Open Collective
Open Collective
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Overview and 2021-22 Update
Published on July 19, 2022 by Nan Eileen Mead

The Black and Brown Collective was founded in the spring of 2021 by a group of students attending college and graduate school across multiple campuses in the state of New York.
Created, in part, to respond to racially-biased incidents on college campuses, the mission of the Black and Brown Collective is to improve the college experience and post-college transition for all BIPOC peoples regardless of country of origin, language, religion, gender identity, gender expressions, and sexual orientation, by creating events and venues for students to network, providing opportunities for mentorship, and assistance with the transition to the workplace.

During the 2021-22 academic year, the Black and Brown Collective organized several in-person and virtual activities, including:

- Juneteenth picnic in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
- Gathering and donating supplies to support hurricane victims in Haiti
- An evening of Gratitude virtual mindfulness event

The Black and Brown Collective strongly encourages colleges and universities to seek solutions to the following issues that negatively impact the experiences of people of color on college campuses, including:

- lack of diverse faculty
- overt acts of racial- and anti-LGBTQ bias that occur on college campuses
- mental health challenges for members of these communities that arise from feelings of marginalization 

The Black and Brown Collective is a volunteer-led organization; to date, we have not incurred any expenses associated with our activities.

The Black and Brown Collective met semi-monthly during the 2021-22 academic year. After a brief hiatus, the membership plans to reorganize in the coming weeks with an agenda for the 2022-23 academic year. Stay tuned!