2020-05-28

Thursday, May 28, 2020

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

inside

‘U’ requires standardized testing despite Coronavirus cancellations

NEWS

Gap Year 2020 More students consider taking a gap year in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic. >> SEE PAGE 3

OPINION

Rising seniors express concerns about ACT and SAT scores in admissions

America’s Failing Values COVID-19 has exposed long overdue changes.

IULIA DOBRIN

>> SEE PAGE 5

Daily Staff Reporter

Self-employed in Michigan struggle with unemployment application

Design by Maggie Wiebe

ARTS

‘Animal Crossing’ Quarantine Diary The wildly popular video game has birthed toxic communities online. >> SEE PAGE 6

MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Color & Coronavirus

Racial disparities in America expose communities of color to the ravaging pandemic at alarming rates. >> SEE PAGE 8

SPORTS

Spearheading Change

Erik Bakich leads a new proposal to shift the college baseball schedule. >> SEE PAGE 12

INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 115 © 2020 The Michigan Daily

NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS/NEWS..........................6 MiC......................................... 8 SPORTS................................ 10

michigandaily.com

SAMMY SUSSMAN

Daily Investigative Reporter

As the COVID-19 pandemic shutters businesses across the country, millions of people have been laid off, resulting in a historic surge in unemployment claims. On April 13, the state officially began accepting claims from previously ineligible workers, such as independent contractors, gig workers and self-employed people. Elizabeth Abdnour, a self-employed lawyer, applied that day under the new eligibility rules.

Two days later, Abdnour received four of the six letters she would get from the state disputing her filing. One dealt with confusion over her previous employer, Michigan State University, while two others focused on her status as a self-employed lawyer.

All four letters contained the same warning regarding the penalty for wrongfully filing for unemployment.

“It is against state law to intentionally make false statements or conceal information to gain or avoid the payment of benefits,” the

letters said. “You may have to repay up to 1.5 times the amount of benefits received … You may also be subject to criminal prosecution.”

Unemployment insurance helps people who have lost their jobs replace part of their wages while they look for work. In late March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which expanded the unemployment insurance system and gave states the option to offer Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to workers who were previously unqualified, including the selfemployed. The CARES Act also included a provision to provide an additional $600 per week to people collecting regular benefits.

On March 30, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the expansion of unemployment insurance to self-employed people and other categories of workers. On April 10, the state released the opening date for filing applications: April 13, when Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency began accepting those claims at 8 a.m.

However, creating an entirely new system of government benefits has not been easy, and some unemployed people, like Abdnour, have struggled to file claims.

According to a request filed

by The Daily under the Freedom of Information Act, since April 10, the state has sent 251,884 messages through its online unemployment application system and via physical mail with a “no employer selected” error to Michigan citizens who filed as self-employed.

The state has also sent 14,136 messages regarding what it claims are issues of intentional misrepresentation.

Some people, including Abdnour, received multiple notices from the state over their claims.

As a lawyer, Abdnour said she occasionally deals with bureaucratic confusion. She said she wondered how someone who’s never been in this situation would react.

“The average person without legal training would probably be even more confused and scared because they aren’t experienced with the process

Read more at michigandaily.com

Trisha Vedula, Dublin Coffman High School junior, took the ACT multiple times and plans on submitting her score to schools, even if they are test optional.

A lot of her peers, however, were waiting for the ACT school testing date,which is offered by the Ohio Department of Education but has been canceled due to COVID-19.

“I know U of M is a very, very good school. A lot of people in Ohio would be applying as it’s a really good school for them to get into,” Vedula said. “I know they’re also devastated by it because they almost feel like they wouldn’t get in — even if they meet other requirements — just because they haven’t taken the standardized test yet.”

Carly Cohen, Bloomfield Hills High School junior, was planning to retake the ACT in order to get a better score.

However, with COVID-19 leading to standardized test dates being canceled, she’s not sure when, or if, she’ll get the chance.

“It’s hard when a lot of schools around me are being test optional and Michigan’s not, and Michigan’s already a really difficult school to get into.”

Cohen said.

The ACT Inc. is waiting until the week of May 26 to announce test center closures and cancellations for the June 13 test date. Even so, according to its website, all testing is still subject to change up until the day of the exam.

“It’s a lot to not know when you’re supposed to be testing because I was

Read more at michigandaily.com

2 NEWS

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Regents alter policy for faculty tenure Public commenters talk equitable funding, contract negotiations CALDER LEWIS & ARJUN THAKKAR

Summer News Editor and Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan’s Board of Regents held its third meeting of the year via Zoom on Thursday to approve recommended revisions to the Regents’ bylaws and address ongoing changes in University operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. University President Mark Schlissel said Regent Katherine White (D) was not present due to an assignment with the National Guard, but all other Regents and executive officers of the University attended.

The meeting was live streamed on the University’s website and YouTube.

The board unanimously approved changes to the bylaws concerning the dismissal, demotion, termination and severance pay of tenured faculty. The changes include refusal of severance pay in cases of alleged misconduct.

Sally Churchill, vice president and secretary of the University, said the changes were reviewed by a group of nine professors from all three University campuses.

“The group was charged with furthering the University’s commitment to upholding tenure; addressing egregious situations deserving of expedited proceedings and interim measures; and reviewing and revising existing by law language,” Churchill said.

“Decisions regarding the dismissal of tenured faculty within a reasonable time frame while respecting their due process rights are beneficial to both the faculty member and the University.”

The revisions come two months after David Daniels, a former Music, Theatre & Dance professor accused of sexual misconduct, was dismissed at the March Board of Regents meeting. Daniels had been on paid leave since sexual misconduct allegations against him surfaced in August 2018. The University began its official firing process in April 2019.

Schlissel noted the recommendations were shared with the community and the board sought feedback for final revisions.

“The process for how we consider the removal of tenure is one that cannot be taken lightly,” Schlissel said. “Tenure is essential for the integrity of the academic enterprise. I again thank everyone who has helped us develop these revisions to make us a better University.”

Schlissel commended the University for supporting the state of Michigan’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He highlighted ongoing efforts in patient care, research and education that have helped the state save lives and develop an understanding of the effects of the pandemic. He noted several laboratory research programs resumed in-person activities on Wednesday in accordance with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order 2020-90.

Schlissel reiterated the University is still developing a plan for the upcoming semester, but he said he was hopeful it would be possible to offer in-person instruction on campus.

“The University of Michigan will look very different in the months ahead than what we’ve become accustomed to, but I am optimistic about our future,” Schlissel said. “The planning taking place at all levels of our University to adjust on how we deliver on our mission is thorough and impressive. This includes our preparations for the fall as we hope to be able to deliver a public health-informed fall semester with a mix of in-person and online instruction on our campuses.”

Schlissel took a moment before addressing items on the agenda to offer his condolences to those who have been affected by extreme flooding in Midland County on Wednesday.

“I want to express my sympathy to the thousands of Michiganders affected by the flooding in Midland and in nearby communities,” Schlissel said. “The disaster comes at a time when residents

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Incoming students consider gap year

Design by Christine Jegarl

Alternative academic plans increase amid fall semester uncertainty MEGAN SHOHFI For The Daily

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, incoming students who would normally head off to the University of Michigan in the fall are considering alternative plans. Gap years, internship pursuals, community college classes and other options are now relevant as plans for remote learning develop, multiple students told The Daily. While the University is in the process of planning a “public health-informed” semester, the fate of fall semester is still uncertain.

Many other universities have either canceled in-person instruction completely or are planning for an accelerated first semester to avoid the possible second COVID-19 peak.

Incoming Music, Theatre & Dance freshman Lucy McDowell is from the suburbs of Chicago and has officially deferred her acceptance for the upcoming school year. As a music major, McDowell explained how her decision revolved around the value of in-person classes, given how group-focused her music classes would be.

“A big part of your music education comes from ensemble work, and if you’re supposed to be in a choir with 100 or more kids, it’s difficult to make that happen over Zoom or recordings,” McDowell said. “It just doesn’t have the same connection or outcome. You just

don’t get to have that personal connection with your professors, which is hard to do over the internet because it’s a really isolating experience.”

Similarly, Ian Pathak, an incoming Music, Theatre & Dance freshman from Virginia, has also considered taking a gap year given the uncertainty of in-person classes.

Pathak explained the many factors influencing his decision, including tuition costs for out-of-state students.

“The only problem is the financial aspect of being an out-of-state student and taking remote classes,” Pathak said. “It’s already expensive for me to pay going there full on.

And room and board and meal does take part of it off, but tuition still remains the same.”

Current students across the University shared similar sentiments with Pathak, unsure if full tuition for remote classes is worth the cost. LSA junior Sam Burnstein said the transition from in-class lectures to Zoom classes revealed the diminished quality of remote learning.

“What we’re paying for are a couple things: a slide deck and 30, 40, maybe 50 hours of video,” Burnstein said. “Both of those things can be acquired very easily online for free — it’s becoming incredibly clear that we’re paying for the degree. We’re paying for the certification. This was already clear before classes went online, and I think going online made things

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Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

NEWS 3

Schlissel: plans for fall will last the academic year University President expresses optimism for public-health informed, hybrid format of learning IULIA DOBRIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Students, faculty adjust to virtual thesis defense

Design by Maggie Wiebe

Ph.D. candidates talk pros, cons of transition to online platform JIALIN ZHANG

Daily Staff Reporter

Thesis defense has traditionally been one of the final and most important steps for master’s and doctoral students to obtain their degrees. However, due to the restrictions on in-person events as part of the effort to combat the spread of COVID-19, thesis defenses are now being held virtually, forcing students and faculty to adjust to the new format.

John Godfrey, Rackham Graduate School assistant dean, commented on the difficult challenge of making swift and effective adjustments in reaction to the pandemic.

“Moving our operations online was a major challenge,” Godfrey said. “Rackham staff were working remotely and the pace of work has not stopped because of COVID. There have been students continuing their defense and getting their degrees. We had to do many things from adjusting policy, to accommodating students, to assessing financial needs of the students.”

Godfrey explained how a lot

of effort has gone into ensuring a smooth transition to the virtual format since one of the school’s primary functions is to facilitate dissertation and thesis defenses.

“Rackham’s major role is in administering dissertation defenses,” Godfrey said. “We have had 185, maybe close to 200 dissertation defenses that have taken place online since instructions ended on campus. It appears that it’s going fairly seamlessly.”

Rackham student Amy-Charlotte Devitz stated one of the biggest challenges she faced was the lack of audience feedback.

“I think the biggest challenge is that you lose the ability to kind of get that audience feedback when you are presenting,” Devitz said. “Because the program I was using, on your screen you can only see your slides, and obviously you need that to be able to present properly, but you can’t see the audience and you can’t really gauge their reactions. It’s hard to read the room.”

Engineering Ph.D. candidate Kevin Hughes said the process of defending his thesis remained largely unchanged for him, with the biggest challenge being equipment and hardware preparations beforehand.

“In general, BlueJeans was fairly good,” Hughes said. “One challenge was actually I moved during this process. My wife and I moved

to where we are going to be working in Minnesota, which brought up a few challenges, which include getting a reliable internet connection setup, the purchase of cable, better quality microphone. I did a few practice sessions beforehand just to troubleshoot the connection and audio quality issues.”

Godfrey believed the new virtual format has many benefits, including more flexibility and ease to implement accommodations, but also said it takes away the celebratory and ceremonial aspect of it.

“In shifting to virtual, I think it may be easier to schedule the defense,” Godfrey said. “Normally, you had to have people all show up to the same building at the same time and sometimes it can be a little tricky. It may have, at the end, proven to be more accommodating. But it certainly takes away the celebratory aspect, like the reception afterwards where people congratulate the person who just finished their defense.”

Hughes said a virtual thesis defense raised concerns over privacy since more people can join.

“I had a larger audience than I would have had in Michigan,” Hughes said. “For instance, my sister, she just had a baby so she wouldn’t have been able to come

Read more at michigandaily.com

As University of Michigan students wait to hear whether their fall term will be online, in-person or some combination of the two University President Mark Schlissel predicts that whatever decision is made regarding classes will likely last through the academic year, not just for fall semester. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Schlissel discussed making the call on whether classes are online or in person for the following school year.

“Any decision we make for this coming fall is likely going to be the case for the whole academic year,” Schlissel said. “What’s going to be different in January?”

Schlissel, an immunologist by training, pointed out that the winter semester comes with public health concerns as well and with COVID-19, those months could be worse due to the flu season.

Roughly half of University students are from out of state, which means both semesters will be marked with an influx of travel from COVID-19 hotspots.

Schlissel said his leadership team is working to lower the risk of COVID-19 for students and staff so it is indistinguishable from the risk at home. According to him, the school may consider quarantining some people upon their arrival to campus, along with widespread symptom screening, testing, social distancing and using personal protective equipment.

Schools nationwide are taking a variety of approaches. For example, the California State University system announced that their fall term will be mainly online and University of Notre Dame is planning to start the fall term early to end before Thanksgiving. However, Schlissel warned that the more promising announcements from other institutions are still subject

to approval by local officials.

“I don’t want to set false expectations,” Schlissel said. “(The announcements are) really not as declarative as they appear.”

The interview came days after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relaxed the stay-at-home order, which was extended to June 12, to allow groups of less than ten people to congregate in one location.

The NCAA voted a few days prior to allow voluntary football and basketball workouts to resume starting on June 1, and while other schools have plans to bring back football players for voluntary training, Michigan has not announced any sort of plan yet.

According to Schlissel, the University won’t have a football season in the fall unless all students are able to be back on campus for classes.

“If there is no on-campus instruction then there won’t be intercollegiate athletics, at least for Michigan,” Schlissel said. “(I have) some degree of doubt as to whether there will be college athletics (anywhere), at least in the fall.”

Schlissel added that Michigan is in a better position than other universities to take the revenue loss from not having a football season. The athletic department’s budget last season was $185 million, and about $83 million –– 43% of the athletic department’s revenue –– came from football last year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Although trouble in a $185 million unit is a big deal, it isn’t of the scale that it threatens the university,” Schlissel said.

Schlissel said he expects to make the decision for how the upcoming academic year functions in the coming weeks.

Daily Staff Reporter Iulia Dobrin can be reached at idobrin@ umich.edu

4 OPINION

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ZACHARY SHEINBERG | OP-ED

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TUHIN CHAKRABORTY | COLUMNIST

Whitmer’s exit plan is key to Michigan’s recovery

A

ssuming all things go as planned without any extensions, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order is set to end at 11:59 pm on June 12, with certain industries such as auto manufacturers being allowed to partially reopen before then. This extension is part of a carefully created protocol, known as MI Safe Start, which gradually eases stay-athome restrictions based on how well COVID-19 cases are decreasing in the state. While Whitmer’s COVID-19 response has been lauded as an effective way to enforce social distancing after the state reopens fully without conditions, many of Michigan’s workers will face the harsh economic realities that being away from work has inflicted upon them.

While Whitmer’s most recent order allows for manufacturing workers specifically to go back to work despite the stay-at-home extensions, more needs to be done so job holders in all fields can see some degree of security. In order to make sure that Michigan’s economy does not tank in a manner consistent with the sustained high unemployment and homelessness of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, the state government should boost spending significantly, preparing businesses to keep the workers they already employ and making sure tenants can pay rent without fear of eviction.

For many Americans in Michigan and elsewhere, working from home is simply not an option. Including dining staff, salespeople at non-essential

businesses like malls and department stores and other industries, many people are losing their jobs because they are not allowed to report to work due to stay-at-home orders. People are also losing their jobs because business revenues have plummeted due to stay-at-home orders. Naturally, this causes unemployment to rise dramatically. Many have also resigned to avoid contracting COVID-19.

While there are reports of hundreds or even thousands of firms hiring workers in Michigan right now, these numbers are quite deceptive as these businesses are in specific fields, like healthcare, which do not cover all of the newly unemployed. With regards to Michigan specifically, the state’s unemployment numbers exceeded 1 million workers filing for unemployment benefits, which is around 21 percent of the state’s workforce. This is up from 180,000 people filing for benefits before the COVID-19 outbreak, a rate of about 4.3 percent. This is a level not seen since the Great Depression and made Michigan the state with one of the highest unemployment rates (8 percent above average) in the country. While it is entirely possible that many of these jobs will return once the economy reopens and businesses have in-person consumers, many establishments have gone out of business due to the aforementioned lack of revenue.

In Michigan’s restaurant industry alone, approximately 10 percent of all restaurants in the state may have closed permanently (precise hard data is difficult to come by given the

pandemic) in the month of April. To this end, Michigan legislators like U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., have supported and co-sponsored legislation such as the Essential Worker Protection Act, which calls for a federal interagency task force overseen by Cabinet members and other high-level officials to supervise federal support of newly unemployed manufacturing workers in Michigan. This task force would also supervise the allocation of credit to businesses to make sure they, and the jobs they provide, stay afloat during this crisis.

Although Whitmer does not have the individual power to authorize this level of financial oversight, working with the state legislature to pass appropriations boosting the funding already being considered at the federal level would be an ideal pathway to building a financial safety net not just for manufacturers, but for all industries who need the money to keep their workers employed. This will help ensure an improved level of employment growth and stability that can be sustained after Michigan is reopened.

Even though Michigan’s government temporarily halted evictions for failing to pay rent with a March executive order from Whitmer, those who owe rent will be hit with those bills the state reopens, even if they don’t have a job yet.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Tuhin Chakraborty can be reached at tchakra@umich.edu.

P

Elizabeth Warren must resign

residential nominees consider Democrats held a 60-vote, filibustera smorgasbord of factors when proof majority in the Senate (thanks mulling the vice-presidential to former Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., nomination question. Could the person switching parties in April 2009 and step into my shoes and effectively gov- former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., ultiern? Will the person excite the party mately winning the Minnesota Senate base and get it to the polls? Is the person seat in July 2009). Then Democratic popular among independents and mod- governor of Massachusetts, Deval erates? Does the person have national Patrick, appointed an interim senator, name recognition? Is the person a fun- Democrat Paul Kirk, to serve until the draising machine? Do I like and can I February 2010 special election, which work with the person? Does the person Republican Scott Brown won, busting have skeletons in the closet or severed the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority, which the Democrats have not heads in the freezer?

There is one additional vital question: recovered from since.

Karma is a … well, we all know what Will the selection adversely alter the balance of power in the United States Sen- karma is.

Senate vacancies can matter, which ate?

Typically, the answer is no. But when is why presidential nominees consider it’s not, when either it’s a yes or a maybe, them. House vacancies don’t matter the hopes of that aspiring nominee are because… well, presidential nominees usually dashed instantly. For this rea- rarely pick a House member for VP son, many folks have discounted the and because vacant House seats are possibility that former Vice President filled via special election per Article I, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Section 2 of the Constitution. Sure, one presidential nominee, will pick Sen. Eliz- seat might flip the House. But in recent abeth Warren, D-Mass., for the Demo- history, since the 63rd Congress in 1913 cratic VP spot. In the 2020 elections, the when the number of representatives Democrats could retake control of the increased to 435, a one-member party Senate and Massachusetts has a Repub- change could only have flipped the lican governor, who would appoint her House during two Congresses (in the replacement. So why would the Demo- 65th Congress between 1917 and 1919 crats make retaking the Senate even and at various points in the 72nd Congress between 1931 and 1933). harder for themselves?

Since 1932, presidential nominees For Warren, the calculation is more nuanced. And if Biden does want to run have chosen a sitting U.S. Senator as runwith her, he can ignore the “maybe” ning mate 18 times.

Only two of these running mates answer to the question, as long as Warren files her Senate resignation by June represented a state that had a governor of the opposing party: 1988 Democratic 23, 2020.

Let me explain. Each state decides, VP nominee Lloyd Bentsen, a senator via its election laws, how a U.S. Sen- from Texas — of “Jack Kennedy was a ate vacancy gets filled. In one group friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack of states, the sitting governor appoints Kennedy” fame — and 2000 Demosomeone to serve until the end of the cratic VP nominee Joe Lieberman, a vacating senator’s term. In a second senator from Connecticut. In 1988, the group, the governor makes an interim Democrats held a +10 seat advantage appointment until a special election. A in the Senate. Though the Democratic third group of states fully circumvents presidential nominee, former Masthe governor and holds a special election sachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, still should not have risked losing a Demoto fill the vacancy.

Since 2004, Massachusetts has fallen cratic Senate seat. In 2000, Republiinto the second category. Before that, cans held a +10 seat advantage, but the Massachusetts fell into the first catego- election netted the Democrats five ry. Why the change? Because in 2004, seats, which evenly split the Senate. the Democratic Party nominated former Had Al Gore won the presidency, his Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for presi- vice presidential nominee, then Sen. dent. If Kerry had won, he would have Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., would resigned his Senate seat, precipitating have resigned his Senate seat, leaving the appointment of his successor by the the Republican Connecticut governor sitting Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. to appoint a Republican to replace him Prior to the 2004 election, the Senate had (at least until a low turnout special elec51 Republicans and 48 Democrats (plus tion with an uncertain outcome). one independent, who caucused with the Democrats) — which meant every Read more at MichiganDaily.com seat mattered. But Kerry lost, returned to the Senate, the Democrats lost a net of four Senate seats and the law change had Zachary Sheinberg is an attorney and no effect until five years later.

LEO intermittent lecturer at the University of In August 2009, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Michigan Ross and can be reached at D-Mass., passed away. At that time, the zachs@umich.edu.

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST

Don’t let COVID tread on our freedoms

A

s COVID-19 continues to run its course across the United States, there are few aspects of American life that have avoided this pandemic’s disastrous impact.

According to medical data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, over 100,000 Americans have succumbed to COVID-19.

At the same time, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects that our nation will see over 130,000 deaths by early August as states begin to relax social distancing measures.

While the deaths from COVID-19 continue to mount, the economic carnage from shutdowns aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 is unprecedented in modern American history. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate has skyrocketed to nearly 15 percent, with the economy slashing over 20 million jobs in April alone.

Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan Chief Investment Officer Bob Michele predicted that our economy may not reach the levels of employment we enjoyed before the pandemic for 10-12 years.

But as thousands of Americans lose their lives to COVID-19 — and millions more forfeit their livelihoods — another, more subtle level of loss is rippling across the nation. It’s become clear that as this global pandemic continues to threaten people’s lives and our economy, our essential and celebrated freedoms as Americans are coming under increasing fire.

Since governors across the nation have imposed stay-at-home orders in an effort to “flatten the curve,” our country has witnessed a slew of disturbing civil liberties violations that seemed unthinkable before COVID-19 turned life upside down. While it’s perfectly reasonable — and necessary — to expect changes to our daily lives in trying times like these, it seems that people across the nation have forgotten that our freedoms are never put on hold, even in the midst of crises. It’s clear our government has gone too far.

While COVID-19 continues to undoubtedly be a formidable threat, leaders have gone to unacceptable, sickening lengths to enforce government-mandated social distancing, threatening arrests and even jail time for violating stay-at-home orders.

(Meanwhile, the stay-at-home orders themselves have come under scrutiny as Americans question how constitutional they really are.) In Dallas, Texas, a judge sent Shelley Luther, a salon owner, to jail for reopening her business and defying the stay-at-home order; Luther was called “selfish” in court even as she argued that she had no choice, saying her children were going hungry. After shock across the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott prohibited jail time for those who violate social distancing, freeing Luther.

Similar scenes are playing out across the country. In Philadelphia, PA., police violently removed a man from a bus for not wearing a face covering. Others have been fined or arrested for simply venturing outside for a walk or exercise. While this excessive, dangerous enforcement of social distancing is threatening for all Americans, the New York Times reports that people of color are being disproportionately arrested in particular.

Beyond these incidents, it’s clear that our freedoms have been violated in countless other ways as well. For instance, Americans have been barred from visiting places of worship like churches and synagogues to exercise their freedom of religion, which meant that, for example, most Christians couldn’t go to church on Easter, their holiest day of the year. Meanwhile, in our criminal justice system, although the Constitution gives the accused the right to a speedy trial, a number of defendants have been forced to sit longer in jail as trial dates are pushed back. According to a recent article in the Lansing State Journal, “For defendants who are not in custody, the delay likely is an inconvenience. But for those in the county jail, the shutdown is an extra month — or more — that they have to wait for justice.” Moreover, governments across the country now openly discuss implementing advanced contact tracing and surveillance programs to help curb COVID-19, even though these programs would clearly infringe on our freedoms and privacy rights.

In addition to these civil liberties violations, the rhetoric of politicians and leaders across the country is downright disturbing. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested that New Yorkers turn in those that are breaking socialdistancing rules to the city, a move that some Americans quickly denounced as “communist.” In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told residents that they would be treated like criminals if they didn’t follow social distancing regulations, saying, “We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we have to, we will arrest you.” Lightfoot continued, “Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and refuse to do what’s necessary to save lives in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period.” It is understandable that New York and Chicago — along with a number of other hard-hit cities — are continuously grappling with how to deal with COVID-19, but there is a way to curb the spread of COVID-19 without such blatant disregard for our precious freedoms that we all celebrate as Americans.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu.

OPINION 5

ZACK BLUMBERG | OP-ED

How COVID-19 exposed America’s failing values

F

rom the end of World War II through the present day, the United States has maintained a position as the world’s premier superpower. For decades, the American values of hard work, individualism, liberalism and free-market capitalism appeared to lead to massive successes, including technological advancement, economic prosperity and high standards of living. However, as COVID-19 has exposed, the values which people once associated with America’s brand of strength and prosperity now appear antiquated and outdated and are ultimately holding the U.S. back. While countries around the world have responded to the virus in different ways, American society’s fundamental focus on individualism, freedom and economic growth have exposed the inequality, distrust of government institutions and lack of protections for vulnerable populations within our country.

First and foremost, the spread of COVID-19 has highlighted America’s extreme inequality, something which is largely a product of American society’s fanatical devotion to economic growth. As economist Milton Friedman declared in a 1970 New York Times Magazine article, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” In the decades since Friedman’s article was published, it’s clear that America has taken his advice to heart. Today, the U.S. has 10 of the world’s 20 most profitable companies, but at a cost: It also ranks 39th worst in income inequality, worse than countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Turkmenistan. Last year, a study found that nearly 60 percent of Americans had less than $1,000 in their bank accounts, another sign of America’s staggering income inequality.

Unsurprisingly, America’s focus on profits, and its acceptance of the inequalities that philosophy inherently produces, has greatly contributed to the nation’s disastrous response to COVID-19. On April 21, a day on which over 2,600 Americans died of the virus, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that “there are more important things than living and that’s saving this country.”

Similarly, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie commented, “there are going to be deaths no matter what,” but “we have to stand up for the American way of life.” In saying this, Christie clearly implied that

the American way of life is primarily focused on economic growth — inequality and public health be damned. When faced with skyrocketing unemployment rates, the U.S. Congress was both unwilling and unable to come up with an economic solution that addressed America’s income inequality. Although the federal government ultimately sent out a one-time $1,200 stimulus check to citizens, by April 23, only 10 days after the first checks were deposited, 84 percent of Americans said they already needed another check to make ends meet. That federal relief bill, which cost over $2 trillion in total, simply proved how unassailable American inequality has become.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also revealed the problems with the American society’s support of freemarket capitalism, as workers often find themselves under-protected and devoid of rights. Although there has consistently been some opposition to America’s overly laissez-faire attitude — such as Upton Sinclar’s 1906 novel “The Jungle” — support for deregulation and limited government oversight of the private sector is a major component of both America’s society and economy.

As of 2015, American employees worked an average of 1,779 hours per year, the seventh most of any nation globally. Additionally, American workers often have far less negotiating power with their employers than their global counterparts: only 10.6 percent of Americans are part of labor unions, far lower than countries of comparable wealth and development such as the U.K. (24.7 percent), Canada (26.5 percent) and Germany (17.7 percent).

COVID-19 has exposed the fundamental flaws of this anti-regulatory attitude, showing the danger of limiting workers’ rights in favor of supporting businesses. A quarter of U.S. workers have no paid sick leave, meaning many essential workers face a difficult choice: do they go into work and risk getting themselves or others sick, or do they stay home and risk getting fired, losing essential benefits such as healthcare? Even when workers have attempted to demand better treatment in response to the virus, the power imbalance between them and their employers makes this an impossible battle: On March 30, Amazon fired an employee who had planned to lead a strike demanding safer working conditions.

Ultimately, America’s support for

businesses has hamstrung workers’ ability to receive the protections they deserve, leading to preventable deaths.

American society’s individualism and distrust of government institutions have worsened the COVID19 crisis, creating an atmosphere in which necessary measures are seen by some as totalitarian attacks on freedom and liberty. Across the country, protestors have come out to defend their self-proclaimed rights to things such as haircuts, believing that the government’s stay-at-home orders infringe upon their personal liberties. While other countries’ citizens appear to understand the importance of deferring to public health experts in the name of safety, the American ethos of individualism appears to include defending one’s right to contracting the virus. More broadly, this represents American society’s fundamental distrust of government: At a time when trusting institutions is essential for a cohesive response to a deadly virus, some Americans are unwilling to put aside their personal biases for the communal well-being.

This focus on individual liberties above all else is also apparent in the federal government’s response to the pandemic. In comparison to America’s constant concerns about creating too extensive a welfare system, which has limited the federal government’s willingness to intervene, other countries have taken much more comprehensive responses: Canada’s plan includes C$2,000 stimulus checks for four months, while Denmark’s government “agreed to cover the cost of employees’ salaries at private companies as long as those companies do not fire people,” effectively freezing the Danish economy until after the worst of the virus has passed.

In conclusion, COVID-19 has exposed a bevy of problems with the once-fabled American value system, showing the downsides to the tenets which had previously been associated with creating the world’s wealthiest nation. Today, those same values of free-market economics and individual rights are responsible for America’s inhumane response to the pandemic and have laid bare the deep-rooted inequalities, weak worker protections and unwillingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

Zack Blumberg is a junior in the College of Literature, Science & the Arts and can be reached at zblumber@umich.edu.

6 ARTS

Thursday, May 28 , 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DIGITAL CULTURE NOTEBOOK

A ‘New Horizons’ diary CASSANDRA DAWN Daily Arts Writer

The music that plays at 5 a.m. in “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is beautiful. I’ve only heard it in-game once. Not because I’m some Fortune 500 freak who thinks waking up at the ass crack of dawn is the key to success, or because I woke up in the middle of the night and booted up the game because I couldn’t go to sleep.

No. Because I had been playing “Animal Crossing” for about three hours through the dead of night, planning and landscaping and building a discount Versailles hedge maze on my island.

I was so into this little project that I lost track of time, only to be slapped with a reminder when the Town Hall’s bells tolled at the top of the hour.

Although time in “Animal Crossing” is synced up with time in the real world, the day doesn’t officially start anew until the clock strikes 5 a.m. You’re momentarily frozen and thrown into a loading screen to watch the daily announcements from the series favorite shih tzu Isabelle, which I usually see after rolling out of bed around 2 p.m.

The soundtrack greets you kindly once you regain control of your character. It mirrors the soft sound of ocean waves rolling in on your island’s beaches and the morning blue-green sky. It’s beautiful, and I never want to hear it again. *** Oh, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” there was a time when I thought you would be the one to fix my life.

After a year’s worth of intensifying depression, mounting attention issues, dropped classes, exhausting jobs and dealing with all the shit life throws at you post-coming out as a trans woman, I thought 2020 was going to be the year

where I got my life back on track. I was going to commit to school, get a stable and decent source of income, pursue my hobbies, be the best I could for my friends. “Animal Crossing” was going to be the reward for a life well lived, almost poetically placed in mid-March as the semester really started to ramp up. I would live each day to the fullest, and treat myself by paling around on my island paradise for 30 minutes or so before a dutiful 11 p.m. bedtime.

It hardly lasted a month. I burnt through the two or three free absences in all my classes, and skipped some more. I forgot to complete an earth science online exam worth a third of my grade before the deadline. I processed the terse term withdrawal paperwork for the second time in my University of Michigan career. I held back tears in the lobby of the Office of Financial Aid as I wondered if I had fucked my scholarship for good. I stayed in bed too much, and ate too little. Suffice to say, it sucked.

Oh, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” there was a time when I thought you would be the one to fix our lives.

The way it all went to shit was kind of funny, I guess. Spring Break was almost over, and Bernie Sanders was holding a rally in Ann Arbor. The sheer volume of people crammed into the fenced-off Diag was electric on that Sunday afternoon, but mortifying to recontextualize now two months later.

I voted for Bernie in the primary that Tuesday, and that night I was grinding “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” with my friends only to read the news that he had inexplicably lost every county in Michigan to Joe Fucking Biden. Oh yeah, and the first cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Michigan.

You know, Coronavirus, That Thing That Had Been Happening In China But All Things Considered Will Prob-

ably Not Be A Big Deal In America. Or at least, that’s the picture I got from the Trump administration mouthpieces who were broadcasted on the nightly news, which I only ever caught if it was on the TV in the dining hall’s break room. I would aimlessly listen to them proclaiming the situation was under control, not thinking much of it while chewing on undercooked noodles before I got back to my shift. But there I was, sitting in the game room of a fancy apartment building, about to realize that This Thing Was Quickly Going To Be A Big Deal. The University cancelled classes swiftly after the news came out, and soon enough the entire campus was shut down and my job with it.

It seemed like almost all my friends in Ann Arbor were gone within the following week, graduating seniors realizing they had sat in for their last physical class without even realizing it.

I was left in this void of an apartment I once thought of comfortably as my home, with no loving family to retreat to and only my girlfriend to help maintain my sanity.

But hey, at least “Animal Crossing” was around the corner! In the first week of quarantine my Twitter timeline was practically clamoring for it, lamenting the quarantine but acknowledging that the game perhaps couldn’t come at a more apt time. A few days before release some fans who have probably never known real struggle in their life were even sharing an oh-sopolite letter to Nintendo pleading with the company to welease their wittle funny animal game eawly. “Animal Crossing” would arrive on the wings of an angel to help ease the whiplash from all this sudden imposed isolation, convince us that maybe staying inside ain’t all that bad when we have cute and cozy video games to tide us over.

Oh, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” there was a time when I thought you would be the one to fix it all. And oh, how wrong I was. *** First impressions were promising.

With past games in the series, all there is to do upon startup is complete some menial tasks for the omnipotent and contentious Tom Nook as you start to pay off your initial home loan. After about 30 minutes, the game starts to open up and you can play it however you want: Some would turn the game off satisfied and pick up where the game left off the next day, while others would “time travel” by manually pushing their system clock forward and speed through days to cut down the wait on new items, shop upgrades, monthly events and the like.

“New Horizons” takes that thirty minutes of initial questing and beefs it up into something resembling a story, with the goal of making your island a vacation hotspot, which takes about two week’s worth of in-game days to complete. My girlfriend and I had the game preloaded on our Switches so we could play at midnight on March 20, and we stayed up until about four in the morning floored by how fun and engaging the new crafting features and “Nook Miles” achievement-tracking system were compared to the first couple hours of past games.

We played in real time, so over the next week, we crafted cute little outdoor spaces for new villagers, built a shop for the Nook’s adorable apprentices Timmy and Tommy and upgraded the cramped Resident Services tent into a modern Town Hall. We laughed at the memes on Twitter about how you could get rich by catching tarantulas or how people stockpiled their island with bugs and fish waiting for the museum to open and its curator Blathers to start taking donations.

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” seemed like the rare case of a video game being the target of incredible hype yet still managing to stick the landing on arrival.

Or was it too good to be true? After your island achieves a three star rating and the vagabond musician and series staple K. K. Slider comes to play a concert, Tom Nook finally gives you access to the much-anticipated terraforming features. Your entire island’s layout is now able to be modified to your liking, and with the right items you can entertain the possibility of urban side streets, medieval castles or even covering every possible inch of your island in water.

I mentioned before that it seemed like everyone and their mother was hankering to play “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” and the numbers don’t lie: The game sold more than

13 million copies in the first month or so, which is already more than the last entry in the series, “New Leaf,” sold in its entire lifetime. And since everyone is cooped up at home, and everyone has more time to waste on the internet, “Animal Crossing” has evolved from a popular but more niche life-simulator with communities housed on Reddit and Tumblr, to a mainstream trending topic that will pop up on your Facebook and Twitter feeds even if you don’t play the game.

There were articles about how people were hosting birthday parties, graduation ceremonies and even workplace meetings on their islands. The Detroit Lions underpaid an intern to make a seven minute video revealing their 2020 schedule using the game’s robust customization features and a little Photoshop.

It seems like an unwritten Internet rule that the more popular a piece of media becomes the more cutthroat and vocal its fans are. With “New Horizons” the gatekeepers were on guard day one, as a war was waged between time travellers who wanted to make their island look as cool as possible as fast as possible and so-called “purists” who decried anything beyond taking the game one day at a time as “cheating.” Although I was an avid time traveller in past games, I wanted to take the game slowly this time, especially since it would give me at least a tiny bit of structure as the vacuous days of quarantine began to morph together.

No problem, right? Twitter told a different story. The purists labelled the time travellers as impatient babies who sucked all the fun out of the game. The time travellers brushed off the purists as the fun-police who were jealous of what they were already able to accomplish.

Regardless of the yelling, by the time I unlocked terraforming and could finally catch up to the time travellers the game started to feel more and more like a chore. Why even bother trying to make a grand outdoor entrance for my museum or a high-octane boxing ring when five other people on Twitter have already done it? For a game centered around themes of leisure and community, it’s amazing how toxic and selfish some of its fans had become. People would bully others for “stealing” their ideas for island design or charge ridiculous prices for the game’s rare items on the ironically-named online fan marketplace Nookazon. The concept of cheating in “Animal Crossing” is a silly oxymoron at best, but people were trying their damndest to make it a competition.

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ARTS 7

SUMMER SERIES

Reading my mother’s copy of ‘Little Women’

FILM REVIEW

LILLIAN PIERCE Daily Arts Writer

‘The Lovebirds’ made me want to be framed

PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION

EMMA CHANG Daily Arts Writer

A relationship’s “spark” is an abstract concept that we love to talk about. Whether it’s the reason someone might want to break up or it’s why we aren’t going on that second Tinder date, the world seems to have collectively agreed that it’s the key to a good relationship.

But what happens when the spark starts to fizzle? Or disappears altogether? Some couples go to marriage counseling while others might turn to less traditional methods of rekindling the relationship. In Netflix’s newest film, “The Lovebirds,” the answer to this question is murder, of course.

In “The Lovebirds,” Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani, “The Big Sick”) and Leilani (Issa Rae, “Little”) are recent exes who somehow find themselves looking like prime suspects for a murder — Jibran had blood on his coat (for reasons other than murder), and they both fled the scene of the crime. The two spend the majority of the film believing that their lives are over, despite their innocence.

Though, logically, or if you watch any crime show, the two wouldn’t be suspects, but then there would be no movie. As the film progresses, the audience watches as Jibran and Leilani work to solve the murder while also unraveling what went wrong in their relationship.

As one of Netflix’s more original ideas, “The Lovebirds” is full of the hijinks expected of a buddy cop film — the two go through a tense interrogation, obviously have to change into disguises and have a strange interaction with some fraternity boys. All the while, Jibran and Leilani have to contend with their breakup and what that actually means. Given the unique circumstances, they’re forced to communicate their issues both with the relationship and with the way they each want to go about

solving the murder. This dynamic provides an intriguing path of development for the characters and their relationship. The audience watches as the two resynchronize and, though they still argue, it’s obvious that the trauma of fleeing the cops is a fantastic way to discover a communication style.

The actual murder itself is presented as a convoluted conspiracy that really only serves to extend the story from a 29-minute sitcom episode to a feature length film. The murder victim, casually referred to as “Bicycle” (Nicholas X. Parsons, “The Domestics”) throughout the film, is wrapped up with some secret, cult-like society populated by none other than society’s elite. It’s far-fetched and the perfect experience to bring a couple back together.

We all know the senators and rich billionaires of the world come together in weird ways and it’s fun to hypothesize that it probably happens with everyone in strange masks and odd sexual rituals.

And, despite the complicated nature of creating a plausible conspiracy, “The Lovebirds” still realizes the importance of remembering reality. Jibran and Leilani, after a few hours in their new life on the run, finally make a pit stop at the dinner party they were supposed to attend that night. Here, they’re forced into their “normal” lives. Lives with issues that, after considering their night as criminals, seem suddenly trivial. It’s a moment of understanding for both Leilani, Jibran and their relationship as a whole. What’s more entertaining, however, is the fact that the leading couple isn’t another pair of white people. Instead, we simply have two actors of color playing prominent roles that have little focus on the color of their skin. They’re simply two people that might be arrested for murder. And while this may seem like an unimportant detail, it shows Hollywood’s progressive steps towards more inclusive casting decisions.

The Lovebirds Netflix

After I was born, my mother bought me timeless editions of her favorite books for me to read. A book lover and librarian, she hoped that I would be a reader like her and love the books she cherished throughout her life. On the inside cover each book, she inscribed my name on Winnie the Pooh book plates, and waited for the day when I would read them books my mother left me. I promised myself when I read them I would read them all at once, and the opportune moment arrived when quarantine began.

On the bottom right shelf of the chipping bookcase in my bedroom is a row of books my mother bought for me after I was born. The books, spanning from Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park” to Margery Williams’s “The Velveteen Rabbit,” are books that stuck with her throughout her life, books she hoped her kids would love as much as she did. Some of the collection I have read before, but they weren’t the timeless editions my mom bought me. These intimidated me — their thick, glossy pages and sturdy covers juxtaposed the selection of flimsy paperbacks stuffed into the other shelves. They looked and felt too real, too capable of swallowing me whole. So for 19 years I danced around them, each of us conscious of the other, but at a safe distance away. Whenever I had the courage to open them up, I decided I must read them all at once.

I returned home from school, and opened my bedroom door. My bookcase is the first thing I saw. The second were the books from my mother, and it seemed unlikely that I would have another opportune moment like this.

I started with Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” — a book whose 1994 movie adaptation I had watched about a year ago with my mother, and whose 2019 version I watched alone last winter. I already knew the basic story, which is what drew me to it. I knew I would love Jo and cry for Beth, but the emotions and realizations those movies sparked did not match the magic the book pulled me into. I was completely right to be afraid of being swallowed whole. “Little Women” captured me completely.

I think it was the overwhelming sense of familiarity — a sort of déjà vu I felt nearly every chapter, like I had read these crisp pages before.

I felt inexplicably connected to the characters, as if I were a fifth sister reveling in Jo’s antics and Meg’s first love. But the more I read, the more I saw that the reflection I found was not of myself, but rather my mother and the wisdom and counsel she shared with me throughout my life. I started to wonder if the ideas of Marmie were what inspired her in her motherhood, but came to conclude that it wasn’t that

at all. The innate generosity and unwavering love of Marmie cannot be replicated, it must be rooted in oneself. The same goodness is in my mother. She blossoms with unselfishness and unconditional love.

My mother and I have always been oddly close. While first my mother, she has always been my closest friend, too, and although I believe her to share the virtue of Marmie, the relationship I thought to most reveal my own with her was not that of a daughter and Marmie, but instead that of Jo and Beth.

The relationships between the four sisters are all varied and complex. Jo is closest to Beth, though they have rather opposite personalities and values. Jo is hardheaded and vigorously ambitious, while sweet Beth is known for her shyness and quiet nature. Jo was my mother’s favorite character. Beth is mine.

I saw my mother so plainly in Beth. Like Beth, she is “shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices.” She lives for her children, for her family, for her friends and for strangers. She is the connection between us, watering us all with her support and warm embraces.

Sometimes I am afraid she doesn’t see that, as Beth failed to. It’s frustrating to love someone who is blinded to their own brilliance. How do you convince someone they deserve the world when they find themselves unworthy of it? Or worse, what can you give someone who wants for nothing? I heard my frustrations echoed in Jo’s overbearing efforts to fulfil the happiness of her closest friend. When Beth was sick again, Jo fell sick too with vain hopes. Jo couldn’t save her, but she could love her. And Beth wanted nothing more than to be loved.

Seeing past herself was never one of Jo’s strong points, and I fear it is neither one of mine. She learned countless lessons from Beth in just the nature of her, as I do my mother. The two were incredibly different, yet these differences never hindered their understanding.

Being around each other made both stronger.

And maybe that’s why my heart broke so dearly when Beth passed — the sorrow of a loss of someone who is a part of you. Yet, it wasn’t her death specifically that ruined me. It was the moment she shared with Jo some weeks before her death that did it. Beth, sick on the couch, worries that she hasn’t done enough with her life when she spots one of Jo’s poems. It asks Beth to leave behind her patience, her courage and her unselfish nature when she goes. I see my mom worry as well about the legacy she will leave when her time comes, and I only hope she can be comforted by how much I love her as Jo loved Beth; that as Beth is Jo’s “conscience,” she is mine, and I spend every day trying to resemble her.

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8 MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Color as a symptom of the coronavirus IZZA AHMED-GHANI MiC Staff Writer

As the spread of the coronavirus exponentially increases by the day, so does its toll with 1,678,843 total cases and 99,031 deaths in the U.S. alone. Despite making up only 13.4 percent of this nation’s population, the Black population is seen to be disproportionately victim of more than 50% of reported cases, 33 percent of hospitalizations and approximately 60 percent of the deaths from the pandemic. Though these reports are often deemed related to health comorbidities prevently experienced amongst the Black community, the social inequities experienced by race are more to blame.

A recent study conducted by Sutter Health Center for Health Systems Research expressed in their retrospective cohort analysis of COVID-19 that “African Americans had 2.7 times the odds of hospitalization compared with

non-Hispanic white patients.”

While findings indicated that age (39 years+), sex (male), income status (low-income) and insurance status (Medicaid, self-pay, or no insurnace) did increase the odds of hopsitalization, race independently influenced susceptibilty to hospital admission because of COVID-19.

While the public seems to be surprised by the health disparities presented during this pandemic, the health burden as a person of color in America is anything but unordinary. The most prevalent health inequities experienced in this country are perpetuated by the systematic barriers that racism has inspired. The color of your skin ultimately warrants restrictions in health security to attain this country’s unalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Race and ethnicity are crucially related to access to care, resources to treatment and health outcomes defined in social determinants of health.

Social determinants of health express the everyday social and physical conditions in which people play, work and live. According to HealthyPeople.gov, these factors express how individual health outcomes intersect with underlying issues that stem from economic stability, education, neighborhood and built environment, health and healthcare and social and community contexts. It standardizes the quality of living people are able to achieve and afford. The historically racist subjugations in the foundations that this country was founded upon leaves communities of color disenfranchised to suffer worse health outcomes.

The health outcomes of marginalized communities presenting at the top of COVID’s food chain are driven by poverty and food insecurity and bisected by housing. The majority of the 13.4 million low-income American families are racial or

What’s in a name?

ethnic minorities: Four million (30 percent) are hispanic, 2.9 million (22 percent) are black, and about 800,000 (6 percent) are other nonwhites. According to the CDC, these families make up the majority of overpopulated American metropolitans due to institutionalized residential housing segregation and often live in multigenerational households with poor access to resources to drive quality of living. Racial and ethnic minorities often live in these conditions not as a means of personal choice or financial means, but by legislatively deliberate racial de facto segregation and redlining that affect residential housing and school systems, especially from the 1950s to 1970s. Though many people are unaware of the impacts legislative discrimination has played in the history of this country, it still plays a major part of current standards of health and implicitly influenced by private discrimination in real estate,

PRISHA GROVER MiC Staff Writer

The video “Substitute Teacher” by comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (often referred to simply as Key and Peele) put a hilarious spin on the very common experience of students who have had their names distorted by their educational leaders. This lighthearted video is a reference to a much bigger issue in which people have developed a certain apathy when it comes to the pronunciation of names which appear unconventional to them.

I was raised being taught that my name represented my ties to my culture and role in the world — a belief quite common among Southeast Asian communities.

I decided to ask some of my friends about their names, and what having that name means.

Jeevin Amrit, pronounced Jeevin, means “the king of life” Nishanth, pronounced Nihshaa-nth, means “peace at dawn” Namratha, pronounced Nummruh-tha, means “modesty and humility” Amrita, pronounced Uh-mrithuh, means “nectar of immortality” Inaya, pronounced In-ah-yah,

GRAPHIC BY HIBAH CHUGHTAI

means “blessing from Allah” During this conversation, many of them mentioned that their names are often mispronounced and although they make initial attempts to correct those who falsify their identity, they often fall complacent as a result of the person’s unwilling tongue. My name means “a blessing from God,” and while the common

mispronunciation of it as Preeshah doesn’t change the meaning, I’ve always felt that choosing to pronounce my name incorrectly disregards its origin. I was given my name because my parents struggled to have kids for several years after having my older brother and suffered many complications throughout their pregnancy with

me, thus when I was born, they felt that God had blessed them. The Sanskrit word “Prisha” is meant to give hope and warmth, and the way I pronounce it is the way my parents gave it to me. As my friend Jeevin says, “There’s a certain pride that you carry when you know your name has such a powerful meaning … it is a reminder of my roots.”

banks, clothing, food and more.

These households, in which the majority of essential workers arise from, are often subjected to food swamps, poorer physical housing and neighborhood infrastructures, limited occupational mobility and opportunity, and higher rates of stress. This then plays into increased prevalence and comorbidities with higher rates of obesity, asthma rates, hypertension, diabetes and other health conditions due to poorer housing conditions and access to care. Therefore, the overall risk of infection is not only more prevalent in communities of color, but these communities also have pre-existing health disadvantages that have suppressed their immune systems. While the essential work of racial and ethnic minorities might currently carry the nation, it is at the cost of their lives.

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Followers of Hinduism will often name their children after important figures in Hindu epics.

For example, the name Arjun is the name of one of the heroes of the Mahabharata and one of the five Pandava brothers. He is said to be a symbol of clarity, loyalty and often won the favor of the gods. When someone names their child Arjun, they are paying respect to his namesake and hoping their child will be a testament to Arjun’s strong character. This is no different than someone naming their child after the Angel Gabriel or the Prophet Muhammad.

Despite these sacred meanings, so many people resort to pronunciations or nicknames which are easier for the American tongue to pronounce. This is not about shortening one’s name just to a cute friendly nickname, but is about the obligation some feel to change what they are called in an act of complacency for other’s lack of effort. An example of this is people named “Prathik” (pronounced Prah-theek) going by the name “Peter.”

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MICHIGAN IN COLOR 9

Immigrant Parents: An unspoken love language AAKASH RAY MiC Staff Writer

NETFLIX

‘Never Have I Ever’ gone into an introspective spiral SUNITHA PALAT MiC Staff Writer

Recently, I binged Season 1 of Mindy Kaling’s “Never Have I Ever,” a classic coming-of-age teen rom-com revolving around the life of a 15-year old Indian American, Devi Vishwakumar. At first I was uninterested in another heartfelt yet cringey Netflix series, but the show’s mixed reviews sparked my curiosity: While a few of my friends told me the show perpetuated stereotypical tropes of South Asian Americans — a sight I did not need to see — “NHIE” has also been acclaimed as “a watershed moment for the representation of South Asians in Hollywood.” Curious, but more so bored out of my mind during quarantine, I gave the tenepisode show a try.

In summary, the plot revolves around Devi’s standard trials and tribulations as a 15-year-old girl. She navigates the ups and downs of relationships with her best friends, her mother and of course, the boy she’s been crushing on. Yet, her adolescence and search for a different, newer and cooler identity is what made it a bit more complex when she loses her father to cardiac arrest. The show — as expected — is heartfelt, cringey and cute, but is also filled with vulnerable moments relating to her grief and her Indian heritage.

Among all of these, my favorite trait of the show was that it made me feel represented.

When I think of Indian Americans in the shows I watched growing up, I think of Ravi from “Jessie,” Baljeet from “Phineas and Ferb,” Raj from “The Big Bang Theory” and a few other often socially awkward, teased, overly studious characters who did not represent me. Devi, on the other hand, does. She has a full American accent, cares about school while also caring about social goals (popularity, her crush, fitting in) like any normal teenager, hangs out with white friends, likes cheeseburgers and doesn’t outwardly exert her Indian identity. Watching her character — particularly how she

navigates her heritage — reminded me of my young self. The painfully honest and genuine depiction of her uncomfortableness, slight disdain and forced acceptance of her Indianness triggered some unexpected introspection within myself while watching the show, especially during episode 4, “Never Have I Ever...Felt Super Indian.”

A hit Hindi song from the 1970s, “Dum Maro Dum,” kicks this episode off while Devi is being dressed up by her cousin. She is adorned with jhumka earrings, a thick set of gold necklaces and a bright blue and gold half sari. The look on her face is so recognizable; it’s a sense of claustrophobia in a seemingly foreign (and itchy) outfit, an expression I’ve held every time my mom gets me ready for an Indian wedding, religious event or family party. In this episode, Devi attends Ganesh Puja (a Hindu holiday) put on by the Hindu Association of Southern California. I smiled as I saw my own personal experiences in many parts of the show, like weird conversations with Aunties. But a huge moment of truth came out when Devi interacted with Harish, a family friend who came back from Stanford to attend the event. After asking why he would ever come to this “lame fest,” he replies: “My roommate Nick is Native American, and he’s so into being Native American.

At first, I was like, ‘You’re away from your parents. You don’t have to pretend to care about your ancestry or whatever.’ But then he took me to their campus powwow. No one was standing in the corner making fun of it.

They were dancing and chanting, and having a great time, and it made me think, why do I think it’s so weird and embarrassing to be Indian?”

The juxtaposition of the two characters on my screen represented the chasm I’ve been stuck between for the past five years of my life.

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My mother called me to her room late at night. The house was eerily quiet as it was every night, my father already fast asleep downstairs and the rest of the house void of sound except for the dripping of a leaky faucet. I sighed as I climbed down from my bed and shuffled towards her room, predicting that the subsequent conversation would be of little significance. I knew she noticed I was upset earlier today and would ask if anything happened, and I would of course deflect and tell her everything was okay. It was difficult for me to express my concerns with either of my parents, as it often resulted in me explaining my worries with little applicable, almost surface level feedback. Perhaps it was the language barrier. While we both speak our mother tongue, Bangla, my thoughts and ideas were always expressed better in English. This was how it had always been.

Yet, tonight seemed a little different. I sat down on her bed, and my mother didn’t say a word. Time seemed to stand still for a moment. Mother and son just waiting for one another to speak.

Impatiently I asked, “What?”

My mother just shook her head and said, “Nothing,” in Bangla.

For a few more seconds, I sat down and then slowly, as if there was a gravitational force pulling me towards her, I rested my head next to her. I felt a weight off my shoulders retract and my muscles began to relax as I let my body go. I felt my mother’s hand on my head, small but strong. My ever present headache gradually receded as she massaged my head, and I felt a small bit of relief after a long day. No more words were spoken that night.

And so, this slowly became a part of my interaction with my mother. Rather than speaking about what happened throughout

the day, good or bad, we would sit in silence together, her often watching a movie on Netflix, and I scrolling on my phone. Some days I would watch a movie by her side and other days we would both read next to each other.

This became our time together.

It’s commonly known that there are five main “love languages,” five ways to express and experience love: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch, as described by Gary Chapman in his book The Five Love Languages. Quality time refers to time set aside for paying full and undivided attention to a person or matter at hand. While I can make a case that my interactions with my mother are quality time or physical touch, I believe that there is an unspoken love language that many parents utilize. One where our worlds are different but unwavering faith and support are never absent.

Often at the dinner tables of my Caucasian friends, I would see their parents light up about the stories they told from their college days. They spoke endlessly about “how it was back in the day,” and my friends would spoon it up with the rest of their meal with the utter satisfaction of truly getting to know their parents even more. It all came full circle for them as they now find themselves in the same position their parents were in 25 years ago. In my case, it’s different. My parents don’t go into the details of their teenage years. It’s sometimes frustrating since I feel my relationship with my parents will never be as strong because the lives they led back home are too foreign for me to ever connect with. As I grew older, I realized my parents showed their love and enthusiasm in other ways.

Although not so evident, the feeling of faith endowed upon another can be one of the most heartfelt yet subtle in nature.

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ANURIMA KUMAR

10 SPORTS

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Schlissel warns ‘M’ won’t play without on-campus instruction KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Editor

As colleges and conferences across the country move closer to resuming athletic activities, Michigan President Mark Schlissel is taking a much more measured approach.

“If there is no on-campus instruction then there won’t be intercollegiate athletics, at least for Michigan,” Schlissel said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

These remarks come days after the NCAA voted to allow voluntary football and basketball workouts to resume starting on June 1 and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relaxed her stay at home order slightly, allowing groups of less than 10 people to congregate in one location as long as they practice

social distancing.

Recently, football coaches Jim Harbaugh and Don Brown have

spoken about the possibility of playing in front of empty stadiums, but both seemed

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

President Mark Schlissel expresses pessimism about football, athletics.

certain about there being a season this coming fall.

The ramifications go beyond football, as Schlissel also noted any decision made about the fall would be extended to the winter semester also. Meaning that there may also be no basketball, should classes be online.

Schools across the country are making moves to adjust to COVID-19, with Notre Dame, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina adopting a schedule for the fall that sends students home on Thanksgiving, extending its winter break and starting early.

The SEC voted to allow use of athletic facilities on campus beginning June 8 and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott believing there might be fans in stadiums to start the football season.

The Big Ten has chosen to leave decisions about

Harbaugh, Brown ready to play in empty stadiums ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Since the COVID-19 pandemic halted all sports back in March, it’s been fairly clear: If we’re lucky enough to get them back, 100,000 fans in the Big House is probably a step too far.

That remains the case, even as the NCAA starts to carve out a path to reopening — it voted Wednesday to allow voluntary activities for football and men’s and women’s basketball to resume June 1. And, barring a medical miracle, stuffing the Big House this August will remain an unhealthy choice.

“There is a reason to feel some confidence here,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a radio interview recently.

“But we also have to measure (people’s) expectations and say life’s going to be different. We’re not going to be filling stadiums in the fall.”

With that in mind, Michigan football seems more than ready to deal with the new reality.

Defensive coordinator Don Brown spent five years as an assistant coach at Hartford High School in Vermont, from 1977-82, and knows what it’s like to look up in the stands and see just 500-

600 people there.

“The one good thing is, people get excited about it that are there, but will there be anybody there?”

Brown said Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters. “Let’s hope.

The key will be the preparation.

And I think this: The Michigan guys, the Michigan football guys that I know, love football. They love it. They love playing it. They love everything associated with it.”

One day prior, in an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up!” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said playing in an empty stadium wouldn’t be a problem.

“You could definitely test both teams, you could test the officials and everybody, but can you test 100,000 fans coming into a stadium?” Harbaugh said. “Probably not. Without a vaccine, you probably couldn’t do that.

“To answer your question, heck yeah, I’d be comfortable coaching a game without any fans. If the choice were play in front of no fans or not play, then I would choose to play in front of no fans. And darn near every guy I’ve talked to on our team, that’s the way they feel about it.”

Other coaches and programs

have been more optimistic — Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told reporters this week he could see holding games at Ohio Stadium with limited capacity — but the overriding desire at Michigan is simply to get back on the field and in Schembechler Hall.

“We’ve got a good group of

coaches and analysts and we’re just anxious, chomping to get back into the building and get back to some form of normalcy,” Brown said. “Cause I love my seat in that room (at Schembechler) when I got the two screens. I just feel like I’m in my element there.

Sitting in my spare bedroom in Cape Cod sometimes just doesn’t

athletic programs largely up to the schools, leading to the possibility of a season with some schools participating and some not. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, for instance, is allowing voluntary workouts to begin June 8, pending university approval.

Football makes up 43 percent of Michigan’s athletic revenue through the season, and while playing without fans will put a significant dent in that revenue, a season without football entirely will be incredibly costly to the University. The athletic department’s budget last year was $185 million, but it seems that won’t play much into a decision.

“So although trouble in a $185 million unit is a big deal, it isn’t of the scale that it threatens the University,” Schlissel said.

cut it.”

Of course, even that won’t look normal. Brown talked of wearing a mask in the building and holding staff meetings in a team room in order to practice social distancing. But stipulations like that are worth it if it means football can happen.

“Just like coach (Harbaugh) said, hey, I’d rather play in front of nobody then not play,” Brown said. “Cause that could knock me into retirement.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Unless something drastic changes, Michigan will play without or with limited fans in the stadium this upcoming season.

SPORTS 11 Michael Barrett looks like Khaleke Hudson’s replacement at VIPER Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

The last time Michigan football needed to find a new VIPER, it looked to Khaleke Hudson.

Now, with Hudson going to the NFL’s Washington Redskins, defensive coordinator Don Brown needs another starter at the hybrid position, and he thinks he’s got one in Michael Barrett.

“I’d seen enough out of Michael Barrett to be excited,” Brown said on a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday. “Runs 4.51 — that’s fast (in the 40-yard dash). At 220 pounds. So that’s a good place to start.”

With spring football canceled

due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn’t been much of a chance for competition, or in-person evaluation, at any position. To some extent, that makes any prognostication a crapshoot at this point, but Barrett projected to be the clubhouse leader to replace Hudson even last season.

He played 12 games for Michigan last year, mostly on special teams, but appeared at the VIPER spot against Notre Dame. A quarterback in high school, Barrett was recruited as an athlete, making him a strong fit for a position that Brown has made uniquely his own, in the mold of Jabrill Peppers.

“We talked Peppers into being the VIPER,” Brown said. “We get him to

do this, you’re going to blitz, you’re going to play the edge, you’re going to do all these things, and we kind of tricked him into being the VIPER.” Brown cited Barrett’s relationships with Cam McGrone and Josh Ross, who are expected to start at the other two linebacker spots. Though freshman William Mohan could push Barrett for playing time, that would be a tall ask — especially given the conditions created by the pandemic. “(Mohan’s) a true freshman and has that kind of ability,” Brown said.

“And obviously we have a number of guys at the safety position that it would be smooth as silk to drop them into the VIPER position with one of those guys.”

Anthony Solomon, a rising sophomore, may be likely to get backup VIPER reps, Brown said.

Solomon is up from 195 pounds to 215, and his year of experience makes him a known commodity.

Right now, that’s a luxury.

“He’s another guy that’ll give (Barrett) competition,” Brown said.

“So right now, we’re trying to get our best players on the field — that’s always the initial thing, is get your best 11, 12 on the field, and we think the best thing for our defense, and for Michael Barrett, because they’re both important pieces to us, is for him to play VIPER.” In three years starting for Michigan, Hudson missed just one game and was one of the Wolverines’

more dependable commodities. He finished his Michigan career with 225 tackles and 23 tackles for loss, along with a strong track record as a special-teamer. That kind of production wouldn’t be easy to replace, even if the Wolverines had a regular schedule of spring ball, summer workouts and fall camp.

Experience is a commodity.

Barrett has it.

“Some guys can play inside linebacker, but they can’t play VIPER,” Brown said. “Most guys (who) play VIPER can move to the inside linebacker position.

(Barrett’s) one of those guys … he’s been in the backup VIPER role for us. So it’s not like he’s alien to the position.”

In Uche’s absence, Michigan plans to retool pass rush ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

Just under a month ago, the New England Patriots swooped up Josh Uche in the second round of the NFL Draft. Michigan’s do-it-all pass rusher was officially gone, and without a spring season, there was little clarity on who would replace him.

But as he detailed in a Zoom call with local reporters Thursday morning, Don Brown has some

ideas.

Last year, in order to get Uche on the field, Brown frequently showcased 3-4 looks on second and third down. This year, Brown plans to run more plays from a four-down base and utilize a variety of players in different packages that play to their strengths. The catch? Without a spring season to evaluate, he’s not yet sure what those packages will look like.

“It’s like, if we had gotten through spring we’d already have

those answers, so when we’ve done preseason we have to have those answers,” Brown said. “But I’m very excited about, when you can say multiple guys have a chance to impact you in a pass-rush scenario, that’s a good thing.”

In particular, Brown praised senior Luiji Vilain, sophomore David Ojabo and junior Taylor Upshaw as players who could impact the pass rush in 2020. That’s along with defensive ends Aidan Hutchinson and Kwity Paye — both 2019 starters

primed to anchor a young defensive line.

Still, Brown knows replacing Uche’s production is no easy task. In 2019, Uche pressured the quarterback on 26 percent of passrush snaps. There likely isn’t a single person on the 2020 roster who can replicate that — a testament to Uche’s skill more than the others’ shortfalls.

“Unlike a year ago when Uche was an internal blitzer, he’s an external blitzer, he could do all those

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson are viewd by Don Brown as integral parts of the restructured pass rush with Josh Uche moving on to the NFL.

things as a standup two-point stance defensive end, you may have to divide that work between one or two guys because one guy may be great on the edge, the other may be great in short-area quickness and change of direction scenarios, might be better,” Brown said. “And those are the things that we’re waiting just to find out and see how that plays out.”

Despite the uncertainty, Brown is confident. Ojabo, who grew up in Nigeria and Scotland and didn’t begin playing football until his junior year of high school, was always going to face a steeper learning curve, but Brown sees in him many of Uche’s traits. Upshaw, who has an NFL pedigree, saw limited reps last year and became someone Brown felt strongly about. Vilain — who didn’t see the field his first two seasons with the program due to injury — was primed for a bigger role last year but saw fewer opportunities after the addition of graduate transfer Michael Danna.

“I go back and watch Luiji (Vilain) play last year at times,” Brown said.

“And … the bottom line is, it’s his time now and he’ll have an opportunity to prove what he can do, and I think we’re gonna get productive, solid play out of him as well.”

Brown has come to accept that he won’t be able to see exactly what he has until the team begins fall camp — something that is likely still a few months off. But when he looks at the tape, he’s able to dream of the pass rush’s potential, with or without Uche.

12 SPORTS

Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Bakich spearheads proposal to change college baseball schedule LILY ISRAEL AND JACOB COHEN Daily Sports Writers

Michigan coach Erik Bakich’s motto of “You can’t get hot if you don’t start cold” might need to change soon, should a proposal he’s spearheading to change the structure of college baseball be accepted.

The proposal, penned by Bakich and several other prominent coaches, and released on May 21, is still in its infancy and has yet to be formally presented to NCAA legislators. However, Bakich feels optimistic that it will be met with a positive response by the NCAA because Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel has been very supportive of his ideas.

This proposal hopes to solve many problems within college baseball, especially in the wake of COVID-19, by limiting the budget damage of an incredibly expensive program to operate and helping athletes thrive both on and off the field.

The proposal aims to push back opening day by four weeks, from mid-February to mid-March, allowing northern schools like Michigan to start their season by playing home games, instead of spending their first month on the road. This change would come with a corresponding extension four weeks later into summer — with the Men’s College World Series ending in mid-July.

This is not a new concept, and different ideas of pushing back the college baseball season have existed for years. But with the impending financial burdens due to COVID-19, this proposal not only makes sense for cold-weather schools, but for warmweather ones as well.

A major impetus for this proposal is the large amount of money that can be saved by eliminating the early season road trips consistently taken by northern teams. Additionally, warm-weather schools won’t need to hand out hefty financial guarantees in order to make the travel feasible for the coldweather schools.

“Athletic directors and administrators around the country have a concept of more regionalized scheduling, not just in baseball, but among a lot of teams,” Bakich said in a video press conference. “(This would help by) cutting down travel budgets, improving student welfare by not taking these long trips and

jeopardizing their academics and missed class time.”

Over the last five years, Michigan spent on average $232,000 on travel costs during the first four weekends of the season.

Should the proposal pass, Michigan could add eight to 12 home games each season, which would save approximately $60,000 to $75,000 per season.

“It’s going to be really hard to invest in a sport that loses money every year that operates at such a significant financial net loss,” Bakich said. “And I’m not talking about a loss of 100,000 bucks. I’m talking about seven figures of net loss.”

The benefits for cold weather schools are obvious, but Bakich emphasized in the proposal how the schedule change would help warm weather schools as well. According to the data presented in the proposal, teams across the country have much higher attendance in April and May as opposed to February and March — due to both poor weather and the finale of the basketball seasons.

For Michigan, Ray Fisher Stadium rarely reaches capacity until late April and May, when students have already left and there’s only a couple more weeks left in the season. Bakich argues that even the general baseball fan and families, which make up most of the attendance at games and subsequently the revenue, don’t associate baseball season until the beginning of the MLB season.

The financial aspect of this proposal has helped it earn attention, but Bakich emphasized that Michigan players, and players across the country, stand to gain from this academically and in terms of their overall well-being.

Michigan, for example, will benefit from fewer early-season road trips because their student-athletes won’t have to miss classes and won’t have the same level of stress on their bodies from travelling.

With a pushed back start date, players will also have more time to properly condition their bodies leading up to the season, leading to fewer injuries.

“Student welfare should be enough to stand alone and make it pass,” Bakich said. “But now that you have finances attached to it that has real traction with athletic departments and athletic directors and administrators looking for ways to improve their bottom lines.”

Student-athletes would lose four more weeks of their summer

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan coach Erik Bakich takes lead on proposal pushing back season.

with the proposed schedule, but it allows players to have a longer off-season in the fall, which would benefit their academics greatly.

The change in off-season would also affect coaches’ recruiting calendars. Coaches typically focus their recruiting efforts through the duration of the summer and many expressed their concerns about how the change in schedule would affect their recruiting ability.

However, Bakich said that the teams that make postseason runs, and thus would lose most of their summer, would actually benefit from the exposure they receive. Bakich found TV exposure was more beneficial than time spent on the recruiting trail.

Having discussed the proposal with the team’s upperclassmen, Bakich is optimistic about their response and those of other players around the country and hopes it will translate to the decision makers in the NCAA. “(The players) were very, very excited about it, as they should be,” Bakich said. “As a cold weather team, not that we need the season moved back to have any type of success, but the idea of packing Ray Fisher stadium with a game in June… would be so awesome.”

Bakich and the other coaches that created this proposal set an aggressive timeline to implement these changes, hoping for them to be put in place before the 2022 season.

Don Brown says he has to do better getting players ready for OSU ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

Jim Harbaugh knows Michigan has to beat Ohio State. Don Brown is falling right behind him in line.

“I think coach (Harbaugh) addressed the Ohio State issue yesterday, am I right?” Brown said on a Zoom call with reporters. “So he’s the boss, that’s what he said, that’s what I’m gonna try to do.”

Speaking on Mike Tirico’s show Wednesday, Harbaugh said, “Nothing makes us angrier,” than losing to Ohio State. Over the last decade, though, that’s become almost a yearly occurrence, as the Wolverines have lost eight in a

row against the Buckeyes.

Lately, much of the issues have come as a result of the defense Brown coordinates.

In 2018, Ohio State put up 62 points on Michigan in Columbus, and last November, it was 56, both leading to blowout victories for a program that has become accustomed to beating the Wolverines.

“I don’t blame players for anything, OK?” Brown said.

“You blame the old guy, right here. OK? I gotta do a better job of getting our players ready and I promise you I’m going to.”

Last spring, Brown struck a similar tone when asked about the Ohio State game, and it didn’t lead to much

improvement. His defense, in other games, has been one of the best in the country.

Michigan ranked 11th in defensive SP+ last season and has consistently been in or around the top 10 since Brown’s arrival in Ann Arbor.

But against bigger, better teams — the kind Michigan needs to beat to vault itself into the higher tier of programs in the country — the defense has fallen short.

Last year, prior to Ohio State, those shortcomings came against Wisconsin and Penn State, two road games in which the Wolverines fell short.

“We had four to five bad run fits, two bad plays in the pass

game (against Wisconsin),” Brown said. “And we’re out of the football game.”

A few bad plays is all it takes against a high-caliber team.

At Wisconsin, that meant a 72-yard touchdown run for Jonathan Taylor, part of a 203yard performance on the day.

At Penn State, it was a coverage miscommunication resulting in a 53-yard K.J. Hamler score.

In the Citrus Bowl against Alabama, it was an 85-yard score by Jerry Jeudy on the first play of the game.

That’s the gap Brown now needs to bridge, between good and great.

“We took all the pieces of that (Alabama) game that are negative, and I promise

you, we’re gonna practice those plays against assorted looks,” Brown said. “And we took the same thing from the Ohio State game and we’ll be practicing against those plays, too, because in that scenario, again — it’s college football.

When you’re not successful, it’s eight or nine plays, or it’s a group of plays that you just want back.”

There are positives from which to build, and Brown will talk about them passionately, even from the spare bedroom of his house in Cape Cod over a video call. The Wolverines came off that shellacking at Wisconsin and held Iowa to just three points, with eight sacks and 14 tackles for loss.

They held Penn State to 72 yards in the second half and came within a goal-line stand of forcing overtime in a white out. They hung with Alabama for three quarters.

That’s not nothing. Neither is winning nine games and finishing just outside the top 10 as a defense. But it’s not where Brown, or Harbaugh, want to be. Especially if it means another embarrassing loss to Ohio State in 2020.

“Once again, the Ohio State game was a huge negative for us,” Brown said. “So I’m not gonna live in that world. And I don’t want the players to live in that world. We acknowledge it, we move on from it, and hopefully I do a better job.”