The University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice encountered a few surprises during its town meeting in MacMillan 117 Tuesday night. The committee answered questions and mediated debate among members of the Brown community and the wider public, who included vocal representatives of a controversial "pro-white" organization.
The meeting was the first open forum to discuss the role of the slavery and justice committee this year. The committee - which is composed of faculty and administration as well as undergraduate and graduate students - was appointed in 2003 by President Ruth Simmons to explore the University's relationship to slavery and the issues that relationship raises.
Though widely varying concerns were raised at the meeting, which about 30 people attended, the five members of the 15-person committee present emphasized that the exchange of perspectives and ideas taking place was the most valuable thing the committee could hope to catalyze.
"Our job is to encourage reflective, academically rigorous discussion," said Associate Professor of History and committee chair James Campbell. "In a world rife with injustice, it's hard to decide which injustices deserve a university's attention. (But) if all this process becomes is us wringing our hands about the fact that in the past, some people acted badly, I think we should pack up our tent and go home. This is about making connections - not only being informed and reflective on the past, but applying that to the present."
Community member Jay Lambert, who was born and raised in Fall River, Mass., said committee members should take into account the history specific to southern New England, reminding the audience that Rhode Island's economy depended much more strongly on the textile industry and immigrant mill workers, particularly children, than it ever did on slavery.
"Brown's relationship to slavery was insignificant," Lambert said. "(The committee) should be far more concerned with the real Rhode Island economy - 7-year-old children working in mills, not slavery, supported Brown.
"As someone born and raised in this part of the country, I expect the work that this committee does to be accessible to the typical southeastern New Englander. Slavery was not their primary concern," Lambert said.
"Our charge is not to look at 'either/or' situations or to come to some conclusion about slavery's effect on this institution," said Associate Provost and Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen, who is also a committee member. "The silence that surrounds this subject has, to some degree, left us paralyzed to move forward. We're talking about things people don't talk about. It is a process of intellectual and emotional learning, and I've found that it gets more and more complicated the more you get into it, not clear."
Representatives from the Boston chapter of National Alliance, which they described as "America's foremost pro-white organization," raised their concerns about the prevalence of white guilt in society today, turning heads with some of their comments. The alliance is "the largest and most active neo-Nazi organization in the United States," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
"White guilt has a face, and this is it," said Clint Esterbrook, spokesman for the chapter. "Slavery ended a century and a half ago. Indentured servants were slaves, too. We are separatists because forced integration doesn't work. Detroit used to be a great city. Hope High School used to be a great school, but it's not anymore, because there are no white students there - just kids putting graffiti on the walls and pissing in the hallways."
"Racism saturates our nation," Allen responded. "Engaging in these conversations enlightens us on the journey to understanding better. We need to keep this in mind - we're taking on this work to provide more informed opinions.
"I've been black in America for 45 years," she added, "and I've never peed on a wall."
Rev. Everett Mohammed, who came to the meeting on behalf of the Nation of Islam, expressed his satisfaction with the formation of the committee, and the necessity of their work.
"You have to remember - slaves picked the cotton for those textile mills," Mohammed said. "There was an African holocaust. Servitude is not slavery. There is a lack of dialogue, information, hard data - it's hard to quantify when you don't know what you're dealing with. My hopes are that the committee will establish a working knowledge, so that eventually it can come to a strong position."
Committee member Ross Cheit, associate professor of political science, also spoke about the University's larger responsibility to the entire country. "Universities confront controversial issues that aren't necessarily being dealt with well in other venues," he said. "(Our responsibility is) to study issues, collect data, be academics - we have a strong moral authority here, because very few directives come straight from the president. By taking a position, we can influence a broader scope of people - they can learn by examining the University's dealings."
Audience members raised concerns about encouraging more student participation in the committee's work, including a suggestion to add a new Liberal Learning course dedicated to issues like those explored by the committee.
Itiah Thomas '07 encouraged the committee to dedicate its work to any slaves from whom the University might have benefited.
"We should celebrate the people who gave their lives for the success of this institution," she said. "We can't reverse that we benefited from that activity. More than just presenting information, there should be a celebration of those people."
Currently, the committee's main effort has been to organize a series of programs that will run over the course of the next two years. Open to the general public, the programs will first focus on the history of the Rhode Island slave trade and the University's ties to slavery, including the use of slaves in the construction of University Hall. Next year, they will begin to address the nationwide question of reparations for these injustices.
The next program in the series, a panel discussion titled "The Texture of Slavery in Colonial Rhode Island," will be Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Salomon 001. More resources, including historical essays, bibliographies and documents related to the committee's ongoing discussion and information about grants and fellowships available to students, are available at the committee's Web site.
