You walk into the bathroom of the Rock, but instead of seeing the newest poster promoting an event on campus, you find a list of names written on the walls—names of male students who are alleged rapists.
Sounds absurd, right? But, according to a 1990 New York Times article “Date Rape and a List at Brown,” this black list not only existed in libraries, but also spread to other bathrooms across campus, despite janitors’ efforts to repeatedly scrub away the names. During this time of turmoil when Brown was gaining media attention for its policies towards sexual assault, one student Daisy Whitney ’94 was one of the first to press charges through the University Disciplinary Committee.
Last year, Whitney published a young-adult fiction novel entitled The Mockingbirds. In the book, the protagonist is date raped and goes through an underground judiciary system run by students to press charges.
Though Whitney said the story is entirely fictional, she drew from her own experience at Brown as inspiration. “I really wanted to do something where I didn’t have to stick to the facts, but where I could look to my personal experience more as a jumping off point,” she said.
The Mockingbirds is set in a fictional boarding school in Providence. Whitney said she chose this setting because she loved Brown and does not consider her date rape case an event that tarnished her experience in any way. “I know the Providence environment. Many of the good things about Themis Academy —the fictional school — such as the creativity of the students and teachers was inspired by many of the things I liked about Brown,” she added.
In the book, the protagonist remaps her entire walk to class to avoid seeing the man who date raped her. Whitney said that this fear was something that plagued her daily routine at Brown too until she decided to press charges. “When I was a freshman, I lived on Pembroke and I remember having to circle all the way around campus because I wanted to avoid him,” she explained. She added that, like the protagonist, “ I avoided being in the cafeteria and didn’t want to run into him at lunch or dinner.”
Ultimately, Whitney pressed charges and a disciplinary committee of students presided over her case. The male student was suspended for a semester.
A key difference between Whitney’s experience and that of the protagonist in The Mockingbirds is that Whitney had the support of the administration, whereas the protagonist seeks justice through a secret student-led system.
Though a lot has changed since the time of the “date rape list” on the walls of the bathrooms on campus, sexual assault is clearly still an issue with a lot of grey area. Yale is currently under scrutiny for mishandling issues related to sexual assault. Brown is a defendant in a case in which a former student, William McCormick, is suing the University for being unjustly pressured to leave after a rape accusation his freshman year.
With April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I’m reminded that the events in Whitney’s book, though fiction, have a very real presence on campus.