ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
ACADEMICS
University announces optimism for more ‘normal’ Fall 2021 semester
Hopes for more in-person classes, increased campus density hinge on vaccine availability PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Student COVID-19 cases represent nearly half of total county cases
NEWS BRIEFS
U-M reports positivity increase due to large off-campus social gatherings NAVYA GUPTA
Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan officials reported an increase in positive COVID-19 cases among U-M students Friday, mainly attributed to large off-campus social gatherings. According to an email from U-M President Mark Schlissel, Universityrelated COVID-19 cases currently comprise nearly half of total cases in Washtenaw County — up from a third of total cases on Feb. 3. “We are seeing increases in student COVID-19 cases, spread across all levels of students and largely due to social gatherings,” Schlissel’s email reads. “New cases amongst faculty and staff are at a
low level and are not increasing. Overall, U-M cases represent about half of the total cases in Washtenaw County.” This increase occurred one week after the end of Washtenaw County Health Department’s stay-in-place recommendation and Michigan Athletics’ two-week halt on all athletic activity. The recommendation and athletic pause were mainly in response to diagnosed cases of the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant among U-M students. As of Feb. 5, there are 23 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant diagnosed in Washtenaw County. All cases are associated directly or indirectly with the University.
Under the stay-in-place recommendation, students were permitted to leave their residence for in-person classes, work and research. Students were also permitted to obtain food and medical supplies, among other exceptions. At Friday’s weekly COVID-19 briefing, Dr. Robert Ernst, director of University Health Services and chair of the Campus Health Response Committee, said the rate of off-campus positive cases flattened during the stay-in-place recommendation but have once again spiked. “We’re worried because we are tracking these cases back to offcampus social activity,” Ernst said. “When we see bunches of cases come in after a party or something like that, it really is disruptive to the
RESEARCH
system.” In the past two weeks, there have been 1103 positive cases in Washtenaw County and the weekly positivity rate is 2.6%. As of Feb. 16, graduate students coming to campus regularly are required to undergo weekly COVID19 testing through the Community Sampling and Tracking Program. Undergraduates living on campus or using campus facilities have been required to participate in mandatory testing since the beginning of the semester. The compliance rate for mandatory weekly testing among undergraduates on campus has been 95% or higher, Schlissel wrote.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
The University of Michigan announced it is “optimistic and hopeful” for a more normal semester in Fall 2021 on Monday evening, though no official decisions have been made. A tweet from the official U-M account said U-M staff and faculty are working hard to go back to more in-person classes in the fall. “While no decisions have been made regarding fall term, we remain optimistic it will be much more normal,” the tweet reads. “Faculty, staff & leadership are all eager to do their part to return to as normal a semester as possible & appreciate your patience & understanding.” In a longer announcement sent to U-M parents, U-M spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald emphasized the administration’s eagerness for greater normality in the fall. He wrote the University will continue to follow public health recommendations going into Fall 2021, meaning campus will likely not be completely as it was preMarch 2020. “The university will, of course, make decisions about the fall term that are informed by the then current status of the pandemic in our region and heed the advice of our campus, local and state public health officials,” Fitzgerald wrote. “It is likely that some public health safety precautions will remain in place in the fall, such as wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing.” In the University’s COVID19 briefing on Feb. 12, Chief Health Officer Preeti Malani reiterated the hope that things will continue to get better on campus. Martino Harmon, vice president for student life, said Student
Life and Michigan Housing are continuously working to find a best-case fall housing situation and planning for multiple possible scenarios, though he did specify what scenarios Student Life is considering. Rich Holcomb, associate vice president for human resources, said at the briefing that most non-teaching staff hope to continue to work from home in the fall, which he said would not impact a potentially “in-person” semester. According to a survey released in last Friday’s briefing, 87% of the U-M staff is interested in continuing remote or hybrid work after the pandemic. While the University eventually aims to distribute vaccines to everybody who wants one, Fitzgerald wrote they still don’t have enough to make this a reality. Fall semester hinges on vaccine availability, Fitzgerald wrote. “The big unknown remains the availability of the vaccine, which today is in very short supply,” Fitzgerald wrote. “We have developed the capacity to vaccinate as many as 25,000 persons per week and remain ready to provide vaccines for all members of our community who wish to be vaccinated according to state guidelines once supplies are adequate.” Fitzgerald concluded the announcement by acknowledging the toll the pandemic has taken on both the University and the nation. “Finally, we want to acknowledge that the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic is wearing on all of us,” Fitzgerald wrote. “It’s been emotionally draining as each of us has had to adjust our work and personal lives to appropriately respond to this public health crisis that already has claimed the lives of 485,000 Americans.”
Researchers utilize social ‘U’ President Mark vulnerability index to analyze Schlissel announces greater COVID-19 risk by county U-M testing capabilities ADMINISTRATION
Study finds correlation between virus cases, death rates and racial/ethnic minority percentage KAITLYN LUCKOFF Daily Staff Reporter
COVID-19 cases and death rates are highest in correlation with the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities in a county’s population, researchers from the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation have found. The group of researchers developing this study told The Michigan Daily they wanted to compare the importance of social factors with the rate communities are contracting COVID-19, as well as the communities that are suffering the most deaths. The researchers used the Social Vulnerability Index to analyze the vulnerability and disadvantage of each community in a broad domain, according to Renuka Tipirneni, assistant professor of internal medicine. This index was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to analyze how social factors influence a community’s COVID19 risk. According to an article by Michigan News, the SVI gives each county a 10-point score to analyze how social measures
influence the number of cases in each county. Some examples of these measures are poverty rate, income and education level, housing type and English language ability. The measures also include single-parent families, percentage of people over 65 or under 17, access to a personal vehicle, racial and ethnic minority population percentage and disability. Monita Karmakar, a senior statistician with the division of general medicine within the department of internal medicine, said the main goal of the research was to see if a social association existed between the social demographic risk factors and U.S. COVID-19 incidence and mortality rate at a county-level analysis. “Initially, when the COVID19 pandemic hit the U.S., we saw a lot of incidents and mortality and a lot of burden of the disease amongst minority communities,” Karamakar said. “Which led us to think that there might be some kind of neighborhood-level disadvantage that increases one’s chances of getting the disease and eventually mortality from the disease.” Tipirneni said the group found that the higher the level of SVI
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
or disadvantage, the higher the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths were in that county. As vaccines are beginning to be distributed across the state, Tipirneni said she believes this index could also benefit the state of Michigan with targeting the supply and demand of distributing vaccines. “This index is already being used in a variety of ways that I think are useful, and then we could think of other ways to use it in the future,” Tipirneni said. “The state health department in Michigan has actually been using the Social Vulnerability Index to target specific communities at higher risk for increased testing for COVID-19 for increased resources.” Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been many counties in Michigan that have been known as hotspots due to the increased amount of COVID19 cases in that area. Tipirnei shared that the countries with the most cases at the time of their analysis were Macomb, Wayne and Oakland Counties.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Sampling program grows to include grad students, Ann Arbor residents JARED DOUGALL Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel announced the University is taking several steps to increase its testing capabilities during his weekly U-M Ann Arbor COVID-19 update email to the U-M community Feb. 5. Starting Feb. 16, the University will require weekly COVID-19 testing for graduate and professional program students living on campus. The University will also offer free testing to “Ann Arbor community members residing near the U-M Ann Arbor campus” through the end of the month and pop-up testing to students in quarantine housing. The decision comes after the Washtenaw County Health Department issued a stay-in-place recommendation from Jan. 27 to Feb. 7 to contain an increase in COVID19 cases as well as an outbreak of the new highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19, the latter which led to a two-week pause of all U-M athletics. Additionally, Schlissel announced University students currently make up almost half of positive COVID-19 tests in Washtenaw County. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Emily Toth Martin, an associate
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, explained the reasoning behind the decision to test graduate students. “We are seeing a higher proportion of cases occurring in graduate students overall compared to at this point last semester,” Martin wrote. “Concerns about the potential of a more transmissible variant heightens the need to make sure that people in any group residence hall is being tested regularly.” Martin, a key player in the University administration’s response to COVID-19, wrote the University was offering free testing to residents of Ann Arbor in an effort to help the Washtenaw County Health Department and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services respond to B.1.1.7 variant infections. “This testing is being offered through the county, and the state and county are offering additional nearby testing sites that are updated regularly on their website,” Martin wrote. “We are working together with the county to test both students and community members living close to campus at the IM Sports Building.” Ann Arbor residents who are not experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 and have not had a recent exposure to the virus can get tested
Vol. CXXX, No. 20 ©2021 The Michigan Daily
at the Intramural Sports Building on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. until Feb. 28. There is no sign-up required to be tested. In an email to The Daily, Dr. Lindsey Mortenson, the University Health Service medical director and the chief of UHS Psychiatry Clinic, wrote that pop-up testing is occuring in areas where an increase of COVID-19 cases have been found. “Students in quarantine & isolation housing have either already tested positive, or had a high-risk exposure,” Mortenson wrote. “For students in the latter category, UHS and DPSS deliver test kits to them directly.” Martin wrote the transition to indoors due to cold weather and concerns for increased cases during the winter was the cause of this sudden expansion in U-M’s testing capability. “We are hoping that we will be able to get as many local students to participate in weekly testing as we can,” Martin wrote. “Numbers will naturally go up as we test more thoroughly, but we hope this will ultimately reduce the number of big outbreaks that occur on and offcampus.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
NEWS.........................2 ARTS............................4 MIC...............................6
S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 O P I N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1 SPORTS .....................13
2 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
CLAIRE HAO
Editor in Chief cmhao@michigandaily.com
TARA MOORE
Business Manager tmooree@michigandaily.com
NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com
PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
ARTS SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com
NEWSROOM
arts@michigandaily.com
SPORTS SECTION
news@michigandaily.com
sports@michigandaily.com
CORRECTIONS
corrections@michigandaily.com
Editorial Staff
MEGAN OCELNIK/Daily The collection at John K. King Used & Rare Books, located in downtown Detroit, spans over four whole floors in an old industrial building; it is easy to get lost amongst the never-ending shelves.
Fact or fiction? Reviewing claims about Regent Ronald Weiser
ADMINISTRATION
Board member recently received criticism from some U-M students and faculty JULIANNA MORANO Daily Staff Reporter
Since telling Bridge Michigan he didn’t know if he blamed former President Donald Trump for inciting the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol last month and that he watched the Michigan basketball game instead of the coverage of the riot, University of Michigan Regent Ronald Weiser (R) has been subject to a generous amount of criticism from U-M students and faculty. Community members have called for his resignation in a petition that has garnered over 4,900 signatures since Jan. 8. Hundreds of faculty, staff and students also signed onto an open letter to Weiser and members of the University’s administration demanding he resign. In addition, the University’s Central Student Government has discussed a potential resolution calling for his resignation. Soon after, emails Weiser sent to fellow regents and University President Mark Schlissel requesting their support amid the backlash came to light, one of which called on regents to “remember Germany in the 1930’s.” Older emails in which he called Graduate Employees’ Organization members on strike “union hacks” and sent only an image of a woman in a bikini also surfaced. Various other claims about Weiser’s relationship to the Michigan Republican Party, his real estate holdings in Ann Arbor and his donations to the University have also been circulating. Some of these claims are verifiable while others are not. The Michigan Daily put together a guide to what we know to be fact, what we know to be false and what cannot be verified. Did Weiser refuse to condemn the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021? After initially failing to condemn the insurrection in a Jan. 7 interview with Bridge Michigan, Weiser tweeted a statement, writing that he strongly condemned “those people who turned into a mob and breached the capitol after what was supposed to be a peaceful protest.” Weiser has since told The Detroit News he was undergoing dental surgery at the time of the riots to explain why he missed initial coverage. Weiser continued to condemn the riots in the weeks following. In a Feb. 8 email to The Daily, Weiser wrote that he has “clearly condemned the violence and the people who perpetrated it.” University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald also referred The Daily to a statement on the insurrection from the Office of the President, writing that all of the regents, including Weiser, support Schlissel’s condemnation of the pro-Trump rioters. “Today’s violence represents an assault on our liberty and the fundamental values of American democracy,” the statement reads. “We condemn all those who participate in or instigate such an attack on our nation.”
Did Weiser refuse to condemn former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 violence? In the same Jan. 7 interview with Bridge, Weiser answered “I don’t know,” when asked whether Trump was responsible for inciting the violence. Since then, he has yet to name Trump — or any other individuals — as responsible for the insurrection. Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin Tuesday, where he faces charges of inciting violence at the Capitol. In his statement on Twitter following the publication of the Bridge article, Weiser referenced yet did not condemn Trump, writing “the President said this morning that a peaceful of power will occur and therefore the 2020 elections are over.” Weiser made similar remarks in a Jan. 9 Twitter thread, stating “People were misled. And that resulted in death and destruction” without naming any party responsible for the misinformation. In a Jan. 19 interview with The Daily, when asked whether Trump was among those responsible for inciting the violence, Schlissel also did not directly say if he thought Trump held responsibility. “I chose my words very carefully on purpose,” Schlissel said. “(It’s) up to all of us to interpret what’s been going on publicly and figure out those who are responsible for inciting violence.” Does Weiser have ties to the proTrump rioters? Weiser is the incoming chairman of the Michigan GOP, which he will co-chair with Meshawn Maddock, a 2020 state presidential elector who worked to overturn Michigan’s 2020 general election results. Maddock organized buses to transport Michigan Trump supporters to Washington, D.C. the day of the insurrection and at one point marched among them, according to a tweet from her account that afternoon. She has since publicly condemned the violence and claimed the rally was supposed to be peaceful. In the early afternoon of Jan. 6 before Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol building, Maddock tweeted that the rally marching toward the Capitol was the “most incredible crowd and sea of people I’ve ever walked with (heart emoji).” Weiser told Bridge that he does not believe Maddock “incited” the violence and said she watched the chaos of the riot from her hotel window. “I don’t believe she was part of it,” Weiser said. “I don’t believe she incited it.” What is Weiser’s relationship to the Michigan GOP? On Feb. 6, Weiser was officially elected chairman of the Michigan GOP, following last-minute allegations from the outgoing Chairwoman Laura Cox that he made undisclosed payments to urge a Secretary of State candidate to withdraw, possibly violating campaign finance law. On Monday, Michigan’s Bureau of Elections launched an investigation into these allegations. Weiser is now the highest-ranking member in the state party. He was previously elected to this position in 2009 and 2017, stepping down in 2019 due to health issues.
When asked about the potential conflict of interest in holding this position while also serving as a regent, Fitzgerald wrote holding both positions is not uncommon for governing boards at universities around the state, especially given the partisan statewide electoral processes by which regents are selected at the University and other state institutions. “Involvement with one political party or another is typically expected of candidates for the governing boards at U-M, MSU and Wayne State, where board members are nominated by the political parties and elected on a statewide ballot,” Fitzgerald wrote. Weiser also denied there is a conflict of interest between his position as a regent in his Feb. 8 email to The Daily. “The board of regents is not involved in politics,” Weiser wrote. “It is involved in the oversight of the university.” Currently, no fellow regent holds a position of equal rank in their respective state political party, but other regents have held similar positions. For instance, before being elected to the Board of Regents in 2018, Jordan Acker served as deputy communications director for the Michigan Democratic Party. He was also appointed by President Barack Obama as an attorney-adviser to Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Department of Homeland Security in 2011. How else has Weiser been involved in Republican politics? In addition to his history with the Michigan GOP, Weiser has also held positions with the national Republican Party. From 2011 to 2013, he served as the Republican National Committee’s national finance chairman. He was also one of the vice chairs on Trump’s finance committee, where he was tapped to raise money for Trump’s election in 2016. Outside of these roles, Weiser has also been involved in the campaigns of other prominent Republican officeholders, including the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former President George W. Bush. Weiser also worked with Betsy and Dick DeVos — former Trump education secretary, and Michigan businessman and gubernatorial candidate, respectively — to pass Right-to-Work legislation for the state of Michigan in 2013, which creates provisions for workers to hold a job without paying labor union dues. Is Weiser a major landlord in Ann Arbor? Weiser is the founder of McKinley Associates Inc., a national real estate company headquartered in Ann Arbor, from which he got most of his wealth. The company owns and/or manages several apartment complexes in Ann Arbor, as well as properties around the country valued in excess of $4.6 billion, according to the company’s website. Fitzgerald asserted that Weiser is no longer active in the company. Weiser confirmed this in an email to The Daily, stating he retired from the company in 2001 as part of the requirements when he was nominated
by the Bush administration to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia. Does Weiser’s real estate company profit from University of Michigan students living on or near campus? According to Weiser, McKinley’s apartments in Ann Arbor are not within walking distance from Central Campus and are primarily marketed as “workforce housing,” which the company independently confirmed in an email to The Daily. Fitzgerald wrote that it is the University’s understanding that McKinley “does not have significant holdings near the U-M campus.” In the Monday email to The Daily, Weiser wrote that McKinley has “no undergraduate student housing.” But the company indicated that they do lease their properties to students attending the University but also to students from neighboring colleges, including Concordia, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College. This is in contrast to other Ann Arbor-based companies like J. Keller Properties and Campus Realty, which market themselves as U-M student housing. Is Weiser a major donor to the University, in addition to being a regent? Weiser and his wife have donated over $100 million to the University, making him a prominent donor. In recent years, the couple has donated millions toward establishing the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the Ford School of Public Policy, which is now named after the pair, as well as a real estate center at the Ross School of Business. Campus buildings such as Weiser Hall take their name from the Weiser family. Did Weiser make a donation to influence the University’s plans for the fall semester? Weiser donated $30 million to the University a week before the announcement of the University’s controversial plans to have an in-person, “public-health informed” semester, as an anonymous University staff member said in an Aug. 27 op-ed. However, these funds were specifically designated for diabetes research, according to MLive. The Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute, funded by the gift, was named after Weiser’s daughter, whose husband and children suffer from Type 1 diabetes. Over the summer, Weiser stated that many of his donations to the University are designated for specific purposes, such as food allergy research. When asked if his personal donations to the University influence the Board of Regents’ decisions for the University community, Weiser denied the allegation. “My personal donations do not influence the regents’ priorities and decisions for the university community,” Weiser wrote. “I love the university. Over the years, I have contributed or committed more than $100 million to the university, everything from student scholarships to centers for medical research.”
ADVERTISING
WMG-contact@umich.edu
BRITTANY BOWMAN Managing Editor
babowm@michigandaily.com
JACK GRIEVE
Digital Managing Editor
jgrieve@michigandaily.com
BARBARA COLLINS and LIAT WEINSTEIN Managing News Editors
news@michigandaily.com
Senior News Editors: Emma Ruberg, Hannah Mackay, Calder Lewis, Jasmin Lee, Francesca Duong, Kristina Zheng Investigative Editor: Sammy Sussman FOIA Manager: Ayse Eldes
LIZ COOK and JOEL WEINER
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Zack Blumberg, Andrew Gerace, Min Soo Kim, Mary Rolfes, Elayna Swift
LANE KIZZIAH and KENT SCHWARTZ
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Rian Ratnavale, Drew Cox, Lily Friedman, Jack Kingsley
ELISE GODFRYD and ZOE PHILLIPS
Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com Senior Arts Editors: Andrew Pluta, Grace Tucker, Kari Anderson, Katie Beekman, Sophia Yoon Arts Beat Editors: Elizabeth Yoon, Peter Hummer, Mik Deitz, Sabriya Imami, Kaitlyn Fox, Anya Soller
AYA SALIM and SAMUEL TURNER
Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com Senior Design Editors: Shannon Stocking, Adam Bressler
ALLISON ENGKVIST and MADDIE HINKLEY
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com Senior Photo Editors: Emma Mati, Miles Macklin, Becca Mahon, Julia Schachinger Assistant Photo Editors: Maddie Fox, Luke Hales, Jeremy Weine, Gabby Ceritano, Sophia Afendoulis
ANDIE HOROWITZ
Managing Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Isabelle Hasslund, Marisa Wright
MADISON GAGNE and OLIVIA BRADISH
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com Senior Copy Editors: Caroline Atkinson, Anjali Chiravuri, Ethan Patrick, Kelsey Burke, Emily Wilson, Vanita Seed, Sophie Kephart, Rena McRoy
PARTH DHYANI and NAITIAN ZHOU Managing Online Editors
webteam@michigandaily.com
IULIA DOBRIN and ANNIKA WANG
Managing Video Editors video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Margaret Rudnick, Jordan Shefman
ANAMIKA KANNAN and GABRIJELA SKOKO
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Noor Moughni, Maya Kadouh, Eliya Imtiaz, Jessica Kwon, Lola Yang
EMILY OHL and GERALD SILL
Managing Podcast Editors podeditors@michigandaily.com Senior Podcast Editors: Doug McClure, Max Rosenzweig, Avin Katyal
HALEY JOHNSON and ASHA LEWIS
Managing Social Media Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com Senior Social Media Editors: Kirti Aplash, Natalie Knight, Ria Dubey, Ryan Postman, Evan DeLorenzo, Atticus Raasch, Bella Morreale
ALEX HARRING and SARAH SZALAI Co-Chairs of Access & Inclusion
Business Staff RORI MILLER Creative Director
SCHUYLER JANZEN Sales Manager
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2021 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buy-this-edition to place your order.
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 3
Design by Jessica Chiu
CAMPUS LIFE
Lester Cooperative House to be rethemed After months of deliberation, co-op to be renamed in honor of Sylvia Rivera MARTHA LEWAND Daily Staff Reporter
After experiencing what she described as a hostile environment due to her all-white female roommates in her sophomore year dorm, Lorraine Furtado, a University of Michigan class of 2020 alum, found sanctuary in the InterCooperative Council, a housing cooperative operating numerous houses across Ann Arbor. Though the situation was an improvement, Furtado said microaggressions and hostility persisted. “I wanted to demand more for
myself, and I knew I deserved to demand more for myself,” Furtado said. So in 2019, Furtado began planning to transform her former home — the Lester Cooperative House — into a safe space for Queer and Transgender People of Color like herself. The ICC co-ops are maintained and operated by the student members who live there, rather than a landlord. Members of Lester participated in house meetings about re-theming the house. After an almost unanimous vote in favor of re-theming among house members, they brought it to the ICC, where
it was later approved in November 2019, according to Furtado. Members voted to rename the house after Sylvia Rivera, one of the leading activists in the Gay Libration Movement. “I cried from joy,” Furtado said. “It was such a beautiful moment to know that my housemates cared about the vision I had. They cared about the community I wanted to create, and they agreed with me about it. And it was so meaningful to know that my housemates cared about a safe space for QTPOC as much as I did.” The change in making Lester the Rivera House will be effective
in Fall 2021. The house, which was previously all-vegetarian, will no longer have any dietary restrictions. Rivera will operate year-round. They accept applications from any University students as well as other people in the Ann Arbor area who meet the ICC’s eligibility criteria. Approving Rivera House According to Furtado the process of getting Rivera approved was a difficult one. She said while working to obtain approval for Rivera, ICC leadership “did not create an inclusive environment” for her and was hostile. “I would cry after every single board meeting, my housemates
would have to caravan to come pick me up because I would be so upset after board meetings, because I frankly felt bullied,” Furtado said. “I didn’t feel like I was a voice that they wanted to be there, and that was really tough mentally to know that.” Furtado said she was treated poorly by the ICC board in a meeting to discuss a large financial decision regarding Rivera. “The main reason people had pushback was because it would require so much red tape, so many legal resources, it would require so much forethought and planning,” Furtado said. LSA junior Amaya Farrell, a vice president in the ICC, said that according to meeting minutes, the major concerns were legal wording for fair housing laws. Farrell, who was not on the board at the time of the meeting, said she spoke with members attending that meeting who told her some of the representatives were fixated on the legal wording, which was not the focus of the proposal being discussed. “The (two ICC Vice Presidents) could tell there was tension (because) one board rep continually worried about the legality in a nonproductive and non-appropriate manner for the time, and after the proposal passed the communication norms were talked about to remind (people) what they had agreed on for communication and behavior,” Farrell wrote in a text message to The Daily. When asked about the criticisms and negative member experiences, current ICC President Julian Tabron, a Rackham student, acknowledged members feeling unwelcome or marginalized in the past. “We do membership surveys and compare it (the data) with U of M, and we had a diversity issue a couple of years ago to a point where the ICC was less diverse than U of M, which was disappointing to me,” Tabron said. “I’m African-American and Native American, and I am trying to work towards making this a more welcoming environment, and I think that’s part of what Rivera is trying to do for marginalized individuals.” To prevent situations like Furtado’s from taking place again, Tabron said there are bystander intervention training and microaggression training sessions open to all members of the ICC, as well as the dispute action
and resolution team which handles internal conflicts within the co-op houses. The training sessions have worked in the past, Tabron said, and have helped the ICC break ties with racist and prejudicial members. Tabron said he sympathizes with those who have experienced discrimination and uncomfortable situations within the co-ops. “I’m sorry some members felt alienated or discriminated against in the past. As a member, I’ve experienced that too,” Tabron said. “I think the ICC is heading in a more positive, better direction where we can foster better healthy relationships in our own communities. We’re still working on it — it’s a work in progress.” University alum Ramin Samei, who also worked to re-theme the house, experienced more support from the ICC. Samei said COVID-19 has been a challenge in transitioning Lester into Rivera. “There has been a lot of support for this idea from within the ICC, like a ton of support from our board and from the staff, in making this dream a reality,” Samei said. “I think some of the challenges have been that we have so many people coming together on this, and all of us are going through the pandemic … this is a hard time to start anything. But I think overall, I’ve had a pretty good time (with) it just because there’s been such good support.” The future ahead for Rivera House Furtado said Rivera is at the forefront of real change for QTPOC students, in comparison to what she sees as failed attempts at transformation by the University and some of its organizations and initiatives. “On UMich’s campus, there are so many empty shows of racial solidarity from white folks that are just really performative, and they’re shells of what they could be, and we didn’t want to do that,” Furtado said. “We wanted to be explicitly clear that this is something that will actually cause change and create a safe space and isn’t just putting a band-aid on all of the racial issues on campus, which so many initiatives have just done, if I’m being completely honest. We wanted something that would actually be transformative.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
ACADEMICS
ADMINISTRATION
New Regent Sarah Hubbard Student parents talk struggles talks time in office so far of academia, work-life balance Beating Ryder-Diggs in November, Hubbard is one of two Republicans on board JARED DOUGALL Daily Staff Reporter
The Michigan Daily spoke with Regent Sarah Hubbard (R), the University of Michigan’s newest member of the Board of Regents, Tuesday to discuss her time in office since first joining the Board in January. Hubbard is one of two Republicans on the Board, the other being Ron Weiser, who is currently in the midst of controversy after calls from some in the U-M community for his resignation. Hubbard was elected in November after narrowly defeating incumbent Democrat Shauna Ryder Diggs by 4,000 votes in a statewide election. Hubbard, who grew up on a farm in rural Michigan and was a Pell Grant-eligible student at the University, pitched herself to voters on the campaign trail as a moderate, bi-partisan candidate who leaned right and emphasized lowering tuition, protecting freedom of expression on campus and bringing a “new perspective” to the board. There are eight members of the Board of Regents who are elected to eight-year terms per the Constitution of the State of Michigan. Elections are staggered, and every two years two members of the Board of Regents must seek re-election. Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan all have elections for their Boards of Regents. The Board of Regents is the most powerful body at the University and has two main responsibilities: hiring the president of the University and managing the budget, which includes tuition. Before her election to the Board, Hubbard held no political office or position at the University. Hubbard said her “great passion for helping the University” propelled her expeditious jump to this powerful position.
“I’ve been very active in working with the alumni groups since graduating,” Hubbard said. “And I’ve also had a lot of relationships with public officials, with the public, with the business community across the state and just saw an opportunity to serve and a way to give back to my University. I happened to win with a squeaker there last year, and I’m really enjoying the opportunity to be more engaged.” Hubbard is the owner of Acuitas LLC, a government relations and lobbying firm in the state’s capital of Lansing. She holds two degrees from the University, a bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology from LSA and an
“I think what (the Board of Regents) all have in common is what’s best for U-M — what’s best for students, what’s best for academic excellence,” Hubbard said. “I don’t think partisanship is going to rule the day, but it’s certainly an element that can’t be completely ignored.” MBA from the Ross School of Business. She also has a history of working with the Republican Party, though in the past she has donated to Democratic candidates in Michigan, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. Hubbard’s first official Board of Regents meeting is not until Feb. 18, but she said she is already preparing and getting to know U-M administration and student leaders. “I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know the leaders of the University much better,” Hubbard
said. “Talking with administration leaders, deans, student leaders, taking emails from a lot of different groups and preparing to meet with other groups on campus and hearing from a lot of people. … While I’ve known the University for a long time, I’m getting to know it in a much different, better way.” Though the Board of Regents typically handles general management and high-level oversight of the University, Hubbard said she believes the Regents are very accessible to students and members of the U-M community. “We do receive a lot of emails and outreach from students and student groups, and we certainly encourage students to continue to stay in touch with Regents,” Hubbard said. “And there are all sorts of things that might be on students’ minds, especially with COVID. I very much appreciate hearing from people and what their concerns are, and I want to hear from people. I want to hear from students and families and parents and faculty — all of you.” Hubbard said being a Regent has gone how she expected it to so far and spoke about the “learning curve” of becoming a Regent. “I thought it would be very tense and that it would be relatively timeconsuming, and it is … but as far as actual surprises, I don’t know that I have anything in particular that I would point to,” Hubbard said. “It’s just such a steep learning curve right now, and a lot of items and issues are new to me at this point.” Hubbard has been assigned to the Health Affairs Committee on the board, an important position in the middle of a global pandemic. According to the bylaws of the Board of Regents, the committee provides oversight of the University’s clinical enterprise, including the health system.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
during the pandemic
As many schools remain closed, GSIs and undergrads with children discuss difficulties in managing coursework PAIGE HODDER
Daily Staff Reporter
As the U.S. nears one year since the initial spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools and day care centers have yet to regularly remain open. For University of Michigan Graduate Student Instructors and undergraduate students who are parents, this means trying to balance school, work and child care at home every day. Work-life balance difficulties Even before the pandemic, student parents at the University have discussed the lack of institutional support. Rackham student Valerie Micol works as a GSI and researcher for the University and has a 10-year-old child. She said working from home during the pandemic has wrecked her work-life balance. “I’m supposed to be writing a dissertation,” Micol said. “It’s supposed to be the most cognitively demanding work that I need to do … And then I’m just at home with my 10-year-old, being a fifth grade oneon-one teacher’s aide for her. I don’t want to be super dramatic, but it feels like (working from home) has just ruined a lot.” The shift to working at home has also heightened the gender imbalance in the workplace, as student parents who are women are more likely to be more affected by the burden of juggling both professional work and parenting. The hardest thing about working from home with a child, Micol said, has been the fact that her attention is always divided. “It’s like having a loud, rowdy lab mate or co-worker who’s interrupting all the time,” Micol said. “Even when she’s relatively
subdued or we have good days, it’s just still cognitively demanding, to be on all the time in two settings.” Ph.D. candidate Ruby Mochida is currently a GSI teaching modern Chinese culture and is also the mother of two children, ages two and five. She said she moved in with her mother in New Hampshire over the summer for help with child care. Being both a mom and a GSI, Mochida also said she has struggled with feeling isolated and misunderstood. “I think it’s just a fact that unless you’re a mom, you don’t understand the situation,” Mochida said. “So I have to prove the reality to my department, and it feels like they don’t believe that it’s really that bad or something is really hard.” Ph.D. candidate Hanah Stiverson has two school-aged children. Stiverson said she is constantly interrupted throughout the day and finds it difficult to stay focused. Stiverson said she has found herself getting more exhausted during the day than she used to, causing her to feel behind. “I know personally, I’ve got a lot of timeline goals and personal expectations that I set for myself,” Stiverson said. “And working in a way that has combined my home life, with my work life, with my parenting life, with trying to reach these goals for fellowships and going on the job market in a year — all that’s combined into this ball of stress that’s really hard to work through.” Fighting for greater protections During their strike last fall, The Graduate Employees’ Organization included allowing student parents to use their University-allotted child care money for non-licensed care in their list of demands sent to University administration.
Allowing this change was one of the concessions the University made to GEO to end the strike. In addition to extending the policy to include an option for funding unlicensed childcare, the University increased the age limit to qualify for this aid to include children up to the age of 15 without disabilities. The previous and existing policies cover children with special needs up to the age of 19. The temporary program instituted by the University also allocated an additional $500,000 to unlicensed childcare, as requested by GEO. This demand followed a group of Rackham students with children publishing an opinion piece in The Michigan Daily in August 2020. The group discussed their experiences and struggles and asked the University to issue a statement of support and guide departments in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on student parents. Micol said though the child care funding concessions were helpful, she thinks the University needs to do more. “Part of the child care subsidy is that your child has to be enrolled on 75% of the weeks of the semester, which is something like maybe 12 weeks or 13 weeks,” Micol said. “But they give you like $2,000, and that’s going to cover only six weeks or (so) … I honestly think that the unlicensed care piece was just such a low hanging fruit that the University could have done without strike.” Though Mochida moved in with her mother for child care, she said she was unable to use any of the subsidy to pay her mother for taking care of her child.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Arts
4 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Kota the Friend moves toward closure on ‘Lyrics to GO, Vol. 2’ ROSA SOFIA KAMINSKI Daily Arts Writer
The title is accurate — Lyrics to GO, Vol. 2 is all about the message indie rapper Kota the Friend wants to leave you with. The f low of words — words of gratefulness, sadness and love — seems to tumble out of Kota on this mixtape. Lyrics to GO, Vol. 2 is not as carefully thought out as his previous album Everything, but it was released anyway because Kota has words he needs the world to hear right now, without delay. His lyrics stand on their own; there are so many things to say that there’s almost no time to form a perfect, catchy beat to match. True to Kota’s earlier work, the rapper’s mental health challenges are carefully ruminated on as gratefulness fights to exist alongside them. This mixtape is a cathartic processing of these conflicting emotions. Over pared-back, sunny beats that let the ease of his flow shine through, Kota’s direct lyrics provide self-reflection. His words hold up a mirror to each listener — we can connect to this mixtape only if we choose to actively listen to it. The beats are designed to give the words the space they need but don’t do enough to draw the listener in without a bit of effort. Through his openness about his struggles, Kota seems to find closure as the mixtape progresses. The starting tracks set the tone for the mixtape, with their beats made up of guitar or wistful piano, and full of grainy fry. In “Luke Cage,” Kota speaks in the second person, asking the listener to remember with him as he welcomes them into the album. The memories are a mixed bag. In “Clinton Hill,” he acknowledges hunger pains of the past in the same breath he speaks of his thankfulness. On “200 Dollars,” his nostalgia takes on a bite as he considers the gentrification of his hometown, New York City. He longs for the metaphorical green grass and pound cake he describes that are just beyond his grasp at the same time he reviles them. His sadness begins to infiltrate the mixtape about halfway through. “Created everything from the darkness, I still wrote it / I still wear my heart on my shoulder / I’m still hopin’ for the best, I’m still awake
when I rest,” he admits in “Broken.” Kota’s laid-back vocalization of these difficult words keeps the lyrics honest, instead of portraying a fabricated tortured artist. He acknowledges that life has suffering, but it isn’t all suffering. Pain fosters growth; Kota uses it to develop himself and his music. “Thunderstorm coming, I sit on the porch and sing through it,” he tells us on this same track, acknowledging all the little bits of life that make it whole. In “Emotionally Dumb,” he drives home this point by emphasizing that you can be grateful even when everything isn’t perfect. In this same song, Kota drops lyrics that just about sum up the mixtape: “But I’m workin’ on it, no more escapin’ when I’m hurtin’ / No more self-sabotage, livin’ against my purpose / More appreciation for myself when I ain’t perfect / Every day I get up and grow, that’s what I chose.” It is a statement of self-affirmation that we are all learning to make for ourselves, and hearing it from others allows us to share that experience. He accepts that growth does not mean everything is instantly better — it means you want to make things improve. The profundity of these statements makes it seem a shame for them to be rushed out with not much thought given to their production. Although the minimalistic beats give the listener space to think about what Kota is saying, they don’t add much. The lyrics would have a similar effect being rhythmically read aloud at a poetry slam — there’s musicality in Kota’s f low, but not in much else. And yet, for now, the words are enough. This probably isn’t a mixtape that will stand the test of time, but it emerges right after the close of a year that knocked us all off our feet again and again. On “Flowers,” the closing track, Kota acknowledges that everybody always wants more out of life — but right now, this is what he can give us. He released this mixtape, even though it is not his best work, even though it is bare bones and sounds like a lot of mediocre SoundCloud rap, because it was one of those moments when he couldn’t hold back what he was thinking. There are times where you finally find the answer you’ve been searching for for a while — Kota can’t keep himself from sharing his.
Design by Elizabeth Yoon
‘Waiting For The Night Song’ is a flimsy nature fiction debut TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer
Albeit flawed, 2020 was a wonderful year for debut novels. Some of my favorites — “A Burning” by Megha Majumdar, “The Best Part of Us” by Sally Cole-Misch and “Burnt Sugar” by Avni Doshi, to name a few — kept me company during endless hours indoors. Other debuts, however, were less thrilling. “Waiting For The Night Song,” a nature fiction debut by Julie Carrick Dalton, falls into this category. Dalton’s novel reads like a subdued version of Delia Owens’s “Where the Crawdads Sing.” Dalton, a journalist, tells the story of Cadie, an entomologist who grows up in a small town in rural New Hampshire. Young Cadie holds the local woods close to her heart until a deadly shooting turns her world upside down. The novel alternates between the present and the past, following Cadie and her best friend Daniela as they navigate the trauma they’ve inherited. The plot deftly intertwines themes of climate change, immigration and political polarization to create a layered and current story. Fans of nature fiction will love Dalton’s lingering and thoughtful descriptions of our planet. “Wind stretched the clouds below her like raw cotton on a comb, allowing rusty tips of dead pine trees to peek through,” Dalton writes when Cadie stands at the peak of a mountain. And Cadie is just the type of lovable science geek that fellow environmental enthusiasts will love. Yet even with these luxurious descriptions, Dalton’s writing lacks depth and fails to pack a punch.
Ironic for a thriller, this novel’s greatest downfall is its inability to effectively build up suspense. However, Dalton does a sufficient job of depicting trauma in a realistic and understandable way. “All of her experiences and memories were either before or after the gunshot,” Dalton writes of Cadie. Readers see how trauma lingers, appearing during otherwise ordinary moments with an intensity that transports you back to the incident itself. Yet, the events of the plot happen suddenly and without warning. Without suspense, readers don’t understand the gravity of situations that are meant to be transformative or traumatic for the characters. Similar to the plot, the romance in “Waiting For The Night Song” happens quickly and without any significant buildup. The relationship between Cadie and Garrett, a child across the lake that Cadie met during the fateful summer of the shooting, feels forced. Cadie and Garrett have had a handful of conversations together, yet when Cadie returns to her childhood woods nearly thirty years later, Garrett is suddenly all she can think about. “I think I’ve been waiting for you my whole life,” Cadie says, a phrase that was quite literally hard to read. How absurd this relationship feels isn’t a consequence of the character building, but because the plot lacks a sense of urgency and depth. It’s difficult to understand the strength of Cadie and Garrett’s bond when they only met for one summer at the ripe age of eleven years old. Despite its flaws, “Waiting For The Night Song” does have a bright side. Climate change-themed fiction is a hard genre to master while retaining an interested audience, and Dalton does a wonderful
Samantha Power in conversation with Laura Dern SIERRA ÉLISE HANSEN Daily Arts Writer
Last week, publishing company HarperCollins hosted an event to help raise money for local bookstores. In their timely exploration of the human experience extrapolated to the universality of the human condition, actress Laura Dern and writer Samantha Power mingled in a conversation that was not simply an overview of Power’s life story, but instead a discussion of the driving forces at play in her new memoir, “The Education of an Idealist.” As the former U.S. Presidential Ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama and as someone who is in many ways legally bound by public opinion, Power’s memoir demonstrates her effort to expose the roots of her fierce commitment to empathy. She wants to make you, the audience and the reader, more aware of the parts of her life that manage to defy the myth-making of American success. She wants you to know all this because she’s aware that there’s a chance it might resonate with her readers’ lives. During the conversation, which was hosted by Literati Bookstore in conjunction with a network of local bookstores nationwide as a fundraising effort, Power worked ardently to demystify the shadow life haunting the background of her success by discussing the transmission of her idealism from a patrilineal line down to her: a transmission mirroring the spiritual guidance she offers in the form of a dazzling, knocked-down romanticism for the endurance of the human condition that refuses to stay down. Through her resistance to power structures known to oppress and marginalize, Power refuses to rant or lay blame on individuals.
Rather, both during the conversation with Dern and in her memoir, Power turns the magnifying glass of reporting on herself. In doing so, she resists the polarizing idea that politicians are only interested in the power encircling their roles in government. She also repeatedly emphasizes the importance of mapping the universal onto the particular, atomistic functions of the human in isolation, whether it be quarantine-induced or the belief that you are uniquely alone with your burdens. In the process of doing so, she delved deeper into her personal background than most politicians and their staffers tend to disclose outright, even in the aftermath of publishing a memoir. Dern, a clear admirer of Power, magnified Power’s commitment to empathy and how it’s manifested in the form of a powerful, trail-blazing curiosity. “That’s not normal (or) innate curiosity,” Dern observed. Power expanded upon Dern’s observation — as she excelled at doing throughout — by explaining how, when she was growing up in Ireland, the constant exposure to her father’s catalog of narratives from customers at his pub played an oversized role in shaping her empathically-leaning interests. She further explained that, due to the vividness of her father’s storytelling, it felt as if a cast of characters sat beside the rest of her family at the dinner table as she came of age. Power expressed an avid appreciation for the moral integrity displayed by her father while she was growing up. “When you’re at the pub, everyone’s equal,” she said, referencing her father’s views on the human condition. “What people (in the pub) care about is … Can you tell the story’s arc and hold an audience?”
Power continued on to say that, “what (she’s) inherited from (her father) is the ability to tell a story and bridge a distance.” While this type of storytelling might be expected given the framing of a memoir, what I didn’t expect was the interpersonal validation shared between Power and Dern, across two disparate professions, politics and acting — that of finding themselves to be the only woman in a room. Where the promotional literature of both the memoir and the event may have streamlined their experiences as that of prototypical American success, Dern and Power seemed intimately entangled in a more significant way: Each woman spoke of the impacts of resisting repression and silence. This segment of the conversation began with Dern asking Power about a scene in the book where she is summoned to a meeting with other women working in government. Power recalled being initially annoyed by the perceived disruption of this summoning but then described how she reconfigured it as “one of the most cathartic experiences of (her) life” while she was drafting it into the book. Another, personal throughline Power emphasized during the conversation dealt with the damaging emotional ramifications of her father’s death from alcoholism. Specifically, Power disclosed that, despite becoming aware that it wasn’t her fault through therapy, she questioned her own possible role in it. Dern didn’t shy away from pointedly asking Power how she managed to endure the self-interrogation required for the narration of her life — the articulation of its nuances in the writing of her memoir — in the wake of her grief:
“What I want to understand is, how did you survive the guilt of responsibility … How did you feel such a deep sense of self and let go of old stories?” Dern asked, referring to Power’s mounting sense of guilt after her father’s death, as well as the coping mechanisms she utilized as a witness to atrocity. In response, Power explained her initial resistance to the idea of therapy, as both a woman working in American politics as well as a first-generation immigrant. While she credits it with her healing, the long answer, for her, is that the trauma dealt with in therapy never really leaves you or drains away through the cathartic conversations had between therapist and client. Even still, she added that if you are lucky enough to do so, you can conduct the energy constructively. Power informed Dern that the guilt of her father’s death was at the core of her decision to go to therapy. The exchange was initially propelled by the pair’s personal experiences characterized by a mutual understanding of what it means to build careers in male-dominated workplaces. But it was the accumulation of those same experiences, by way of what Dern called a “massive journey” through the political realm, that ultimately secured Power’s firm place as a feminist icon. That is, as a voice that grapples openly on the page with the toxicity built into the work environment. In the midst of the desperation to be right that so often defines the modern American body politic, the refreshing commiseration between Dern and Power seemed to channel their desires, as an actor and politician respectively, to embrace the microphone and to speak for the betterment of the collective through its sonic force.
job weaving the acute threat of climatic warming into the plot. Cadie’s forest is both depicted as a comforting refuge and a landscape threatened with fire. “Silence lived at the top of mountains and deep in the woods, where the nuances of worms under soil, insects in the air, trees exhaling, and animals wooing gave dimension to the quiet,” Dalton eloquently writes, reminding us all of the serenity found outdoors. But when those same woods are on fire, the landscape is unrecognizable, the flames depicted as “harmony and melody thrashing with unrestrained grace” as they hungrily devour the forest trees. The dual depiction of the environment — as both a safe haven and something under constant threat of destruction — is a poignant reminder that we don’t have much time left before many of our local landscapes begin to resemble California, Australia or the Amazon. Dalton allows us to take comfort in our surroundings while also reminding us how much it would hurt to lose them. I think of this in nearly every encounter I have with the natural world — a peaceful moment walking through a grove of pine trees suddenly seems more sinister when I realize this same stand likely won’t be here in 50 years, when the climate of Michigan is projected to resemble presentday Arkansas. Even with these highlights on climate change, this novel still unforgivably lacks in plot and substance. It’s easy to turn the pages, but the story’s lack of urgency makes it ultimately unfulfilling. “Waiting For The Night Song” is a light, easy read, but don’t expect it to rock your world.
In praise of cheesy comfort anthems CLARA SCOTT Daily Arts Writer
There’s nothing more satisfying than turning a key in the ignition of a well-oiled car. Well, maybe getting crisp bills from the ATM, breaking the smooth surface of a freshly-opened jar of peanut butter or stepping into a boiling shower after being out in the cold. There might not be a true leader of satisfaction to rule them all, but as I started my first car early last month in the parking lot of a Chelsea DMV, I had never felt anything like it. Driving home at 65 mph on the freeway, I bested myself yet again: the seat warmer toasting my butt, hands firmly on the wheel, I reached for my phone and turned on Pat Benatar. This was the life, man. It’s the small things after all, right? Listening to Pat Benatar sing-yell “We’re running with the shadows of the night” as I sped down the highway, I thought about that unique feeling of satisfaction that seemingly random actions create in our daily lives. Beyond the one-second hit of dopamine that turning the radio up might have spurred, it was Benatar and her 80s contemporaries that truly brought me comfort on that first drive back to Ann Arbor. I could imagine my mother doing the same drive to visit her sisters here at the University of Michigan, listening to the same songs on the radio screaming down a potholed interstate. I smiled, losing myself in the fake drumbeats and earworm rhythms of the music. The songs that followed by Heart, the Pretenders, the Go-Gos, Wilson Phillips and the like were cheesy, sure,
but there is truly nothing like them. In a period dominated by men with teased hair and g yrating hips on pyrotechnic stages, women like Benatar and Chrissie Hynde were unabashed in their embrace of life and love without apologies. You can pretend to hate “Barracuda,” but there’s no way you don’t at least know the chorus to that song. I didn’t know the song Scarlett Johansson sings in “Lost in Translation” was called “Brass in Pocket,” but I’ve known the chorus since I was seven years old. This music might not be considered “good taste,” but it’s really good. It’s music made for real people, for true comfort, made to be a catalyst for joy. I’m not t ypically a huge pop fan either; when I was 13 I would have let Julian Casablancas of The Strokes kill me and then said thank you as a ghost. I still love a good angst y indie track, and most of my time as a music journalist has been focused on people who have less than f ive pieces of colored clothing in their closets. But there’s just something so universal about these 80s ladies, whether it is their streng th, the catchiness of ever y single chorus or their ver y tall hair. Their voices are impossibly loud, their belts smooth and the g uitar in the background peppy. Listening to them is like putting lotion on freshly shaved legs, like f lipping the perfect pancake. I’m running out of similes, but you get the picture. No matter how emo the rest of my playlist might get, there is always a little space for my anthemic friends. Perhaps I’ll wear a leotard tomorrow in their honor.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 5
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ says screw the neoliberals MARY ELIZABETH JOHNSON Daily Arts Writer
There’s a quote from a 1964 speech by Malcolm X that Fred Hampton, played by Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”), recounts to the future mother of his child, Deborah (Dominique Fishback, “The Hate You Give”): “Sometimes, when a person’s house is on fire and someone comes in yelling fire, instead of the person who is awakened by the yell being thankful, he makes the mistake of charging the one who awakened him with having set the fire.” Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed after an FBI informant named Bill O’Neill, the eponymous Judas played by Lakeith Stanfield (“Sorry to Bother You”), drugged him so that he would be unable to wake when the FBI raided his apartment. Artist Kerry James Marshall would later depict the night of his execution in “Black Painting,” illustrating the darkness of Hampton’s bedroom, evoking the truth that this eerie place was meant to be a safe place for Hampton, Deborah and their unborn child. It’s dangerous enough to be in
a house on fire, but what they did to Fred Hampton reminds us that you have to be awake to know the fire’s even there. The film follows Bill’s infiltration of the Black Panther Party on behalf of the FBI in return for immunity from his past crimes. It’s difficult to try to sow suspense with historical narratives in film when the ending is already cataloged in collective or digital memory, especially for Black people like myself, who know the story fairly well. Likewise, director Shaka King (“Newlyweds”) sometimes struggled to avoid the associated cliches of the genre. FBI Agent Roy Martin Mitchell (Jesse Plemons, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”) has a moment of reckoning with the cause he realizes he’s fighting for, not saying verbatim but still evoking a revelation of, “Wait, you’re telling me that the FBI is r-r-rracist?!” Stanfield’s portrayal of Bill’s struggle not to blow his cover at times seems more like a closeted kid trying to fit in with the football players by talking about how hot the popular girl is, than it does a blackmailed man worried for his
life. At one point in the movie, Deborah has a moment when she becomes worried for Fred’s safety. It seemed shoehorned in, like something that a white wife of a white activist would say to remind the viewers that the film considers the female perspective, but maybe I’m being harsh. The cuts to Fred and Deborah’s romantic development felt like an attempt to level with people who might think the Panthers were too radical. More and more people have been re-educated on the work that the Black Panther Party did for community health, food and welfare, but the bigger picture has sometimes been watered down. Shaka King’s refusal to shy away from the Black Panthers’ denouncement of capitalism and encouragement to keep people armed dares the viewer to consider that these ideas might be new, but not unforgivable. The opening montage sews together clips from Agnes Varda’s (“Cleo from 5 to 7”) 1962 documentary on the Black Panther, b-roll news footage and reenacted performances by the cast — most notably Kaluuya as Hampton, in a scene where he promises not to
“fight capitalism with black capitalism, (but) fight it with socialism.” In the age of the imperialist girlboss and carceral feminism, it’s brave to show that the Black Panther Party was more successful in bringing people together than any corporate activists of today. I’m inclined to be a little cynical and think that any success that films like this have is based around an obsession with Black pain. That films like this are nothing more than high-budget blaxploitation films. But “Judas” goes beyond that. It’s not an easy film to watch, but there are glimpses of Black joy that make you keep watching. Even knowing it was all going to end badly, I still felt warm when Fred would feed Deborah or when he was embraced by his friends upon returning from a stint in prison. I’m begging people to see this movie as a moral text. Not just something to observe but something to live by. To reject the individualism that O’Neill favored by sacrificing his friends for his own betterment and instead embrace the collectivism that the Party stood for. I struggle with the push and pull between wanting to decentralize the viewer, to focus
on what the art is trying to say rather than always looking for something to relate to. Then again, seeing this as only relevant to the ’60s would be like looking at Japanese kaiju films as monster movies and not reactions to nuclear warfare. Art is about connection. When I read the ten-point program or watch videos of Kathleen Cleaver talking about her natural hair, I can’t help but feel like they’re speaking across time. You can’t view this as a race-blind story of betrayal. O’Neill did what he did because he felt like he had no other option as a Black man in America. Not some new idea of Trump’s America but the America that has always existed to maintain a plutocracy. I wonder how producer Ryan Coogler felt doing this film after “Black Panther,” arguably one of the performative expressions of Black pride, that Hampton himself calls out in a scene where he says, “That dashiki ain’t gon’ help you when they come in here with them tanks.” Does he know that giving Disney all that cash made him a part of the capitalist machine? Does he know that Disney is a part of the reason
why stories like Fred Hampton’s are suppressed in favor of whatever movie makes the most money or can at least be paid for by the U.S. military? Still, Shaka King lives up to his name. He dares pearl-clutching viewers, who might think that the cop-killing is too far, to leave their judgment at the door. None of us were there. To wince at the use of violence by the Party because of our modern ideas about gun control would make it about us and not the story. This film is about as close as we can get to looking back in time, and as Hampton says in the film, “It’s not a question of violence or no violence, it’s a question of resistance to fascism or nonexistence within fascism.” The filmmakers should get ready for a whirlwind of press. Whenever we have a new “Selma” or “12 Years a Slave,” white critics come out of the woodwork to bemoan how timely the film is, how deftly it holds a mirror to society — and it does. But these movies are always timely. If you really want us to stop thinking you’re racist, just give Kaluuya the Oscar he deserves.
Using individual recordings of each musician, Four/Ten Media created an inventive visual collage of musicians performing each piece. The visual collection of members recording their part shifted throughout each performance, focusing on fast runs of the violins one moment and the deep plucks of the double bass the next. This virtual enhancement allowed me to observe each musician working at their craft and appreciate the tactical ability that comes from being a virtuoso by the likes of Nicki Minaj or Taylor
Swift. Although at times the virtual setting was punctuated by hearing the musicians breathe, in a way, it made me feel as though I was breathing with them through each phrase in the music. So, maybe not all orchestras are that boring. Sphinx has simply cut inequitable ties that have persisted in the orchestral field and the music industry as a whole. Sphinx has no strings attached and no, I’m not just saying that because it’s a bit of fun wordplay, but because they aren’t
trying to tie their audience down in the details. Sphinx Virtuosi is no strings attached because they offer up “This is America” as a free experience to uplift Black and Latinx musicians for communities who usually don’t have access. No strings attached because the stories they tell are authentic and capture your heart. No strings attached because they let the musicians speak for themselves — and it is magnetic.
No strings attached: Sphinx Virtuosi’s ‘This is America’ MATTHEW EGGERS For The Daily
Orchestral music has always felt like a commitment. Listening to Mozart, Bach or Brahms is not for enjoyment, but rather a more serious soundtrack for getting my work done (without wasting an hour dancing to Megan Thee Stallion). Maybe it’s the lack of lyrics or the high-brow nature of classical music, but Western string instruments never gave me the excitement I crave in music. But, what if orchestras were more than the sum of their boring parts? What if orchestras could create music that engaged an audience rather than lull me to sleep? Chamber orchestras around the world have tried their best to capture the height of human emotion by quite literally rubbing strings together, yet few have caught my heart. Classical music has had one foot in the grave ever since Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica,” but that doesn’t mean orchestras are six feet under just yet. Sphinx Virtuosi is a perfect example of that, breathing life into their orchestra with new work from underrepresented voices in music. As
a Detroit-based, not-for-profit social justice organization, Sphinx uses the arts to uplift underrepresented musicians through education, leadership and performance. Each pillar of their mission is seen through one of Sphinx’s professional chamber orchestras, Sphinx Virtuosi. With an orchestra of Black and Latinx musicians, Sphinx Virtuosi’s program “This is America” was free to the public with truly no strings attached. “This is America” is a sixpiece presentation that highlights the work of Black and Latinx composers. The program clocked in at barely over an hour making it feel more like listening to your favorite no-skip album and less like a marathon. With recent trends showing less than five percent of orchestral musicians as being Black or Latinx, organizations like Sphinx Virtuosi are crucial spaces for underrepresented identities in orchestral music. Providing performances ranging from solo commissions to lively, full-length orchestra recordings, each of the program’s songs pack a punch and provide a worthy introduction to the stunning talent of Sphinx Virtuosi.
A highlight of the “This is America” performance came toward the end with Sphinx Virtuosi’s performance of “Delights and Dances” by Michael Abels. The dissonant joy of the piece was exemplified through the quartet’s viola performance by Celia Hatton. Hatton’s performance was rich, robust and personified the heightened emotional presence of a prima donna singing their heart out. Inakillerensemble,Hatton’sphrasing was matched by the fellow members of her quartet — Rainel Joubert (Violin I), Melissa White (Violin II) and Thomas Mesa (Cello) — with each member offering a wavering pull into the handoff of every phrase of the song. Together, the piece captured the wonderful ebb and flow of bittersweet joy that comes with Abel’s work. You might have heard his music before in “Get Out” or “Us.” Abel is known for working in the more eerie sectors of music. Yet, this piece felt like a requiem of hope for the history of Black music in America. Although most programs and live events have struggled to keep up during COVID-19 times, Sphinx Virtuosi, with the help of Four/Ten Media, was able to create a more engaging chamber orchestra than that of their predecessors.
Sphinx Virtuosi
‘Sergeant Salinger:’ A masterful reimagining of the author’s secret life during WWII SAM MATHISSON
Daily Arts Contributor
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” — J.D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye,” 1951 “The Catcher in the Rye” is an ode to angst through the hilarious musings and reflections of Holden Caulfield. Reading it is a teenage rite of passage, and the novel’s themes of innocence, identity and loss remain with many long after their adolescent years have passed. Though everyone who reads it feels intimately acquainted with Holden, few know anything about his creator, author and notorious recluse J. D. Salinger. In his latest book “Sergeant Salinger,” Jerome Charyn, a prolific author of historical fiction, reimagines Salinger’s early life in kodachrome detail. Charyn follows Salinger’s path from his parents’ apartment on Park Avenue to the battlefields of Normandy and beyond, ending in the Tarrytown, N.Y. loft where much of “The Catcher in the Rye” was written. Grounded in biological fact and topped with a generous helping of imagination, Charyn’s novel wonderfully recreates the war years of J. D. Salinger. Charyn sets the scene in 1942 New York, populating it with vibrant characters and period-correct lingo. The opening sequence, featuring an acerbic Walter Winchell (the famed New York gossip columnist) and the “voluptu-u-u-u-os” Oona O’Neill, is an intriguing, dramatic accomplishment. Here we are introduced to a young J. D. Salinger,
“A tall yid, with big ears and olive skin and a Gypsy’s dark eyes.” As an upcoming young writer, Salinger’s short stories published in the “slicks” — magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker — had already accumulated a measure of fame. Charyn acquaints the reader to Salinger’s life in New York only to rip them away with the arrival of a draft letter. Trained within the shadowy Counter Intelligence Corps, the sensitive Salinger is molded into a ruthless interrogator. The author follows Salinger, cast as a reluctant soldier but an excellent survivor, through many of the most notorious campaigns of World War II. From the beaches of D-Day to occupied Paris, he encounters prominent historical figures, including Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Ernest Hemingway. He experiences the terror of the Hürtgen Forest “where toes froze off” and the nauseating liberation of a Bavarian death camp “where corpses were piled like cordwood.” Inexorably scarred by the “stench, the crippling acid smell of rotting flesh,” a haunted Salinger drifts dreamlike through the rest of the war. Though Salinger’s lucidity returns when necessary, his mental deterioration by the end of the war is alarming. As only the finest protagonists are, Charyn’s Salinger is wonderfully conflicted. Expertly drawing out Salinger’s struggle, Charyn demonstrates the dual nature of a young soldier caught between his humanity and his survival. At once a killer and savior of children, Salinger performs admirably throughout the war. Able to discern forgeries and sniff out lies with the ease of a priest at confession, Salinger struck fear
into the hearts of the Germans and French Nazi collaborators. Even as he became known for his ruthlessness as an interrogator, he showered refugees with GI cigarettes and Hershey bars. Rich with neither narrative nor scenery, “Sergeant Salinger” succeeds largely through the strength of its dialogue. Salinger’s steady voice guides the many dialogue-heavy scenes, evident especially during his interrogations of suspected Nazis. It’s a fast read and a blur of a story toward the end, as Salinger’s mental state fragments. The prose is fairly minimalist, with adjectives picked and placed sparingly. Often, the novel reads like a tribute to the literary lions of Charyn’s own youth including Hemingway, Kafka, Fitzgerald and, of course, Salinger (Jerome Charyn is 83 years old). At times, Charyn cannot resist throwing in a reference; “He also admired the lushness of Fitzgerald—Gatsby was his favorite book.” One of Salinger’s most famous short stories, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” is alluded to when Salinger asks his sister, “Doris, do you remember the bananafish?”, after which she promptly questioned his sanity. Charyn clearly draws inspiration from writer Kurt Vonnegut; “Sergeant Salinger” resembles a more coherent “Slaughterhouse-Five.” Charyn’s ability to create dynamic characters is his other great success. Bold in the way only an older writer can be, Charyn writes Hemingway in as a character. Though Charyn’s Hemingway is slightly exaggerated, many of his mannerisms seem perfectly emulated. From their first meeting in the celebrity-dappled Stork Club to their reunion in war-torn Nuremberg, Salinger’s interactions
with Hemingway are audacious and memorable. Other characters, such as Salinger’s sister, Doris, are complex and fully realized — she even narrates one of the last chapters during his return to New York as he struggles to readapt to civilian life. From rabid SS commandos to charismatic American lieutenants, Charyn’s characters are capable of inspiring both palpable loathing and starry admiration. If you’re looking for a classic combat novel, “Sergeant Salinger” may miss the mark. Yet, if you are looking for a more nuanced war novel, a story of World War II and what it did to the young men forced to fight it, this is the book for you. Salinger entered the war with a youth’s vitality and emerged warped, his conscience twisted irrevocably by the futility and suffering he witnessed. Despite some chronological irregularities, the novel skillfully blends fact and fiction. Charyn writes the war through a surreal lens, mimicking the experience of scores of disillusioned young soldiers, Salinger included. This is perhaps one of Charyn’s broader points — that the absurdity and trauma of WWII eclipse even the wildest fantasies of any writer. It doesn’t matter whether everything in the book is factually true: Salinger’s real war experience could hardly have been less extraordinary. Far more than a biopic of the enigmatic man who began writing of Holden Caulfield during scattered moments in bunkers and foxholes, “Sergeant Salinger” is an homage to what might have been and possibly was. Though we’ll never know all the true details of Salinger’s life, contenting ourselves with Jerome Charyn’s masterful reimagining will have to do.
‘Firefly Lane’ proves that friendship is forever JESSICA CURNEY Daily Arts Contributor
There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing a friendship blossom between two women in a powerful pact, especially when the characters are entirely different. It embodies a connection in which we all dream of experiencing in our lives. Hollywood has done an amazing job with its representation of female friendships in television from characters like Issa and Molly in “Insecure” to Blaire and Serena of “Gossip Girl.” Although these relationships may sometimes seem to focus on superficial aspects, the focus on positive female friendships is so important for young and female-identifying viewers. Based on the novel by Kristin Hannah, “Firefly Lane” is one of the most accurate representations of female friendship witnessed on-screen. It isn’t as powerful as “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” but there’s something lovable about this series that keeps you glued to the TV as it dives deeper into the history of the two main characters. Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl, “Suits”), the daughter of a drugdependent hipster mom with a troubled past, moves to Firefly Lane where she meets her next-door neighbor, Kate Mularkey (Sarah Chalke, “Rick and Morty”). Kate, although nerdy and quirky to the extreme, captivates Tully, and they eventually become the best of friends. The series explores the friendship between Tully and Kate from youth into adulthood, portraying the finer and not-so-fine things in life. Maggie Friedman, the show’s creator, skillfully portrays both the positive and negative aspects of female friendships. Think of it as the “Woman’s Saga.” It explores everything from happiness to anger, jealousy and life’s growing pains.
While the show is set up to encourage viewers to root for either character in their personal storylines, it still portrays how codependency can take shape in friendships. It illustrates what happens when two friends are so invested in their friendship with one another, they begin to ignore their own personal problems or, even worse, ignore the ill-treatment of one party all for the purpose of having a friend. We get insight into an unspoken tension that lies closely beneath the surface. So close that in every new episode, you expect it to eventually blow up in their face. The series doesn’t shy away from the difficult issues that girls go through. It feels authentic and familiar, which is what these types of television shows need. It’s what one would call a “Bildungsroman,” illustrating how the main characters rely on one another for moral growth. They ultimately begin to learn more about themselves, albeit at different paces. “Firefly Lane” is a positive representation of friendship in its entirety. The life of a friendship is capable of sustaining longevity through an understanding of self and the situation, through thick and thin. This show is for the softies. It makes me want to call up my best girlfriends for a night out or a Friday night slumber party. Everyone needs a best friend simply to share thoughts, feelings and triumphs that they can relate to one another with. That emotional support develops a strong bond that is extremely hard to break, and life could be really detrimental without it. But what happens when one party crosses the line? Granted, no friendship is perfect. But that doesn’t mean differences that occur in a friendship gives the right to end it. Things happen. Life happens. But friendship is forever.
Michigan in Color
6 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
“Judas and the Black Messiah”: life and liberation GABRIJELA SKOKO & ANAMIKA KANNAN Managing MiC Editors
“You can murder a liberator, but you can’t murder a liberation.” - Fred Hampton. On Friday, Feb. 12, the longawaited biopic, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” will be released. The film is a historical portrayal of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Black Panther Party championed countless community programs, including the Free Breakfast Program and the People’s Free Ambulance Service, as well as a constant pursuit of adequate health care, education, housing and self-determination. Led by Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton, the Illinois chapter, like many of its nation-wide counterparts, was a militant body of revolutionaries challenging the global institutions of capitalism, imperialism and fascism –– oppressive mediums inextricably bound to racism. Hampton was primed for his position as a leader throughout his youth. Having observed the eloquence of intellectuals and the inspired oration of Malcolm X, he was profoundly aware that he had been called on to serve The People, and while a student at Triton Junior College, he founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Tasked with embodying such poise, actor Daniel Kaluuya does Chairman Fred Hampton’s integrity justice and the rest of us a service with his captivating performance. Writer and director Shaka King remarks, “When we sat down together, (Kaluuya) had some qualities, as a person, that I’ve heard a lot of people use to describe Fred. A real sense of maturity, a gravitas, a power of presence, (… ) —a wit, a cleverness. ( . . . ) And Fred possessed that as well.”
The film depicts the life and love of the Illinois chapter, as well as the internal conflict of 17-year-old William O’Neal, played by LaKeith Stanfield. O’Neal is obligated to both the BPP and the government’s will, having been planted into the ranks of the Illinois chapter by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to infiltrate the Black Panther Party and surveil Hampton –– one of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s so-called “Black Messiahs.” The Saturday before the movie’s release, Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Dominique Fishback (portraying Deborah Johnson), Dominique Thorne (Judy Harmon), Algee Smith (Jake Winters) and Darrell Britt-Gibson (Bobby Rush) sat down with the Michigan in Color section of The Michigan Daily to discuss the film. These actors embody the quintessential theme of both the film and the Black Panther Party –– the manifold nature of Revolution. In speaking to them, it became apparent that the film was emblematic of three realizations of Revolution: Womanhood as Revolution, Serving the People as Revolution and ultimately, Love as Revolution. “Women create worlds and we create lives. And how revolutionary is it to create love and to create life and surrender it to the world? That’s extremely radical. And so on a basic level, women are and always (have) been revolutionary and radical,” Fishback told The Daily. And at the forefront of history, at the forefront of scholarship, at the forefront of the Black Panther Party and at the forefront of this film are Black women. The biopic offers us two female forces: non-fictional writer and activist Johnson (now known as Mama Akua Njeri) and fictional Judy Harmon, the chapter’s security captain meant to represent unyielding Black women and their supreme discipline. Johnson is a constant pillar of love, support, trust and humanity.
6
1 5
6 8
3 8
9
4 5
9 9 1
8 4
4
4 1
7 6
6
5 3
6
4
encouraging him to step down and stand with the People and to exist with the People, who in turn, he becomes. Fishback and her character Johnson alike are representations of unapologetic truth and a clarity of purpose. They guide the path to seeing liberation through. In an interview with The Daily, Thorne, playing Harmon, articulates the Revolutionary force of women within the film with pristine eloquence: “There’s a reason why Judy Harmon was in that room. There’s a reason why Deborah Johnson was in those rooms, there is a very clear reason why, and hopefully you see that in the action that they take and in the way that they speak to each other. It was about telling the truth, honestly, because that has been the legacy of
wants the movie to represent what “the Black Panther Party(…) stood for. They fed kids with the breakfast program, they educated kids, they covered Legal Aid, they organized buses in order for people who had family members in prison(…) to go and visit them; they really poured love within their own community. And the earnest narrative of them being a terrorist organization was rooted in white fear of Black life.” Hampton was a vessel for defending, protecting and upholding the People first and foremost; the BPP nurtured the People and provided them with the material and intellectual resources for optimal progression toward personal and community goals. The production notes also quote
9
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
ACROSS 1 “__ All That”: 1999 movie 5 Diver’s gear 9 “Fancy seeing you here!” 14 Hoof it on a bad knee, say 15 Ecstatic internet shout 16 Driver’s choice 17 Oberlin’s state 18 “We tried, but this won’t work” 20 Give up on 22 Superman’s makeup? 23 Fashion plate 24 Kerfuffle 27 Construction girder 31 Dubuque denizen 33 Serve as a reminder 37 Mic __: triumphant move 39 Finnish company that created Angry Birds 40 James Patterson hero __ Cross 41 Do an accountant’s job 44 Cheapen 45 Subtle summons 46 Run-of-the-mill 47 Nonsense 50 Yellowfins, e.g. 55 Write briefly and quickly 59 Cause of a crash 62 Family __ 63 Cup or star 64 Emerald City princess 65 “Haven’t decided yet” 66 Uses WhatsApp, say 67 Eject 68 Tibetan title
7 Meddlesome 8 Nonsense companion? 9 Black-and-white dessert 10 Ian who plays Bilbo Baggins 11 It might be adjusted in Photoshop 12 Kang and Kodos, on “The Simpsons” 13 “Affirmative” 19 Sellout letters 21 Sacha Baron Cohen alter ego 24 Mil. truants 25 “You wouldn’t __!” 26 Black gemstone used to make beads 28 Snooze inducer 29 Auth. unknown 30 Gun 32 Actor Epps 33 Fish story notable 34 Backs (out) 35 Popular video game series, with “The” 36 Unruly groups 37 Scot’s Scotch order
38 Yahoo 42 Foreshadows 43 R&B great James 48 Ending with malt 49 Ache 51 “__ we meet again” 52 Fashionista Kamali 53 Likely roster for the big game 54 “I’m outta here”
55 Bar flier 56 Rice-shaped pasta used in salads 57 Acronymic anxiety about being excluded from the fun 58 Group with pledges 59 The 1% in 1% milk 60 Flabbergast 61 Sales __
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
02/11/21 02/17/21
DOWN 1 Slackens the pace 2 Drum kit item with a pedal 3 “Into the Wild” star Hirsch 4 Took the mic 5 “Just saying,” in 66-Across By Julian Lim 6 Kappa preceder ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
WHISPER “Subscribe to The Daily!”
Dominique Fishback speaking to the power of the Black Panther Party and respective intellectual enlightenment: “To learn about the Black Panther Party is to learn how to be at the helm of your own investigational studies and also guided by your own intuition. A deep knowing of truth.” Just as the true players of history lived each moment pursuing their deepest knowing of truth, the actors that created this film did so as an act of servitude to the People, for the sake of informing and providing resources through which one may expand limitlessly. Poetry is ever-present in the film as a mechanism for depicting both the Black Panthers’ inherent poetic nature and the understanding of revolution as existing within creation. And this poetry, for which Johnson is a vessel, is the ultimate representation of revolutionary love. Upon Hampton and Johnson’s first meeting, she remarks to him, “Just so you know, you are a poet.” Hampton eventually begins to embrace Johnson’s ideology –– that being radical is more than inspired action; it is loving, building, caring and learning. Fishback herself echoes the sentiment that embodying profound love takes shape in a multitude of ways, positing to The Daily, “We think that revolutionaries are only gun carrying and speaking out on platforms, but we see the levels. We have Dominique Thorne, who plays Judy Harmon; she has the gun, and she’s on a security team. And then we have my character, navigating the whole world, what women do.” Love as told through poetry is Johnson’s radical nature, and in this, she recognizes that love within and for family is inherently antithetical to any system existing to isolate, separate and oppress. Fishback, who told The Daily she is a poet herself, said she wrote inspired poetry specifically for the film. In the film, Johnson recites a deeply spiritual poem that portrays her greatest passions, joys and fears. In her poem,
she reflects on her fear that she will never be radical enough for the man she loves –– that raising a family and putting her family first isn’t radical enough. Tears falling from her face, she looks up at Hampton and speaks of her realization that every characteristic of herself that she fears is not radical enough, is exactly what make her radical. Just as Hampton understands his purpose as one for the People, Deborah understands herself as not only a vessel for radical Love through her poetry, but a vessel for radical Love through the living being within her –– a culmination of the mutual love, care and respect at the foundation of their relationship. This film was indubitably affecting in its representation of Black family, love and power, though it did not capture everything that Chairman Fred Hampton and the BPP’s anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist politic was. The Black Panther Party and the film’s events implore us to execute self-education, especially through reading, of information beyond the scope of pop culture or what is immediately available to us. Politics must be internalized for individual understanding, so that we may serve the People in the most interpersonally effective way feasible. We must create trust, first with ourselves and our own intellect, and then apply that to the world we interact with in the pursuit of servitude. Hampton himself proclaims, “not theory and theory alone, but theory and practice. The two go together. We not only thought about the Marxist-Leninist theory — we put it into practice. This is what the Black Panther Party is about.”
“We do not fight racism with racism. We fight racism with solidarity. We do not fight exploitative capitalism with Black capitalism. We fight capitalism with basic socialism. And we do not fight imperialism with more imperialism. We fight imperialism with proletarian internationalism.” - Black Panther Party Co-Founder Bobby Seale
Poetry and technicality: Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb”
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
2
2
“In speaking to (the cast of “Judas and the Black Messiah”), it became apparent that the film was emblematic of three realizations of Revolution: Womanhood as Revolution, Serving the People as Revolution and ultimately, Love as Revolution.”
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
6
9
Black women since the beginning of time.” Hampton’s speeches are central to the film, which parallel his reverence for oration in real life; central to these speeches are always the People to whom he is speaking. When asked what he hoped people would take away from the film, Kaluuya told The Daily that he
Release Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2021
SUDOKU 5
In the Warner Bros. production notes, shared with The Daily, Shaka King embraces Johnson — Hampton’s fiancée — as Hampton’s intellectual equal and vessel to render him, “from superhuman to human(…) In getting to know her, he becomes the People. In turn, she becomes a Revolutionary.” Johnson challenges Hampton’s leadership,
“Happy President’s Day
02/17/21
ELIZABETH SCHRINER MiC Columnist
At President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, 22-year-old Amanda Gorman delivered an original poem, “The Hill We Climb.” The Los Angeles resident and Harvard College graduate made history as the youngest known inaugural poet, sparking admiration and conversation in the following weeks. Her poem isn’t without criticism, however. Some people have taken to the comment sections in newspapers like The Hill to demean her values with matters of technicality. Check out Reddit’s r/Poetry subreddit, a place to share and discuss published poetry, and you’ll find similar sentiments. One user said, “The meter is all over the place. The wordplay is inane. It’s full of patriotic platitudes and contains nothing new or surprising. It wouldn’t inspire anyone at any time except Americans, today.” So, I am inclined to ask, what makes a good poem? The structure? Its impact? I’ve heard various people commend the artist yet criticize the poem for things such as “clichés” and “frustrating meter.” Additionally, others have praised “The Hill We Climb” for its messages and pacing but question whether it is “technically strong.” Regardless, I think that there is great merit in the work as a piece of art. Art and creativity can be important tools for inspiring people, and Gorman utilized them to do just that. A Forbes article says, “Gorman has produced poetry and studied sociology, so in combining complex social science into an art form, she has developed a unique offering in both fields.” I’d have to agree. Journalists, teachers and YouTubers alike have begun analyzing Gorman’s piece, noting references to the Bible and other poets’ work.
Personally, I hear rhythms and repetitions that remind me of the musical “Hamilton.” There are two references to the musical within the poem, in addition to commentary on current events. The significance? Gorman is purposeful in her words and presentation. The accessibility of her piece, though indifferent to the poem’s technicality, is, bluntly put, incredible. There is still value that can be measured in the conciseness of words and density of thought within it, but the poem’s reach to general audiences should be considered invaluable. The feelings it evoked in countless people, even if only for a moment, have been monumental ( just check out the positivity related to #AmandaGorman on Twitter). Gorman’s position as an inaugural poet gave her a platform to deliver a message in a moving way, reaching those who previously wouldn’t have given poetry a second thought. I think this is one area that she succeeds, not just in her poem, but in her empowering execution. In her delivery, Gorman’s presence exudes strength, but her words also ref lect pain. Poignant lines remind young Americans — not unlike Gorman — that our work is not done. We must strive for progress in a society that is fast-paced and continuously evolving. Accommodating changing times also means acknowledging the dark that remains. In doing so, and in the words of Gorman herself in “The Hill We Climb,” perhaps we might “raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.” What exactly does it mean “to forge a union with purpose?” Can love truly “become our legacy?” Will the poem that implores such affirmations be remembered and recited for years to come? I don’t know, but I don’t believe that its relevance to the present detracts from the message it has to tell. If anything, the call for light and unity is one that we needed.
Michigan in Color
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 7
The Dangers of Political Apathy: Lessons from Judas and the Black Messiah ELIYA IMTIAZ MiC Senior Editor
The oft-cited high road in social settings is to not (never!) talk politics. Don’t make it awkward! Be the middle ground between the uber-polarized battleground of the left and right. If anyone asks where you may stand, take the position of neutrality, the middleman, the mature arbiter — be apolitical. In today’s day and age, it may seem as though taking no stance amidst the frenzy of American politics is the best route. Especially in a college setting such as our own, some of us think a surefire method of not making friends is to be vocal about our political stances — the last thing we want to do is alienate ourselves by potentially alienating a group of others. William O’Neal exhibited a similar mindset preceding his infiltration into the Black Panther Party (BPP) in the late 1960s, as portrayed in the highly-
anticipated Shaka King film “Judas and the Black Messiah.” O’Neal, played by Lakeith Stanfield, sets to wave his own criminal record by informing the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the proceedings of one of the most influential Black revolutionaries of the 20th century — the BPP’s Chairman Fred Hampton played by Daniel Kaluuya. Though the film offers many lessons, one of its loudest is the eventual assured disintegration of apathy. What begins because of a sense of political indifference ends in the death of the Chairman by the hands of the United States government. What starts as no stance eventually teeters one way or the other, and in the case of O’Neale, slips too deep to the wrong end. Throughout the unfortunate tragedy, the FBI wields O’Neal like a puppet, hanging his potential prison sentence over his head in an effort to keep him docile in his informancy. At one point, the agent working with O’Neal
A Li Xi in my palm HANNAH NGUYEN MIC Columnist
Every time I see a red envelope, I feel as though I’m entering a time machine. This red envelope is more than just paper. It’s filled with lucky money, given from adults to children during the Lunar New Year as a way to wish them health and a long life. As I clean out my room and stumble upon a stack of my favorite red envelopes, I’m teleported through a catalog of memories I associate with the Lunar New Year. My first stop: Texas, circa 2009. I’m surrounded by many things: the humid air that makes my skin sticky; the sounds of firecrackers, which deafen me for a week; the sight of the dragon dancers that makes my back ache just by watching. The drums and cymbals grow louder and louder. Parents shoot Vietnamese profanities out of their mouths at their kids who won’t stop running around. My first stop is overwhelming. But at least I have a red envelope in hand. The next place I visit is a temple in Warren, Mich. It’s 2010. The smell of the burnt firecrackers
ARIES
Focus on your values this week. Only when you know what truly matters to you can you make some difficult decisions.
TAURUS
Show off your leadership skills by staying calm at work in the face of increasing levels of stress.
overtakes my nose, and I can no longer smell the glutinous sticky rice made by the temple nuns in the basement or the smell of the freshly peeled oranges that the monk handed out to everyone. I remember the happiness I felt every time we celebrated the New Year at temple because the most important thing to me was that I got to skip school the next day. And suddenly, before I know it, the clock reads 12:30 in the morning, my eyes droop and the voices around me gradually get quieter as I fall asleep on the temple floor. My second stop is pure childhood. I get money in a red envelope and get to skip school — what more could I want as a kid? Stop three takes place in 2012 at an annual New Year’s celebration in Berkley, Mich. A huge group of us temple children nervously wait backstage as we get ready to perform. Jittery nerves, hearts wildly beating. Onstage, I begin to love it — the lights, the cheers, the all-eyes-on-us feeling. Everyone claps loudly and I spend the rest of the night running around in my áo dài that came straight from Vietnam, munching on the overtoasted bánh mì that spreads a trail of crumbs behind me. My third stop is heartwarming. Everyone
discusses his own thoughts on the Black Panther Party and likens them to the Ku Klux Klan, and O’Neal mumbles in neither agreement or disagreement — the neutrality persists. As the film progresses, the agent observes O’Neal at a rally during one of Chairman Hampton’s speeches, later remarking to him that it looked like he believed what the Chairman was saying. And here and there, it really did look so: O’Neal’s glass shield of apathy seems to chip as the crowd shouts in vigor “I am a revolutionary!” It makes sense why the American government would see Chairman Hampton as a threat: He wove together similarities in groups that would never have seen the commonality in their causes prior. With the Rainbow Coalition, Hampton created a multicultural coalition with the most unlikely participants at face value, the Young Patriots Organization. The film displays Chairman Hampton walking into their meeting, with him on one side and a group is having a good time with the red envelopes tucked deep into the pockets of their pants. Next: California, 2018. I’m older now, so the feelings are much clearer — like the feeling of excitement I get catching the plane to California and heading straight from the hotel to a temple there. This temple is big. It’s bright. It’s one of the nicest I have ever seen. Large red paper lanterns and yellow flowers adorn the doors and walkways, making me feel like I’m somewhere straight out of a movie. We see someone my uncle knows, and she gives my sister and me a red envelope. Here, I feel at home. Surrounded by the smells of food sold at the stations and tasting the crispy egg rolls in my mouth, I feel like I’m in my kitchen at home eating all of my mom’s homecooked meals. My fourth stop gives me comfort. I’m blessed by the envelope and the opportunity for good food. For the last stop, I’m back home and it’s 2020. It’s my family’s second year hosting a Vietnamese New Year’s celebration with all our family friends. The younger children painting, the older kids taking photos or playing video games in my room, the moms singing the night away with every karaoke song they know by heart and the dads drinking and discussing whatever dads like to discuss. At around 11 p.m., the
member speaking on the other, the Young Patriots Organization’s Confederate flag hanging proudly in the background. By the end of their discussion, members of the Young Patriot Organization realize the common goal that unites their interests with those of the BPP: minimizing and eventually ending poverty. In the same way, Chairman Hampton also joins forces with Young Lords, a predominantly Latinx based organization that, through his convincing, realize the same common goal. Following the creation of this organization, many of its subgroups advanced social programs like free breakfast programs, medical clinics and clothing drives. It seems as though the BPP isn’t as extreme as most media and historical recounts push us to perceive them as; it seems as though at the end of the day, their stances and programs were nowhere near extremist, rather increasingly applicable and greatly beneficial to a wide array of Americans from dads sit along the couches and we children go down the line, wishing them a happy new year, health and happiness in exchange for these little red envelopes, holding in their clutches a $2 bill. This memory is loving. The interaction between giving and receiving is nothing short of pure warmth and tenderness in my heart. Stepping out of the time machine, I feel full, though I begin to wonder: What is the Lunar New Year going to bring me this year? As Feb. 12 gets closer and closer, I realize how different the celebration will look with the pandemic looming over us. No more firecrackers and large celebrations in the main temple room where everyone sits kneeto-knee, shoulder-to-shoulder. No more long lines of dads passing out money, or trips to California or Texas where I can still feel at home. Despite all these memories I associate with the Lunar New Year, which I will definitely miss this year and as long as COVID-19 is around, I stay grounded in the fact that the one common theme among all these memories is my family. My family that makes me feel loved, makes me feel at home, makes me connected to who I am. So as long as I’m with them, the Lunar New Year will always be valuable. With them, and a red envelope.
PISCES
YOUR WEEKLY
Don’t be spooked by strange happenings or weird dreams; this is part of the process of getting comfortable with your spiritual gifts.
AQUARIUS
WHISPER
A tumultuous week ahead finds you front and center of the cosmic battleground created by the Saturn-Uranus square.
“Spencer, real talk. You’re going to hate this.” GEMINI The truth turns out to be a flexible thing this week – be careful not to assume that your truth is the same as anyone else’s.
CAPRICORN Financial confusion and an edge of recklessness persist – be careful with your money until the fog clears.
“Sandcastles in the sand.”
CANCER Pay your debts – financial or otherwise – so that you can move forwards with a clean slate as the future beckons.
LEO Ask the universe to help you with your work-life balance – nobody finds this dilemma easy, but solutions are on the horizon.
SAGITTARIUS Bold ideas need bold communication, so don’t give up if others are not taking you seriously at first.
“Not that bad!” “Noooooooooooooo.”
VIRGO Curb restlessness and resentfulness by insisting that others pull their weight, at work and in your personal life.
LIBRA You’re putting your own needs first, which is a healthy thing to do, but watch out for a rare selfish streak emerging in you.
SCORPIO Allowing your inner child out to play will help relieve the stress of a situation where you and your family are at loggerheads.
Read your weekly horoscopes from astrology.tv
varying backgrounds. This may be why FBI director J. Edgar Hoover cited them as the country’s biggest threat — they, and as this film aptly displays, certainly Chairman Hampton, filled the void created by the American government in its disregard for and perpetuation of racial and economic injustice, by serving as the unifying, benefactory role that many would expect a just government to do. But fear-mongering of the other unfortunately works too well, and combined with the FBI’s pressure on O’Neal, he undoubtedly was more of a pawn than a willful perpetrator. However, it’s important to note that O’Neil’s initially nonexistent stance became grossly misappropriated to serve another stance, a vested interest by the preservers of the status quo. Moreso, the film provides a contrast that may be even more telling — groups that initially solely looked inwards in their advocacy realized the inherent universal political deterrents of their own
causes — realization spurred by conversation, debate and for lack of a better term, initially awkward encounters. While O’Neal ran from ascribing to any political or social movement, he actively worked against the interests of his own community; whereas Chairman Hampton unearthed commonalities in the pursuits of communities that, until that point, were others to one another. The real kicker to me? As I watched the film, picking up my phone every other second to research if that aspect they just mentioned was real or made up, I came across the ages of both O’Neal and Hampton at the time of these events. 20 and 21, respectively. Any of us could be either of them right now: We could either be a vessel for vested interests that aren’t ours, or we can be an instrument to deliver long-awaited justice in a world that seems devoid of it. The decision we make incrementally becomes clearer and clearer based on the stances we take, or more significantly, don’t.
“Minari”: it dances, it glimmers, it heals YOON KIM
MiC Columnist
Within seconds of watching the trailer of “Minari” last fall, my eyes were immediately filled with tears. I barely even knew the title of the movie or what kind of story it would tell, but I was so unshakably emotional. And, strangely enough, the same thing happened to many of my Korean-American friends. Looking back, I don’t think it was only because the movie seemed so well-written, or because it foreshadowed such moving performances from Han Ye-ri and Steven Yeun or that it looked so aesthetically beautiful. While “Minari” did turn out to be all those things and more, I realize I was so moved because it simply looked so … familiar. I could not help but cry in those first few moments because for the first time in my life, I could see myself on screen. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020, “Minari” tells the story of the “American Dream” and, more importantly, that of those who pursue it. Set in a small town in Arkansas in the 1980s, the storyline follows Jacob, Monica and their two children, Anne and David, as they move from California to rural Arkansas to start a family farm and begin a new life. Mostly taking place in a run-down, wooden trailer home, the movie portrays the hardship and fear that comes with raising a family in a foreign country, as well as the shifting — and endearingly entertaining, to say the least — family dynamic with the arrival of David’s grandma, played by the legendary Yoon Yuh-jung from Korea. As a first-generation Korean American raised in the Chicago suburbs in the 2010s, I grew up almost thirty years after and halfway across the country from where this movie was set. Yet somehow, “Minari” still felt so personal to me. Whether it was hearing the perfectly broken Korean of David talking to his grandma or watching him witness his mother’s joy at the unbagging of gochugaru (red chili powder) from Korea, there were so many small details scattered throughout the film that are incredibly particular to the Korean-American experience that I grew up with. Watching the characters undergo an experience so similar to my own made me feel so exposed, and liberated, and vulnerable and seen — so much so that I couldn’t help but wonder in amazement if this is how many of my white friends feel every time they watch a mainstream American movie in theaters or how my parents feel whenever they watch an old Korean movie set in the era of their youth. After having seen the movie twice (my family loved it so
much that we re-watched it less than two days after the first time), I realized that, at its core, “Minari” is a gentle film. Layered with the beautiful instrumentals of Emile Mosseri’s dreamlike soundtrack and shots of young David walking alongside his grandma in his cowboy boots, it is a kind and honest film, warm beyond measure. But much more than that, it is a healing film. While watching the movie, I found myself strangely wondering — and admittedly even becoming slightly possessive over — to whom this film really belongs. Even within the immigrant narrative, I thought this movie was made for first-generation Korean Americans like me; it is finally our story being told, and through the eyes of a fellow first-generation director at that. But as I watched it the second time through and saw my mom laughing and crying alongside Monica who reunites with her own mother or bashfully tries to speak English at the family’s local church, it made me realize that my mother sees “Minari” as the telling of her story as much as I do my own. I think that for many Korean Americans, we have a long-ridden desire buried deep within us to be seen, and to have ownership over something, anything, that we can truly call ours. And this film is monumental in gently unraveling that insecurity. “Minari” allowed me to feel like it was mine, something I could proudly hold onto and cherish without a need for justification. But, in the same healing process, it also reminded me that the immigrant experience is inherently a paired journey between both generations, and it is difficult and nuanced and lonely on both ends. It made me realize that my parents are more than valid in feeling seen by this movie and that this film — and the story it tells — is as uniquely important and special to them as it is for me. And it taught me that maybe sharing this ownership of the KoreanAmerican experience is a very necessary and beautiful thing. Even without its genuinely hilarious scenes, adept storytelling and striking visuals, “Minari” carries so much significance in its own existence. After watching it, I didn’t really care if it felt slow at times or if someone’s acting wasn’t perfect. The fact remains that this is an American film about a Korean-American family and is something that is, and will always be, so deeply special to me and to many others. I think I speak for many Korean Americans when I say that “Minari” — and even director Lee Isaac Chung’s decision to create it — truly feels like a gift I didn’t know I and many others had waited so long to receive. So, thank you, Lee Isaac Chung, for “Minari.”
statement
8 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
What is digital studies?
BY ALEXANDER SATOLA, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
I
n January 2019, LSA announced the creation of a new Digital Studies Institute that would support the study of digital technologies from a humanities and social science perspective. The establishment of a formal academic institute followed the creation of the LSA Digital Studies Program in 2014 within the University’s Department of American Culture. The DSI embraces an interdisciplinary approach, engaging different methodologies, frameworks and discourses from across a variety of academic fields. The particularity of DSI, however, lies in its singular focus on all things related to the phenomenon of digital technology. “We are the nation’s first one-stop shop for all things digital,” claims the website’s “About” page, “including digital media studies, digital humanities, digital pedagogy, digital art, aesthetic practice and design, and critical thinking about our digital future.” There is a question that remains unanswered, however, when we separate “the digital” from the more traditional concepts of the humanities, art and design: What are we studying when we study digital technology? There are two immediate answers to this question. The first aims to explain what is distinctive about digital technology, namely its reliance on binary numbers, Boolean logic and computing. What differentiates digital from analog electronics is the capacity of digital electronics to process data in the form of digits, specifically zeroes and ones, and to display that information in a machine-readable format. Analog technology, on the other hand, relies on representations or analogies of information collected through the continuous measurement of a natural signal, such as a sound wave. The second answer to our question of what scholars of digital technology study, however, relates to examining the historical emergence of digital technologies and their impact on human affairs; to be sure, scholars in the DSI program want to participate in the design of digital devices, but they also want to be more than just ethical consultants for engineers. With a vast field of inquiry in front of them, there are fresh opportunities to examine and understand the technologies that seem to pervade almost every aspect of our lives. What, then, is the role of this new discipline, and how does an organization like DSI push it forward? *** Because digital studies cuts across so many academic disciplines, the minor in Digital Studies attracts students from the humanities, social sciences, physical and natural sciences and much more. With the growing salience of digital technology in the everyday lives of students, not to mention the general population, perhaps it was only a matter of time before the study of its relationship with art, society, ethics and politics became supported on an institutional level. To learn more about DSI on its own terms, I reached out to administrators, faculty and students affiliated with it. My first conversation was with Lisa Nakamura, the director of the Digital Studies Institute and a Gwendolyn Calvert Baker Collegiate Professor in the Department of American Cultures. Nakamura, a scholar with a breadth of experience on issues of race in digital media, arrived at the University in 2012 to coordinate what was then the Digital Studies Program. Starting with the design of a curriculum, she noticed that many students were drawn to humanities and social sciences courses that addressed the role of digital technologies in society. “We had courses for programmers already,” Nakamura told me during our Zoom call. “But they were applied courses, and these were more (about) understanding how the digital world works. You know, what everyday life is like on social media, or why is it that women don’t feel comfortable playing games that men might feel comfortable playing?”
To meet this student demand, Nakamura assembled a “cheat sheet” of courses from a variety of departments, including Communication & Media Studies, American Culture, English and the School of Information. The courses were targeted both to students with technical experience as well as other students from non-technical backgrounds. Soon, there were enough students taking these courses to warrant going to the curriculum committee to suggest the creation of a five-course minor in Digital Studies. “So if we can offer a five-course minor, students who have already done these things could at least get some credit for it; it could be visible on their resume,” Nakamura said. “So an English student or an Art History student could say to a parent who’s nagging them about ‘well what are you gonna do with this degree’ and show them, ‘well, I’m taking a minor in digital studies.’ And we made the argument that it would help students show expertise and be more employable.” According to Nakamura, big companies like Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft have indeed hired students with the minor for their expertise on digital culture and issues of representation in digital media. It is not hard to see why; in recent years the shiny veneer of the tech industry has given way to a somewhat more complicated image. A recent article from the Pew Research Center summarizing current public opinion studies claimed that 64% of Americans believed that “social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the country today.” There have been numerous influential books published on the impact of algorithms on income inequality, as well as the pernicious role of digital technology in perpetuating racial discrimination. Largely due to this shift of public awareness, tech companies have come under increasing scrutiny for their impacts on conflicts of class, race and gender, as well as their role in spreading misinformation and normalizing hate speech online. While the minor in Digital Studies is designed to look good on a resume, in the midst of this recent shift DSI also promises something else to its students. Throughout the curriculum, there is a focus on fostering a critical approach towards new technologies. What is criticism, though and why is it necessary to critique technology? First, it is essential to note the vocabulary of critique that professors in the humanities and social sciences employ. Critique is not the same as criticism, the latter meaning the negative judgment of something. There is a relationship between the two words, however: Critique, in the sense of systematic examination or analysis, can help us arrive at better-informed judgments. The corollary of the critical attitude is the evasion of dogmatism, which is the uninformed acceptance of an idea. The 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant was instrumental in working out the foundations of modern criticism and rejection of dogmatism, having written three major critiques in his lifetime. In his short essay “What is Enlightenment,” he implores his readers, “Sapere Aude! (Dare to know!) ‘Have the courage to use your own reason’ — that is the motto of enlightenment.” The critique of technology, however, can be particularly frustrating because of the extreme positions taken either in support of or against it. Technophiles are especially dogmatic in their defense of permitting new technological innovations in the name of freedom, no matter the social cost. Conversely, technophobic, modernday Luddites are no less dogmatic in their denunciation of technology, advocating radical reconstruction of the existing means of transportation, communication and distribution of technologies in society. Between these two extremes, there is a middle ground which neither categorically fetishizes nor denounces technological innovations.
ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE LEE
It seems to me that this is the kind of attitude found at DSI. Marisa Olson, the executive coordinator of DSI, said she joined the Institute out of admiration for the kind of critical work the students and faculty are pursuing. Olson worked with a number of other organizations investigating the relationship between technology and culture before arriving at the University, though she affirmed the unique approach she thinks the Institute brings to the table. “There’s fun stuff like playing video games and the things that Lisa (Nakamura) is talking about,” Olson said during our Zoom call. “But a lot of it is really specifically thinking about technology in relation to race, gender, disability class and access. That’s really our primary focus.” Turning to a real-world application, Olson explained how the awareness of multiple approaches to the implementation of technology might help students make a positive impact throughout their careers. “The world tends to think about technology as a straight thing, even in relation to disability,” Olson said. “People might say, ‘let’s make this great technical object that’s going to really help disabled people’ and they don’t really know what they’re talking about.” Technological solutionism, a term coined by the philosopher Evgeny Morozov, describes this tendency of well-intentioned technical professionals to place their full faith in tech, thus ignoring the perspectives of the people they are trying to help. More than due diligence, interacting with communities on the ground is an effective means of ensuring that a proposed “solution” will not create new problems of its own. When dealing with humans, as much as with technology, appreciating the nuances is key. As an artist who creates work exploring the impact of digital technology on society, Olson often encounters an oversimplified, binary approach to judging the digital world. “A lot of my artwork is about technology’s impact on the environment,” Olson explained. “And I would say, you know, we may have new tools now to combat climate change like electric vehicles. But some of that is because of what technology already did to the environment. We may now have new ways to protest things, but we may be protesting things that were also caused by technology, so it’s a kind of a cyclical sort of situation.” At this point, it is clear that, in typical humanities fashion, members of our community who affiliate themselves with DSI are interested in critiquing actually-existing technology. Nothing is safe from examination under the microscope of the Institute’s various instruments of investigation, synthesis and analysis; not even itself. *** When the critical lens is suddenly turned onto the critical theorists, there begins a moment of sobering reflection. The mission of the Digital Studies Institute is to connect a broad coalition of scholars and practitioners to study the relationship between technology and culture, but to what extent is this merely an organizational myth? DSI, after all, exists within the economic and bureaucratic constraints of the university. How can we understand its formation within this institutional context? The recent creation of DSI fits into a longer historical trend of centers, programs and institutes. Especially among large public research universities, such as the University of Michigan, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, and elite private universities such as Harvard University
and Stanford University, the 1960s and 1970s saw a rise in funding for specialized centers, programs and institutes associated with the explosive growth of university enrollment in the post-War era. Somewhat ironically, most of the research on centers and institutes as a new organizational form has come from the relatively new, interdisciplinary field of organizational studies, now offered as an undergraduate major at the University. In 1972, the American academic Stanley Ikenberry published “Beyond Academic Departments: The Story of Institutions and Centers,” in which he recounts the results of an extensive survey on the origins, structure, functions and issues surrounding institutions and centers. These new kinds of academic institutions formed, according to Ikenberry’s account, to conduct research on specific social problems and thus to carve out sub-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary niches for their graduate students and faculty. Central to the story of institutions and centers is the friction between these organizations and traditional academic departments. The perception that institutes and centers are “cash cows” that drain funding from academic departments became widespread in their period of early growth. Additionally, Ikenberry recounts the frustrations of some faculty and administrators who believed the university was too eagerly “trying to be all things to all people,” indicating a general misalignment of the mission of the university and the various aims of its institutes and departments. Similarly, Jerry Stahler and William Tash, in their 1994 paper, describe different types of institutes in the modern university, contrasting “paper institutions” that have no staff, no budget and only exist in the minds of their members to these new well-funded monolithic research institutes. Especially among the more influential institutes, conflict and institutional gridlock can arise when institutes compete with departments for faculty time, internal funding support, research infrastructures like laboratories and spaces and prestige. How does DSI fit within these organizational frameworks? First, it is important to note that DSI receives all of its funding from internal sources; however, that does not mean it will not apply for grants in the future. Second, the central justifications for the creation of DSI are its interdisciplinary and flexible nature. It is an institute that primarily serves undergraduates, graduate students and faculty in their pursuit of research pertaining to the digital world — research that is almost certainly going to involve some level of collaboration across disciplines. Third, DSI is still quite small, so it is likely not yet drawing money away from other similar programs, nor will it necessarily need to in order to grow. When I thought about what other programs might be in competition with DSI, however, the University’s Science, Technology and Society Program immediately came to mind. Like DSI, the STS program offers an undergraduate minor and a graduate certificate to students who complete the requisite courses. STS holds events on topics of interest in the field and supports its graduate students through workshops, reading groups and small grants. On the level of methodology and approach, both programs teach students a number of critical frameworks and methods to examine the interactions between technology, science, biology and human society.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
statement
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 9
Driving on a multi-lane highway BY LILLY DICKMAN, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
M
y sister and I were born one minute apart. Whenever I tell people this, questions inevitably follow: “What’s it like having a twin?” “Are you best friends?” “Can you read each other’s minds?” Over the years, I’ve formed a sort of automatic response: I laugh, acknowledging the curiosity surrounding a concept that is foreign and fascinating to someone else yet normal and casual to me. I then reply with a simple yet intentionally worded, “Yeah, it’s fun. But I don’t know any different, so I have nothing to compare it to,” which is true. Having a twin sister is fun, and we’re the only kids in our family, so I don’t know what it’s like to have a non-twin sibling. But my answer isn’t the whole truth. My “nothing to compare it to” line is a buffer, a cop-out from having to explain to another person, or admit to myself, the tough side of being a twin. Gracie and I have been compared to each other our entire lives. Who’s older? Lilly. Who talked first? Gracie. Taller? Gracie, until a few years ago. More logical? Absolutely Gracie. More organized? Lilly. Kinder, gentler, more thoughtful? Gracie. Funnier? Definitely, 100% Lilly. I compare myself to Gracie, too. I think there’s an inevitable tension between all siblings, twins or not, that stems from being constantly compared to one another. Older siblings carry the weight of setting precedents and doing most things first, all eyes on them. I know younger siblings who struggle in the shadows of their older ones, feeling like they need to keep up with, or even one-up, them. Perhaps the unique comparison of twins stems from the fact that differences cannot be blamed on any gap between exit times out of the womb. In fourth grade, our dad sat with Gracie and me at the kitchen table helping us with our multiplication problems. Gracie knew the answers before my dad finished reading the question, while I sat in the chair across from her confused, finishing out the session in tears. My mom intervened post-math homework tantrum. “What Gracie’s doing or how she’s doing it has no effect on you. Just focus on yourself. You’re driving your own car. In your own lane,” she told me. “Stay in your own lane.” As I grew up beside Gracie, my mom’s advice continuously resurfaced. I was an anxious and emotional girl, nervous and concerned by way too many things around me. I sobbed my entire first summer at overnight camp due to unmatched levels of homesickness. In
ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KELLY
school, I forced myself to do well, gluing myself to my desk chair until I mastered the material without fail. I panicked at the unknown. I’d pass out every now and again, too, due to vasovagal syndrome — wherein random triggers, like needles, cause blood pressure to plummet. Simply put, I was a hot mess. Gracie, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber. She never seemed to flinch. She was riding down the highway on auto-pilot, as if wearing Chanel shades in a pristine Lamborghini. I, on the other hand, sputtered down the road in a peeling truck, beads of sweat constantly dripping down my forehead, hands clammy from the pressure. It didn’t seem fair. “Stay in your own lane,” my mom said. I did my best to keep my eyes on the horizon, but I couldn’t keep them from wandering. In high school, Gracie had her entire life trajectory planned out. She was going to study film in college and afterward move to California to be a screenwriter. She then perfectly implemented her plan of action. Gracie took film class upon film class, bought cameras to practice editing, attended film review clubs in Chicago and did summer programs on screenwriting. One summer, she took Advanced Placement Biology so she could pack in more directing classes during the school year. Gracie was cruising. I felt like my car was going nowhere. I had no plans. I had no idea what I wanted to do in college, let alone after college. I also couldn’t admit to myself that I might also be interested in screenwriting. How could we possibly have similar destinations if I was seven thousand miles behind her on the road? I wasn’t doing screenwriting clubs or assisting the high school film teacher with his intro classes. On top of this, Gracie cracked out a 36 on the ACT going into senior year. First try, cold. I spent the entire year at my desk, working, clawing, test after test, for one more singular point. I began to feel small and unimpressive. I never measured up. Like everything else, I couldn’t help but compare my results to my twin sister. “Stay in your own lane,” my mom repeated. But I couldn’t. I wanted to desire a specific career path so I could do impressive activities in pursuit of it. I wanted to be easy-going and relaxed. I wanted the gracefulness that was quite literally embedded in my sister’s name. Gracie’s decisions, ambitions and fearlessness felt impossible for me to both achieve and simultaneously ignore. As humans, it can be difficult to stay
in our own lane without looking around at the others. Research suggests that about 10% of human thought is comparative. Yes, our individual lives may occupy singular lanes, but windows exist for a reason. There are other cars on the road — you can’t ignore them. As a matter of fact, in driver’s education, we were taught to check our mirrors every five seconds. Some cars are even equipped with blinking light systems that alert you of the positions of vehicles in neighboring lanes. Whether it be for safety, for motivation or just from plain-old intuition, we compare. Beyond being necessary to acknowledge, I think the other cars can also be helpful. Watching Gracie’s car has given me strengths in areas I was admittedly lacking in. My willingness to experiment — to go to overnight camp, write short plays or befriend different types of people — is inspired by her open-mindedness. My grit and drive to succeed have been shaped by Gracie’s natural academic ability. It’s undeniable: Flooring the pedal on my sputtering truck in order to keep up with her Lambo has certainly been a character builder. We cannot simply keep our eyes ahead of us. If I adhered strictly to my mom’s metaphor — if I didn’t check over at Gracie at all — I don’t think I’d be driving at the speed that I am now or be as willing to swerve around in my own lane. Had I locked eyes on the horizon my entire life, I wouldn’t be who I am now. Gracie inspired me to work on my shortcomings rather than run away from them. recently read that poet Amanda Gorman has a twin sister, Gabrielle Gorman. Gabrielle is also unbelievably impressive. She’s worked on digital marketing campaigns for TOMS, directed a short documentary and was presented with the Aaron Sorkin Writing Award, among other feats. I wonder if, when Amanda struggled with her speech impediment, she shared my sputtering truck sentiment. Did she get inspiration to keep going from Gabrielle as I did from Gracie? Maybe seeing each other’s cars pushed them along, too. Since I’ve been at the University of Michigan, I’ve lost sight of Gracie in my mirrors. I’m navigating the hustle and bustle of Ann Arbor and she, the treelined roads of New Hampshire. Not only have I left my lifelong bar of comparison, but I’m navigating unfamiliar streets — dance teams, newspaper columns, new classes (including film) and new friends. They say being on the open road alone grants perspective, and I’ve found
I
that to be true. No longer surrounded by Gracie and everyone else who has been driving around me since grade school, I’ve been able to focus more easily on my lane, and I like the freedom. Now that I’m on my own, I realize I had spent so much time checking the mirrors that I was failing to see what was right in front of me, and what has always been within me. The summer that Gracie did Northwestern’s Cherubs Screenwriting Program, I was at overnight camp. The summer she took AP Bio, I went on a teen tour with my best friends. While perhaps less impressive on a resume, those experiences were right for me: a social, fun-loving girl, without a specific dream that needed to be pursued immediately. My road has been fun, comedic and even impressive in a lot of areas. I should’ve been confident in my route and enjoyed it, looking forward and trusting my own directional abilities. Maybe one day I’ll screenwrite too, and it doesn’t matter if I’m seven thousand miles behind Gracie. I’m exploring other routes, seeing amazing sights. There’s no race or finish line. Moreover, everyone’s lane gets bumpy on occasion. Gracie went to college far away with no friends. She recently came home due to a mononucleosis-strep throat-bacterial infection trifecta. I now check on Gracie over Facetime — not to see if we’re equidistant on the road, but to make sure she’s doing okay in her car. Everyone’s Lambo feels like an old truck sometimes. So I’d like to revise my mom’s advice to: “Check your mirrors, but trust your own lane.” Glancing at other people and taking a check-in is healthy. We grow through comparison and better ourselves through competition. But we also must be confident in our journey as well. Different drivers have different needs. People take pit stops, switch lanes, speed up, slow down. Right now Gracie and I are taking separate routes, and perhaps it’ll stay that way for a while, or maybe we’ll merge, and I’ll be able to check over at her Lambo once again. Maybe we’ll even have the same destination, and we’ll both end up with creative careers like Gabrielle and Amanda, raise kids at the same time or grow old in the same place. There are multiple lanes for a reason: so that the road is wide enough for two cars. I’m glad to have her on my road, I’d be lost without her. But I’ll also keep my eyes on the horizon in front of me. I deserve the trip.
10 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
statement
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Midterms and merch lines: U-M influencers speak on balancing school and social media BY ANNIE RAUWERDA, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR
I
n early April, I screenshotted a picture I saw on Wikipedia of a cow lying on the ground captioned “a sleeping cow laying on her side is not immobilized; she can rise whenever she chooses.” It epitomized early-quarantine lethargy, and I thought it was really funny. I kept collecting obscure and amusing Wikipedia excerpts and posting screenshots of them to an Instagram page I titled @depthsofwikipedia. Nine months later, my once-frivolous hobby has changed my life: The account has over 120,000 followers, a merch line and an ongoing collaboration with Wikipedia to fundraise and recruit editors. Since August, I’ve devoted almost all of my free time to the project. The account exposes the most curious corners of Wikipedia, such as a page on the “sweater curse,” a documented suspicion that hand-knitting a sweater for a lover will lead them to break up with the knitter. Another is the page “Umarell” which describes elderly men in Bologna, Italy who watch construction sites, often with hands clasped behind their backs and offering unwanted advice. Other good ones are “List of Animals with Fraudulent Diplomas” and “Lawsuits against God.” The posts are short enough to be shareable but substantial enough to teach you something, and the following has grown organically through Instagram story posts. I’m not the only University of Michigan student who has recently encountered the dizzying exhilaration of accumulating more followers than could fit in the Big House. Between classes and clubs, some U-M undergrads are pouring their time into maintaining large internet followings in various corners of the web, building communities far larger than the glowing rectangle of an iPhone. I called some of them to chat about navigating midterms, merch deals and spinning ephemeral internet clout into a bona fide platform. Lucy Carpenter is a senior in LSA studying communication and media who started posting on her TikTok @carpenlu while studying abroad in Australia in January 2020. After her return to Michigan for the March shutdown, she pivoted to posting colorful montages that unveil the process of photography, amassing 105,000 followers. Over a Zoom call, she told me that between classes, a marketing internship and social media, different pursuits take priority at different times. “Sometimes when I’m studying and I get a really cool idea for a TikTok, I’ll choose to follow it even if I know I should be getting ahead on an assignment,” Carpenter said. “In a lot of ways, TikTok is more fun than school.” Other times, social media gets sent to the back burner. In the middle of a busy summer internship, she made fewer posts and her follower growth slowed markedly. “I was okay with it because I loved my internship,” Carpenter explained. For Carpenter, whose professional interests of photography and social media align closely with her online niche, both her degree and TikTok are vehicles to the same post-graduation goals. Though she’s seen creators with similar backgrounds find successful careers after dropping out, she’s set on finishing her degree both to build business skills and because, as a senior, she’s so close to finishing. After graduating, she’s not sure where she’ll end up but hopes to continue creative pursuits. “Because of Tiktok, it feels more possible to pursue photography full time,” Carpenter said. “I now have a network of people all over the world.” Carpenter isn’t the only student using TikTok to build a professional network. Nick Daly is an Music, Theatre & Dance sophomore studying musical theatre whose TikTok account @ nick_t_daly, which approaches 175,000 follow-
ers, has grown steadily since Spring 2020. In a Zoom call from his rented Kerrytown room, he told me about the account’s start. “I got really sad at the beginning of quarantine. Maybe that was the key,” Daly said. “There were no opportunities over the summer, so as a Musical Theatre major I didn’t know what to do, and I was inspired by the spirit of the quote ‘If you don’t have work, make work.’” And that’s exactly what he did. Over the summer, Daly posted several videos per day highlighting his stunning vocals and accumulating a steady stream of followers. Despite his success, he’s found that he now can’t keep up with posting at that pace due to piling obligations. “(I’m) super busy working on a play for Playfest, sending in auditions for TV and movies and putting in 20 hours a week at Chipotle,” he said. It took a few seconds for him to add, “And I’m still a musical theatre major.” After winning the prestigious Playbill’s Search for a Star award in the fall, he spent the first few weeks of the school year engulfed in tasks related to the prize. School took a back seat at the start of the semester, and Daly felt like he never really caught up. “I’ve always been of the mind that education is more important than a degree. I’d rather be skilled than have a piece of paper hanging on my wall that says I’m skilled,” he said. “If I graduate, it would be cool, but I ultimately just want to work in theatre and it doesn’t matter whether it’s school or social media that gets me there.” His agent, who found him through Instagram, messaged him while we were talking to ask for another TV show audition to send in. Daly doesn’t know what exactly is next for him, but he’s grateful to have a platform to communicate his passions, such as the importance of using art for social change. He’s also excited by how much TikTok has expanded his professional opportunities in the performing arts. Social media can advance the business side of music endeavors as well. Ari Elkins is a ju-
struck algorithm gold on a video he posted on his TikTok @ryant6969 two days after his SATs about looking like the Riverdale character Kevin Keller. After the post went viral, he continued posting witty TikToks in his free time, accruing 65,000 followers. Unlike other student creators, he’s never considered pursuing TikTok as more than a hobby. “I’m very school-driven,” he said. “Being a full-on influencer is not my personality. I’m just doing this because it makes me laugh.” A number of other students boast mind-bogglingly large account stats, and many come from vastly different corners of the internet. Business freshman Simon Kim has built a TikTok community of 1.2 million followers on @wholesomesimon, where he promotes mental health efforts with colorful graphics and clear-eyed sincerity. On the anime and manga side of TikTok, Rackham student Jeffery Zhang boasts 900,000 followers. Front-camera clips of comedic musings brought LSA senior Demetrius Fields to 1.7 million TikTok followers, and varsity basketball player and LSA junior Adrien Nunez has amassed nearly a million followers on TikTok making couple videos with his girlfriend Carson Roney, who plays basketball for Shawnee State University. University of Michigan student creators are part of a broader cultural rise of relatable online creators, a grand convergence between restless, quarantined young people and hungry algorithms engineered to manufacture the illusion of fame. Subject to the opaque mechanisms of algorithm-based content viewing, the beginning of a popular page often comes down to luck. It’s that tantalizing first taste of virality that can ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE bring about a pivotal, if subtle, decision: nior in LSA studying political science and mito keep pursuing internet fame or not. noring in performing arts management who The creators I spoke to decided to run with posts TikToks of niche playlists (think “POV: its it, albeit with varying levels of commitment BID Day 2021 and you just accepted your bid — some treating online creation like a stepto your favorite sorority” and “Songs that will ping stone to their career and others using it make you want to go on an adventure”) char- to pass the time. However, to varying degrees, acterized by impossibly enthusiastic dances, their college experiences are fundamentally bouncy hair and a blithe California coolness. altered: paid posts informing their schedules, hen his summer 2020 intern- ring lights in dorm rooms, private Zoom chats ship with Warner Music got in class asking “Are you from TikTok?” and an canceled, he spent more time inescapable sense that if they don’t keep up an posting videos, such as one titled “Songs that endless stream of content, their fleeting homewill take you back to your favorite frat base- grown fame will dissolve just as quickly as it ment,” which catapulted him into prominence appeared. and entrenched his current niche as a GeneraEach student creator echoed familiar sention-Z music curator. 600,000 TikTok follow- timents of gratitude for their platforms. We ers later, he has a team of managers, growing agreed that working on social media feels, for Youtube and Spotify platforms and a slew of the most part, like an exciting antidote to mobrand sponsorship deals. notonous online classes. He’s taking a full course load at the UniPersonally, it’s running @depthsofwikiversity, but he estimates a time breakdown of pedia the best part of my year, offering bright 70% music and Tiktok work compared to 30% moments of novelty amidst the monotony of school. He told me more about balancing mu- quarantine. Amidst Canvas notifications and sic and TikTok with school on a Zoom call. club emails are notifications of follows from “I would only drop out of school if it were celebrity crushes (like John Mayer) and interprohibiting my success and, right now, I’m able esting messages from strangers. I’ve also gotten to balance school and TikTok,” Elkins said. more involved with the workings of Wikipedia, “College is important in that it makes you a learning to edit and organizing an edit-a-thon more well-rounded citizen, but if I really think in January. about it, I don’t think that a college diploma One of my greatest takeaways from online will be directly useful for my current career classes is how much agency I have over what trajectory.” I learn. Digital learning has, in many ways, This summer, he’s not doing an organized challenged traditional models of learning in internship but instead focusing on personal which a teacher presents information in front music and TikTok pursuits. of a class. When I’m learning class material While Elkins has always been interested in online, I’ve found myself more likely to seek the music industry, social media success has out independent education resources, opting given him resounding encouragement to fur- for Youtube explainers over clogged Zoom ther pursue a career as a music personality. Be- office hours and skipping asynchronous lecing a front-facing figure in the same category as ture videos to make notes from a textbook. Zane Lowe or Ryan Seacrest is within reach for Viewing classes as education guides, not necElkins all because of TikTok. essarily essential manuals, empowers me to However, not all students are using their broaden the activities considered to be educakernels of fame to directly advance their ca- tional. Through this lens, some of the lessons reers. Ryan Tippy, an LSA freshman who plans I’m learning from social media feel just as vital to major in public health on a pre-med track, as those from schoolwork.
W
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 11
JULIAN BARNARD | COLUMNIST Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ELIZABETH COOK AND JOEL WEINER
CLAIRE HAO Editor in Chief
BRITTANY BOWMAN Managing Editor
Editorial Page Editors
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Zack Blumberg Brittany Bowman Emily Considine Elizabeth Cook Jess D’Agostino
Andrew Gerace Jack Grieve Krystal Hur Min Soo Kim Zoe Phillips
Mary Rolfes Gabrijela Skoko Elayna Swift Joel Weiner Erin White
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
ALEX NOBEL | COLUMNIST
The Grand Old Party of conspiracies
W
hen I turned 13, like many Jews around the United States and the rest of the world, I was bar mitzvahed. Upon the conclusion of my service, after reciting blessings and reading from the Torah, I was rushed to an unmarked back room. The room was small and consisted of just a single chair facing a video monitor. It was there where I received a call from the Rothschild family. I was finally old enough to be given my very first Jewish space laser. If it wasn’t clear that this did not happen, I will tell you now. It did not happen. There are no such things as Jewish space lasers. Any sane, sensible, respectful person should know this, but none of those adjectives apply to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Greene has become notorious over the last few months for parroting all kinds of bigoted conspiracies. Most famously, her comments about Jewish space lasers causing California’s 2018 wildfires. However, Greene’s comments reflect a larger problem within the Republican Party. Their increasing acceptance of conspiracy theories should worry everyone, regardless of party affiliation, and must be met face on and put to an end. Greene’s conspiracy, which drew some of the most intense backlashes, came from one of her resurfaced Facebook posts from 2018. She wrote about how the California wildfires were caused by a space laser and that the “Vice Chairman of Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm” was somehow involved. The rest of her post rambled on about how alternative energy panels in space were reflecting rays from the sun back to earth in order to increase stock prices and help wealthy investors. Aside from making zero scientific or logical sense, it is also blatantly anti-Semitic, as blaming the Rothschild family is a century-old antiSemitic tactic to scapegoat Jews for society’s problems. That was just the surface of Greene’s conspiracies. Greene openly supports QAnon, a discredited and disproven right-wing conspiracy
NYLA BOORAS | COLUMNIST
A
theory that incorporates the “deep state” and a global elite that consists of pedophiles, Satan worshippers and cannibals who plotted against former President Donald Trump and has gathered a cult-like following. She also claims that no plane crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, the Parkland shooting was a false flag event and Sandy Hook was staged. On top of all that, Greene “repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.” Writing about all of Greene’s theories is a daunting task but overall, they largely all consist of the same Islamophobic, xenophobic, racist, antiSemitic and dangerous rhetoric. As more and more of Greene’s theories surfaced, House Democrats called for her removal from her assignments on the Education and Budget Committees. In a 230-199 vote, with just 11 Republicans joining all of the Democrats, Greene was removed from her committee seats, drastically reducing her ability to enact and contribute to policy making. While her political power has been hindered, what is still concerning are the 199 Republicans who did not believe Greene deserved to be punished for her comments. Yet, this should come as no surprise. About a month after voting to overturn the election results and choosing to support Trump’s lies about election fraud, the vast majority of House Republicans still cannot hold their own accountable. The current Republican party is infused with conspiratorial lies that contribute to hate and violence. Last fall, in a vote to condemn QAnon, 18 Republicans voted against condemning the dangerous conspiracy theory. In other words, 18 Republicans refused to denounce a disproven theory that Democrats, celebrities and a “global elite” conspire to traffic children, drink children’s blood and conspire against Trump and his supporters. These beliefs are not isolated within politicians either. In a recent YouGov poll, 30% of self-proclaimed Republicans had
a “favorable” opinion of QAnon. At first glance, this seems like a polling anomaly. An NPR/Ipsos poll found that 17% of Americans, including 23% of Republicans, believe that a “group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” — a vital principle of QAnon. If this is the direction that the Republican Party is going in, they are going down a path that cannot be followed. So what can we all do to stop the spread of threatening and harmful conspiracies that have real-world consequences? First things first we have to understand how people get sucked into believing these things. The first mistake people make is believing that only stupid or unintelligent people become followers of QAnon. Like many cults, QAnon provides people with a feeling that they belong to an elite community, offering them a sense of belonging. Although it is not an easy task, and the tactics are widely debated amongst extremism experts, once more is understood about how QAnon attracts new followers, the work can be done to de-radicalize them. While some conspiracy theories can be harmless like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, other conspiracies have real-world consequences that should be taken seriously by everyone. We have already seen the damage that election fraud conspiracies have had when thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol Building leaving five dead and dozens more injured. QAnon followers have already been caught threatening to kidnap and even assassinate public figures. As QAnon grows in popularity and edges closer to becoming mainstream within the Republican Party, even more violence will accompany it. The time is now to put an end to QAnon’s conspiratorial influence within the GOP before they become the GQP.
T
his Super Bowl Sunday, General Motors Co. aired an advertisement for their new electric vehicle battery, the Ultium. This comes in the wake of GM announcing that they will stop producing gas-powered vehicles by 2035. This was my favorite advertisement of Super Bowl LV and I would recommend giving it a quick watch for context. The ad starred Will Ferrell, Awkwafina and Kenan Thompson. The plot is that America is being trounced by Norway when it comes to electric vehicle implementation, and Ferrell and his compatriots are on a mission to change that. This ad, released on one of the most competitive days on the American calendar, supplies a blueprint for using the American competitive spirit as a vehicle for positive change. There is an incredible pool of competitive energy in the United States. I’m sure you have seen the reports of rampant partying and disorder in Tampa, Fla., after this Super Bowl Sunday, and that’s just energy from one American team beating another. For a view of how competitive we can get with other countries just look to the Olympics. Does anyone care about curling any non-Olympic years? No! But when it is framed as a competition where America needs to take its rightful place on the winner’s podium, heads from Seattle to Sarasota, Fla., pop up, and the competitive fuse is lit. The precise language of competing with other countries has possibly turned sour in the ears of many leftleaning people throughout the last few years. This is because former President Donald Trump was an avid user of winner-take-all rhetoric in U.S. foreign policy. Specifically, Trump’s America First policies explicitly relied on a competitive and even confrontational lens to interpret the rest of the world. However, competitive rhetoric can be employed in a responsible and positive way, like Ferrell confidently talking about his desire to “crush those lugers” to engender a passion for a more sustainable transportation system. For an example of how this competitive spirit has been harnessed
We’re #1? to pull political goals along, look no further than the Space Race. In 1962, former President John F. Kennedy gave his famous address at Rice University. Kennedy called on Americans to keep their eye on the ball: “For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last.” Kennedy and Ferrell share a strategy to motivate Americans. Not only do they want us to covet winning, but they also want us to loathe losing. Kennedy was demonstrably successful in using this strategy, as his competitive rhetoric ensured robust space program funding, which resulted in an eventual victory in 1969 when Americans were the first to set foot on the moon. We have established that this is a strategy, but what could it best be used for today? Gov. Gretchen Whitmer may have an idea. Whitmer ran on a platform focused on fixing Michigan’s roads. Currently, the U.S. gets a D+ in infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Our national infrastructure would be a perfect target for a competitive strategy. After all, the interstate highway system was born out of a competitive spirit. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower noticed that Germany had a fantastic highway system and decided the U.S. wouldn’t be relegated to second-tier infrastructure — thus the Interstate highway system was born. Kyle Kulinski, a co-founder of the progressive organization Justice Democrats, recently tweeted a prescient policy prescription: “The US should do a multi trillion dollar infrastructure deal with the expressed goal of being #1 in the world on that front. … It’s a unifying national project with countless upsides.” This is exactly the type of strategy we should be employing to move the national conversation toward significant infrastructure spending. The innate pride in being American and wanting to be number one in the world is conditioned into someone from an early age, and I feel it strongly as I write this. Understanding and harnessing this competitive spirit will be vital in cutting through the cacophonous noise of the modern political climate.
Of course, infrastructure is not the only area where this strategy could be effective. There are several areas where the U.S. has fallen behind, and many Americans might not even realize it. Take our democracy for example. Its weaknesses have already been well explored by thinkers much more in tune with the processes than I, so I will simply say that cracks are starting to show in institutions that many Americans formerly perceived as robust. Democracy isn’t something that we think of competitively, but we absolutely should — many countries do elections better (and tastier) than we do. One such country is Australia. Elections in Australia are held on Saturdays, as opposed to Tuesdays as in the U.S. Australia has a compulsory voting system, and you can get fined about $15 for not doing your civic duty. Voting is seen as a responsibility and not just as a right, so about 96% of Australians vote in each election, compared to just 66.7% of Americans who voted in the last election. Finally, and most important to my palate, at many Australian polling places there will be a prominent showing of democracy sausages — basically a hot dog which voters can purchase when they turn up to the polls. Overall, voting is seen as more of a block party than an errand. Both the institutions and the culture around voting in Australia are something that I expect many Americans to both enjoy and benefit from. But I don’t think we should adopt their system and culture because we need to do better. We need to beat them — we need to be number one — but only in a way that fits the spirit of our nation. Electric cars, democracy, infrastructure and innovation. All things that we as a nation should strive to do better at, not just for our own sake, but for our national sense of pride. Will Ferrell, Kennedy and Trump aren’t the most similar people, but they all struck a fundamental chord of what it means to be an American. Americans like to win, and when issues are framed as either winning or losing to the rest of the world, a lot can get done. Julian Barnard can be reached at jcbarn@umich.edu. Design by Grace Aretakis
Alex Nobel can be reached at anobel@umich.edu.
More schools of public health at every size, please
fter the first public health school was established at Johns Hopkins University a century ago, the interdisciplinary practice has found a home in universities nationwide. Without a doubt, public health researchers and professionals have led the charge in understanding what a healthy society might look like, while simultaneously striving to create it. Here at the University of Michigan, the School of Public Health is one of the best in the nation. This doesn’t come as a surprise. What does come as a surprise from a university that champions itself as the “Leaders and the Best” is its perpetuation of diet culture and fatphobia via the weight-normative curriculum it bolsters. The lack of awareness around how these roots contradict its mission of promoting public health needs to be addressed. Fortunately, within the School of Public Health, a professor is pioneering a public health approach that forgoes beliefs born out of diet culture and fatphobia, opting instead for a weight-inclusive approach which encourages healthy behaviors irrespective of one’s weight. Dr. Kendrin Sonneville, Sc.D., R.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences whose research focuses on eating disorder prevention. To say her background and current work is impressive is an understatement. Sonneville is one of a handful of public health faculty members that align themselves with the Health at Every Size framework, and to her knowledge, she is the only faculty member at the school who explicitly orients herself as a weight-inclusive researcher. She teaches a Weight Bias & Health course — the first and only freestanding class on weight
bias at any public health school — and the work she does with her team at the Sonneville Lab for Weight-Inclusive Nutrition & Eating Disorders Prevention is monumental. Sonneville is undoubtedly leading the charge here at the University’s School of Public Health to transform the foundation of public health into one that is weight inclusive and challenges misconceptions surrounding weight — namely that from weight alone, you can come to conclusions about one’s health status. She shared her thoughts on the state of the school’s curriculum and mainstream public health while providing suggestions on where to go from here so that relevant programs can move closer to achieving their mission. Despite being a bit of an outsider within a department where most faculty members conform to the weight-normative model — for example, holding the belief that people classified as “overweight” or “obese” under existing standards must lose weight to become healthier — Sonneville has been met with curiosity and open-mindedness from colleagues and students intrigued by her approach. “Even though my approach may feel relatively radical within a department of nutrition,” she said, “I think there’s an interest in understanding this paradigm, so even though people aren’t necessarily identifying as ‘all-in,’ there is a curiosity that comes from my presence.” Students in particular have been receptive to the HAES approach and her classes continue to draw more curious minds in. It’s not lost on Sonneville that she has been able to venture into new territory with classes and research focusing on weight bias and eating disorders prevention and treatment due to support from her department chair and the
school as a whole. For that, she is grateful. “I do think that the support my particular teaching and research program is getting speaks volumes about our School of Public Health,” she said. The department’s approval of her courses, which are nonexistent in other places, has been their best decision yet. Moreover, alumni of Sonneville’s courses have gone on to do meaningful and highly demanded work in the eating disorder space. They are the ones changing the public health landscape from weight-normative to weight-inclusive — and for the better. Alyson McAdams, M.P.H, RDN, graduated from the School of Public Health in 2017 and has established a career around the HAES framework. As a registered dietician working in pediatric primary care, McAdams credits Sonneville for her exposure to this weightinclusive framework. At the same time, she also acknowledges that the University as a whole didn’t provide enough education on this approach or eating disorders, instead putting too much of an emphasis on weight normativity and solving the obesity epidemic. Even when faculty and other students acknowledged that intentional weight loss diets do not work in the long run for a majority of people, when I interviewed McAdams, she said the framing of larger-bodied people as a problem in need of a solution remained. The escape from this message for McAdams was Sonneville’s courses. “Kendrin’s class was definitely the only place where I felt like weight-inclusive language and practices were more overtly talked about,” McAdams said. Even those around her who saw weight stigma as a problem were missing the point. “For many of us, we were still stuck in that
lens of, ‘weight stigma is a problem because it contributes to weight gain, and weight gain and larger bodies are a problem,’ ” McAdams elaborated. Thus, further development is needed in the curriculum so that students can detach from the assumption that weight gain is inherently negative. Addressing weight stigma as a factor contributing to weight gain while still viewing weight gain as inherently in need of a solution misses the point entirely. To dismantle weight stigma means to reject the belief that efforts targeted at improving health need to be targeted at lowering one’s weight. McAdams also confirmed that the bulk of the required curriculum, specifically for the dietetics track of the Master’s in Public Health program, was extremely weight-normative and fatphobic. “For example, we had a pathophysiology of obesity class that was required, but the eating disorders class was an elective,” McAdams said. Now in practice, she is bewildered by this. “Eating disorders and disordered eating show up all the time, and at the beginning of my practice, that was something I had to immediately seek continuing education about.” McAdams’ own initiative to self-educate on the topic is applaudable, but soon-tobe-dietitians ought to already have this knowledge and a quality skillset surrounding eating disorders, given their prevalence in society. And, unfortunately, few dietetics professionals are as proactive as McAdams. On the whole, the dietetics field is saturated with providers who spew harmful, fatphobic messages about food and the body, not to mention many actively struggling themselves
with their own disordered relationship with the two. These messages are detrimental to all who seek out their professional services, but for those going to these dietitians to recover from their eating disorder, it can be traumatic and a major setback in their pursuit of recovery. Clearly, there is still plenty of room for profound changes in the curriculum. Only when such changes are made can the School of Public Health truly and accurately selfidentify as a leader in the public health field. These changes will be no easy feat. With diet culture beliefs about weight as embedded in the research on health as they are today — both in public health and medical research — major shifts are needed in both spaces and our broader culture before any substantial improvements can be made. Luckily, Sonneville has tangible first steps in mind that are feasible with the support of her department chairs, who are influential players in curriculum development. She finds that integrating the weight-inclusive framework into core curriculum rather than requiring classes that are solely HAES aligned may be most effective because it would not cast this framework as some niche field of its own. Incorporating it into the existing weight-normative curriculum also replicates the context in which many graduates will be working: one where weight stigma will be present, and weight will be valued as an independent health indicator.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Nyla Booras can be reached at nbooras@umich.edu.
Opinion
12 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Floating through the Zoom-Zone
MEERA KUMAR | COLUMNIST
I
t’s incredibly odd to be a freshman right now. Instead of having animated discussions sitting on lawns and benches around campus, we occasionally send necessary texts through GroupMes and Discords. Instead of exploring and getting used to a new campus, we navigate our university online. Newcomers don’t have a place, a community or an understanding of the University of Michigan in its regular workings. Instead, we traverse through the “Zoom-Zone.” It’s a term I picked up from Connor Greer, the phenomenal ENG 223 writing instructor. “Zoom-Zone” (or “ZOOM-ZONE,” as he says) refers to the virtually built environment in which most of our interactions exist. The “Zoom-Zone” has replaced the University’s physical environment, i.e. walking around from class to class, attending social gatherings or exploring campus. Now, we meet people and visit places on a screen, often from inside our childhood bedrooms. When our campus shut down last semester, students transitioned from in-person to virtual learning. Now, we know the University in a different form— for many freshmen, the only way we’ve ever known the University is through emails, online classes and group chats. Zoom itself is a wondrous thing — two people (from opposite corners of the planet, if need be) can reach out through space and time and see each other’s faces. However, centering all of one’s social interactions in Zoom can feel exhausting. Many experience Zoom fatigue. Online interaction isn’t the same as in-person interaction — without nonverbal cues, it’s more challenging to focus. Speaking through the “Zoom-Zone” can feel like a performance and a puzzle simultaneously.
One is trying to deduce the other person’s feelings while attempting to appear friendly and in control, without nonverbal social cues. Because attending Zoom calls can often feel like charades, first-year students might not be as eager to participate in classes and organizations online as they are in person. Thus, no one knows each other, except vaguely, in a digital context. There’s barely a sense of togetherness for the freshman class, apart from our sparingly active Facebook group. Additionally, the “Zoom-Zone” has a funny way of flattening power structures — sometimes, almost inverting them. While Zoom discussions can feel more democratic (which can be a good thing), they lead to some chaotic situations. Often, in class, students are technology-adept, while instructors can sometimes struggle. With multiple people speaking at once, it’s more challenging to keep a class in order. The chat feature in Zoom, especially, completely changes the dynamic of classes, where people can send a text without being seen or heard. In one of my courses last semester (a large, 180-person class), the chat was so active that it was turned off every class, especially when students had complaints about the course. Students are given much more power in online classes. While sometimes beneficial, it can be odd for freshmen, who can be unsure how to act in their classes and otherwise. Like many others, I find myself reminiscing about life before COVID-19. In November 2018, I went to my first ever Michigan football game. Surrounded by more people than I could ever imagine now, I laughed, whooped, yelled and chanted. Periodically, the crowd would get up and perform the fight song, ending with 100,000 voices yelling out “Go Blue!” in
Design by Melissa Lee
unison. Completely enamored, I couldn’t stop fantasizing about my future college experience at the University: Ideas of freedom, parties and football games swirled together in my mind. I couldn’t wait to know the fight song, back-to-front, and chant “Go Blue!” Now, the only time freshmen come across the phrase is when we see a halfhearted “Go Blue” at the end of an email offering COVID19 updates. It’s important to note why campus life is changed — the relentless spread of COVID-19, especially spurred by those who go about their lives as if there’s no virus. People who choose to party are prolonging the situation. They’re making everyone’s lives —
Biden’s executive orders break his promise of unity in first weeks of presidency
T
executive orders clearly contradicts his promise to see not “blue or red states but United States.” Even the New York Times Editorial Board sounded the alarm. From the moment Biden entered the White House, I hoped he would immediately begin reaching across the aisle to solve some of the most pressing issues facing our nation. But the incoming president has wasted a precious opportunity to begin the process of healing our nation so desperately needs. The current occupant of the White House is undoubtedly a welcome departure from the divisive Trump administration, but he needs to do more to bring together our fractured country. Take his executive actions on the environment, for instance. On the first day of his administration, Biden wasted no time canceling the permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. If completed, the pipeline would have transported oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This project increases our reliance on fossil fuels for energy and has been attacked by environmentalists for years. However, simply eliminating the Keystone pipeline without working with state or federal lawmakers disregards the system of government our founders outlined more than 200 years ago, which calls for checks and balances. While canceling the permit for the Keystone pipeline has removed an environmental hazard and the encroachment on the indigenous communities that inhabit the area, it is detrimental to the local economy surrounding the proposed pipeline and the thousands of people who depended on the project to put food on the table. Shutting down the pipeline isn’t necessarily a bad move, but Biden should have worked with elected representatives before eliminating it on his own.
MRINALINI IYER | COLUMNIST
O
including their own — much harder and more dangerous. The lack of response from the institution and the introduction of new COVID-19 variants in Ann Arbor only exacerbates the problem. While people continue to disregard their communities, it seems unlikely that the pandemic will slow down anytime soon. What’s confusing is the different predictions of when society will return to “normal.” Sources contrast each other, with some claiming the pandemic will be around for the next few years, while some are claiming the situation will be better by July. Will we ever leave this purgatory and find our
place in the community? Will we ever mature past our high school selves? Will we ever get the so-called college experience? More importantly, will we and our communities make it through the pandemic? It’s overwhelming. The idea of the typical college experience feels too good to be true — hopefully, we’ll get to see it for ourselves in the future. Currently, it all feels unclear. As the freshmen’s connection to the university feels weak, we float around, alone, untethered in the “Zoom-Zone,” unsure of what comes next. Meera Kumar can be reached at kmeera@ umich.edu.
ILANA MERMELSTEIN | COLUMNIST
EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST
ime and again on the campaign trail, President Joe Biden pledged to Americans that despite running as a “proud Democrat,” he would “govern as an American president.” In a time where political divisiveness has reached unprecedented levels, millions of Americans who voted for Biden entrusted him with healing our wounded nation. But after only a few days in the Oval Office, Biden seemed to put his plans for unity on the back burner by issuing executive orders at a record pace. Before the end of January alone — in the first two weeks of his term — Biden signed a startling 25 executive orders. By comparison, former President Donald Trump signed only seven orders in the same time frame during his first term; former President Barack Obama signed only nine. Allies of the Biden administration rushed to defend the 46th president, noting the orders have fulfilled a myriad of Democratic policy priorities, including action on the environment, immigration and health care. Nevertheless, Biden’s executive actions stand in stark contrast to his own words throughout a hard-fought campaign that seemed to signal he would work across the aisle with legislators, not unilaterally with just the stroke of a pen. At an ABC News town hall event in October, Biden said that instead of issuing executive orders, “I’ve gotta get the votes (in Congress). We are a democracy. We need consensus.” He also stated some specific policy proposals can’t be passed “by executive order unless you’re a dictator,” such as raising taxes on corporations and wealthy people. To be fair, that town hall appearance has been misconstrued by some — namely, conservatives who have accused Biden of neglecting his own unity claims. But at the end of the day, Biden’s flurry of
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
n a warm August afternoon in the Law Quadrangle, my boyfriend and I finally had the dreaded talk about our exes. Beaming with pride, he revealed that he was still friends with many of his exes, with some of them comprising his group of best friends. I suppressed an eye roll as I told him that I wasn’t in contact with most of mine, with a few even being blocked on social media. Eyebrows raised, he looked at me with the all-too-familiar smirk of superiority that I’ve become accustomed to receiving from those who take pride in staying friends with their exes. My lack of contact with my exes isn’t necessarily due to bad relationships, messy breakups or even miscommunication. I simply believe that the period after a relationship ends is prime time for personal growth and that afterward, you shouldn’t be around somebody
In the end, what distinguishes the U.S. from countries around the globe is that no one figure holds too much power. After the American Revolution, our founders put forth the Constitution in order to give equal influence to the legislative, executive and judicial branches. There’s no problem with executive actions for small matters, but Biden’s executive orders are equivalent to legislating from the White House, which is not what Americans elected the current president to do. At the same time, allowing a president to unilaterally implement sweeping policy changes sets a dangerous precedent for future administrations. From the moment Biden secured the presidency in November, there was renewed hope across America that our country could finally turn the page on this bitter and divisive time. This only became more urgent after the attempted insurrection on the U.S. Capitol building last month. But the prospects of this actually happening have grown smaller in light of Biden’s farreaching executive actions. As the president of the United States, Biden must resort to executive orders sparingly and only when that type of action is warranted. It’s clear that with a narrowly-split House of Representatives and an even closer Senate, Biden’s policy proposals will encounter more resistance in Congress. But the 46th president took an oath to defend our Constitution — and promised millions of Americans he would be the unifier we all need. That starts with putting his pen down and working with the legislature, the body our founders actually tasked with creating the laws. Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu.
The reality of the ‘Jewish space lasers’
N
ot long ago, a 2018 Facebook post from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., resurfaced. In it, she attributed the California wildfires to a space laser controlled by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which is owned by Rothschild Inc., and indicated that the land was burned in an elaborate scheme to construct a high-speed rail project. Her beliefs are unfortunately just another iteration of the “all-powerful Jews will do anything to make a buck” trope. Granted, it’s a pretty funny iteration. Many Jewish Twitter users posted about the theory, joking about the blatant anti-Semitism. After all, how could a secret Jewish space laser truly remain a secret with Jewish mothers everywhere wanting nothing more than to brag about their children? We Jewish people tend to joke about widespread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories because, frankly, if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry. Greene’s theory is just one of many that draw on age-old stereotypes about Jewish people to villainize them. While quite laughable, it isn’t much crazier than the anti-Semitic beliefs of many other holders of public office. We shouldn’t be surprised by politicians’ rampant bigotry, but we should be fighting it. Anti-Semitism has a long and dark history in the United States, primarily beginning in the late 19th century. Many Jews immigrated from Europe to the U.S. at the end of the 1800s and at the beginning of the 1900s, arriving in America as propertyless immigrants. However, they quickly adjusted and advanced professionally, angering many Americans who were less successful. At this point, the stereotype was born in America that Jews controlled all the money and exploited government systems for their own financial gain. Needless to say, this belief pervaded American society and it continues to rear its ugly head, even today. Unfortunately, the American political system is not immune to
the widespread anti-Semitism in the U.S. Government officials on both the right and left have targeted, and continue to target, Jewish people, using the money-controlling stereotype to redirect the blame for economic and governmental failures. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released a YouTube advertisement during his reelection campaign in which he claimed that the Democrats “have liberal billionaires like George Soros and Mike Bloomberg,” two individuals who happen to be Jewish. In doing so, he furthered the previously discussed trope that Jews control the money and use their financial power to control the government. Similarly, former Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., published an advertisement featuring his Democratic opponent, Jewish Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., with an enlarged nose. In the video, Ossoff appeared with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also Jewish, while a voiceover claimed that the Jews were planning to “buy Georgia.” Of course, one cannot discuss anti-Semitism in American politics without referencing QAnon, a conspiracy theory in which Rep. Taylor Greene is a believer. One element of the QAnon theory is the Great Replacement. Supposedly, Jewish people are organizing a mass migration of people of color into predominantly white countries to eliminate and replace primarily white populations. Ironically, Pew Research Center’s 2013 study found that 90% of American Jews identify as non-Hispanic white. While this finding does not speak to the racial identity of Jews around the world, it is interesting that a presumably largely white ethnic group would orchestrate the elimination of white populations. But hey, Jews have all the power, right? If they want it, they’ll find a way to make it happen.
At the end of the day, it’s all the same. Jewish people are scapegoated for the country’s troubles, the reasoning being that they control the money and thus the world. This same anti-Semitic trope appears over and over again in American politics, so why is anyone surprised by Rep. Taylor Greene’s outlandish space laser theory? What is it, if not a more creative way of saying the same thing similar politicians have been saying for years: Jewish people control the money, and they use their wealth to make anything they want to happen? While conspiracy theories like this are humorous, they are indicative of a much bigger issue. Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise in the U.S. Non-violent acts of antiSemitism are becoming acceptable in the American political system: anti-Semitic campaign advertisements, social media posts and conspiracy theories. We as American people are normalizing anti-Semitism, and as an American Jew, it’s scary. Fortunately, there are things we can do to put an end to the rampant anti-Semitism in the U.S. When voting, we must focus not only on policy but on candidates’ character. Have they made bigoted posts on social media? Have they supported other bigoted candidates? These are questions we must ask before voting. We must also call out anti-Semitism when we see it and educate our peers on the dangers associated with anti-Semitism. Taylor Greene’s “Jewish space lasers” conspiracy theory is not itself the problem, but is rather a symptom of the bigger issue of anti-Semitism. We, as Americans, have allowed for its spread, but we, as Americans, can promote its end. Ilana Mermelstein can be reached at imerm@umich.edu.
We can still be friends, but should we? who reminds you of a past version of yourself. In addition, I think that more often than not, the decision to stay friends with an ex is precipitated by a desire to hold on to a person who was once a big part of your life. This is a completely natural impulse, but resisting it allows you to become the person you really want to be without being imprisoned by the shackles of your past. I won’t stand on a soapbox and preach at you, though. Last year, after breaking up with my long-term high school boyfriend, I immediately launched myself into a series of flings and hookups, quickly finding myself entrapped in strange love triangles and awkward run-ins. A few weeks of backsliding with my ex eventually gave way to another period of no-contact, during which he blocked me on social media. Months later, I asked if we could be friends, but once we began talking
again, I quickly realized that friendship with him was unnecessary for both of us — nothing more than a remnant of the past few years that was determined to linger forever if we allowed it. Friendships with exes can also easily become toxic, be it for yourself, a new relationship or even mutual friends. Research suggests that friendships between exes generally have more negative aspects than other cross-sex platonic friendships. Additionally, exes are often used as emotional substitutions for a new partner when that new relationship takes a turn for the worse. Exes can cause feelings of jealousy and territorialism in a new partner, creating unnecessary tension and chaos in the early stages of a relationship. This is not to say that it’s impossible or even useless to be friends with an ex. My boyfriend
has a successful, healthy friendship with one of his exes, where they are both assets to each other’s lives. That said, most other ventures at friendships with ex-significant others do not go as swimmingly, which can serve as a detriment to personal growth. Friendship with an ex isn’t inherently a sign of maturity and often can belie an inability to think critically about the people who are allowed in your life. There is power in being able to know when to close a chapter of your life and move on without attachments. Studies show that adolescents who are able to reevaluate their friendships had stronger exploration, and therefore firmer identities compared to peers who didn’t frequently engage in this reassessment. Knowing when to leave someone behind gives you the power to decide which parts
of yourself to leave behind with them. I think about my exes still. Sometimes, when I see a funny Snapchat memory with my ex from senior year of high school or walk past their apartment complex on my way to class, I have the urge to text them just to let them know I was thinking about them. My exes have become a part of me in some way or another and I am grateful for the experiences I’ve had because of them, but there’s a reason that they’re memories. I’ve learned a lot from them, which allows me to cuddle up on the couch with my boyfriend this Valentine’s Day, watch “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before 3” and revel in being in the present. Mrinalini Iyer can be reached at iyermili@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 13
In unique year, Wolverines look to capitalize on a deep roster and make strides in the season CONNOR EAREGOOD Daily Sports Writer
Usually when the Michigan women’s soccer team takes the field to kick off a new season, they’re facing a nonconference opponent. Usually they haven’t had six months to bond and practice, usually there isn’t snow on the ground. But even in the face of new frontiers, the Wolverines want to “raise it” this season, a motto that guides the team to elevate its performance after losing in the third round of the NCAA Championship last season to eventual runner-up North Carolina. “This year is about going that one little bit farther than we did last year, that one extra run at the end of the game when you’re not really wanting to do it,” junior Meredith Haakenson said. “When people look at us, let’s raise the level that they see.” With many of its top performers returning — including senior Sarah Stratigakis, the 2019 Big Ten midfielder of the year — Michigan will likely rely on its experience to make it back to the NCAA tournament. Not knowing if they would even have a season when training began in the fall, the Wolverines used that time to build technical and tactical skills to match their experience. While the twoweek athletics pause that ended Feb. 7 impacted the
way the team prepared, coach Jennifer Klein and her players feel their work has helped them stay in game shape. “A lot of credit has to go to our young women and them keeping themselves in a good place this entire time and just being hungry and ready for when we get an opportunity to compete against an opponent other than ourselves,” Klein said. That chance will come this Saturday as the Wolverines travel to Columbus to take on rival Ohio State, their first game since Nov. 24, 2019. Starting an 11-game Big Ten season, Michigan could build off of last season’s conference success that saw it lose only two Big Ten games. Those losses came at the hands of Rutgers and Wisconsin, both of whom shut out the Wolverines. Returning offensive talents like Stratigakis and Haakenson could help prevent that from repeating with another year of experience under their belts. Offensive production stems from more than just those two, however. Haakenson said scoring is a team effort. Players like junior Raleigh Loughman or sophomore Danielle Wolfe can generate scoring for the Wolverines as they use their positioning to create chances. Wolfe scored seven goals last season while Loughman added six herself. Scoring goals will help the Wolverines this season, but Michigan wants to improve its
skills on both sides of the ball. Assistant coach Katie Hultin will continue working with the Wolverines on their defensive skills, something Klein and the players are thankful for. Another asset for the Wolverines comes between the pipes as last season’s starting goaltender Hillary Beall will return for her senior season. Beall started all 24 games for Michigan last season, posting a 17-6-1 record and allowing around a goal per game. Solid defensive play factored into the team’s training this fall, but Beall could be an X-factor when opponents inevitably get good chances. In a close, defensive conference like the Big Ten, having that last line of defense can make or break teams. With all the Wolverines were able to improve on, they cannot impact the way their opponents play. They will need to remain sharp against teams like Rutgers, Wisconsin and Penn State if they want to raise the bar this year. The addition of seven freshmen this fall could prove useful against difficult foes. With around six months to acclimate to the college level, those players could make their presence felt more than a normal fall season would allow. “I give all the credit to them,” Haakenson said. “They’ve done a great job of just coming in, knowing the expectations, where they’re at, where we expect them to
be and really getting to know them on and off the field.” That depth could be essential if the Wolverines want to reach their goals of winning the conference tournament and returning to the NCAA tournament. With only 11 games to prove to the NCAA tournament selectors that their squad belongs, the Wolverines need to be sharp from the first kickoff. Without nonconference games to compare itself to the country’s best, Michigan can’t afford a bad start. Road games against teams like Ohio State and Penn State could be crucial for the team to differentiate itself from its conference foes. With a 5-1 record in Big Ten road games last year, the Wolverines will focus on increasing that recent success. “It’s a business trip,” Klein said. “We’ve got to go in and try to keep some of the same rhythms and habits that we do at a home game.” That mentality will have to be extended to home games as well. The Wolverines will play some home games at Brighton’s Legacy Center because they lack an indoor facility. Michigan knows how much work went into the season amid a pandemic. Now, as Team 27 prepares to take the field in Columbus, the Wolverines want to use those efforts as motivation to raise their performance.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Senior midfielder Sarah Stratigakis will be integral to Michigan’s success this season holding down the middle of the pitch against opponents.
‘M’ ends weekend with
split against Badgers BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Editor
Just under nine minutes into the Michigan hockey team’s game against No. 7 Wisconsin on Sunday, Badgers’ forward Dylan Holloway had a halfstep on Wolverines’ sophomore defenseman Keaton Pehrson. Holloway had just received a pass from forward Roman Ahcan, who, with a quick cut to the right on a clean zone entry, opened up space for Holloway to sneak in behind the Michigan defense. Holloway buried the shot, notching the game’s first goal and helping to propel Wisconsin (14-8 overall, 12-6 Big Ten) to a 3-2 victory over the Wolverines (11-7, 9-7). Alongside phenom forward Cole Caufield, Holloway anchored the Badgers in a game mostly dictated by the wealth of top talents on both sides. “They’re elusive, they’re really good hockey players,” Michigan coach Mel Pearson said. “It doesn’t take much for them, to give them open space to create some things. On Holloway’s first goal, we let them skate through the neutral zone and back our defensemen off. We didn’t do a good job putting some back pressure on him and forcing the play.” That goal broke the tie in a game that, until then, had been relatively mundane offensively. Still, the two shots Wisconsin notched in the first half of the period — a 2-on-1 where forward Linus Weissbach deferred to Caufield, and Holloway’s goal — illustrated how the Badgers planned to use their best players to attack the Wolverines’ defense. Though mostly inactive in the first two periods, Michigan’s offense also ran through its top young talents. Its first goal exemplified this — freshman defenseman Owen Power scored on some nifty dekes off assists
from freshman forwards Kent Johnson and Thomas Bordeleau, all past or projected first-round draft picks. But while the Wolverines struggled to sustain any offense, Wisconsin’s stars continued to apply pressure on the man advantage. With Caufield and Holloway together on a powerplay unit, the Badgers easily generated offense when up a man, ultimately resulting in a second-period power-play goal for Ahcan, with Holloway on the secondary assist. “They were moving the puck quick, and I think (with) Caufield and Holloway on the wings, it’s tough to defend,” Pearson said. “I just think overall, those guys, you gotta respect their shot, and at the end of the day, we just gotta be better.” Early in the third period, Wisconsin forward Dominick Mersch deflected a puck in front to extend the Badgers’ lead to two, effectively putting the game out of reach despite a late Michigan goal from freshman forward Brendan Brisson. If anything, Brisson’s goal will likely just make the loss sting more for the Wolverines. To leave the weekend with a series sweep against one of the Big Ten’s top teams would have been a massive statement — especially coming off a three-week hiatus from games. Still, escaping with a series split is an overall positive result for Michigan moving forward. Barring a pair of late-season collapses, the Wolverines and Badgers are both in solid position to make the postseason. With the talent they each have, they should also be poised to cause some headaches for whichever teams they go up against. In the end, those teams will face the same dilemma Michigan faced Sunday: “They have so many weapons,” Pearson said. “Who do you defend?”
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Freshman defenseman Owen Power faced a talented Wisconsin.
Michigan begins season winless against 11th-ranked Purdue PAUL NASR
Daily Sports Writer
As the Michigan volleyball team clawed back from an early deficit in the first set of Sunday’s match, freshman setter Scottee Johnson tracked down and dug a speedy attack from Purdue. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, freshman outside hitter Jess Mruzik emerged from the back row and launched a kill into the face of Purdue defensive specialist Jena Otec. The Boilermakers instantly called timeout, as the Wolverines’ new freshman tandem put the league on notice. The new freshmen arrivals, paired with aggressive offensive play from junior Paige Jones, however, was not enough to slow Purdue. The No. 11 Boilermakers (4-4 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) built on Saturday’s win en route to a 3-1 victory over the Wolverines (0-2, 0-2). After Michigan erased a four-point deficit to tie the first set at 23, Purdue outside hitter Grace Cleveland took command, slamming down an emphatic kill to retake the lead. From that point, the
Boilermakers rallied, securing a grueling first set, 26-24. Looking to avoid falling into an 0-2 hole for the second night in a row, Michigan quickly took control of the second set. As Michigan built a 10-7 lead early in the set, Purdue outside hitter Maddy Chinn rose up and slammed the ball for what seemed to be a sure kill. However, Mruzik met her at the summit, viciously rejecting the attempt for a marquee block that won the point. These types of plays from Mruzik have been key for the Wolverines in high-impact situations. “Jess has the advantage of coming in with the experience level that very few freshmen have, playing on a national team in the world championships,” Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. “So we’re not surprised. I don’t really think of her as a freshman.” Following the play, the Wolverines built on their lead with a flurry of kills from Jones, as the Boilermakers struggled to find answers for her on defense. “It helps when I have passers next to me who have been passing great,” Jones said. “We’ve played two games
but they’re playing great so far. We’re still figuring out that connection.” With Michigan up 22-14, the Boilermakers began to mount a counterattack, resulting in a 7-0 run which was quieted by junior
middle blocker Kayla Bair to end a 7-0 with a dominant kill. At set point, 24-21, Cleveland looked to make the Wolverines pay for relinquishing the earlier lead with a large attempt. Mruzik, known for her offensive ability, once again
turned defense into offense. Her monster block on Cleveland was unreturnable, and the Wolverines won set two. “We los(t) the first set and that can sometimes just kill momentum,” Rosen said. “I
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan senior Paige Jones kept the Wolverines in the match through her defense, but ultimately came up short.
thought our players did an outstanding job of jumping out in the second set and being really resilient and aggressive and getting a big lead on them in the second set.” Michigan was unable to carry the momentum into the following sets, though. Cleveland got into a rhythm, and the Boilermakers notched a .500 hitting percentage to run away with the third set, 25-13. In the final set, creative no-look taps over the net from Purdue setter Hayley Bush confused the Wolverines’ defense. The inconsistent communication, along with yet another .500 hitting percentage on the set from the Boilermakers, was too much for Michigan — which hit just .197 for the match — to handle as they lost the final set, 25-18. Despite the loss, Rosen looked to keep things in perspective, as the Wolverines opened their season against a key conference foe, taking the court for the first time since last March. “It was good to get back to some normalcy.” Rosen said. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, but to finally get going yesterday and have two matches this weekend was awesome.”
Sports
14 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
In comeback win, Michigan shows its championship mettle MADISON — Shutdowns in college basketball may be a temporary phenomenon, but enough of them have happened by now for an expectation to form. Teams come out lacking offensive sharpness. Their shooting touch is gone. Defensively, they miss assignments. After all, no one has ever prescribed sitting locked in an apartment for 14 days as an effective midsea- THEO son practice strategy. MACKIE And for the opening 20 minutes Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center, Michigan was no exception. In the first half, the Wolverines shot an anemic 34.4% from the field. Their offensive strategy seemed to consist of passing the ball around for 20 seconds and then letting someone play hero ball. Only senior forward Isaiah Livers was remotely effective in the role. On defense, they made Wisconsin look like the antithesis of the team that lost, 77-54, in Ann Arbor a month ago. To put it simply, Michigan looked pretty normal. Losing on the road to a top-25 team after not playing a game in 23 days isn’t a crime. Clemson — an excellent, 13-5 team — lost its first three games after its COVID-19 outbreak by an average of 24 points. 12-4 Oregon lost its first two games back to a pair of teams that rank outside of the top 100 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metric. But this Michigan team isn’t normal. It’s a national championship contender. Anything
LUKE HALE/Daily
By defeating Wisconsin on the road after a 23-day break, Michigan solidified itself as a championship contender.
less than a Final Four appearance would be a disappointment. That’s the statement the Wolverines made Sunday afternoon. “I’m grateful, I’m blessed to be on a team like this,” Livers said. “Coach (Juwan) Howard kinda touched on it, he talked about how it’s just special to have guys who go on a pause and then come back, go on the road to Wisconsin, who’s playing great right now, and just
be locked in and be together. I think we’re the most connected team.” A month ago, it was Livers who called this iteration of Michigan his “favorite” that he’s been a part of. Livers, if you’ve lost track, was on the team that finished as national runner-up in 2018. A year later, he and the Wolverines started 17-0 — the best mark in program history.
So when Livers, of all people, says this team is special, you listen. You listen and then you watch. You watch them outscore Wisconsin by 20 in the second half. You watch them identify their issues in the space of a 15-minute halftime break and come out an entirely different team. You watch them in a situation they’ve seldom been in — tied with
five minutes to go — and handle it like it’s a weekly occurrence. Through it all, you realize you’re watching a team answer the one question it hadn’t been asked: How well does it handle adversity? “Winning a game like this on the road does a lot,” Howard said. “It says a lot about the character of this group.” More importantly, it says a lot about its March credentials. From here on out, adversity is inescapable. On the schedule in the last five games of the season are No. 4 Ohio State and No. 15 Iowa. Last week’s cancellation against No. 6 Illinois will likely be rescheduled, too. All three are in the KenPom top 10. After that comes the small matter of the NCAA Tournament. Only one team in the past decade has won a national championship without a single-digit scare in the dance. On Sunday, Michigan proved that such nerve-wracking games won’t phase it. “I think this was a great experience for us,” freshman center Hunter Dickinson said. “We haven’t had too many close games, usually they’re 10 points or more. I think this will be really beneficial to us at the postseason when the games are not as separated in points.” So no, Michigan still hasn’t played a top-10 adjusted efficiency team. And yes, its three biggest challenges of the regular season may lie ahead. But what it has done is overcome a situation it hadn’t faced all season. And that’s enough to call these Wolverines national championship contenders. Mackie can be reached at tmackie@umich. edu or on Twitter @theo_mackie.
BECCA MAHON/Daily
Natalie Wojcik’s perfect 10 was the highlight of the Wolverines dominant win over the Cornhuskers.
Michigan bests Nebraska in first meet after pause JACOB COHEN
Daily Sports Writer
The instant that junior Natalie Wojcik powerfully stuck the landing of her dismount from the balance beam, Michigan gymnastics coach Bev Plocki’s arms both shot like rockets into the air with palms open and fingers spread. A perfect 10, she visually proclaimed for all to see. “She is so beautiful in that event, and we have judged her at a 10 so many times in practice,” Plocki said. “And it’s so amazing to see her put together that routine. When she stuck the dismount, she didn’t give the judges any opportunity to take anything. So I knew that it had to be a 10.” The judges table did not disappoint and awarded Wojcik with a full 10 points, adding the exclamation point to a dominant win for the No. 8 Wolverines over Nebraska on Monday afternoon. Michigan’s 197.650 to 195.300 win was expected, but it also answered a lot of open questions regarding the Wolverines’ form following the University’s 14-day practice pause and the team’s 24-day break from competition. Michigan impressed many with a win over then-No. 4 Minnesota on Jan. 22, but a multiweek stoppage posed to halt its momentum. The Wolverines made sure they picked up where they left off. “I give a lot of credit to our
captains and the athletes, they’re very motivated,” Plocki said. “We have tried very hard to focus on the things that we’re grateful for. And we’re grateful for the opportunity to have the support resources that we did to help us and guide us with some of our conditioning and our to help our bodies (while we couldn’t be together). And when we came back, we were able to put together a practice plan to ease them back into normal routines and just tried to build a lot of confidence and remind them how good they are and what they’re capable of doing.” Michigan came out strong and never looked back, winning each round, convincingly. *** The meet began with Michigan on vault and Nebraska on bars. Every Wolverine who vaulted earned a score of at least 9.800, with Wojcik and junior Abby Brenner earning high scores of 9.875 and 9.900, respectively. Meanwhile, the Cornhuskers struggled on the bars with only junior Kynsee Roby earning above a 9.775. Michigan ended the first round with a lead of 49.375 to 48.900, and the margin only grew from there. Nebraska’s scores improved on the vault as the teams swapped events in round two with freshman Danielle Press earning a noteworthy 9.875, but twin 9.900’s from Brenner and Wojcik on the bars served to quell any thoughts of a comeback.
This trend continued in the third round, when Wojcik earned her 10.000 on the beam, effectively ending the match before the final round even began. “I have been working to earn the perfect 10 for such a long time now, and I’m so happy to have made that happen,” Wojcik said. “The best part of it, by far, was seeing my teammates jumping up and down after I finished my routine and getting to celebrate it with them.” Wojcik’s words are very fitting in a match that was a celebration of team unity. Monday was the Wolverines’ annual “Flip for Chip” meet, which sees the team honor the late father of former Michigan gymnast Cailee Hills. “Chip Hills really is the root of our positive mindsets, our resilience and confidence,” sophomore Gabby Wilson said. “And so really being able to channel his energy, even though he isn’t with us, just being able to carry that and continue that for generations at Michigan is super important and was continued tonight.” There is perhaps no meet where the attitude the Wolverines take from Hills’s legacy could be more appropriate. Coming off less-than-ideal circumstances in which some worried about rust, Michigan responded with a perfect 10.000 and an event sweep — a textbook display of resilience.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Isaiah Livers’s consistency has played a pivotal role in Michigan’s success this season.
Livers at forefront of Michigan’s success JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer
Isaiah Livers knew it would happen. The Michigan men’s basketball team had gone 23 days between games and two weeks without so much as touching a basketball. Inevitably, when the Wolverines returned, the discourse would revolve around any alleged rust. So, Livers took the initiative to try to avoid any side effects of the prolonged break. “That’s why I was outside, doing jump ropes, doing everything necessary to stay in shape,” the senior forward said. “A lot of other guys were too. We had a program, we all stayed true to it. … We didn’t want to have any built-in excuses.” In Sunday’s emphatic 67-59 comeback victory against Wisconsin, those efforts paid dividends with Livers setting the tone. Through the first 20 minutes, the team’s rust was evident. Michigan looked the part of a team that last played on Jan. 22, its first half performance littered with mental errors, poor shot selection and jellied legs. Livers, though, did what he could to help keep the Wolverines afloat, scoring 13 of Michigan’s 27 first half points. “I knew I was gonna come out and be aggressive cause I wanted to keep in that rhythm,” Livers said. “But other than that, I just wanted to lead my team.” He did exactly that. By the time the final buzzer blared, Livers had contributed a game-high 20 points on 8-of-16 from the field and 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. He added seven rebounds and finished as a plus-11, the second-highest mark on the team. At this point, 111 games and 91 wins into what is fast becoming an
illustrious collegiate career, this level of play has become routine for Livers. He has notched 20 points in three consecutive games and scored double-figures in seven straight. Ho-hum. “We keep it simple,” Wolverines’ coach Juwan Howard said of his team’s offensive strategy against the Badgers. “We kept it simple. Simple plays.” No one embodies that philosophy more so than Livers. Livers’s points come within the flow of the game. Rarely does he force up an ill-advised shot or hoard the ball on an isolation. On a Michigan offense overflowing with talent, Livers has found the perfect balance. “I took advantage of that tonight,” Livers said. “I was just doing with what the system tells me to do. Coach Howard puts me in a spot to score, I go score the ball. If not, then I try to create for someone else, create so they can get a shot, get a drive.” Livers has made drastic strides to his offensive game since the COVID-19 pandemic cut his junior campaign short. He has increased his production while also sharpening his efficiency. Last year, Livers averaged 12.9 points per game on 9.9 shot attempts. This year, he’s scoring 15.1 points per game on 10.5 attempts. He is shooting 49% from the field and a lethal 46% from deep, compared to 45% and 40% last season. Livers’s refined repertoire also features a blend of jump shots and points in the paint. When the Wolverines stared down a 12-point halftime deficit on Sunday, Livers recognized that he needed to emphasize the latter. “They were the most aggressive team in the first half,” Livers said. “We had to come back out in the
second half, we had to drive them. I thought we settled for a lot of shots. We got to the basket more in the second half and that kind of changed momentum.” It’s no coincidence, then, that Livers notched the first basket of the second half on an off-ball cut, slicing down the lane and receiving a pass in stride for an easy lay-in. Livers treated the layoff as a quasi-All Star Break, using the time to look in the mirror. He poured over reams of film, re-evaluating his performance and searching for ways to improve alongside assistant coach Saddi Washington. “Just kind of tips and advice, opinions so when I get back, I can just add it to my game,” Livers said on Friday. “I want to help my team as best as possible, especially in the future.” One area for potential improvement that Livers and Washington found was on the glass. Though Livers is averaging a career-high 6.1 rebounds per game — up from 4.0 last year — he aspired for more. Against Wisconsin, the 6-foot7 Livers grabbed seven rebounds, besting a stout Badgers frontcourt of 6-foot-11 Nate Reuvers and 6-foot-10 Micah Potter. The duo combine for nearly 10 rebounds a game, yet neither managed to grab a rebound on Sunday. After the game, much was made in the press conference about the team’s turnaround and freshman center Hunter Dickinson’s latest 15-rebound, five-block spectacle. There was little mention of Livers. But perhaps that’s the point. For Livers, at this stage in his career, this is just another day at the office. And as the Wolverines continue to assert themselves as bona fide championship contenders, they can rely on Livers to lead the way.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 — 15
Michigan lacrosse: A New Era DREW COX
Daily Sports Editor
Entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Michigan men’s lacrosse team, Kevin Conry is gradually building off the foundation laid by his predecessor, John Paul. After reeling in the No. 4 and No. 3 recruiting classes in 2020 and 2021, respectively, Conry is hungry to shake up the Big Ten with a Wolverine squad that is quietly yet quickly ascending. Finding a replacement for Paul, the human embodiment of Michigan lacrosse, was no simple task for athletic director Warde Manuel. Nevertheless, on June 21, 2017, just six weeks after he declared Paul wouldn’t be returning, Manuel announced that Maryland assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Kevin Conry would serve as the Wolverines’ next head coach. Coming from a perennially stout Terrapins’ organization that defeated Ohio State in the NCAA championship game that season and had won the Big Ten the past three seasons, Conry brought a track record of winning at the Division I level that appealed to an up-and-coming program like Michigan. And as a Long Island native who played college lacrosse at Johns Hopkins, Conry had deep East Coast roots that would help the Wolverines recruit, bolster their coaching staff and enhance their understanding of the game. In tandem with the completion of U-M Lacrosse Stadium — a brandnew, lavish complex featuring a 2,000seat stadium, an indoor turf room and direct passage into a 20,000-squarefoot strength and conditioning center — Conry’s arrival set Michigan up for a new era. He was someone who Manuel thought could turn the corner. “(He was) different enough from me in so many ways that I think (was) a good thing,” Paul said. “It (could) kinda jumpstart the program in a different direction, which I think any time you have a coaching change, that’s what you need. Really a kick in the ass from a different direction.” But Conry also respected the immense utility of Paul’s legacy and culture that he had spent so many years developing. During the transition period, the pair had an amicable relationship. While Paul taught Conry how to navigate the complexities of the University and form relationships with a proper support-
ing cast of Wolverine faculty, Conry worked to build on many of the core elements Paul had already woven into the team’s fabric. “It was certainly encouraging, because you know when someone
signature wins over the No. 4 Notre Dame on the road and the No. 14 Penn State in an overtime thriller. In both contests, the Wolverines set major milestones, earning their first wins over a top-five program and a ranked
King’s short-lived record for points in a season and led the Big Ten with 2.93 goals per game. By Noseworthy’s side, Curran recorded 31 points and helped mentor then-freshman attackmen Kevin Mack and Alex Buckanavage.
missed the goal-scoring capabilities of Noseworthy, who missed five games due to injury. Michigan limped into its season finale against No. 10 Ohio State with a meager 3-9 record.
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Before the season was canceled in March, Midfielder Josh Zawada led the Wolverines 32 points last season during his freshman campaign.
invests their heart and soul and so much time into something, you know it’s gonna be trending positively,” Conry said. “It was a really solid foundation that we could springboard (from) and really continue to develop the championship culture that we were putting together. … As we transitioned in, we continued that growth process, but we were confident that we had a really strong baseline to build off of.” Under Conry, the synergy of utilizing new and old team values seemingly paid dividends. In 2018, having retained many of their key roster pieces from the year prior, the Wolverines picked up where they left off, once again finishing 8-6. Despite stumbles against ranked opponents early on the season, dropping matchups to the No. 18 Penn and No. 11 Yale, Michigan later picked up
Big Ten program, respectively. As Conry made his transition in his first year with Michigan, he benefited tremendously from the support, production and leadership of its veteran players. According to Conry, seniors like midfielders PJ Bogle and Parker McKee fully embraced the uncertainty that a coaching change brought and served as blank pages for Conry to work with. “The best teams coach themselves,” Conry said. “If you wanna have a successful championship team, you have seniors that buy in, know what they’re doing and can keep the rest of the team not just in line, but also encourage them to do the right things and to have that positive leadership.” On the playing field, Brent Noseworthy had a record-setting junior season. Notching 48 points on a whopping 41 goals, he surpassed
“Not only (were) they invested enough to understand what they (needed) to do, but they (could) teach somebody else and help them grow as well,” Conry said. “(Noseworthy was) gonna go out and shoot an extra bucket of balls. He (was) gonna take somebody with him. And that’s really where good teams become great teams and cusp teams become championship teams.” *** Although 2018 set the stage for a positive future, the Wolverines took a step back in 2019. Plagued by injuries in several pivotal areas, including on the defensive front and at the faceoff X, Michigan struggled to slow down its opponents and win important possessions all season long, giving up 13.46 goals per game and losing 67.6 of its faceoffs. On the offensive end, the Wolverines
Heading into the contest, the Wolverines were evidently underdogs. But rallying behind a now-healthy Noseworthy and other seniors like Curran and Second Team All-Big Ten defenseman Nick DeCaprio, Michigan was motivated to end the otherwise disappointing season on a high note by defeating its rival for the first time. “I was really proud of the fight in those guys,” Conry said. “When we had the injuries, we had to adapt and change. … Walk out there and say, ‘Hey, we still have a game to play. We gotta be successful.’ ” Bolstered by four assists in the first half by Buckanavage, a single-game team record, the Wolverines surprisingly skirted out to an 8-4 lead at halftime. Just over halfway through the third quarter, Noseworthy netted the 100th goal of his career — the first Michigan player to do so — to extend
the Wolverines’ lead. Although the Buckeyes closed the deficit to two with 10 minutes remaining, a subsequent pair of goals from Noseworthy secured the monumental win for Michigan, 13-10. In a difficult season that drastically differed from the one preceding it, 2019 taught Conry and his players a lot about adversity. “Handling success is something that’s really important,” Conry said. “You walk through the door, your last game’s a win, and you say, ‘Okay, yeah, have we made it?’ I think that knowledge of, ‘Why did we become successful? What got us there?’ — that was the biggest lesson of 2019. No matter what happens, we gotta get up in the morning and gotta look at ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘Are we prepared to be successful today? Are we ready to put the work in to do so?’ We learned and grew throughout the year in order to do that.” Heading into 2020 with healthy legs and new faces, the Wolverines looked to take this newfound wisdom, redeem themselves and move forward as a program. They wouldn’t have the opportunity to fully do that though. On Mar. 11, Michigan narrowly defeated Marquette, 13-12, to move to 4-3 in a befuddling season that had featured an impressive display of grit against the No. 5 Bulldogs, but also a stunning loss to freshly-promoted Merrimack. Little did the Wolverines know at the time, though, that they had played the last Michigan sporting event to occur for the next seven months. Just a day later, the NCAA canceled the remainder of all winter and spring sports seasons due to the COVID19 pandemic, which was worsening by the day. Just like that, the world of sports turned upside down as the country went into lockdown. On May 18, Furman University announced its intention to cut its varsity men’s lacrosse and baseball programs due to the financial impact of COVID19. Before long, schools across the country revealed similar plans to cut some of their non-revenue sports as well, most frequently smaller programs like gymnastics, tennis and swimming. For a moment in time, as a young and developing program, everything the Wolverines had ever been working toward seemed to hang in limbo.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
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
!""#$%&'$()*+,(-+'./+%#&**+(,+0102+&-/+&3&$#&4#/+()+(5-+6/4*$'/ 6667*&%8#/-*%.((#7(-9+"-(3$:/*+/;'/)*$3/+$),(-<&'$()+&4(5'+=&%8#/-+=>? @(-+,5-'./-+$),(-<&'$()A+/B<&$#+*&%8#/-</:C*&%8#/-</:7(-9
K')-+),#($E)',.3.E),#$.*$,"#$@),.%*)4$ <#(.-#*,$7),3".*/$:'%/')2$)*-$'#,+'*$,%$,"#$ =*.,#-$?,),#($0%'$,"#.'$'#(.-#*31$,').*.*/8$!2"$ ?@AB$ >*/6C/,')>$ 0#/++$ 2/6$ /$ A@@D$ </,02$ */,"E$?.*3#$.,($3%22#*3#2#*,$.*$ILMN5$%>#'$ O5JJJ$)4+2*.$")>#$3%2E4#,#-$,"#.'$'#(.-#*31$ ,').*.*/$ ),$ ,"#$ 2%(,$ -.(,.*/+.("#-$ "%(E.,)4($ .*$,"#$=*.,#-$?,),#($)*-$F)*)-)8
16 — Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Business
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
College students:
Try Prime for 6 months, no cost to you amazon.com/uofmichigan