GIVE US THE RESPECT WE DESERVE

Racism in Brown Mock Trial and institutional failure at Brown University

Our collective experiences as black people on Brown Mock Trial consisted of overt racism, microaggressions from team members, and ultimately, disrespect. We were dismissed, outcast, and made to feel inadequate when our ideas were rejected, only for them to be accepted when put forth by white team members. We left the team feeling defeated, especially since we’d made multiple attempts to speak up about our experiences.

No one deserves to feel as though their voice does not matter. No one deserves to have their confidence stripped away. No one deserves to feel so minimized. In essence, no one deserves to be disrespected. And yet this was our experience, that of students past and present, time after time after time when we were on Brown Mock Trial (BMT).

We tried to make change on the team. We took the following steps, in order:

1. Spoke out to the team against overtly racist comments made by team members

2. Spoke to team leadership over multiple years to make them aware of the ongoing issues

3. Another former member called out BMT on Black Ivy Stories, a viral Instagram account for Black students to share their experiences of racism at Ivy League universities

4. Provided resources and advice on anti-racism and accountability

5. Joined the E-board to try to make a change in BMT’s policies

6. Filed a discrimination and harassment report detailing the racism experienced on the team

7. Spoke to leaders of Brown’s Transformative Justice initiative

8. Spoke to the Student Activity Office

9. Spoke to the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity

10. Spoke to the Office of Student Conduct

11. Spoke to the Brown Daily Herald over six months and extensively detailed our experiences with Brown Mock Trial for an investigative news story

12. Spoke to the Black Star Journal about potentially writing an op-ed

13. Spoke to the Providence Journal about potentially writing an op-ed

14. Wrote a Medium article detailing Aicha’s experiences on Brown Mock Trial

Now, as we embark on our 15th step, writing an article for the College Hill Independent about our struggle to gain resolution, BMT has yet to take accountability for its history.

When asked for comment, Brown Mock Trial said, in part:

In the fall semester of 2021, our president…personally reached out to Brown’s Office of Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity. With their help, we put all of our captains and executive board members through identity, diversity, and inclusivity training. After training our captains, we put our entire general body through community building and inclusivity training as well. We required all captains and executive board members to attend the leadership and general body diversity training. In addition to working with the Office of Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity, we have also worked with the Community Dialogue Project at Brown. With their help, the general body came together and developed community guidelines for promoting and maintaining a diverse and inclusive group as we move forward as a program. Brown Mock Trial’s executive board also understands that our work does not start and end with just last year. Our work with the Community Dialogue Project and the Office of Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity are annual trainings.

BMT reached out to Brown’s Office of Inclusivity, Equity, and Diversity in Fall 2021 after Aicha sent them an email stating that she would be leaving the executive board and quitting the team due to the racism she had experienced. It’s great that BMT has finally started taking action, but it shouldn’t have taken a third black person to quit the team within two years to make this happen.

BMT’s work with the Community Dialogue Project (specifically with Transformative Justice within the Community Dialogue Project) began because Aicha spoke to a representative of Transformative Justice after filing her Discrimination and Harassment report and requested that they contact BMT’s president to begin their work with the club—work that she asked not to be involved with. The fact that BMT seems to be trying to take credit for working with the Community Dialogue Project at Brown when Aicha specifically started this work by going through multiple administrative offices adds yet another layer to BMT’s refusal to take proper accountability and responsibility for their past.

Again, it is great that BMT seems to be finally taking some action towards cultivating an anti-racist environment within their organization, but that doesn’t mean they get to sweep their racist and harmful history under the rug without taking responsibility. BMT hasn’t made any public statements acknowledging or condemning its racist history. The wider Brown community and the public more generally are aware of BMT’s history only because of Aicha’s Medium article. A big step in working towards real change and moving forward is taking accountability for past actions; this seems to be a step that Brown Mock Trial wants to skip.

Brown Mock Trial continued, saying, “It also appears that the incidents referenced are said to have been by current and former members of the team. However, we do not believe any of the students referenced in these past incidents are current members of the team. Only two of our current members were actually members of Brown Mock Trial when any of these incidents occurred and they were not involved.”

Essentially saying that all of the problematic and/or racist people on the team have now left doesn’t change the fact that BMT’s infrastructure allowed them to thrive on the team for years with no repercussions for their harmful actions. This doesn’t absolve BMT of years of harm that the organization cultivated and allowed to occur, or the fact that BMT still needs and has yet to accept responsibility for these years of harm.

By stating that the people on the team that exhibited racist and problematic behavior have now left, BMT is implying that their issues with racism and discrimination were simply a product of a few problematic members. This is not the case. Brown Mock Trial’s issues stem from a culture of evading repercussions, bystandership, and inequity.

Brown University as a whole is also complicit in BMT’s racist culture because of the administration’s inaction. As we attempted to seek some resolution after leaving BMT, we were met with little to no support, zero concrete solutions offered by the many administrative offices

we spoke to, and even outright discouragement when we mentioned the option of writing an op-ed about our experiences with the team. When Aicha attempted to seek some semblance of justice through Brown’s established reporting process, she started off by filing a discrimination and harassment report. After that, however, she was sent from office to office with no clear direction on how Brown Mock Trial could be held accountable. It was just dead-end after deadend. (In a statement, a spokesperson for Brown University said the school was “not at liberty” to discuss details of these experiences, citing federal privacy law.)

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By the end of the lengthy journey, we were left feeling dismissed. It became clear that no one was willing to help us get our story out there, either out of fear or complacency. Both BMT and Brown University failed us. Unfortunately, this failure suggests that BMT is not the only student organization where racism and other forms of oppression persist.

This pattern of failure has negatively impacted our collective well-being. It took a lot for us to share our stories. It took a lot of time. From the first time alerting the E-board of our experiences, to now, this has been a nearly three-year-long journey.

A big step in working towards real change and moving forward is taking accountability for past actions; this seems to be a step that Brown Mock Trial wants to skip.

It took a lot of energy. We had to find these offices and reach out to the right people, all while still juggling academic responsibilities, leading other organizations, and dealing with the aftermath of these experiences.

Our work took a lot of courage. Brown Mock Trial is one of the most funded student campus organizations, receiving $25,500 for the 2021-2022 school year. In past years, they’ve received as much as $40,446. Going against such a well-funded, long-standing organization was daunting.

Each time we went to a new office or news organization, we had to regain the resolution to speak up; this became harder every single time. It was incredibly draining to retell and re-explain harmful and negative experiences over and over again. We began doubting ourselves and our own feelings about our experiences. We wavered in our tenacity and started to give up on the idea of receiving some semblance of justice for what had happened. Not being listened to

made us feel unvalued and disrespected once again. These are experiences that no one should have to endure.

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A first step to our healing would be a sincere apology from BMT and the Brown University offices that neglected to take action. Concrete change within the organization and at Brown as a whole would also be integral to our healing. As we write this article, we know that there are more students who have experienced similar degrees of injustice in other student groups. Brown needs to do better in making space for students to share their experiences of racism and discrimination on campus.

Some directions that BMT and Brown University could explore in order to provide a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all students include:

1. Creating mechanisms for reports of racism or other harm that are accessible to members of every campus organization and could lead to consequences by the university, financial or otherwise

2. Mandating that organizations inform all club members of these mechanisms

3. Formally reviewing and streamlining the process for reporting racism and discrimination so that students do not have to go from office to office and retell their stories numerous times

4. Preventing harm before it comes by implementing ongoing and recurring anti-racist, anti-oppressive education within student groups, as well as campuswide

5. Ensuring that University officials are knowledgeable about race, racism, and their impact on students of color

Ultimately, we are not experts. We are 19-23 year olds, balancing school, work, and our personal lives. Brown University is a 258-year-old institution with a nearly $7 billion endowment and an incomprehensible amount of resources. It is not our job to solve all of these issues; it’s Brown’s. It is Brown’s responsibility to create and improve spaces dedicated to supporting students who face these injustices. Through these ideas, we hope to see some effort made by Brown to help their students.

We’re tired of speaking up over and over again just to be ignored. We’re done being treated like our voices do not matter. We will not accept the lack of response from Brown Mock Trial and Brown University. Our experiences deserve to be respected. Our mental health deserves to be respected. Our voices deserve to be respected.

Give us the respect we deserve.

AICHA SAMA B‘24 won’t stand down.

JARED JONES B‘22 won’t stand down.