Jada Brown

Overview

Jada Brown is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and promoted the UMN Divest campaign, launched by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Minnesota (UMN), in 2018.

As of December 2019, Brown’s Facebook page said she “Studies” at UMN and “Started in 2015.”

As of the same date, Brown’s Instagram bio said she was an “Earthy soul vocalist & spoken word poet.”

Support for BDS

Brown promoted the UMN Divest campaign in March 2018. 

The 2018 UMN Divest campaign launched a petition calling to “demand that the University of Minnesota Investment Committee and any other responsible bodies authorized to make investment decisions divest fully from the companies mentioned in the UMN Divest campaign.” 

On February 25, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Instagram a post launching the UMN Divest 2018 campaign that said: “UMN Divest is back and this time we’re doing a campus wide referendum. March 5-7 all undergraduate and graduate students can vote ‘yes’ to divest.”

SJP UMN’s “explanation statement” in support of its proposed “campus-wide” referendum claimed that UMN had investments in companies “that violate human rights” and called on UMN to divest from G4S, Boeing and Raytheon and Elbit Systems for being “complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights,  2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty.”

On March 3, 2018, Brown wrote on Facebook: “!!! Check out UMN Divest!!! Voting is this Monday, March 5th-Wed 7th!” The post linked to a student newspaper article, titled: “With over 600 signatures, UMN Divest referendum may reach ballot.”

On March 5, 2018, Brown wrote on Facebook: “Vote Yes today for the UMN to Divest! The U is complicit in human rights violations by investing in companies that are financially supporting: Israeli occupation of Palestine, private prisons and immigrant detention centers, tar sands/pipelines violating Indigenous treaty rights, and oh yeah, being a land-grant *cough* land-grab institution.”

On March 6, 2018, Brown wrote on Facebook: “Vote now at UMN Divest 2018!.” Jada’s post featured UMN Divest campaign promotional graphics, which demonized Israel.

On March 11, 2018, SJP UMN announced on Instagram that the 2018 referendum had passed. The divestment resolution reportedly was passed by the UMN “All Campus Elections Commission” and sent to the UMN Board of Regents for review. 

It was reported that 6,567 people out of UMN’s 51,367 students who were eligible to vote on the referendum actually voted upon the divestment referendum, representing less than 13% of eligible voters.