Monday, September 11, 2017

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 62

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Activists, elected officials protest Trump’s DACA decision

GUS REED / HERALD

Hundreds gathered in Burnside Park Friday and marched to the Rhode Island State House to protest President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a policy that was introduced by former President Barack Obama in 2012. Demonstrators expressed dismay, anger and frustration toward Trump’s decision.

Demonstrators speak on necessity of better policy at rally on steps of RI State House

By PRIYANKA PODUGU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Local activists, elected officials and Brown students protested President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Friday. Trump’s decision to allow DACA to expire next year has left some students and Providence

community members with uncertain futures.

The program, which was created through an executive order issued by former President Barack Obama in 2012, offers legal work permits and renewable protection from deportation for two years to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

Kennedy Plaza to be redesigned Proposed renovations to consolidate Biltmore, Burnside parks, facilitate community gathering

By OLIVIA KATCHER STAFF WRITER

Providence’s central bus hub, Kennedy Plaza, will undergo another facelift, announced Mayor Jorge Elorza on Aug. 31. The announcement comes less than three years after the last renovations of Kennedy Plaza, which cost the city $1.7 million in bond money plus a $700,000 federal grant. The city estimated the current plan would cost $5 million.

The newest redesign would consolidate the Biltmore and Burnside parks into a continuous space, introduce shaded seating and public art and eventually include a redesign of the Alex and Ani City Center ice rink

INSIDE

to convert it into a better community gathering space.

The mayor hopes that the changes will make the plaza a place for the Providence community to grow, said press secretary Victor Morente. Morente added that public spaces are a big part of Providence’s identity.

Superintendent of the Providence Parks and Recreation Department, Wendy Nilsson, hopes that Kennedy Plaza will grow as both a local and tourist destination for New England and beyond. By combining all the smaller parks, Kennedy Plaza “will become a unified, open space, while still maintaining each smaller park’s individual identity,” Nilsson said.

With deferred maintenance and volunteer work — including cleaning up park benches, light posts and railings — the new Kennedy Plaza will “make the whole area pop,” she added. » See PLAZA, page 3

March to the State House Starting at Burnside Park, the protest was organized by the Coalition of Advocates for Student Opportunities, the Providence Immigrant Rights Coalition, the Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition and the Providence Student Union. It ended in speeches from DACA recipients, an immigration lawyer and other allies of the undocumented immigrant community on the steps of the State House.

Krissia Rivera Perla ’15 MD’21 spoke to the crowd about her desire to become a doctor and her experiences as a DACA recipient. She added that the issues surrounding DACA were not “about political beliefs. It’s about sympathy and love. We deserve better simply because we’re human beings.”

“We fought for so long to be treated as human beings with dignity,” she told The Herald. “We are contributing to this country, and, everyday, we are being demeaned by the media.”

Yaruska Ordinola, a DACA recipient who graduated from the University of Rhode Island, also addressed demonstrators.

She told the crowd she was initially afraid when she heard about Trump’s decision because she believed she would “lose everything … the ability to have a license, the ability to have an ID, the ability to work.”

However, she said that fear then turned into “disappointment and then » See DACA, page 2

Heritage Day Festival celebrates 40 years Country representatives at annual festival showcase cultural backgrounds, including food, music

By BELLA ROBERTS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Hundreds of people gathered on the State House lawn Saturday to eat foods from multiple cultures, purchase homemade crafts and speak with representatives from more than 20 different countries. It was the 40th Rhode Island Heritage Day Festival, an event that convenes each year to celebrate the many cultural communities that make up the state.

The day was chock full of events from noon to 5 p.m. When attendees weren’t walking through colorful table displays, they were watching dancers and musicians — groups like the Eastern Medicine Singers, the Scandanavian Women’s Chorus of Rhode Island and Ballet Folklorico Guadalupano, among many others — perform.

BELLA ROBERTS / HERALD

Heritage Day Festival provides event-goers with an opportunity to experience and support the many cultural communities in Rhode Island.

Country representatives and Boy Scouts opened the festival, marching with flags from each country toward the State House. Mercedes Monteiro, the

heritage program coordinator for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, organized » See FESTIVAL, page 3

WEATHER

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

SPORTS Goals from Story ’19, Waldman ’18 fuel women’s soccer to 2-1 victory over Lafayette

SPORTS 2-1 overtime victory over Holy Cross extends winning streak for men’s soccer

COMMENTARY Okin ’19: Jewish students should engage with their community to fight anti-semitism

COMMENTARY Slade ’20: Societal expectations dehumanize, discriminate against overweight people

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

» DACA, from page 1 it turned into empowerment … (because) DACA does not define me.”

“We all knew it was a temporary” solution, she added.

Renata Mauriz ’17.5 also addressed the crowd about the issues she faced as a DACA recipient, like having to use her economic contributions and academic achievements to defend her worthiness of living in the United States because her humanity on its own would not suffice.

“Right now we have the opportunity … to tell Congress that we are not taking any crumbs that only protect Dreamers like me,” Mauriz said, adding that “millions of undocumented immigrants deserve protections,” and that the premise of only helping DACA recipients because they seemed “more American” was wrong.

Mayor Jorge Elorza told The Herald that defending DACA is a personal issue for him. His sister was born in Guatemala and brought to the United States when she was one year old.

“They didn’t call them Dreamers (then), but she was a Dreamer.”

With Trump “picking on folks who can’t really stand up for themselves,” Elorza said he believes “it’s all the more important for us to stand up and speak in strong and certain terms that we’re going to look out for the people that he’s picking on.” He told The Herald that Providence will offer municipal identification cards and scholarships that are accessible to undocumented students living in Rhode Island.

Gaspar Espinoza said he came to the rally to bring attention to the fact

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that Gov. Gina Raimondo had not kept her promise to pass an executive order to grant driver’s licenses to the undocumented immigrants living in Rhode Island. “It’s very hypocritical of Gina Raimondo to come to all these events and say, ‘I’m here for the undocumented. I’m here for the immigrant’ when she’s capable of passing (this) executive order,” he said.

The Herald previously reported that efforts to pass a proposal to give undocumented Rhode Islanders driver’s licenses stalled in 2015.

Planning the protest The protest was organized by Coalition of Advocates for Student Opportunities, which counts among its members Javier Juarez MA’18 and Assistant Professor of American Studies Kevin Escudero.

CASO funds the Tam Tran scholarship named in memory of a Brown undergraduate and intended for undocumented college students in Rhode Island. Additionally, it has built a support network for undocumented students across the state, Juarez said.

Juarez added that the idea to organize the protest came from a meeting that CASO held for undocumented students during the week that Trump announced his decision to roll back DACA. Those at the meeting wondered “what are we going to do in retaliation for” this decision, he said. Having just attended an immigrants’ rights march, Juarez said he suggested holding a rally for DACA and everyone “jumped on that message.”

“We didn’t plan for the turnout that we got,” he added.

GUS REED / HERALD

GUS REED / HERALD

GUS REED / HERALD

The rollback of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is slated to end in March 2018, is expected to affect the roughly 800,000 current DACA recipients. DACA recipients, local activists and allies of the undocumented immigrant community addressed the crowd on the steps of the State House on Friday.

NEW COURSE offered by the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences CLPS 0010 - Mind, Brain and Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Approach MWF 1-1:50, Metcalf Auditorium FIRST-YEARS WELCOME FULFILLS PSYCHOLOGY PRE-MED REQUIREMENT This course will provide an interdisciplinary approach to the science of the mind through the lens of psychology, cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, computational modeling and linguistics, as uniquely represented by our department. It will focus on questions that drive the field, current state-of-the-art, and successful techniques and approaches. Questions addressed will include: What is the nature of the human mind? How do we get input from the world? How do we communicate? How do we change as infants and adults through experience? How do we make decisions and judgments? How do minds meet other minds in a social world?

GUS REED / HERALD

Local elected officials, including Mayor Jorge Elorza, attended the protest to show their support for Dreamers.

NEWS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 • PAGE 3

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» FESTIVAL, from page 1 the festival from start to finish, as she has for the past 16 years.

“We don’t have to hate each other.

There’s no reason for it,” she said. “I think by celebrating the diversity of Rhode Island, the generations to come will work together. We can celebrate each other without losing our own identity.”

Usually the festival hosts around 200 to 500 people in the Roger Williams National Memorial, but this year the festival’s change of location to outside the State House made it more visible.

Kobi Dennis, festival host and community activist, thought the move might have helped the event draw even larger crowds.

“We try to represent as many countries as we can. As you see, we have people from the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, India — all over the world. And what we try to do is show people the communities Rhode Island consists of,” Dennis said.

Everyone involved, from the table

managers to the flag bearers, were volunteers. Many get involved with the festival yearly, Dennis said.

Volunteers get drawn into the festival through its partners. MJ Martins, for example, volunteered to represent Portugal this year. She found out about the Heritage Day Festival through a different Rhode Island event, the Day of Portugal, over ten years ago and has been volunteering yearly ever since.

The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission’s Deputy Director, Jeff Emidy, emphasized the value of celebrating the state’s rich cultural communities in his opening remarks at the festival.

“My son goes to school in Providence in a community of children whose parents come from places that were unknown to me at that age. It helps him to be a more worldly, passionate and inclusive person. I hope the youngest generations of our state and country have the same opportunities to understand and accept people of different cultures, and that’s the reason we are here today,” Emidy said.

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Mayor Jorge Elorza recently announced a plan for the renovation of Kennedy Plaza, a major bus center. The remodel, which is intended to make the plaza a community center, will cost around $5 million.

» PLAZA, from page 1 City officials worked with local organizations, such as the Providence Downtown Neighborhood Association, to ensure everyone in the community had the opportunity to express their thoughts on the new plans. The Providence Parks and Recreation Department held seven meetings with the Downtown Neighborhood Association to “develop downtown as a type of backyard” to the community, Nilsson said.

The city’s Depart of Planning and Development Department also held two workshops and community meetings where citizens could voice their

opinions on the plan .

City planners worked with community members and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority officials to create new city bus routes, as the plans will restructure current bus routes to combine the plaza’s two parks. RIPTA’s Director of Public Affairs, Barbara Polichetti, said however that RIPTA had not yet determined the new routes.

“What we do know is that (the city is) proposing two-way bus traffic on Washington Street, and that it would be (public) transit only,” as opposed to its current system, which stretches one way and allows cars to travel on it, Polichetti said. “That is what we will be looking to maximize and make most

advantageous for transit.”

RIPTA said it would help the city to make its vision a reality, but its primary focus remains on providing passengers access to buses.

With the revitalization, Providence aims to create the type of community spaces seen in other American metropoles.

“If you look at major cities like (New York City) and Chicago, they have one huge public area where people meet, and Kennedy Plaza very much has the potential to be (a space similar to) that,” Morente said.

The city has not yet set a timeline for the Kennedy Plaza reconstruction’s completion.

SPORTS

PAGE 4 • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. SOCCER

Formidable offense powers Bruno to 2-1 victory over Lafayette Goals from Story ’19, Waldman ’18 fuel Bears to home victory as Brown outshoots Lafayette 21-8

By ALEXANDRA RUSSELL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The women’s soccer team bounced back from a pair of losses last week with a 2-1 victory over Lafayette College at Stevenson-Pincince Field Sunday.

Celia Story ’19 and Mikela Waldman ’18 scored a goal each, fueling Bruno (4-2) to victory. Story put the Bears on the board in the eighth minute, netting a cross from Waldman at the right post.

“We were doing well getting wide — we had some success with Mikela getting some crosses in,” Story said. “We were just aggressive to the ball. We just wanted to win the ball, and that gave us some energy up top.”

Waldman widened the lead in the 53rd minute, redirecting a cross inside the box from Jennifer Caruso ’19 past the goalkeeper.

A one-on-one goal from Alexa Buffa brought the game closer in the 77th minute, but Bruno held onto the lead

until the final whistle.

Brown dominated offensively, taking 21 shots for Lafayette’s eight.

“You saw a lot more creativity in the attacking third today,” said Head Coach Kia McNeill. “There (are) not a lot of schools that are generating opportunities like that. We got a lot of our attacking players confident on the ball (and) got them a lot of minutes in the game.”

Veteran goalkeeper Christine Etzel ’19 made her sixth appearance of the season, blocking one shot.

With Ivy League play looming, McNeill emphasized the importance of capitalizing on offensive plays and building confidence.

“We got a lot of chances on goal, now we’ve got to put them away,” McNeill said. “You get confident through scoring goals and having strong opportunities in front of the net, and … solidifying things in the back third as well. We can’t be giving up easy goals in the Ivy League, so we’ve just got to continue to tighten things up that way.”

The Bears will face conference rival Dartmouth to open league play at home Sept. 24. Since the beginning of its season in August, the team has become

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Rookie Cameron Brown ’21 fends off an oncoming attacker. Sunday’s win marked the Bears’ fourth victory of the season after the team opened 2017 with a trio of consecutive victories. more comfortable playing with one another, McNeill said.

“It’s amazing how well the freshmen have come in and kind of integrated themselves and made an impact into our lineup here,” McNeill said. “You’re

starting to see the chemistry come together between a lot of them.”

“When you come in, you have freshmen you haven’t played with — we get started right away,” Story said. “We have some great freshmen, and everyone on

the team really likes hanging out and playing together. The more time we get to play together, the better we get.”

Bruno visits Massachusetts Thursday before hosting Central Connecticut State Sunday.

M. SOCCER

Howell '19 goal propels Brown to 2-1 overtime win English '18 records goal, assist as Bears extend winning streak ahead of Texas visit

By TESS DEMEYER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team’s three-game winning streak continued as Brown (3-0) defeated Holy Cross 2-1 in

overtime Sunday evening. Goals from Quinn English ’18 and Toby Howell ’19 sealed the Bears’ third victory, which followed a 2-0 win over Quinnipiac Friday night. For the past three seasons, Bruno has opened up 3-0, though the results of the remaining 14 games have been mixed. This year, the team hopes the rest of its season will follow suit.

“We went 3-0 last season and then went 5-8, so it’s about maintaining

that consistency. 3-0 is a great start, but it’s three out of 17,” English said.

Though the Bears outshot the Crusaders (1-1-1) five to four in the first half, missed opportunities plagued Bruno’s offense.

Holy Cross got on the board first.

In the 11th minute, a defensive breakdown by Bruno resulted in a Crusader goal that was last touched by a Brown player.

“We started off fine. We were doing well, and then we scored on ourselves,” said Head Coach Patrick Laughlin.

“We went into a funk a little bit and weren’t playing as well.”

But it would be the only goal for Holy Cross. Multiple crucial stops by goalkeeper Joey Cipicchio ’18 kept the Crusaders at bay, and the Bears entered halftime with just a one-goal deficit.

“In the locker room, we got together and decided we weren’t going to go 1-0,” English said. “Our energy took over in the second half.”

The newfound intensity was evident as Brown retook the field for the final forty-five minutes of play, displaying better possession and working their offense well. English’s first goal

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Members of the men’s soccer team gather in a huddle during Sunday’s contest. The Bears enter this weekend’s trip to Texas undefeated at 3-0. of the season evened the score at 1-1 in the 71st minute, and two big saves

by Cipicchio forced overtime.

Five minutes into overtime play, Howell drove a header into the Holy Cross net off a long cross from English to secure the win.

“The assist I feel better about, actually, because it was the game

winner,” English said. “It’s also nice to get someone else a goal. It’s better for me to get an assist than a goal.”

The Bears will travel to Oklahoma and Texas to play Tulsa and Southern Methodist University, respectively, next Friday and Sunday before returning home to play in-state rival University of Rhode Island Sept. 23.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 • PAGE 5

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sudoku

ELI WHITE / HERALD

The skyline of Brown from the heights of the SciLi complements the light, sun-filled summer sky. But the wind, not pictured, brings tides of the colder seasons to come.

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“My son goes to school in Providence in a community of children whose parents come from places that were

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, November 1, 2012

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ACROSS 1 That-funny link 6 Assistance 9 Tread heavily 14 Name in cosmetics 15 Droid, e.g.

16 Sine or secant 17 “All Summer Long” singers 19 Name of two presidents 20 Foot the bill for 21 Egyptian underworld boss?

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44 Wire service abbr.

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5 Imam Khomeini International Airport locale 6 Speed skater __ Anton Ohno 7 Pastoral poem 8 Marx’s “__ Kapital” 9 Oscar’s place 10 Fireside chat medium 11 Hokkaido seaport 12 Actress Rogers et al.

13 Western party 18 Barrio food store 21 München-toWien heading 23 “The Maltese Falcon” actor 24 Stinkers 25 Working away 26 Swing __ 27 “Hand me a bat!”

31 Film composer Morricone 32 Country Time suffix 34 Tartan wraparound 35 Works on a cake 36 “Fantasia” hippo’s wear

37 Professional org.

39 Kitchen utensil 40 Tough row to hoe 45 High deg.

47 Hot-blooded 48 One of California’s Santas 49 Sanctioned 50 Prove useful 51 Teary-eyed

52 Pequod sinker 53 Payment option 56 Short range 57 Credit card name with a red arc over it 58 One who gets what’s coming 59 Business sign abbr.

61 Uniform item, perhaps

unknown to me at that age. It helps him to be a more

”

worldly, passionate and inclusive person.

— Jeff Emidy, Heritage Commission deputy director

See festival on page 1

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

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From Pumapunki to the Pantheon 5:30 P.M. Rhode Island Hall, Room 108

Vinyasa Yoga 6:00 P.M. Hillel, Winnick Chapel

Free Beginner Swing Dance Lessons 8:00 P.M. Alumnae Hall Auditorium

Effective Interviewing 6:30 P.M. CareerLab

TOMORROW Probability Seminar: Sebastien Andres 11:00 A.M. 170 Hope St., Room 108

Brown in Chile Info Session Effective 12:00 P.M. J Walter Wilson, Room 440

J.P. Morgan Internship Information Session 6:00 P.M. BERT 130

Telescope Observing Night 8:00 P.M. Ladd Observatory

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

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comic Comic | Ceyhun Firat

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COMMENTARY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 • PAGE 7

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In light of hate, choose community REBECCA OKIN staff columnist The iconic Rabbi A.Y. Kook once said, “I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” This statement encapsulates the visceral obligation I feel to the Jewish community to react: to scream when swastiskas stain high school walls, to cry when bomb threats desecrate the once-comforting Jewish Community Centers, to write a column when an appearance by Pepe the Frog becomes common in a routine social media scroll. As Rabbi Kook explains, the insuppressible urge to do something is prompted by my inability to do nothing. Moreover, I think this inability stems from a critical element of Judaism that is fundamental whether your identity is rooted in the religion’s cultural values or its pious traditions: the focus and dependence on community. It is the care and thus intuitive responsibility I feel toward the Jewish community and its members that has afforded me the confidence and motivation to advocate against hate. Consequently, I’ve come to believe that with stronger ties to

the community comes a heightened ability to confront anti-Semitism.

“Okay, alright. I disavow, okay?” was our president’s exact response to inquiries about the support he received from fierce anti-Semite and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke — and this insignificant, seemingly indifferent attitude was not a one-time occurrence. In fact, the dismissal of the magnitude and significance of anti-Semitism has be-

munity that has remained a cornerstone of Judaism. If he felt any sense of duty to the Jewish community, or the instinctive empathy a president ought to feel in the face of hatred, I am confident his responses to the evils committed would stop teetering on indifference.

However, this column does not intend to focus on Trump’s incompetence in the area of moral courage. Rather, I want to suggest we do

anti-Semitism. In the current resurgence of anti-Semitism, to stand tall and announce your Jewish presence, to proudly declare this commitment to the worldwide community, is an act as brave as it is important. Fight against the hate by showing up fully with your Jewish identity, whether that connection stems from resonating with a religious element, a cultural value or something else entirely.

This is easily said, but the question

In the current resurgence of anti-Semitism, to stand tall and announce your Jewish presence, to proudly declare this commitment to the worldwide community, is an act as brave as it is important. come quite a theme in this administration. From issuing a Holocaust remembrance memo without any mention of the millions of Jewish deaths to making the already-infamous insinuation that Nazis aren’t entirely rotten, President Trump constantly exposes his ignorant, detached and plainly uncaring attitude toward the severity of this kind of bigotry. While it is arguable whether the man is a raging anti-Semite or simply a narcissist who hates rejecting his fans, what is undeniable is that Trump doesn’t internalize the value of com-

the opposite: Stop giving his inadequate defense of the Jewish people so much time and energy, and instead, use that strength to focus on being our own champions of change. Last year, Brown/RISD Hillel’s Rabbi Michelle Dardashti, while telling the story of the first people on earth, discussed the question of “Ayyeka?” or “Where are you?” In response, she encouraged us to reflect on this question ourselves and confidently answer “Hineini” or “Here I am,” fearlessly presenting our Jewish identities to the world amid rampant

for many still remains: How do you do this? Attending religious services could satisfy this desire for some, but there are so many other avenues to proudly exhibit a Jewish identity that suits your background. You can be a part of Jewish life on campus through means that truly resonate with who you are: craft for the holidays, bake challah for charity, attend a lecture featuring a Jewish novelist. Seek ways to connect with the Jewish community. A sense of devotion to the group and sincere engagement can offer the astonishing inability to remain silent.

The other day, I was pasting construction paper letters on a poster for Hillel’s booth at the activities fair when I began aimlessly cutting triangles. In a moment of utter genius, I realized that if rotated and overlapped, paired triangles could be glued on the paper to resemble Stars of David. But I froze: What if this iconic symbol of Judaism triggered an act of anti-Semitism? Immediately, images of the countless walls adorned with spray-painted slurs, the confused children being frantically evacuated from JCCs nationwide, the shattered remains of a wall of the New England Holocaust Memorial came to mind. This sixpointed symbol, and the implicit or conscious bias it evoked, could single-handedly produce so much hate and crime and tragedy. But suddenly a stronger thought took hold: The use of this emblem contains the history and carries the promise of an entire community — if we fully embrace it.

It represents an identity, but only its owners have the power to paste it on their posters. Needless to say, I’m gluing my triangles together, and I encourage you to do the same.

Rebecca Okin ’19 can be reached at rebecca_okin@brown.edu.

Reconstructing fatness MATHEW SLADE op-ed contributor Growing up fat, I learned 1,000 ways to make myself smaller. Yes, to run in the mornings, to sideeye sweets, to eat my vegetables. But it was not just about losing weight. I learned to avoid situations where my body might garner unwanted attention. I spent my time in the back or corners of rooms. I spoke softly, walked quickly from place to place and opted to stand inconspicuously by a wall even when sitting in a chair was a reasonable option. The constant awareness that I was taking up too much space — space that belonged to other people — tailored my movement and mannerisms to make me into the perfect fat person: quiet, undemanding, out of view and complicit in my own censorship. I afforded others the courtesy of not reminding them that fat people existed.

When I arrived at campus last fall, this hadn’t changed. In fact, my fear intensified as I considered the logistics of showering in a public space and eating food in front of others, as I realized that I didn’t always fit into the desks and chairs provided and that I wouldn’t be able to hide myself as I had done previously. At Brown, I constantly dread encountering or returning to a space that cannot accommodate my body. I am scared, always, of not only being in such a space, but also of being unable to adjust the situation to divert attention away from my body. The worry that I will draw too much attention to my fatness — the fatness that I feel is eternally reviled and judged — is always there. While the physical aspects of this inaccessibility are important to address, the cultural component is just as vital to

our health and well-being as students at Brown.

Reinventing the culture surrounding fatness costs no money and no logistical restructuring, only mindfulness and a willingness to question what we’ve been taught.

The repulsion to fat bodies is fluid and impermanent, dependent upon the current social landscape. Fat people are reminded constantly that we are fit for little more than the cruel character archetypes we see on television. We are the class clowns. We are the Disney villains. We are the sidekicks. We are the face of the corpulent, greedy, gluttonous analogy for those who love money and power too much. We are the “before” and never the “after.” We are caricatures for un-

removed from romantic and sexual contexts. As one might suspect, these slights on our humanity and self-expression, alongside our trepidation in navigating the campus, at such a critical juncture in our lives do nothing but harm us socially, academically and often physically. The omnipresent and oft-unspoken belief, even here, is that fat people cannot be trusted with full autonomy, for if we cannot be trusted with our bodies, how can we be trusted to act correctly in other situations?

The distaste for us is assumed, if not explicit. For us, it has become increasingly obvious that most objections to our appearance or lifestyle come not from a place of concern for our health, but rather offense to the notion that we do not exist

There are infinite ways to live as a fat person, and there is no one way to become fat, let alone one way that merits the shame and disgust imposed upon us. popular politicians. We are hedonistic, reckless, two-dimensional, and we exist only as comedic devices or beasts to ignore uncomfortably. Yet the truth is that fatness is not monolithic, neither in appearance nor in spirit. Fatness is diverse, and fat people who embody these stereotypes do exist. But we are wronged when we are forced into these archetypes and not allowed the complexity afforded to people who are not fat. There are infinite ways to live as a fat person, and there is no one way to become fat, let alone one way that merits the shame and disgust imposed upon us.

Fat loneliness is pervasive, insidious and deeply familiar. Fat people are dehumanized and desexualized, much preferred unseen, unheard and

in a way that most have been taught to find aesthetically pleasing or even generally acceptable. It is this barrier, along with our physical ones, that keeps us from complete academic fairness, and it is the unwillingness of others to question internal biases that deprives us of the love and respect of which we are just as deserving as anyone else.

Our fatness, however, does not exist in a vacuum. It is not an aspect isolated from prejudice and social justice. Our fatness exists in the racialized fetishization of black and brown women. It exists in the intra-community devaluation of fat gay men. It exists in the withholding of independence from fat disabled people. It exists in multiplicity and it exists largely because our society al-

lows it. It is far more comfortable to view fatness as a character defect rather than to confront one’s prejudice and consider that it may in fact be tied to more striking systems of disenfranchisement.

Objection to fatness is often quiet and, at face value, often seems justified. There is a cycle of doubt particular to fatness that forces us to question our self-advocacy: Am I the one who’s wrong? Do I have the right to complain about the seat sizes?

Does my existence normalize unhealthiness? Am I really worthy of the love and acceptance that I claimed I was? It is this downward spiral that propels us back into our fear, our loneliness, our selfloathing.

Thus comes the time to examine myself — the time to question my own self-censorship, my desperate need to play roles I do not fit, my hesitation to express that I have inherent worth. To exist unapologetically as a fat person, to promote self-love and self-acceptance, is to exist bravely.

It is imperative to reclaim my right to space — not more space than others, but enough space to exist freely, the space that others are granted and the space that fat people fearfully avoid. Part of this rests on the shoulders of fat people to leave the safety of silence and take up self-advocacy.

Another part requires the effort of our peers, an effort to reevaluate their understanding of fatness and the ways they may perpetuate a culture that damages us. This, currently, is my hope for Brown: for us to be mindful of fatness and the ways we interact with it. It is one step of many in the commitment to social justice, a step that helps our campus become as safe, enriching and just as possible.

Mathew Slade ’20 can be reached at mathew_slade@brown.edu.

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