Action Plan is Now in Action!

"I found this quote appealing to me. Students are always told that there
were never any limits and made sure we were always  overworking
ourselves.  I'd find students wanting to take many AP classes, double up on
sports, and enter as many clubs as they could. This is just what was
expected of our teachers, parents, and even other students. But if students
were able to care more about ourselves and know when to take a
 break, it would be like a rebellion on the norms others
set upon you."  - Maddie Penree

I woke up a little later than I usually did, but I wasn’t in much of a rush. I knew my way around the campus like it were the back of my hand- or more like I knew every route to the dining hall. I took the shortest one possible and came around half an hour before class started. I ate breakfast quickly, and packed extra snacks to class just in case.

We started off our day talking about the different kinds of oppression that takes place in our society. There were three types: institutionalized oppression, horizontal oppression, and internalized oppression. Institutionalized oppression is the the use of exploiting the minority for the benefit of the dominant group, one example would be slavery. Horizontal oppression is a specific group oppressing an individual for some unshared trait or identification with another minority group, this would count as intersectional oppression as well. Internalized oppression are the beliefs that the minority is truly inferior to the dominant group because of all the negative things they’ve experienced, this is especially prevalent in stereotypes that still persist today.

Grace gave us a campus tour around Brown today, though I’m not a big fan of walking in slippers with really hot and humid weather, it genuinely wanted to absorb as much of the scene as I can before I leave in three days.

Hearing Grace’s informational speeches about the monuments and buildings around Brown made me realize that this campus was built through diversity and representation. The people of color Grace talked about were absolutely phenomenal in demonstrating their passion. They protested and fought for what they believed in, and now all students are able to see living proof of their efforts. I especially loved the story about the Native Americans demonstrative an effective peaceful protest, where they blocked the entrance to the Sayes Hall in the attempts of reclaiming Thanksgiving as Indigenous People’s Day. They had signs on their chests showing statistics and history facts of what really happened to Native Americans when Columbus arrived, and were able to sway people’s opinions with no violence whatsoever.

Mary Grace giving us the full story on how students were able to prove
Brown University faculty that they were benefiting from slavery's profit.

This building was built off of Brown student's efforts to include people of color
and promote gender equality. Ashley is in there too!

I wasn't able to get a picture of the broken monument, but this was the
description that came along with it.

My favorite stop was the LGBTQ Center, which was a combination of four rooms on the third floor of the biggest building in the Main Green (another way to find it is with the rainbow flag hung there, too). The center was established in 2004, which provides a safe place for queer people. Our class was able to meet Kelly Garrett, who is the Program Director of the center. She told us we were free to stop by anytime, and were always welcome to take or make as many buttons as we’d like.

Love this! I'm planning on bringing a lot of these home as souvenirs for my friends.

During lunch, I decided to go to the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center with Maddie (a student in our class) and Erin. We talked a little about why we liked Brown so much while we ate lunch. After an hour, we decided to go back to the LGBTQ Center to get some buttons. It turns out other people had a similar idea, but instead, they were making buttons themselves! I made three buttons but gave them all to my classmate. I had no room on my bag for any more pins, but I’m glad I made her happy with them.

Maddie and I worked together to create these pins. She would look for Sappho quotes
and I would write them on the button paper sheets.

Returning to our classes, the Dancing Dolphins thought about an anthem we could use for Women and Leadership. This was our lunch and learn assignment today, and the three of us were incredibly enthusiastic about sharing each of our songs. We ended up sharing more than twenty songs, they were all very diverse in genre, region, and popularity. I wasn’t able to take a picture of it, but I hope to listen to all of them this week.