milford. He was also a member of the Baseball Club, and he wrote a history of his class in his junior year.

After graduating Brown, Page went on to have a successful career in education. Throughout his career he became the president of four colleges: the Lincoln Institute in Missouri, Western Baptist College in Kansas, Roger Williams University in Tennessee and Langston University in Oklahoma.

At the end of his career, Page served as principal of Douglass High School in Oklahoma City, where he died on Christmas Day 1935 at 81. His obituary honored his influence on education and emphasized the impact he had on Black students from all over the country.

“Some of the most outstanding educational leaders in Oklahoma today graduated under the inspiration

and influence of ‘Old Man Ike,’ as his students affectionately called him,” the obituary, which was published in The Pittsburgh Courier, said. “Page was known and respected by all who knew him because of his stately bearing and natural dignity.”

The University memorialized Page’s legacy in 2018 when Page-Robinson Hall was named in his honor alongside Ethel Tremaine Robinson, class of 1905, who was the first Black woman to graduate from the Women’s College, which was renamed to Pembroke College in 1928.

From College Hill to D.C.: Milford pursues law with his Brown education Born in 1852 in Virginia, George Washington Milford’s time at the University was filled with the same racism that Page faced. He often corresponded with journalist and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to request advice about succeeding in this university environment.

Milford was part of a club called “The Sliders,” and in the 1877 Liber Brunensis yearbook it is said that “he never slides in the track.” He also served as the historian for the class of 1877.

Milford’s life after his graduation from Brown is much less documented than Page’s. He attended law school at Howard University and went on to have a successful career as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., even arguing a case before the Supreme Court.

Page and Milford leave a lasting legacy Though the admission of Page and Milford was a large step forward for the University, Black students still did not have equal admission oppor-

Friday, February 5, 2021 tunities to the University for years to come. Up until World War II, there were anywhere “from one to five Black males” in a class of students, Rickman said.

Nevertheless, Page and Milford influenced generations of Black students to pursue education at Brown and in the world beyond.

“Especially at a university like Brown, where it was a very white University (and) it tended to (have) more affluent students, to be the first (Black students) and to so visibly stand out I imagine took a lot of courage and strength,” Betts said.

“They inspired generation after generation of African American students to pursue their education at Brown.”

On that day in 1877, before the graduating students progressed out of the Meeting House and onto the Main Green for a dinner and celebration, Page gave his oration. He spoke of his optimism for the future of American education as a great equalizer, enlightening immigrants from around the world. If they were to participate in and contribute to American culture and governance, he said, they must have access to the education that “is necessary for the promotion of the public weal.”

“The school house has always been an important factor in American life,” Page said. “Let it ever be cherished as the nurse of the great and the good; let its rich blessings flow alike to the huts of the poor and the palaces of the rich; let the just indignation of the whole country rest upon those who shall in any way abridge its privileges! Genius is not always the gift of those in fortunate circumstances.”

Submissions: The Brown Daily Herald publishes submissions in the form of op-eds and letters to the editor. Op-eds are typically between 750 and 1000 words, though we will consider submissions between 500 and 1200 words. Letters to the editor should be around 250 words. While letters to the editor respond to an article or column that has appeared in The Herald, op-eds usually prompt new discussions on campus or frame new arguments about current discourse.

post-

FEB 5 — VOL 27 — ISSUE 1

FEATURE

POST.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

NARRATIVE

and now the piñata’s burst

on the miracle of growing up

By Kaitlan Bui

reaching for the radical my unfinished journey towards the left

by Chloe Chen illustrated by Habesha Fasika Petros CONTENT WARNING: sexual assault There’s a Twitter thread that pops up on my feed every once in a while that poses the essential question: “What radicalized you?”

Many responses recount the specific news story that shocked them to their core, a favorite eyeopening book they’d read, or a family member’s wise words. Personally, I can’t pinpoint the exact event that introduced me to radicalism; my journey was a lot messier, a lot more undefined, and it continues to this day. For such a monumental ideological change, I’ve been exploring it slowly.

I grew up surrounded by mainstream liberalism, in a Los Angeles suburb that transformed into a sea of Democratic lawn signs and bumper stickers every presidential election. Everyone was staunchly, proudly, undoubtedly liberal. Barack Obama was our lovable idol, CNN was our channel of choice, and everything from the media we consumed to the dinner table conversations we entertained glamorized liberalism and villainized conservatism.

Entrenched in these Democratic beliefs, I grew increasingly comfortable perched in a seat of moral superiority, resolutely confident and self-satisfied with my political identity. From inside this echo chamber, it was easy to view the world in black and white: political parties as good and bad, politicians as heroes and enemies.

I wasn’t alone in claiming the moral high ground.

Young liberals seem to flock toward any opportunity to validate and legitimize our own wokeness, which is enabled by the curated, performative nature of social media. In high school, many of us became more informed on current events and understood more deeply the significant role political ideology played in shaping our personal identities...

All submissions to The Herald cannot have been previously published elsewhere (in print or online — including personal blogs and social media), and they must be exclusive to The Herald.

“Can they (children) even conceptualize parrots?…

Well, I suppose because of pirate media.”

Submissions must include no more than two individual authors. If there are more than two original authors, The Herald can acknowledge the authors in a statement at the end of the letter or op-ed, but the byline can only include up to two names. The Herald will not publish submissions authored by groups. The Herald does not publish anonymous submissions. If you feel your circumstances prevent you from submitting an op-ed or letter with your name, please email herald@browndailyherald.com to explain your situation.

“I think I just saw a horse but it very well could’ve been a car. Large, four legs, they look the same.”

You can submit op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com and letters to letters@browndailyherald. com. When you email your submission, please include (1) your full name, (2) an evening or mobile phone number in case your submission is chosen for publication and (3) any affiliation with Brown University or any institution or organization relevant to the content of your submission.

Please send in submissions at least 24 hours in advance of your desired publication date. The Herald only publishes submissions while it is in print. The Herald reserves the right to edit all submissions.

If your piece is considered for publication, an editor will contact you to discuss potential changes to your submission.

Shopping Period Situations

Commentary: The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

1. Not having the Zoom link 15 minutes before class 2. Guilt-shopping a course because the professor gave you an override 3. Expecting to go over the syllabus, only for the professor to say they expect you to have already read the syllabus

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4. Zoom on the phone and the laptop to shop those overlapping classes

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5. STILL not having your classes finalized even though shopping period has ended

Copyright 2020 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

See Full Issue:

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Want to be involved?

Email: olivia_howe@brown.edu!

6. Attending a class on a whim and having it change your life and your concentration 7. Dropping a class because the professor asked you to introduce yourselves 8. Hitting “Leave Meeting” because breakout rooms >:( 9. Shopping so many classes that you cannot do a single slice of work for a single class 10. Breakdown (technological and/or emotional)

Recently, I’ve been enjoying my carrots.

You might think that’s a strange way to start an essay (on growing up, no less—a very somber phenomenon), so you might be tempted to skip ahead to paragraph five and jump right into the meat of the words. But my essay is vegetarian, thank you very much, so don’t look for what isn’t there. Instead, appreciate what is: Recently, I said, I’ve been enjoying my carrots.

I’ve begun enjoying other foods too, like bitter melon and grapefruit, and I drink tea like an old lady, which is to say, hot and unsweetened. I also like to watch TV shows that make me cry (and I actually do cry now), as well as movies that scare the living sheets out of me (though I sleep like a baby afterwards). For some reason, very small things—like daily vitamins and functional light bulbs—bring me comfort. I didn’t notice these changes until the carrots happened, and now I’m left wondering what on earth has gotten into me...

ARTS & CULTURE

turn the page together

renewal, Rina Sawayama, and the new year

By Kyoko Leaman Down the subway, you looked my way With your girl gaze, with your girl gaze I was 17 when I heard the song “Cherry” for the first time. The high school cafeteria was deafening and washed-out and terrible, but I wasn’t listening.

A playlist called “wlw pop” rolled through my cheap earbuds, the volume inadvisably high. The rubbery synth of one song faded out, and after a brief beat of silence, an ethereal voice said, “Hello?”...

LIFESTYLE

The Art of Playlist Making how to curate a playlist that best fits your mood

by Elliana Reynolds It’s the beginning of the semester. Things are just getting started, but really, they’re not. Things have already started, and they are about to become overwhelming. Now, professors will no longer give you any “shopping period leeway”; you’ll be drowning in essays and problem sets to complete, and the walks to get tested for COVID-19 (while an absolute necessity) will get even tougher as the semester pummels you with more and more work...

February 5, 2021 55

6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | OPINIONS

Friday, February 5, 2021

Big Tech shuts down the marketplace of ideas

BY DONNIE SAHYOUNI STAFF COLUMNIST Over the past few years, the feud between conservatives and Silicon Valley tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter has moved to the forefront of political discourse. That battle reached a boiling point in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, when a mob comprising roughly 800 of the 30 thousand attendants of a Trump rally broke into the United States Capitol building. As ugly as the attack was, it also served as a green light for Big Tech to instigate a “Red Purge,” when they deplatformed a plethora of conservative voices, from the sitting President Donald Trump to the entirety of Parler, the free speech-centered, alt-tech app favored by many on the political right.

Make no mistake, it is well within the rights of private corporations to determine who they provide their services to. Nevertheless, I’m more concerned with what they ought to do, not what they can do. The actions of big tech companies earlier this year were unethical, and they chip away at the very foundation of free speech in America.

This claim, I admit, is a bold one. Along with most folks left of center, the tech companies themselves fiercely reject this assertion. For example, Twitter and Facebook, who both banned former President Trump, maintain that they are open and non-partisan platforms committed to free speech. In their view, Mr. Trump incited an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, and banning him was a necessary step to prevent future calls for violence. Similarly, the cadre of companies which booted Parler claim that it allowed violent threats to persist on its platform.

Why exactly would anyone die on the hill of protecting violent speech? Well, virtually no one in the political mainstream is, and I have no desire to do it either. Calls for violence are criminal and cannot be tolerated. But despite what these platforms may tell themselves and the public, they don’t apply their standards impartially. Their justifications for the Red Purge are misguided at best and disingenuous at worst. As I see it, Big Tech only wanted to take advantage of the tragedy at the Capitol building to silence voices and crush competition that they personally disapproved of.

Of course, any claim as strong as this one demands a look at the facts.

First, take the deplatforming of Donald Trump. In his now infamous Jan. 6 speech, for-

mer President Trump repeated a series of reckless and irresponsible claims regarding election fraud. I concede that much of his conduct following the 2020 presidential election regarding its legitimacy, represented in many ways by this speech, should be criticized. But the question at hand is different: Did he incite a crowd to attack the Capitol on Twitter or anywhere else on Jan. 6? The answer to that question is simply, no.

Trump explicitly called for a peaceful protest at the Capitol building. In his speech, the former president said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol

also fundamentally rendered inoperable, as the very servers it depended on were pulled out from under it. The reasoning applied here, according to the tech companies, is that Parler allowed the dissemination of calls to violence on their platform. This, if true, would be a violation of these companies’ terms of service.

Yet, unsurprisingly, Big Tech did not apply their rules evenly. I admit, Parler did let some calls for violence, including certain plans of the Capitol attacks, slip through its moderation cracks in the lead-up to and aftermath of Jan. 6. But there is no reason to believe that these slips stem from malignance or that Parler was

“Silicon Valley isn’t just interested in silencing speech they deem violent, but also opinions that they just don’t like.”

building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” How could Trump have called a crowd to violence while at the same time promoting and expecting that they should be peaceful?

Critics of the 45th president might allege something weaker: that Trump’s raising of the temperature in the political ecosystem had something to do with the Capitol violence. I almost agree but with some qualifications. Heated rhetoric like “they are trying to steal the election” can create a political environment where violence is more likely. Repeating unsubstantiated claims is, however, different from inciting violence, which requires a literal call to commit violence. Twitter banning Trump for his charged rhetoric under the guise of silencing violent speech, while allowing similarly fiery politicians on both sides of the aisle free rein, clearly shows their moderation to be arbitrary and motivated by self-interest, not a desire to squash violence.

The most concerning consequence of the Red Purge, aside from banning Trump, was the deplatforming of Parler. In the aftermath of the failed insurrection, app store moderators Apple and Google along with web service provider Amazon banned the free speech-based Twitter alternative from access to their services. This meant that Parler was not only removed from the Google Play and Apple app stores, but was

the only platform that allowed violent speech to proliferate.

Parler explicitly forbids fighting words or threats of harm. It implements a flag and review system for questionable posts, not unlike the mechanism that Twitter has for removing forbidden content. The only difference is that Twitter has a multi-billion dollar tech infrastructure and thousands of employees, while Parler is a small startup of 30 people. Parler has a tiny fraction of the capacity to moderate content when compared to Twitter. Even so, you can find violent posts on Twitter any day of the week, and Facebook also platformed some insurrectionists in their planning of the Capitol attack. So Amazon wants us to believe that Parler alone is in violation of their terms of service, all the while it hosts Twitter’s periodically trending “#killtrump” hashtag without so much as a word of criticism? Really? I don’t trust Google, Apple or Amazon to fairly enforce their rules, and you shouldn’t either.

This brings us to the larger takeaway from the events earlier this month: Big Tech companies have backtracked on their commitment to a culture of free speech. Silicon Valley isn’t just interested in silencing speech they deem violent, but also opinions that they just don’t like.

Along with the names already mentioned, as part of the Red Purge Twitter also banned several people close to Donald Trump who contin-

ued to claim that he won the 2020 election. And while I agree those claims lack the prerequisite evidence, censoring these voices sets a dangerous precedent.

We ought to value free speech in America because it protects unpopular views. History proves, in fact, that ideas widely supported by the public or even so-called “experts” are sometimes shown to be wrong in the future. When the Polish mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, for instance, argued that the sun was at the center of our solar system in 1543, that finding clashed with centuries of scientific and popular consensus. One wonders if the heliocentric theory would have been banned on Twitter had it existed in the 16th century. Or consider more recently how the CDC and Dr. Anthony Fauci, in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, advised against the wearing of face coverings by normal, healthy citizens. Since then, the scientific consensus has shifted. But ought social media companies to have censored posts that disagreed with Fauci at the time? We can see in retrospect, obviously not.

The best solution to defend sound views, however unpopular, is the free market of ideas, where I say my opinion, you say yours and everyone else analyzes the facts and makes their own conclusions. Granted, this way is not without its problems. Some baseless and ugly conspiracy theories will inevitably rise to prominence, and as a truth-seeking society, we must do everything we can to bring these myths to light. But an alternative world where Big Tech moderates the debate from the top down according to their hand-picked fact checkers and unevenly applied guidelines is a far darker reality. We need to revive the culture of free speech in America. Just don’t count on the folks in Silicon Valley to be part of the solution anytime soon.

Donnie Sahyouni ’21 can be reached at donnie_sahyouni@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

Friday, February 5, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | OPINIONS

7

Conspiracy theories do not belong in the marketplace of ideas

BY MATT WALSH STAFF COLUMNIST

Twitter’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump’s personal account and purge its platform of conspiracy-peddling profiles has breathed new life into America’s free speech culture war. The usual suspects have come out of the woodwork, with conservatives lamenting that supposed liberal hegemony in Big Tech is marginalizing right-wing voices, and liberals maintaining that social media platforms have a right and a duty to remove dangerous and conspiratorial content.

Free discourse is a valuable asset to American democracy, but dangerous online disinformation does not deserve the same sort of respect as normal political speech. As long as the American government and citizenry are wary of Big Tech and its influence over discourse, there is no reason to worry that Twitter, by banning certain users, is setting a dangerous precedent of censorship.

First, and importantly, Twitter’s ban on Trump and other conspiracy-purveying accounts is not a First Amendment issue. As any basic civics or American government course will teach, the First Amendment constrains the state from abridging speech. A private entity like Twitter, even with its massive role in modern public discourse, lacks the same duty to protect speech.

This is not to diminish the cultural and historical significance of the First Amendment.

Informed by the Enlightenment’s emphasis on individual liberty and self-actualization, the Framers ensconced a right to free speech and free press in the First Amendment. Political philosopher John Stuart Mill’s theory of free speech, which he expounded in his seminal work “On Liberty” in 1859, lends a utilitarian flavor to First Amendment philosophy. It has become a popular and convincing rationale for free speech defenders. Mill argued that only by having “complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion” could someone “have any rational assurance of being right.” In other words, a society that restricts speech cannot discover the truth, since censoring speech limits its ability to analyze its own beliefs and identify the correct ones. Under Mill’s theory, it is important not only for the government to en-

sure free discourse, but also for private citizens to do so — otherwise, public debate would be less robust, and society will be less able to embrace the correct beliefs and reject the wrong ones. In modern parlance, Mill’s philosophy supports a “marketplace of ideas.” I agree with Mill: It would be wrong, though not necessarily unconstitutional, for one group to use its dominance to suppress another group’s voice.

But the proposal for a “marketplace of ideas” does not extend to snake oil salesmen.

cult time arguing that these widely-discredited, violence-inducing conspiracy theories deserve a place in the marketplace of ideas. Contrary to Mill’s theory, allowing the spread of falsehoods on social media seems to have brought many Americans farther from the truth. For a great number of these conspiracy theorists, constant fact-checks by the mainstream media have been futile.

The fact that these conspiracy theories have been spreading on the internet adds even more

“Even the most steadfast free speech purist would have a difficult time arguing that widely-discredited, violence-inducing conspiracy theories deserve a place in the marketplace of ideas”

Mill wanted people to be free to express falsehoods, but as a utilitarian, he had an end goal in all of this: the ascertainment of truth. His assumption that robust public discourse would rid society of false beliefs did not consider the landscape of the 21st century, where conspiracy theories — including violent ones — run wild on the internet despite continuously being discredited by authoritative sources.

Modern conspiracy theories about election fraud and deep state pedophiles do more than just mislead — they also contribute directly to violence and social disorder. The most obvious example is last month’s Capitol insurrection, in which a pro-Trump mob animated by the former president’s voter fraud myth stormed the Capitol, resulting in five deaths. On the same day, pipe bombs were found at both the Democratic and Republican National Headquarters. And it turns out that many of the rioters were not only staunch Trump supporters, but also followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which asserts that the U.S. government is overrun by Satan-worshipping pedophiles that only Trump could eliminate. Even the most steadfast free speech purist would have a diffi-

urgency to social media’s crusade against disinformation. The internet has proven to be a double-edged sword for political organizing: On the one hand, it helped activists organize the Black Lives Matter protests last summer and the Women’s Marches over the past few years, but on the other it has also allowed conspiracy theorists from far and wide to collectively reinforce dangerous beliefs. This is exactly what happened with QAnon. The theory had relatively humble beginnings: In October of 2017, a 4chan user named Q posed as a federal government insider alleging a “deep state” plot to oust Donald Trump. Since then, the theory has developed into an elaborate web of myths about Satan worship and pedophilia. It has also become a worryingly cohesive community.

While 4chan is a relatively obscure platform to most Americans, other more popular ones like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been ready points of entry for newly-minted Q-followers. As QAnon indicatess, the more a conspiracy theory grows, the more opportunity there is for believers to make increasingly bizarre — and dangerous — additions to the theory. If platforms like Twitter close their door

to QAnon, however, they can prevent ordinary people from being radicalized and slow the proliferation of even wackier QAnon beliefs.

Critics of Twitter’s decision to shut down Trump and other conspiracy peddlers believe that the suspensions portend a future in which the site could use its power to silence whomever it desires. Right now, that does not seem to be a pending problem: Almost all of the more prominent purveyors of the voter fraud myth, like Twitter personality @DC_Draino and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, have retained their platforms on Twitter. It appears that only the most extreme accounts, plus Trump, were removed.

Still, Twitter has the power to capriciously censor any user it wants. Given the platform’s massive influence on public discourse, applying this power beyond the duty to combat violent misinformation would defy our culture of free speech. One solution would be government oversight of Twitter. A federal takeover of the platform would reek of authoritarianism, but a periodic review of Twitter’s content moderation policies by a non-partisan, Congressionally-approved agency could strike an effective balance.

Twitter was right to end its laissez-faire approach to conspiracy theories. In doing so, it will likely slow the rate at which ordinary people get radicalized. But the damage has been done. Seventeen percent of respondents in an NPR survey in December said that they believe Satan-worshipping child sex traffickers are trying to control the government. And now, there is a freshman House representative — Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — who has expressed support for QAnon and a host of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. While shutting down conspiracy theories on social media is a good place to start, as a country we need to think long and hard about what got us to this point in the first place. Adapting our understanding of free speech to the digital age will not be an easy task — but the health of our democracy depends on it.

Matt Walsh ’23 can be reached at matthew_ walsh@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

8

Friday, February 5, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Black identity student organizations adapt to a virtual world BSU, AfriSA, League of United Black Womxn, NSA, SoCA build community virtually

DANEVA MONCRIEFFE / HERALD

The BSU will continue its speaker series into the spring, she added.

During the fall, the BSU collaborated with the African Students Association, also known as AfriSA, and The League of United Black Womxn to expand BSU Unite, a mentorship program that connects Black underclassmen with Black upperclassmen, according to BSU Secretary Ruqiya Egal ’23.

Mentors and mentees were paired based on responses to a Google form that fielded common interests like intended concentrations. From there, mentors connected with their mentees over email, text and Zoom.

19 mentors and 34 mentees, which Egal said is a larger number of underclassmen than usual, signed up for the program.

“The Black community at Brown is very good at bringing in first-years and making sure that they feel welcome and also letting them know about the things that we do,” Egal said.

Mentors provide their mentees information on other Black student organizations at the University, guidance on course selection and advice on navigating life on campus, Egal added.

Building connections virtually can be challenging for Unite’s mentors and mentees, Egal said. She herself was a mentee when she came to Brown as a first-year in 2019 and would regularly

have coffee with her mentor. “It’s different when you get to meet someone one-on-one versus just texting and emailing.”

“A lot of the freshmen really benefited” from Unite, said AfriSA President Atabong Khumbah ’23, who was assigned a first-year mentee last fall.

In conjunction with working with the BSU on their Unite program, Khumbah and AfriSA have also been migrating their programming to a virtual platform.

During the fall, AfriSA worked with the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs to host an event on African popular music’s role in creating awareness of the spread of COVID-19, Khumbah said. AfriSA, together with the Watson Institute, will coordinate an event this semester focusing on leadership and governance in Africa, Khumbah added.

This spring, Khumbah said, AfriSA plans to start social media campaigns to raise awareness of different geopolitical issues in the continent, including those in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire and The Democratic Republic of Congo.

Along with larger presentations, Black student groups on campus have also focused on fostering community through more frequent casual meetings and events.

Groups like The League of United

Black Womxn have focused on facilitating conversations about navigating the academic, social and dating spheres of campus life during meetings throughout the fall, said Cyprene Caines ’23, the League’s president. “It’s just about creating an intentional space that feels safe and where everyone can come and feel seen,” she added.

The Nigerian Students Association, which formed over the last summer, has also been focusing on casual conversations through their “Chop Life & Chat” Instagram Live series, the Association’s vice president Teniola Ayeni ’23 said.

“Chop Life & Chat” has covered a range of topics including Nigerian identity and gender and age hierarchies in Nigerian communities.

While the group’s original ideas for programming for their first fall had to be shelved given the course of the pandemic, the remote nature of the semester motivated the group’s leaders to “think about ways to still bring the same energy (of in-person events)” to a virtual setting, the Association’s Founder and President Maryclare Chinedo ’22 said.

Chinedo and Ayeni say they hope to expand the Nigerian Students Association’s work to engage with the Nigerian community in Rhode Island through outreach with Nigerian youth and political and social justice efforts.

CA L E N DA R

In order to adapt to the difficulties of maintaining connections virtually, Black student organizations have built on collaboration and coordination efforts between groups to find ways to connect first-years with the larger Black community at the University, according to Students of Caribbean Ancestry Co-President Kameron Medine ’21.

The Black community at Brown “is small, so it’s really not that hard to get word around,” Caines said.

While the number of avenues for community building has dwindled, the pandemic has allowed leaders like Khumbah to collaborate with other Black student organizations “more than (he) ever would have before.”

During the fall, SoCA and AfriSA hosted joint events to discuss the African diaspora and the first generation immigrant experience, according to Medine and his co-president Dashaun Simon ’21.

“It felt like a lot more of a community was built there” in bringing students from the two groups together, Medine added.

“The combined power and influence of two clubs (can) get more engagement and also reduce overall Zoom time,” Khumbah agreed.

COVID -19 AT BROWN LAST 7 DAYS*

FEBRUARY S

7

Completed Tests

People Tested

M

Tu

W

Th

F

S

13,710

8,095

1

2

3

4

5

6

Confirmed Positives

Positivity Rates

13

0.1 %

8

9

10

11

12

13 SINCE AUGUST 24, 2020*

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Completed Tests

People Tested

212,781

10,278

Total Cases

Prevalence

348

3.4 %

*AS OF FEB. 5

9

Wendy Williams and her shameful masterpiece

BY CECILIA BARRON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Black student groups have shifted focus to using social media to reach out to and welcome first-years. In addition, the BSU partnered with other groups including AfriSA and The League of United Black Womxn to expand a student mentorship program for Black underclassmen.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

ARTS & CULTURE

The iconic celebrity gossip produces biopic, a documentary about her own scandalous life

BY KARLOS BAUTISTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER In unprecedented times, Black identity student organizations have found ways to continue engaging with their communities through remote events and programming, along with collaboration between groups.

With first-years unable to organically find out about different Black student organizations on campus given the narrower virtual avenues for community building, leaders have had to find new ways to reach out to underclassmen.

The leaders of Black student organizations directed their focus on reaching out to first-years through social media platforms like GroupMe and Instagram, according to Black Student Union Co-President Daneva Moncrieffe ’21.

We want “to make sure they know that we are here, and we want them to be a part of the organization,” Moncrieffe said.

Unable to hold usual in-person events like the annual Black convocation for incoming first-years and transfer students at Manning Hall, a welcome back barbecue or a Black History Month concert, the BSU has shifted some of their activities, like their Black convocation, online. The organization has also pivoted programming to a speaker series and an expanded mentorship program in the fall.

Informed by the nation’s reckoning with racial justice last summer and the impact of those events on Black students on campus, the BSU’s leadership wanted to focus on “community, love and care” when selecting speakers for the fall, Moncrieffe said.

While charting a course for the fall, “we knew people were feeling an array of emotions and were just overwhelmed,” Moncrieffe said. “We wanted to make sure that any program that we were doing would only help to alleviate and create space to just decompress and not add to that stress.”

Members from an abolitionist coalition at the University known as Grasping at the Root, haircare YouTuber Will On A Whim and writer-activist Adrienne Maree Brown spoke at events hosted by the BSU, Moncrieffe said.

Friday, February 5, 2021

If you haven’t heard her on the radio or listened to her talk show, you’ve probably seen her picture online, crying, fainting or smirking. Wendy Williams, the radio shock jock turned daytime talk show host turned everlasting meme, reports on celebrities while being one herself. The weight those two roles hold, and their conflict with each other, was examined at length in two films about Williams released Jan. 30 on Lifetime.

Starting with the biopic Wendy Williams: The Movie then turning to the documentary Wendy Williams: What a Mess, Wendy devotees can bask in four hours of Williams footage if her daily, hour-long talk show doesn’t suffice.

Quite frankly, both movies are bad.

But they were probably never meant to be good. Produced by Lifetime, a channel known for shows like Dance Moms and Married at First Sight, the two deep dives into Williams’ life are pure fodder for her dedicated fan base.

The accents could have been worse, the set more vacuous, the storyline hastier,

and Williams fans would still tune in.

Those who watch Wendy, like me, aren’t concerned with quality. They just care about the unadulterated details.

Williams, who produced both movies, knows this. That’s why, after over three decades in the business, Williams decided to partner with Lifetime in 2019, an unrelenting year for her in the public eye. Grappling with a recent divorce from her husband after he impregnated another woman, being publicly treated for alcoholism and reeling from fainting live on television, Wendy was, well, a mess. So bring the cameras in!

The documentary begins with Wendy eating caviar off of a hot Dorito, crying. “Kevin f***ed up,” she exclaims, referring to her ex-husband. From the opening scene, no time is wasted. From weight issues to liposuction, coke addiction to sexual assault, marriage to divorce, the documentary — much like the biopic — hopscotches between the most scandalous aspects of Williams’ life while the subject guides the way.

The most interesting thing about the Wendy Williams film extravaganza, though, isn’t necessarily Kevin’s infidelity or her recent relapse. It’s that Williams herself is telling the story.

Karl Ove Knausgård, the Norwegian writer famous for his six-volume series recounting his life, “My Struggle,”

described the experience of writing about one’s life as an exercise in shame: shame “regulates everything,” and in exposing your own shame, you free yourself. While perhaps indecorous to compare the prized Norwegian author to Williams, they both approach their own lives, their own shame, in the same way (Knausgård albeit a bit more poetically). By sharing everything, from the most embarrassing to the most self-aggrandizing, Williams has the power. She tells her own shameful story.

There are plenty of other celebrities who exist behind million-dollar, LA compounds of shame. They present as infallible until a tabloid releases pictures of them leaving rehab or leaks their affair. They protect their shame with such ferocity that when their secrets are inevitably published, they are left clutching their chest, denying the accusations. The story is no longer theirs to tell.

Williams, of course, is also one of the people tasked with the vile work of exposing other people’s shame. And she is extraordinarily talented at it. Known for her correct predictions about celebrity marriages — she reported on Jay-Z’s affair years before Beyonce exposed her own husband in Lemonade — and her deep knowledge of pop culture, she’s amassed a following of those interested in entirely frivolous news. Her years of

dedication to other people’s drama have elevated her to an estimated net worth of $40 million. It has also given her a pretty good sense of how to be famous.

By scandalizing her own life, Williams is the Late-Stage Celebrity. She presents her biography as if it were a Page Six story. Talking about the first time she saw pictures of her husband’s pregnant mistress, Williams cries, “this is really going down!” In the movie, the actress playing Williams, Ciera Payton, tells the audience halfway through, “Trigger warning! The rest of this story is rough.” She congratulates The Daily Mail on doing an “excellent job” of reporting on Kevin’s affair. She has no shame as she cries in her new bachelorette pad, overlooking New York.

She has no shame as she walks her audience through her liposuction and breast implants. She has no shame in recounting the time she spray-painted Kevin’s mistress’ house.

The relinquishing of shame, though, requires something else. While it is shameless to produce two movies about your own downfall, it also takes an impressive, almost unbelievable, amount of confidence to think people will want to watch it. Like her literary twin, Knausgård, the two have an arrogance that supports, respectively, four hours and six volumes about themselves. Shameless? Sure. Self-obsessed?

Certainly.

Williams’ talk show is called “The Wendy Williams Show,” and the two movies might as well be called that, too. Williams has little interest in investigating the historic role she plays as a major Black woman in media. She seems unconcerned about the rise in celebrity gossip or the implications of its sensationalization. Above all, she seems to be concerned with herself.

Toward the end of “Wendy Williams: The Movie,” Payton smiles at the camera and pronounces, “Now, finally, I’m proud of me.” But that doesn’t seem to be the accurate conclusion.

Williams has always been proud of herself, proud of her job, proud of her body, even perversely proud of the news her divorce created. She prides herself on her shamelessness. In an added clip before the credits roll, the real Wendy appears to ask the audience her signature question in her signature New Jersey drawl. Looking, as she often is, at a mirror, she asks: “How you doin’?” This self-interrogation is a conclusion more befitting to the four-hour event. Wendy may be proud of herself for shamelessly reveling in the drama of other people’s lives and her own. Whether or not her audience shares the same pride is less certain.

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

WORD! celebrates 20 years as Brown’s only spoken word group University poetry group provides safe space for students to share, express themselves

BY LOKI OLIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER Sage Morgan-Hubbard ’05 strode through the Van Wickle Gates as a freshman in 2001, determined to join a campus poetry group at her new school.

Fresh off A Day On College Hill filled with open-mic poetry and an encounter with a Providence slam poetry team, she had hoped to find similar opportunities at Brown — but she quickly realized that no spoken word poetry group existed.

Undeterred, Morgan-Hubbard — along with classmates Misty Wilson ’11 and Laura Green ’06 — enlisted the help of the Student Activities Office to create WORD!, a student-led spoken word poetry group. Open to students at both Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, WORD! began holding meetings in the basement of Churchill House.

“It was a really democratic space” meant to include as many voices as possible, Morgan-Hubbard said.

In the early days of WORD!, Morgan-Hubbard worked with Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Elmo Terry-Morgan to classify WORD! as a Group Independent Study Project, which allowed students on financial aid to receive a course credit for attending

meetings. Soon after, the group — which Morgan-Hubbard said prioritized amplifying voices of color — began to grow.

Today, WORD! remains the only spoken word poetry group on Brown’s campus, and its emphasis on inclusivity persists. “(WORD!) offers a space to be heard,” said Co-President Kris Cho ’22.

“It’s a community space where you feel seen — not just cared for, but centered in care.”

The group’s active membership ranges from ten to 40, and before the pandemic, WORD! “would do about two shows ... each year, one at the end of each semester,” Cho said. “We had members from the club perform pieces that they’d written for the semester or were interested in sharing with the community,” she added.

For members, spoken word poetry provides an opportunity that other social and academic spaces might not.

“I went to a majority white, very conservative high school in the area that I grew up in,” said Co-President of WORD! Abbi Page ’22. “Slam poetry was the way in which I voiced myself and was allowed to talk about the issues that I needed to confront and make a reality.”

“To understand what WORD! brings to Brown, you have to understand what Brown doesn’t always offer for students of color,” Cho said, speaking to her experience as a concentrator in the white-dominated field of history. “As an Asian American writer, I think it’s important to have a space that acknowledges the importance of positionality.”

COURTESY OF ABBI PAGE

WORD! was founded in 2001, originally as a Group Independent Study Project, with an emphasis on amplifying voices of color.

From its inception in 2001, WORD! was designed as an accessible space for all students, regardless of their experience or desire to perform.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to perform, (you can)... still be part of WORD! because it’s just a safe space to tell your story and to write and experiment and have fun,” Morgan-Hubbard said.

According to Cho, the medium of spoken word poetry — along with its competition-based counterpart, slam — lends itself to newcomers.

“Slam started off as a bar game, actually. The idea is that the ideal judge is a random person off the street, who knows nothing about poetry,” Cho said.

“There’s something really liberating in terms of not trying to meet standards that are so often entrenched in a lot

of academic writing or other forms of classical poetry.”

For Page, a large part of WORD!’s appeal is the community itself. “There’s this bond that brings us together and so there are … memories of us having parties on the weekend and making jokes together,” Page said. “All these little bloopers and behind-the-scenes moments … (make) me really feel connected to the group.”

Throughout its time on College Hill, WORD! has remained relatively under-the-radar. It has no website, and most of WORD!’s projects don’t include other campus groups — largely to protect the sanctity of the space that the group provides for its members, according to Page.

“In my time with WORD!, we have

not done much collaboration,” Page said. “It’s really been a very close-knit community and every week we come in and we really intimately share our details. So to bring in another group is a factor in that safety of the environment.”

“We don’t really give out the Zoom link until we know someone’s really interested and really wants to be a part of it … for keeping it a safe space,” Page said.

Although meetings are reserved for members of WORD!, the group is currently working to host more open performances in the future.

“In the last couple years, WORD! has been trying to do more public-facing events,” Cho said. “We did this one event called ‘Mic in the Dark’ where we have an open mic, except it was pitch black, and the speakers were anonymous. That was a really exciting experience.”

“We’re thinking of putting together a pre-recorded or pre-planned film rather than a live performance to release out for showcase,” Page said.

“We’re trying to find different ways to visually create with our poems.”

Twenty years after Sage-Hubbard created WORD!, she reflected on the work done by Cho, Page and other past leaders of the group.

“I’ve been very proud of them. They constantly create a space for students to speak their truth. We went from being barely known about compared to other organizations at Brown to now being a real staple,” Morgan-Hubbard said. “It’s just a really beautiful space.”

METRO

‘A drop in the proverbial bucket’: scholars, activists weigh in on Biden Executive orders address private prisons, housing discrimination law

BY LIZA MULLETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER President Joe Biden has signed 28 executive orders within his first two weeks as president — more than most presidents in recent history have done in their first month in the Oval Office. On the cusp of Black History Month, Biden issued several orders related to ending racial inequity and discrimination.

The president has moved to not renew federal contracts with private prisons, as well as to direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to comply more closely with the Fair Housing Act — moves that many have deemed important in the fight against racial inequity.

But despite the intent of Biden’s executive orders, some University scholars and activists believe that they only scratch the surface of what is needed to achieve racial justice.

“The executive order that was signed by Biden, of course, it’s a step in the right direction,” said Professor of Sociology Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, whose work centers on criminal justice and its relation to racism. But “targeting for-profit prisons is not going to do very much. It really is a drop in the proverbial bucket.”

Gonzalez Van Cleve said that ending contracts with private prisons will not end the profitization of the carceral state, calling Biden’s executive order

COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE

In a push to end racial inequity, President Joe Biden released several executive orders related to private prisons and housing discrimination law. He has signed 28 orders within his first two weeks in office. “a largely symbolic move.”

Jonathan Collins described Biden’s tions and unfair sentencing. We need “Just because something is not-forexecutive order on private prisons as tighter protections against racial bias in profit doesn’t mean that there isn’t ecodoing “very little to reduce mass incar- policing, prosecution and sentencing.” nomic interest in state prisons and state ceration” in the larger scheme. “From The effort exemplified by the execujails to continue to incarcerate people,” a practical perspective, less than 10 tive orders “does include having to shift Gonzalez Van Cleve said, “despite the percent of state and federal prisoners responsibility onto officers and sheriffs general momentum of people wanting are kept in private prisons,” he wrote that maintain these prisons,” Gonzalez to scale back.” in an email to The Herald. “The vast Van Cleve said. “It’s going to take a conThe executive order applies to only majority are kept in state-run facilities.” tinued movement to continue holding 1.5 percent of the U.S. prison popuCollins also noted police miscon- the administration accountable.” lation, according to The Washington duct and treatment of those incarceratBiden’s racial equity agenda also Post. Many have also noted the order ed as another issue necessary to address addressed housing reform in an execudoes not apply to the Department of in Biden’s racial equity plan. tive order. According to the order, HUD Homeland Security, which encompasses “We call it a corrections system, but is to reassess former President Donald private immigration facilities run by it’s a system that in itself needs lots of Trump’s August 2020 memorandum Immigration and Customs Enforce- correction,” Collins wrote. “We need that repealed an Obama-era housing ment. more preventative measures to ward protection ruling, which focused on Assistant Professor of Education against things like wrongful convic- the protection of housing rights and

repealing racial discrimination practices in federal housing.

Gabe Mernoff ’22.5, an advocacy team member of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, which aims to address structural issues surrounding homelessness, said he is “happy” with the ruling but sees it as “very limited in its scope.”

The executive order is “only talking about units that the federal government has jurisdiction over, which is not even all public housing units, let alone the whole private market,” Mernoff said.

“So there’s a lot of renters this doesn’t reach, and so we also need strong state and local laws.”

Mernoff added that housing discrimination based on source of income needs to be addressed on the private level. He said that through HOPE, he has witnessed people seeking housing being turned away when trying to use Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers, which are meant to assist low-income families in the private market. He said the reason for this is often because those seeking to rent are low income, Black or Hispanic.

Mernoff commented on the ways in which homelessness relates to racial inequity, saying that based on surveys conducted with communities of color, there are statistical representations of racial exclusion in housing, as well as in other areas such as public transit.

While the executive orders are “overall a step in the right” direction, Mernoff said he hopes that issues of housing and racial inequity remain priorities in the Biden administration.

Friday, February 5, 2021

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

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UNIVERSITY NEWS

Brown goes test-optional for second year in a row, citing COVID-19 pandemic University joins four other Ivies in going test-optional for 202122 admissions cycle

BY WILL KUBZANSKY SENIOR STAFF WRITER First-year applicants to the class of 2026 will not have to submit a standardized test score with their applications, the Admissions Office announced Tuesday.

The University initially announced its test-optional policy for applicants in the 2020-21 cycle last June — with the caveat that applicants for the 2021-22 cycle should still expect to submit a score. But challenges “still remain” for students to access standardized testing, said Dean of Admission Logan Powell, requiring the University to adjust its plans.

“The health of students and families is of paramount importance,” Powell said. “There should never be pressure

for students to go into a testing environment where they feel at risk.”

In a statement, the Admissions Office said that students have limited opportunities to register for in-person standardized testing, also noting that “students are facing particularly great challenges in regions that have already been disproportionately affected by the global pandemic.”

The University will still consider any scores that are submitted along with all other required information in an application.

Four other Ivy League schools — Harvard, Cornell, Penn and Columbia — have already announced that they won’t require the submission of ACT or SAT scores next fall. The University, Powell added, wanted to make its policies clear before the traditional first “big wave” of testing happens for high school juniors in February and March.

“Colleges recognize that we’re not going to have this whole mess cleared up by the fall,” said Nancy Griesemer,

a private college counselor in Fairfax County, Virginia.

“I have a student who has Lyme disease,” she added. “It’s hard for me to tell her to go in and take a test.”

But easing the burden on students creates a challenge for admission offices: Test-optional policies across top schools have contributed to applicant pool sizes that have shattered records.

This year, the University received 46,469 applications for the class of 2025, a 26 percent increase from the year before.

The first effect of the sharp increase became clear with the announcement of this year’s “Ivy Day,” the date upon which every Ivy releases their admission notifications at the same time. In past years, that date has fallen in the final week of March — this year, it will come a week later on April 6 to allow offices more time to consider applicants, Powell said.

“The numbers of applications are just overwhelming,” Griesemer said.

“It’s produced a lot of stress and strain.”

In the second year of not requiring standardized tests, Griesemer said, colleges will be “better prepared” for larger applicant pools.

“We’re in the stage of asking all the questions that would help guide … how we can really, fully, thoughtfully, thoroughly review the applicants that we receive,” Powell said. Admission officers, Powell emphasized, always look at the “whole person” when evaluating applications. The challenge, he explained, will be figuring out “how best to do that” with more applicants than ever before.

The test-optional policy is effective only for the 2021-22 cycle, though Powell left the door open for policy changes after that cycle as well.

“We’ll get through this year, we’ll get through next year, we’ll take what we learn from that to make the best decision,” he said.

Applicants who don’t submit test scores and are admitted, Griesemer said, can help inform the decision on

whether to extend out test-optional policies. Colleges, she said, can “wait another year” maintaining test-optional policies and evaluate the performance of students accepted without scores.

Prospective student-athletes will be required to follow the Ivy League athletic conference’s guidance regarding whether they should submit a standardized test score. The conference did not require that applicants submit a test score for this application cycle.

International students are also not required to submit a test — though the University “highly recommends” the TOEFL or IELTS, two international standardized tests. If an international applicant cannot access either of those tests, the University also accepts other tests — such as those on the language learning app Duolingo — to prove English proficiency.

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