inside
Thursday, June 24, 2021
NEWS
Mask-Free Indoors U-M announces that vaccinated individuals are able to go mask-free indoors >> SEE PAGE 3
OPINION
President of? Schlissel must prove his commitment to the U-M satellite campuses >> SEE PAGE 5
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
South Indian Roshni Mohan reflects on Bollywood stereotypes and recognizes its harmful actions >> SEE PAGE 7
ARTS
But I’m a Cheerleader The movie, a piece of satire, is joyful as it is different from what one may expect
>> SEE PAGE 8
SPORTS
Daylen Baldwin
Transfer student from Jackson State commits to Michigan football team >> SEE PAGE 11
SPORTS
Bo’s Legacy
Community reacts to Anderson press conference, debates Schembechler’s legacy >> SEE PAGE 12
INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 112 © 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION................................ 4 MiC......................................... 6 ARTS.......................................8 STATEMENT.......................... 9 SPORTS................................. 11
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
‘Fund our future, not your wallets’: students from all three U-M campuses rally in Ann Arbor for equitable funding GEORGE WEYKAMP, PAIGE HODDER AND RONI KANE Summer News Editors
Students from across all three University of Michigan campuses gathered in Ann Arbor Wednesday afternoon to rally and march for equitable funding at the UM-Dearborn and Flint campuses. Cries of “Fund our future, not your wallets” and “tricampus power” reverberated up and down State Street as those in attendance marched, intending to raise awareness about funding disparities between the three campuses. Those attending the protest had come together to request that the Board of Regents commit to reallocating $100 million over the next 5 years from the Ann Arbor campus to a centrally endowed fund that could be split between the Flint and Dearborn campuses. Ramsey Fakhouri, UM-Dearborn Student Government president, expressed his passion for the advocacy work he does for equal funding. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, he told a story about when he and his vice president, Naseeha Joz, reviewed data and found disprependices in both funding per student and scholarships given between the Ann Arbor and the Flint and Dearborn
campuses, despite Dearborn and Flint students having a lower median annual family income than their Ann Arbor counterparts. “There was a great disparity between the opportunity in funding given to an Ann Arbor student versus a Dearborn or Flint student,” Fakhouri said. “There (were) more scholarships given to Ann Arbor students and less to Dearborn and Flint students whereas the average median income for a student in Ann Arbor is far greater than a median income in Dearborn or Flint.” At the end of May, the student governing bodies from all three campuses had worked together to craft a tri-campus resolution that would be presented to the Regents. The resolution suggests redistributing U-M funds across the three campuses in order to expand scholarship and grant programs at the regional campuses, equalize salaries for University faculty and mitigate systemic barriers. Then, on June 3, student government representatives from the three campuses, along with individuals involved with the One University campaign (1U) and the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO), began actively planning the tri-campus “Fund our Future” rally at a virtual meeting, open to the public. Just days before, U-M Central Student Government (CSG) had unanimously voted to commit
michigandaily.com Isaac Mangold/Daily
Whitmer announces the opening of Michigan to full capacity starting June 22
$10,000 to cover the transportation and miscellaneous other costs associated with the rally. Levi Todd, UM-Flint Student Government president, emphasized at the meeting that the planned rally was intended to make student support for the resolution as visible as possible for the University’s leaders, especially the Board of Regents. “The problem is, the University of Michigan regional campuses have seen a steady decline in funding, which has negatively impacted student opportunities, as well as the broader student experience,” Todd said at the planning meeting. “After we passed … this historic tri-campus resolution, we knew we had to do something. We have to show the Board of Regents and President Schlissel that students are behind us.” Fakhouri also cited data that the state of Michigan spends 58 cents on Flint students and 54 cents on Dearborn students for every dollar they spend on Ann Arbor students, according to original research conducted by 1U. Because of these budgetary constraints, Fakhouri said the Flint campus can no longer offer a Spanish major and the Dearborn campus has had to cut its applied music program.
The state of Michigan will be re-opening to full capacity on June 22, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday. All indoor and outdoor events will be allowed to operate at full capacity, meaning all Michiganders — regardless of vaccination status — will be able to participate in activities like indoor dining and outdoor festivals without masks. The liftingoftheCOVID-19regulationscomes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “MI Vacc to Normal Challenge,” was announced in April. The four-step plan was released when less than 50% of the Michigan population was vaccinated and promised residents a gradual lifting of restrictions as thevaccinationpercentageincreased. The fourth and final step of the plan stated that once 70% of those 16 or older — about 5.9 million Michiganders — received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,Whitmerwouldliftallrestrictions relating to gatherings and the Face Mask Order. The step came with the possible exception of if COVID-19 numbers are increasing and threatening the medical system, or if a vaccine-resistant variant emerges. However, Whitmer tweeted this final decision could be made because ofresidents’vaccinationefforts.
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com
NADIR AL-SAIDI Daily Staff Reporter
2 NEWS
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘We are victims of an institution’: Regents expand Go Blue GuarAnderson survivors pressure U-M antee, pass 2021-2022 budget ahead of regents meeting with a tuition increase and mini-
mum wage increase
KATE WEILAND Daily Staff Reporter
JUSTIN O’BEIRNE AND SCARLETT BICKERTON Dozens of survivors of sexual assault by the late Dr. Robert Anderson, including former University of Michigan football players, called on the University for accountability in a press conference near the Big House Wednesday morning. The conference comes after over 850 sexual misconduct allegations surfaced in the past year against Anderson, who served as head of University Health Service and team physician for the U-M Athletic Department. Additionally, the results of an independent investigation into Anderson’s misconduct by the law firm WilmerHale in were recently released in May. The Wilmerhale report concluded that the hundreds of allegations were credible beyond a doubt. Richard Goldman, former student and sports announcer for the football program in the 1980s, came forward publicly for the first time on Wednesday to share his story. He had previously been listed in reports and litigation anonymously as John Doe EB-17. Goldman said he reported he was abused by Anderson to former Athletic Director Don Canham three times in 1981, 1982 and 1983. At the time he was abused, Goldman said he also spoke up to the late U-M football coach Bo Schembechler, who
Summer News Editor
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Jon Vaughn, survivor of sexual abuse by Dr. Robert Anderson, speaks on the WilmerHale report and calls for action in front of the Big House Wednesday morning.
the doctor, neither Schembechler nor Canham stopped working with or referring students to Anderson. In a recent statement, the family of Schembechler insisted that he was not aware of Anderson’s misconduct. “In our steadfast opinion, Bo was not aware of such conduct and assumed that any procedures were medically appropriate,” the Schembechler family wrote in the statement. “As he demonstrated at many points in his career and to us as a family, Bo had a clear and compelling sense of right and
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Survivors of sexual abuse by Dr. Robert Anderson speak on the WilmerHale report and call for action in front of the Big House Wednesday morning.
told him to speak to Canham. Canham did not report the alleged assault against Goldman, and after Goldman spoke to him in 1983, according to Goldman, Canham responded by telling Goldman, “Go f— yourself.” Following several allegations against
wrong: he would not have tolerated misconduct, especially toward any of his players, family members, coaches or to anyone associated with the University of Michigan’s football program.” Read more at michigandaily.com
The University of Michigan Board of Regents met virtually on Thursday to discuss an expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee scholarship and the 2021-2022 University budget. Regents expand Go Blue Guarantee to Dearborn and Flint Campuses with GPA minimum In a 7-0 vote, the Regents approved the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee to the University of Michigan-Flint and Dearborn campuses. The Go Blue Guarantee is a free-tuition scholarship for in-state students whose family income is less than $65,000 annually, which is the state’s median income. On Wednesday, students from across all three University of Michigan campuses gathered in Ann Arbor to protest for equitable funding at the Dearborn and Flint campuses. Their central demand was for the regents to reallocate $100 million over the next 5 years to an endowed fund split between the Flint and Dearborn campuses. The Go Blue Guarantee was first approved by the board in 2017.. Previous to today’s vote, the Go Blue Guarantee was only available to students on the Ann Arbor campus. Regent Mark Bernstein (D) spoke in support of expanding the Go Blue Guarantee to the Dearborn and Flint campuses. “Three years ago this board made a promise to the students of Michigan that if you show outstanding academic achievement in high school, you can attend our Ann Arbor campus no matter your family’s financial resources. Today we take that promise one huge step forward,” Bernstein said. “It’s an investment that is focused on student retention and success on these campuses.” Incoming students on the Dearborn and Flint campuses attempting to receive the Go Blue
Guarantee must have at least a 3.5 high school GPA. There is no minimum GPA requirement to receive the Go Blue Guarantee on the Ann Arbor campus. During public comments, rising LSA senior Annie Mintun, speaker of the U-M Central Student Government Assembly (CSG) and member of the One University (1U) campaign, expressed her gratitude for the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee, but disagreed with the GPA requirement for students on the Dearborn and Flint campuses. “It was really exciting to see… the Go Blue Guarantee would be instituted on all three campuses… It was a bit disappointing to hear that there would be a 3.5 GPA requirement,” Mintun said. “In order to truly see tri-campus equity we (the 1U campaign) will be asking to do away with this GPA requirement which only exists at the Dearborn and Flint campuses and essentially says admittance to the University of Michigan at Flint and Dearborn is not enough.” In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said that the rationale behind the 3.5 GPA requirement is because essentially all students on the Ann Arbor campus have an incoming GPA of 3.5 or higher, so the GPA requirement is to ensure consistency across the three campuses. Thursday’s vote comes amid controversy regarding an email survey sent to U-M faculty about the expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee. In May, University President Mark Schlissel sent an email to all U-M faculty asking if they support expanding the Go Blue Guarantee to the Flint and Dearborn campuses. However, the questions were phrased to make it appear that expanding the scholarship would come at the expense of the Ann Arbor campus. Schlissel has since apologized for the survey and said that he would not use the results. Read more at michigandaily.com
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
CALDER LEWIS Editor in Chief eic@michigandaily.com
KATIE LYNGKLIP
Business Manager business@michigandaily.com
CONTACT INFORMATION News Tips Corrections Letters to the Editor News section Photo Department Arts Section Editorial Page Sports Section Advertising
tipline@michigandaily.com corrections@michigandaily.com tothedaily@michigandaily.com news@michigandaily.com photo@michigandaily.com arts@michigandaily.com opinion@michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com wmg-contact@umich.edu
EDITORIAL STAFF Madison Gagne Managing Editor mbgagne@umich.edu
Allison Engkvist Digital Managing Editor engkvist@umich.edu
Christian Juliano and Shannon Stocking Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com
Josh Taubman and Max Wadley Managing Sports Editors sports@michigandaily.com
Rosa Sofia Kaminski and Julian Wray Managing Arts Editors arts@michigandaily.com
Becca Mahon and Dominick Sokotoff Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com
Sarah Chung and Allison Yih Managing Design Editors design@michigandaily.com
Ethan Patrick and Caroline Atkinson Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com
Eliya Imtiaz and Lola Yang Managing Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Amelia Duffy and Zoe Storer Managing Social Media Editors socialmedia@michigandaily.com
Mary Rolfes Editorial Page Editor opinion@michigandaily.com
Margaret Rudnick Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com
Samantha Cole Managing Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms 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 per issue. Subscriptions for September - April are $250, and year-long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS 3
University of Michigan Museum of Art and Kelsey Museum of Archaeology reopen to the public EMILY BLUMBERG Daily Staff Reporter
On June 17, both the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), located at 525 S State St., and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, located at 434 S State St., will fully reopen for the first time since March 2020. As two of the University’s most highly visited attractions, their complete reopenings will provide Ann Arbor with hands-on learning and exploration once again. Although both museums will be available to anyone interested in visiting, there will still be some public health restrictions in place. For both museums: Pre-scheduled reservations will be required for all visitors, free of charge. UMMA reservations can be made here. Kelsey reservations can be made here. Guests will be required to complete the ResponsiBlue Health Check before entering. For guests without cell phones, a verbal
equivalent will be available. Masks will be required for all guests, regardless of vaccination status. For the UMMA: Recommended paths to explore the museum to encourage social distancing and decrease traffic will be mapped out on the UMMA’s floors. For the Kelsey Museum: The museum will be sanitized mid-day every day. Museum activities such as scavenger hunts and gallery guides will be printed on single-use materials. Social distancing is required and will be enforced. Christopher Ankney, director of Public Relations for the UMMA, said the museum’s staff are excited and ready to open their doors once again. “I’ve gone (to UMMA) a few times, and the people I see there who have been working in the museum are just excited to see someone,” Ankney said. “So I’m sure that for them, having life in the building again is going to be really invigorating and energizing. We’re just really looking forward
to it.” According to Ankney, the UMMA is more than just an art museum; it’s a place where people of Ann Arbor and the surrounding community can collect their thoughts and connect with one another, an opportunity which has surely been absent during the COVID-19 pandemic. “That is important to (the Ann Arbor) community — the connections between yourself and a piece of art, or yourself and fellow visitors of the museum,” Ankney stated. “We’re at a place about connections and I think for the last 16 months with quarantine and restrictions in place, the available space for those types of interactions and engagements with ourselves and with other people have not been as readily possible.” Although the Kelsey Museum has been open to the U-M community since May 6, executive director Dawn Johnson said her staff are eager to welcome the entire public back. “Everyone’s really excited to move back in,” Johnson said. “We’ve done a lot of online education and training, so it’ll
be wonderful to have a public aspect and have people back in the galleries with the collection again, because that’s what we do.”
direct contact with the objects, you know, and with that connection (they are) able to move through these different civilizations and
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily The University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology reopen to the public with pre-scheduled reservations.
In addition to the emotional connections made at cultural hubs like the Kelsey, Johnson said physically interacting with the objects on display and the space is what truly makes the museum experience meaningful. “(Kelsey allows visitors) to have
experience different kinds of lives,” Johnson said. “These interactions are very different online, and these original physical objects and teaching from those objects is critical to our mission.” Read more at michigandaily.com
U-M lets vaccinated individuals go mask-free indoors DOMINIC COLETTI Summer News Editor
The Universit y of Michiga n w ill rela x its ma sk a nd socia l dista ncing requirements for f ully vaccinated st udents, facult y a nd sta f f, t he Universit y ’s Boa rd of Regents a nnounced during its meet ing Thursday a f ternoon. Sta r t ing June 21, f ully vaccinated indiv idua ls who self-repor t t heir vaccinat ion stat us to t he Universit y w ill no longer be required to wea r a face covering in Universit y building s. A n indiv idua l is considered f ully vaccinated t wo weeks a f ter receiv ing t he f ina l dose of a COV ID -19 vaccine series aut horized for use in t he United States. Indiv idua ls in cla ssrooms, on t ra nsit vehicles a nd in pat ient ca re a rea s must cont inue to wea r face
covering s. Michiga n Medicine ha s not rela xed its policy a nd st ill requires ma sks be worn in a ll Michiga n Medicine building s. The Universit y ha s sa id it w ill reeva luate r ules rega rding cla ssrooms a s more informat ion about vaccinat ion rates becomes ava ilable. A s of June 16, t he Universit y had verif ied 21,435 st udents’ vaccinat ion informat ion across a ll t hree ca mpuses. Members of t he Universit y com munit y ca n cont inue repor t ing t heir vaccinat ion stat us by using t he COV ID -19 Vaccinat ion Self Repor t Form on Wolverine Access. The ResponsiBLU E app w ill a lso be updated later to include vaccinat ion stat us. The Michiga n Da ily a sked t he Universit y if t his would be used to enforce t he new face covering rest rict ions a nd in response, Universit y spokesperson R ick Fit zgera ld sa id t he Universit y w ill have
ot her mea sures in place to ensure g uidelines a re being followed. “The U-M Accountabilit y a nd Complia nce tea m w ill cont inue to rev iew pa r t icipat ion a nd follow up w it h st udents in t he ma ndator y test ing cohor t to address a ny non-complia nce,” Fit zgera ld w rote. “The universit y ’s approach for fa ll w ill rely on t he systems it ha s built to com municate a nd encourage complia nce direct ly w it h pa r t icipa nts. The universit y w ill re-eva luate mea sures to address complia nce, including possible ResponsiBLU E screen checks at va rious ca mpus locat ions, if necessa r y ba sed on condit ions in t he fa ll.” Universit y President Ma rk Schlissel ca lled t he event a n impor ta nt step in ret urning to norma lcy a nd encouraged t hose who have not been vaccinated to get t heir shot.
“ We a re plea sed to see t he prog ress of our com munit y t hroughout t his pa ndemic, a nd t he lif t ing of ma sking a nd dista ncing for f ully vaccinated indiv idua ls while indoors is one more impor ta nt milestone a s we resume more t radit iona l act iv it ies,” Schlissel sa id. “ Vaccines work a nd a re sa fe. A ll members of t he U-M com munit y a re st rongly encouraged to get vaccinated a nd self-repor t t heir vaccinat ion informat ion a s soon a s possible to inform t he universit y ’s COV ID -19 ma nagement pla n for t he upcoming fa ll term.” Indiv idua ls who have not repor ted t heir vaccinat ion to t he Universit y, a nd a ll t hose who have not been vaccinated, must st ill wea r face covering s a nd ma inta in socia l dista nce. Unvaccinated st udents must a lso cont inue to undergo weekly COV ID -19 test ing t hrough t he Universit y ’s
Com munit y COV ID -19 Sa mpling a nd Tracking Prog ra m. St udents liv ing in Universit y Housing have unt il July 16 to upload t heir vaccinat ion ca rds to Wolverine Access or request a n exempt ion. If st udents do not submit t he informat ion by t hat date, t hey w ill be inelig ible for Universit y Housing in t he fa ll. St udents who have been exempt w ill st ill be required to wea r face covering s a nd receive weekly test ing for COV ID -19. The a nnouncement is pa r t of a series of rest rict ions being ea sed bot h at t he Universit y a nd statew ide. Universit y of f icia ls a nnounced t he repea l of ma sk ma ndates outdoors in May, a nd t he state of Michiga n w ill end a ll COV ID 19 rest rict ions on June 22. Vaccines a re ava ilable on a wa lk-in ba sis at Michiga n Medicine a nd Universit y Hea lt h Ser v ices.
4 OPINION
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALEXIS HANCZ | OPINION COLUMNIST
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
MARY ROLFES
CALDER LEWIS
Editorial Page Editor
Editor in Chief
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Julian Barnard Zack Blumberg Brittany Bowman Elizabeth Cook
Brandon Cowit Jess D’Agostino Andrew Gerace Jessie Mitchell
Mary Rolfes Gabrijela Skoko Jack Tumpowsky Joel Weiner
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.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY EDITORIAL BOARD
From The Daily: Commit to DEI through tri-campus equity
E
arlier this month, the University of Michigan’s Central Student Government approved a proposal requesting $10,000 from the CSG budget to fund a rally for tri-campus equity, which ultimately took place yesterday. The decision came in the wake of the backlash to a survey question making the implication that tuition assistance at U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint would be a burden for the Ann Arbor campus. The question was part of a survey sent to over 4,000 faculty by University President Mark Schlissel. Although Schlissel has since apologized (albeit discreetly) for the incident, the clear bias demonstrated by his phrasing represents a problem that runs much longer and deeper than one survey question. Schlissel’s implication that the success of U-M Ann Arbor is mutually exclusive to that of U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint demonstrates that he, and the University’s administration, have only a surface-level commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Showing true commitment to DEI at the University of Michigan entails expanding the Go Blue Guarantee to Dearborn and Flint. Providing support to all campuses, and therefore to low-income students at all campuses, is the bare minimum. His actions exemplify bias toward U-M Ann Arbor, especially as he formulates a narrative that the success of the regional campuses is
and will be at the expense of Ann Arbor. We condemn Schlissel’s refusal to support low-income students at the regional campuses of the University of Michigan — the entirety of which he was chosen to serve, regional campuses included. We support CSG’s decision to allocate funds for tricampus equity efforts. We encourage other student efforts moving forward to promote Flint and Dearborn voices, including within the One University campaign as well as the Lecturers’ Employee Organization. Out of the University’s three campuses, Ann Arbor students have the highest median income and the lowest proportion of students eligible for Pell Grants. The University of Michigan loves to tout its commitment to DEI and uses the Go Blue Guarantee program on the Ann Arbor campus to do so, but this commitment is clearly only surfacelevel when the administration has been so hesitant to expand this financial support program to all three campuses. It seems as though the University considers low-income students benefiting from the Go Blue Guarantee as pawns in their DEI initiatives, and only here to market U-M Ann Arbor as “inclusive.” If support for low-income students is truly about inclusivity, why would the administration be reluctant to branch the Go Blue Guarantee program to the regional campuses? Not extending this program
exacerbates the barrier to higher education that low-income Flint and Dearborn students already face. It also signals to the Ann Arbor students receiving the Go Blue Guarantee that the administration’s purpose in implementing the program comes more from public relations concerns than from genuine care about lowincome students. It is imperative to the University’s commitment to DEI that the Go Blue Guarantee is available to all U-M students, including and especially those at Flint and Dearborn that need it most. Additionally, Schlissel’s survey question highlights a troubling attitude that exists in Ann Arbor — one that constantly “others” Flint and Dearborn, including faculty and their students. Along with other responsibilities, Schlissel’s job as the president of the University of Michigan is to cohesively lead all three campuses, not to further intercampus divides. Schlissel’s survey question further perpetuates the otherization of Flint and Dearborn. To insinuate that the basic needs of Flint and Dearborn would exist at the expense of Ann Arbor is a way of splitting and stratifying our community, by convincing the Ann Arbor campus that the continuation of a lack of support for the other two campuses is essential to our campus’ success. Read more at michigandaily.com
Reform Disney’s murky dress code In preparation for our first post-COVID-19 vacation, my sister is becoming an expert on the ins and outs of Disney theme parks. Appropriately, she stumbled across a viral TikTok by user Amanda DiMeo, or @ amandaaadimeo, walking her female audience through a neat trick to score a free T-shirt from a park gift shop: Show some underboob. Disney World enforces a guest dress code that prohibits “clothing which, by nature, exposes excessive portions of the skin that may be viewed as inappropriate for a family environment” and cast members apparently may ask violating guests to exchange such attire for a typically pricey gift shop shirt, free of charge. While DiMeo impressed TikTok users by finessing the system, these fun and games are a reflection of the inescapable gender discrimination embedded in many U.S. businesses’ dress codes. Generally, in the United States, businesses are allowed to impose a dress code on employees and guests, so long as it does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of factors like sex, race, religion or national origin. In principle, Disney’s online dress code page appears to align with federal standards; in practice, however, their ban on excessive skin could easily unfairly target women trying to escape the Florida heat. It is reasonable to cultivate a dress standard that reinforces the magic of the Disney parks by protecting people from harm, but judging anyone’s outfit — even DiMeo’s — to be “inappropriate” is subjective. Despite Disney’s defined list of rules, policing skin that is “inappropriate for a family environment” is an easily abused standard clearly directed towards women. Dress codes are a reflection of what their creators — and their enforcers — view to be acceptable expressions of femininity. This gives Disney cast members the power to police and restrict women’s bodies, which throughout American history have been both sexualized and rejected as inherently obscene in
public spaces. Despite having well-worded, clean-cut rules, Disney’s on-paper dress code is not safe from employees’ biases concerning what is and is not acceptable for a woman to wear, which is only compounded by other forms of identity profiling. Women with marginalized bodies, such as larger bodies or religiously clad bodies, are in general at higher risk to be perceived as standing in violation of dress code standards in schools, stores and other public spaces. Traditional supporters of dress codes may argue that Disney’s rules support a kid-centered environment, free of adult activities, including anything suggestive of a sexual nature. But embedded within this goal are centuries of policing women’s attire and viewing their bodies as deviant and something to be restricted. Park employees cannot be trusted to act as objective, competent judges and enforcers of a rule that is near impossible to objectively regulate, regardless of the regulation’s intentions. Dress codes like Disney’s are unenforceable to the extent that an incompetent judge could abuse and twist the policy in order to police parkgoers unfairly, especially women. Disney’s dress code uses vague language that leaves its real-world application vulnerable to exploitation. If Disney wants to enforce a fair and transparent dress code, it needs to more clearly and publicly define the parameters of “excessive” skin. The more subjectivity involved in enforcing a dress code, the less integrity it holds. A cast member’s own personal biases towards what is inappropriate for a woman to wear may be influenced by the perception that women’s bodies are inherently obscene and unfit for children’s eyes. Dress codes are a societal way of policing what powerholders view as respectable women. In the meantime, justice is served via free T-shirts.
Alexis Hancz is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at ahancz@umich.edu.
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION 5
JACOB LEDERMAN, LIZ ROHAN, DANIELLE HELD AND BENNET T WALLING
President Schlissel: Are you the President of U-M or the President of U-M Ann Arbor?
T
wo weeks ago, University President Mark Schlissel used an evaluative survey sent to all governing faculty at the University of Michigan to ask whether they supported expanding the Go Blue Guarantee for the University’s Flint and Dearborn campuses. The survey question framed the program’s expansion as a trade-off with academic excellence and salary growth on the Ann Arbor campus. The question’s elitist connotations raised eyebrows, a bit of disbelief and understandable outrage among many campus groups. Schlissel offered a tepid apology a few weeks later, though not in a full or public fashion. Perhaps he hoped to leave this issue behind him — yet another episode in a list of controversies that include being forced to remove his provost for sexual misconduct, overseeing a controversial COVID-19 response that many felt lacked transparency and receiving an unprecedented vote of no confidence from the 2020 Faculty Senate. But this incident also reveals a
deeper problem, both with President Schlissel and the current structure of the University: There remains a flagrant disregard for fulfilling the role of a public institution and serving the people of the state of Michigan. President Schlissel was educated and spent his career at elite institutions, from Princeton University to Brown University to the University of California, Berkeley. Unlike his role at the University of Michigan, Schlissel’s leadership at these institutions did not carry the responsibility of developing regional, comprehensive campuses that support large numbers of working-class students. Schlissel’s lack of experience, and clear lack of interest, in the missions and strengths of these campuses has compromised his ability to lead. In an era rightfully attuned to racial and class inequalities, Schlissel’s treatment of the Flint and Dearborn campuses undermines the institution’s commitment to justice and equity. Sadly, President Schlissel seems ignorant of this — often willfully so.
His administration misrepresented the goals of the One University campaign, claiming that it wants to “merge” the campuses. One University does not believe the mission of the Flint and Dearborn campuses is the same as the Ann Arbor campus. In fact, it is precisely the divergent missions of our campuses that make the University of Michigan stronger and positions us to make the greatest impact on the families and students of our state and nation. The Flint and Dearborn campuses instruct half of the University of Michigan’s in-state students. Close to 40% of University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn students are lower-income and therefore Pell Grant eligible, while almost half of Ann Arbor’s students come from the top 10% of earners. This means the Flint and Dearborn campuses are the University’s work-horses of upward mobility. They are precious resources that — for over half a century — have built deep ties to two of the most dynamic and resilient communities in
STUDENTS ALLIED FOR FREEDOM AND EQUALITY
To U-M administration: Stop neglecting your Palestinian students
O
n Tuesday, June 1, we, the executive board of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, wrote an open letter to the community and administration regarding the hostile situation on campus and in Palestine over the last few weeks. Signed by over 23 student organizations on campus and hundreds of students, we intended to “confront the University of Michigan’s failure to condemn Israeli state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians in recent weeks, to highlight the long-standing anti-Palestinian bias and harm that the administration’s silence has further enabled, and to demand that the University take action to create a more inclusive campus environment centering the voices of Palestinians and all marginalized communities.” In our letter, we described the current injustices taking place in Palestine and the discrimination that runs rampant on campus, outlining the hostility that Palestinians and their allies have historically faced and continue to face
from members of the University community. This hostility is part of a larger anti-Palestinian environment that has existed on this campus for years, continuously enabled by administrations past and present. We also began to outline ways that the administration can begin to lessen this hostility towards Palestinians while uplifting and supporting Palestinian students, professors and faculty all across campus. These include demands to reckon with the anti-Palestinian environment on campus, divest from companies that violate Palestinian human rights, address the exclusion of Palestinian narratives in the curriculum, respect the right to exercise freedom of conscience in regards to academic boycotts and more. Despite this, the administration has chosen to continue their inaction and have even added to the hostility, as evidenced by their paltry response to our letter and the continued tradition of brushing off the cries of Palestinians on campus. On Wednesday, June 2 — the day
after our open letter was released — we received the following response from University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald, on behalf of University President Mark Schlissel and other U-M leaders. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald’s email response to SAFE executive board’s open letter. Considering the increased hostility and bigotry Palestinian students and their allies have faced over the past few weeks and in years past, this is a wholly inadequate and inappropriate response from the administration of a top public university that seeks to pride itself on diversity, equity and inclusion. Our first questions for the U-M leaders who took part in this response: What does this accomplish for students? Read more at michigandaily.com The executive board of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality can be reached at SAFEboard@umich.edu.
our state. President Schlissel clearly does not see the three campuses in this light. He has fought tooth-and-nail against expanding programs like the Go Blue Guarantee. He has resisted extending other resources that would help many University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn students overcome the layered inequalities that they face on their educational journeys. And he has stood by as these campuses have cut music and foreign language programs due to financial pressures, taking away opportunities from these students. His position has become increasingly untenable and out of step with the views of faculty, staff and students from across the University. It is also equally out of step with burgeoning support within our broader society for a more equitable higher education system. At University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn, students, staff and faculty think of
President Schlissel as their president too. They want him to succeed, and they want him to want them to succeed. This is why it has been so disappointing to watch him blatantly act like the chancellor of the Ann Arbor campus, rather than the president of all three campuses — only invoking his role as president to justify austerity on the Flint and Dearborn campuses in the name of a distant, better future. A truly great university deserves a president who can use “both-and” thinking, not “either-or.” We can marshal our resources in a manner that cultivates and enhances Ann Arbor’s distinct research mission while supporting the crucial work taking place at the Flint and Dearborn campuses. We can work with and learn from one another to enhance the excellence of all of our students, faculty and staff. Indeed, if we are serious about rising to the challenge of creating a more equitable society, we must do these things. Read more at michigandaily.com
YASSMINE EL-REWINI | DESIGN ILLUSTRATOR CAN BE REACHED AT YREWINI@UMICH.EDU.
Op-Ed: Free Palestine
6 MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
At the end of the rainbow ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTOR MiC Columnist
Content Disclaimer: Homophobia Is there a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Growing up, I always believed that there was one. I could only imagine the shimmering gold coins at the end of the trail of pastel colors that trekked miles through the misty air above. Every time I saw a rainbow while in the car, I would beg my parents to follow it. If I spotted one while playing outside with my friends, I would sprint as far as I was allowed to go to see if I could catch a glimpse of the alleged pot of gold. Even today, after it rains, I always catch myself sitting by the window staring into the void, hoping to see seven bright colors peeking out the dark grey clouds and wondering where they lead to. After all, I was my parents’ “rainbow baby,” a child born after a miscarriage — maybe that’s the reason I’m mesmerized with rainbows, I would joke to myself. In fact, up until I was 16, I would
be the girl wearing rainbow nail polish every day. While all of my friends painted French manicures on themselves, I painted each nail a different color of the rainbow. At the same age, I also started to feel out of place. I noticed I wasn’t like everyone else. Aside from the rainbow nails, it felt like people were judging my long, dark, braided hair, my blemished, scarred, tanned face and body and the thick, dark layer of hair on my arms and legs that I would attempt to conceal with pit-stained sweatshirts and full-length pants. I felt — for lack of better terminology — different, but I figured it was just a part of being a teenager. It’s just a phase. It’ll pass soon. Except it didn’t. I felt as though every single thing I did was being judged by everyone, and I became extremely self-conscious. Day after day, I would go to school with zero self-esteem. Every morning I heard my alarm go off, I would think of an excuse to tell my mom to call me out of school. I would sit in the cafeteria, unable to eat the food I packed without the feeling of nausea
coursing through me. My head felt clogged. I couldn’t focus on anything: school, sports, clubs, nothing. I kept telling myself that it was a slump, and I’d get through it, but deep down I knew that wasn’t it. Night after night I would stay up sweating through my shirt and tossing and turning in bed, unable to turn off the thoughts racing through my head because I knew the real reason why I felt stuck. I had a crush on a girl in my math class. In elementary school, my crushes were boys. My friends and I would only talk about cute boys. My family would always talk about my future husband. So why did I develop feelings for a girl? Of course, I went straight to Google and scrambled to type the ever so famous words: “am i bi quiz.” The truth was that I knew deep down that I was bisexual. I didn’t need an Internet quiz to tell me that. I was just too scared to admit that about myself due to the fear of not being accepted. But this was who I was. This is who I am. I am bisexual.
MiC Columnist
April was always the most loved — and the most dreaded — month of the school year. It was the time of year that students all over the city of Hyderabad would be rejoicing, screaming at the top of their lungs out of buses and school buildings that they were finally free to forget a year’s worth of knowledge. However, the arrival of April didn’t necessarily mean we were free to go back and lounge in our air-conditioned homes until the summer ended. In Hyderabad, we always had a sort of trial run for the next year of school — anywhere from 15 days to a month where we experienced and learned what our next school year would be like. Until summer vacation started, we had to study in the sweltering 90-degree heat of a Hyderabad summer. Although this fact generated groans of annoyance, we secretly enjoyed the prospect of lining up at the lemonade stands our school put together to relieve us of the summer heat and the field trips
to water parks where we would be drenched in cool water as the scorching sun looked down on us. Hyderabad’s summers did not, however, always bring with them such cheerful moments. A majority of the population — especially those sects not as wealthy as us — was left to deal with the heat by fanning themselves with newspapers since they didn’t have working fans and getting hospitalized or dying due to sunstroke. They faced such extreme conditions not only at home but also in their place of work or study, in their travels, and in their mundane daily activities. The only time I had been made to witness this harsh reality was at the government school owned by and fairly close to my own educational institution. Only a very small portion of the students studying at my school had ever actually been to the singlestoreyed building — containing no more than five rooms — they called a school. On this particular occasion, we were going there to teach the students about first aid although we weren’t greatly educated in it ourselves.
to find strength and confidence within myself. I was scared, to say the least, because I knew nothing. I wasn’t really sure how accepting this community was, or how intersectional it was or even how to go about learning about it. I just want to go back to being a kid again. Chasing rainbows and playing outside. While scrolling endlessly on the Internet one late night, I saw an Amazon advertisement. The description read: “Pride flag. $12.99.” The LGBTQ+ symbol is a rainbow? How could I not have known? A tear of happiness streamed down my cheek; the blue light from my laptop illuminated my face as I stared at the overpriced ROYGBIV colors. It felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I had been ridden with anxiety that I wouldn’t be accepted in this community or that being bisexual was something to be ashamed of. But seeing that the symbol was a rainbow, something that’s always brought me happiness, I knew that I was going to be okay. Read more at michigandaily.com
Defying manhood
A Class Apart MEERA KUMAR
For the rest of my high school career, I chose to be in denial. I already felt as if everyone was judging every aspect of me, and being bisexual would only prompt more probing questions. However, as high school came to an end and we all said our goodbyes to each other at commencement, the realization started settling in: I was never going to see these people again. I no longer needed to fear what they would think of my hair, my face or my sexuality because they were no longer going to be a prominent part of my life. With the fear of being judged pushed away and the self-confidence kicking in, the summer after my senior year of high school was when I finally embraced my sexuality along with the sunshine and warm summer breeze. Curious to learn more, I asked my friends who were out about their experiences and how they learned to navigate their way through the world as part of the LGBTQ+ community. They shared with me resources — books, podcasts, people to talk to — on how to accept myself and how
ANDREW NAKAMURA MiC Columnist
He looks down at everyone as he towers over them. His naturally blonde hair glows in the sun and his sapphire eyes pierced straight through me. I couldn’t resist his god-like muscular frame. He was the cover of every magazine and the hero in every piece of media I consumed as a child. Everyone around me adored him. And it was only natural that I fell in love with him too because he was everything everyone wanted me to be. Above all, I admired his bravery, stoicism and independence, all traits I sorely lacked as a child who spent so much of my time playing video games and reading in solitude. I loved him before I could even comprehend the definition of love itself. His name is masculinity. I can’t say that he felt the same, though. Masculinity disapproves of anything and anyone that doesn’t aspire to be him. From the moment he laid eyes on my epicanthic folds and flat nose bridge, he saw me as a lesser man. He has always been known for
abusing his power in society to devalue anyone who threatened the position of white men. For example, American society’s emasculation of Asian men started ever since the very first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States. White people viewed the economic prosperity of Asian workers as intimidating, so they socially ostracized them. Mistreatment and violence in the gold mines pushed Asian men toward professions associated with domesticities, such as laundrymen and waiters. Even today, small-penis jokes and snide “that K-pop boy looks like a girl” remarks subtly reinforce the idea that Asian men are somehow lesser. In the eyes of masculinity, and the Western world as a whole, I, along with many other Asian men, am viewed as feminine simply for being born as Asian. But despite all the mistreatment, I stayed with him, because what other choice did I have? The image of masculinity that I loved was merely a reflection of society at large. From the second my ultrasound was performed, everyone around me had decided
that I needed to be strong and restrained — signifiers of a “real” man. I was locked into the expectations of manhood and I had to either subdue my emotions or risk becoming a social outcast. If only Asianness was my sole “flaw,” perhaps I could somehow regain his acceptance. Yet, unlike many other Asian men, I am, in fact, gay. On top of the emasculation that I experience as an Asian man, my queerness disrupts my assimilation into the white, heterosexual standard of manhood. Even some of my fellow Asian men do not treat me as a man because my queerness does not align with the heteronormative masculine ideal that they still pursue. The intersection of my race and sexual orientation adds a third dimension of emasculation; I am devalued as a man because I’m Asian, gay and both gay and Asian. Masculinity could attempt to degrade me by calling me a feminine gay Asian and there was nothing I could really do to defend myself because it was all true. Read more at michigandaily.com
Thursday, June 24 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN IN COLOR 7
What Bollywood thinks of me, a South Indian ROSHNI MOHAN MiC Columnist
As the only South Indian in a North Indian friend group, an adequate portion of my life was centered around Bollywood. Sitting in my friends’ cars, I’d hear the newest song from the latest Bollywood movie that I’d watch only a few hours later at their houses. We would sit huddled together on the couch with a few fleece blankets sharing a bowl of burnt popcorn as the opening credits played. The first appearance of Shah Rukh Khan or Saif Ali Khan in the film acted as a cue to start my 3 hour long Bollywood movie watching process: going on my phone for 10 minutes, watching the movie for a little, going back on my phone, reading the subtitles to realize the movie was slightly colorist and/or misogynistic, staring back at my phone and then reading the subtitles again to realize the movie was actually very colorist and/or misogynistic. The movies all portrayed women as housewives who couldn’t survive without the men in their lives. The villains always had dark
skin while the women had fair skin, further showing both the colorism and misogyny rooted in most Indian media. What Bollywood thought of my darker skin color and of my womanhood was very clear, but as a child I was too naive to realize what they thought about my ethnicity. It was only years later that my innocence on the topic was sharply stolen from me by none other than Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone from Chennai Express. The movie was long and mentally draining since the entire “comedy” centered around making fun of my ethnicity, but to my North Indian friends, it was funny and not long enough since they were not the target of these jokes. My friends would laugh every once in a while and I would look at them confused. How could they think this is funny? Is this what they think of me? It was only after watching this movie, did I start to notice the stereotypes Bollywood consistently espouses about people like me. Firstly, Bollywood portrays South Indians to show that their English is very bad. Chennai Express does this by having almost all Tamil
characters not be able to understand a single word of English. It also has the heroine, Meenamma played by Deepika Padukone, speak only slightly better than broken English. In Ra One, Shekhar, a Tamil character played by Shah Rukh Khan, was portrayed as not being able to speak proper English without throwing in many randomly placed Tamil words. While there’s nothing wrong with not understanding or being fluent in English, stereotyping every Tamilian as unable to coherently speak English while simultaneously displaying North Indians’ English as virtually perfect is inherently offensive and inaccurate. Many Tamilians, including the entirety of my family still in India, can speak fluent English. Alongside Northeast India, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, both South Indian states, are among the highest Englishspeaking states. Bollywood also portrays South Indians as generally embarrassing individuals who lack common sense. In the same movie Ra One, Shekhar humiliates his son by being too scared to fight off a thief who was using what appeared to be a small butter knife as
his only weapon. In another scene, he is shown being unable to drive properly, getting into easily avoidable accidents due to lacking common sense. This all happens within the first half hour of the movie, focusing on how Shekhar’s family is ashamed of him. The industry blatantly makes fun of our dialect as well. Every Tamil character will constantly be written to say “ayyo” or “rascal” every sentence. They insult us with a word from our very own language, as if the Tamil language is so funny to North Indians. When actors or actresses try to imitate the language to portray a South Indian character, they for the most part create an accent that is so far from accurate that it becomes offensive. Actresses like Deepika Padukone used an overexaggerated Tamil accent in Chennai Express and even claimed that this was an accurate South Indian accent which was clearly untrue. Bollywood movies make a lot of jokes about how Tamilians worship Rajinikanth, one of the most popular Tamil actors in Kollywood or Tamil Nadu’s film industry. They’ll put a picture of him in every South Indian’s
home to make it seem like we treat him like God. Him being known throughout the country is a big deal to Tamilians since South Indian men are almost never recognized or absorbed into Bollywood like some fair-skinned South Indian actresses. We are proud that a South Indian from Kollywood is well known. But Bollywood takes something we are supposed to have pride in and contorts it to make fun of us. They make it seem like we weirdly obsess over him as if they don’t do the same with Shah Rukh Khan. Similarly to what they did with Rajinikanth, Bollywood takes parts of our cultures that we have pride in and turns them into something demeaning as if it’s something not to be celebrated but to be embarrassed about. For example, in Ra One, Shekhar is seen eating noodles with curd (yogurt). Curd is popularly eaten on the side of many South Indian cuisines, but to extort that and make a joke about how that’s all we eat is offensive. It not only adds to this idea that South Indians are embarrassing Read more at michigandaily.com
To Be Palestinian REEM HASSAN MiC Columnist
To be Palestinian is to know 73 years of occupation 73 years of Palestian displacement 73 years of Palestinian death 73 years of apartheid 73 years of ethnic cleansing as facts that disgustingly seem almost as natural as air itself as facts that seem to be given, that go without saying as facts that many of us don’t know life without.
To be Palestinian is to know Resistance in the face of oppression Resilience in the face of brutality Patience in the face of injustice Strength in the face of weakness
To be Palestinian is to know That Palestinian resistance is not just any type of resistance It is a type of resistance that
exclusively runs in the blood of Palestinians A type of resistance that perseveres even when the whole world turns away A type of resistance that spits in the face of oppression A type of resistance that laughs at any attempt to be silenced And a type of resistance that thrives on the love for one’s people and the yearning for their liberation
To be Palestinian is to know That my grandparents are older than the state of Israel That my grandparents felt the direct wraths of the 1948 Nakba That my grandparents carried the burden of being displaced forcibly removed exiled from their homes made refugees in their own land Land and homes that they built and tended to with their bare hands
To be Palestinian is to know The feeling of disgust that arises when Zionist propogranda claims that Palestine served as “A land without a people for a people without a land” in justification for outright colonialism The feeling of disgust that arises to hear the complete erasure of my lineage A lineage that I can trace back generations and generations in Palestine A lineage that I would have not come to simply be without
To be Palestinian is to know That my grandmother came so close to being a victim that she tasted the bitterness of death before surviving the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre in which Zionist troops raided the village of Deir Yassin located in the outskirts of Jersualem massacring over 250 Palestine Arabs and exiling the rest piles of Palestinian corpses burned individuals tied to trees and set on fire
she survived but watched everyone else around her get slaughtered in the process Livelihoods stolen from right beneath them Homes never returned Booted to fend for themselves or die
To be Palestinian is to know That decades later when my grandmother returned to the village her family built She found an Israeli family living in the home she once lived in completely unchanged otherwise but completely oblivious and ignorant to how Palestinians were massacred and displaced in order to give these settlers their homes homes these settlers somehow still felt entitled to
To be Palestinian is to know That just because my grandmother survived death does not mean her life was smooth-
sailing That she was subjected to a long life of displacement after displacement being refugeed and vilified made second class citizen in the land she called her own Bearing raising tending to 7 children of her own under occupation
To be Palestinian is to know that my cousin, Yousef Khamees Hassan was violently killed at 32 years old after living the entirety of his short life under occupation in Jerusalem Attempting to make ends meet for his family savagely strangled with barbed wire by a mob of Israeli settlers who attacked the bus he drove corpse hung to be found by others no arrests made no justice given
Read more at michigandaily.com
8 ARTS
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
A love letter to ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’
KATRINA STEBBINS Daily Arts Writer
Sometimes I can’t believe that “But I’m a Cheerleader” exists. A movie that features RuPaul as a goateed “ex-gay” named Mike who introduces himself by saying, “I, myself, was once a gay,” in its first few minutes feels unreal. It’s like it came out of the ether fully-formed, specifically to make me happy. The film has a somewhat bleak premise on paper — Megan (Natasha Lyonne, “Russian Doll”), the titular cheerleader, is placed in a gay conversion therapy camp called True Directions after a number of factors (including but not limited to her vegetarianism, Melissa Etheridge posters in her room and the fact that she doesn’t like to kiss her boyfriend) lead her parents to believe that she is a lesbian. More recent movies about gay conversion therapy, like “Boy Erased” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” might prime newcomers to “But I’m a
Cheerleader” to expect a serious tone, intense religiosity as a central theme, a sort of beigey color palette and a bittersweet ending. I love it because it has none of those things. More than anything else, “But I’m a Cheerleader” is an incredible piece of satire. Part of True Directions’s five-step program is finding the “root” of each camper’s homosexuality; Graham’s (Clea DuVall, “The Intervention”) is that her mother wore pants when she got married; Sinead’s (Katharine Towne, “Beauty and the Least: The Misadventures of Ben Banks”) is that she was born in France. The house True Directions operates out of is a technicolor wonderland, and the people who staff it are barely but hilariously repressed. It’s clear that none of the campers will ever be converted, despite how much some of them might try to convince themselves they have been. They remain, as ever, unshakeably gay. It could be argued that gay conversion therapy shouldn’t be treated with levity. “But
I’m a Cheerleader” leans into and lampoons the absurdity of the idea itself. It refuses to recognize the notion that
movie because it’s filled with references and in-jokes — maybe all it is is one big in-joke. My friends and I have sat around
But I’m a Cheerleader: Director’s Cut
conversion therapy is anything but completely illogical. It refuses to wallow. Almost nothing but the love story that eventually takes center stage is treated with any reverence or gravity, and why should it be? At the risk of sounding a little gatekeep-y, I love this
discussing what our roots would be (mine is that I grew up with a single mom, which by True Directions’s logic probably means that I never learned to respect men). RuPaul playing a straight man, even if his character is sort of failing at it within the context of the
movie, is funny because it’s inconceivable. Legend has it that if you mention the names Natasha Lyonne or Clea DuVall in a room full of queer women, every head will turn toward you. Even though it sounds sort of incongruous to call a movie about a gay conversion camp “joyful,” “But I’m a Cheerleader” really is joyful. Not to rehash a grievance that I’ve already aired at length, but when most of the movies about lesbians that have come out in the past five years are grey, gloomy and sort of miserable altogether, this colorful, hilarious gem of a film is necessary, if only to be reminded that there are other kinds of lesbian movies out there. “But I’m a Cheerleader” is free with ads on YouTube and it’s, delightfully, only 90 minutes long. Watch it with your queer friends (they’ll know exactly when to laugh), and maybe get a little wine drunk for the RuPaul classic “Party Train” because, just like everything else in this movie, it’s perfectly placed.
Getting to know ‘the Gayly’ DARBY WILLIAMS Daily Arts Writer
Upon her arrival at U-M, LSA Junior Shoshana Weinstein noticed a discernible lack of LGBTQ+ representation in the student journalism scene. Through her involvement with other student organizations, she took note of a sizable population of the U-M student body whose perspectives were neither recognized nor amplified. She expected there to be some institution in place devoted to queer and trans writers amid the hundreds of U-M student organizations, but she found nothing of the sort. In the fall of 2019, Weinstein, along with the help of a dedicated creative team and the U-M Spectrum Center, founded The Michigan Gayly. The Gayly is U-M’s first and only paper dedicated to uplifting and showcasing queer and trans
writers and their work. The Gayly is a celebration of queer and trans existence, seeking to highlight the journalism, creative writing, and visual art of writers and artists in the UM community. Queer students, throughout time, have had unique perspectives on political, cultural, and artistic issues. The Gayly provides the visibility and freedom of expression that traditional newspapers lack. It is a dynamic blend of newspaper and literary magazine, where writers have a great deal of freedom in the content they create. Since its conception in the fall of 2019, The Gayly has accumulated over 20 staff writers, in addition to dozens of contributors who submit prose, poetry and visual art periodically. Weinstein emphasizes that although much of The Gayly’s mission is rooted in social and political commentary, it also strives to be a medium for artistic
expression and pop-culture hot takes. “We want to highlight queer joy, and allow the queer community on campus to define itself in ways that aren’t always centered on pain and suffering.” said Weinstein in an interview with the Michigan Daily. “I think that a lot of cishet narratives of queer people really like to focus on the obstacles they face; It’s really important to talk about, to think about, and have stories about (those issues), but eventually it feels like … the only time you see yourself represented is through stories of pain and suffering.” Combatting the seemingly predetermined narratives of oppression and suffering is no easy task, but the writing and editorial team of the Gayly does so with grace. “My philosophy has always been that people should write the stories that they care about,” says Weinstein. As such, the Gayly takes a more
open-ended approach to the content they create, allowing for a great deal of artistic flexibility on the part of their contributors. While staff writers contribute to the Gayly on a regular basis, it welcomes contributors of varying levels of interest. Weinstein asserts that “everyone is welcome” and that prospective contributors need not worry about a lack of writing experience. The
advantageous combination of passionate writers and a robust editorial team consistently puts out high-caliber content, ranging from articles discussing the availability of contraceptives on campus to profiles of prolific queer poets such as Sappho. To learn more about the Gayly visit their website, or listen to their newly launched podcast, Generation Q.
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
STATEMENT 9
How I justify my time as a competitive dancer BY IULIA DOBRIN
Design by Katherine Lee
Whenever people asked me what extracurriculars I did before college, I would always hesitate to say that I danced — with the disclaimers that I wasn’t very good and that I never did it very competitively. The truth is that I love performing arts, and I did just about any activity related to music growing up. I’ve played piano, guitar, flute and saxophone over the years. I did theater, singing lessons, glee club and marching band. It all began with dance, which I started at around 3 years old and continued for 15 years. Somewhere along the way, I lost pride in doing what I loved so much. Maybe it’s the competitive nature of these types of activities. I have a bit of a competitive side. However, when the time came in elementary school where all my friends that I danced with were moving into competitive dance classes, my parents said no year after year. I knew it was because of time and financial restrictions, but I still felt left behind watching my peers that I grew up performing with move on without me. According to a study by Hilary Levey Friedman, a Harvard sociologist, the average cost for one child doing competitive
dance in 2012 ranged from $5,000 to $10,000. In recent years, parents estimated costs up to nearly $14,000. I had a little sister and only one parent who could drive us to and from activities, so for any dance class I took, I had to hope there was a class at the same time for her age. I also went to a “triple threat” performing arts studio: a studio focused on training kids in singing, dancing and acting. This meant added costs for theatre productions and singing lessons. My parents refused to let me take singing classes until ninth grade, but it seemed as though there was no making up for years of lost training. I did finally convince my parents to let me join competitive dance in 7th grade. I was at a point where I should have been with the older dancers on the basis of age, yet I was matched with the younger dancers on the basis of experience. Getting the chance to push myself to “catch up,” I ended up with the older group. I knew I was the weak link in those dances. I was scared to talk to anyone for fear of judgement. While performing arts are supposed to increase selfconfidence, there are also links between competitive dance and
neurotic perfectionism. I wonder if a sense of perfectionism is what led me to fear the other dancers who were, by objective means, not intimidating or judgemental people. We also weren’t in the 30-hour-week practice environment that more competitive dance studios fostered, yet I still always felt a constant sense of being behind. In middle school, I chose to continue competitive dance over travel volleyball. This decision was difficult, but I couldn’t imagine leaving the studio where I had danced since I was a toddler. In retrospect, I wonder if this decision was made out of comfort in having a sense of familiarity. In high school, I never tried out for the dance team because I was scared of rejection. I made up excuses, but looking back I think I was worried about being the underdog again. Coming to college, I was hoping that what I lacked in selfconfidence and skills, I would make up for in sheer years of experience. All the dance groups I was interested in were either beyond my skill level or meant for beginners, with none in between. I justified it by saying I didn’t have time anyways, that I had to focus on other extracurriculars to
boost my future applications. I took a one-credit ballet class last semester with the mentality that I was going to drop it. I remember wondering whether or not it was worth it to attend a virtual dance class, but I ended up sticking with it all semester and loving it, Zoom and all. Years after being in competitive dance I wonder — why do I constantly feel the need to justify why I wanted to dance? A study on the psychology of competitive dance in teenagers asked 58 undergraduate dance students various questions about their decisions to dance competitively. About half (45.3%) felt that, even though they often miss out on school and social events, they don’t regret their commitment to dance. There were four statements representative of the participants. As someone who is constantly questioning if I’m making the best use of my time, I really resonated with one of them. “I had a whole spectrum of interests and dance took all of my time outside of the school day. I was unable to pursue other interests. I don’t regret focusing on dance, but do wish I’d had the chance to develop other areas of my life.”
During my first year of college, I faced an additional dilemma: How does one continue their hobbies in college? When do you choose between your career path and your passions? For me, embarking on the premed path in my freshman year of college meant finding research and volunteering opportunities that would work towards my eventual applications. Whatever time I had left was dedicated to working at The Daily, other extracurriculars related to science and studying for classes. I always wondered what a commitment to dance in college would look like, especially for those who study it. I talked to two dance majors at Michigan to get a sense of their commitment to dance both before college and now. Music, Theatre & Dance senior Olivia Johnson was homeschooled in middle school, which helped make time for her dance training. Johnson compared her dance commitment before college to a part time job of 20-25 hours a week and her college dance commitment to more of a full-time job of over 30 hours. Read more at michigandaily.com
10 STATEMENT
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Another web show? In this economy? How the iCarly reboot will adjust to the times BY ANNIE RAUWERDA
Design by Brianna Manzor
The original iCarly aired September 2007, when internet culture was in a trollish youth. Grainy home videos like Chocolate Rain and Potter Puppet Pals had achieved virality (a term not coined until later) and an influencer ecosystem was on the horizon. The Nickelodeon show took a cast of miniskirt-clad middle schoolers and introduced a generation of couch kids to social media stardom before social media stardom was a real thing. Carly, Sam and Freddie dazzled audiences with butter socks, ‘Messin’ with Lewbert’ segments, and spaghetti tacos. The trio brought us the word “derf” (a number between five and six) and donuts on a stick (thanks T-Bo). It also provided something more subversive: the occasional peek at the dark side of being a creator. In 2021, the show comes back, this time on Paramount Plus (I’ve lost hope of keeping the streaming platforms straight). Nostalgia is a cash cow, which might explain the slew of kids show reboots released or announced recently: Gossip Girl, Zoey 101, Friends, Full House, Powerpuff
Girls and, briefly, Lizzie McGuire (now canceled). Another explanation for the reboot bonanza is our lonely quarantined hearts desiring a reunion — any reunion. TV revivals also hit the sweet spot of familiarity that our subconscious craves: old enough to be palatable, new enough to be interesting. Regardless, iCarly is coming back into a world that is strikingly different from the one in which it originally aired. When iCarly first came out I was in second grade, the age where you try new things and beg everyone and anyone to watch. I would call out to my mom whenever I did a new pogo stick trick or handstand variation: “Look at this! Are you watching?!” And, to my delight, she would muster a “Woah! Cool!” before going back to whatever she was doing. That fleeting recognition was what I chased. As an attention-hungry kid, the premise of iCarly, a show about a girl with a hit eponymous web show, immediately drew me in. I realized that people on the internet could watch moments from my goofy life willingly. Internet stardom
seemed glamorous but attainable, and I wasn’t alone in my view. Nickelodeon’s Marjorie Cohn told Variety that “the beauty of the show is that it makes it seem like the average teen can do it.” So began a series of half-assed attempts at becoming a youth internet personality. I started to post (now-deleted) Youtube videos called “The Annie Show” with mind-numbingly stupid clips of me blabbering about my elementary school life: my classmates, homework, toys. I wanted to be like iCarly. My parents were oblivious, I think. The show predated the “influencer” and the “creator,” at least in the words’ current definitions, yet it puts its finger on the late-aughts’ naive awareness of web stars — or at least the potential for web stars. Created by powerhouse kidvid producer Dan Schneider, the show profiled teen internet fame in real time as the influencer profession emerged. Schneider has stated that his original idea was for a normal girl, in a twist of fate, to star in her favorite TV show, but that a casual
conversation with friends led him to instead write a script about a girl with a web show. She could run it herself and do whatever she wanted to do. On the set for Zoey 101 (which he also created) Schneider decided on the name iSam, later changing to iJosie, and eventually landing on iCarly. Each “i” name mimics the Apple naming convention that epitomized the 2007 zeitgeist. That year was a turning point, a self-reckoning. 2007 was the year Youtube began covering the bottom 20% of the screen with an ad and when it began verifying content to heed copyright law. It was the year that saw ordinary people catapulted to virality over dumb, funny videos, and those unsuspecting stars had the digital infrastructure to spin their spotlight into a bona fide platform. The quote, often attributed to Andy Warhol, took on new meaning: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Suddenly, home videos (like the one of a teething toddler named Charlie) weren’t just for parents’ future nostalgia — they could be a ticket to fame so global and enchanting that elementary
schoolers on my playground in West Michigan would quote the clip’s lines. ‘That really hurt, Chawwwhhlie’ we’d say as we bit each other’s fingers, completely unaware that we were living in the most connected world in history. iCarly was ahead of its time, but only by a smidge. I was recently surprised to discover that the show’s release predates Youtube personality Fred, a character created by a then-13-year-old from Nebraska named Lucas Cruikshank. To me, Fred is the epitome of early Youtube: both the video platform and the channel’s target audience were exceedingly young. Today, a slew of child Youtube stars bring home multimillion dollar earnings, but there was no real model for iCarly at the time of writing; its writers may have speculated at what it would be like to be a kid with a web show. I’ll admit that they did an impressive job. Amidst laugh tracks and flimsy sets, iCarly dove into the perils of being a tween creator on the internet. Read more at michigandaily.com
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Gray, Merle announce Michigan ASAF on the adaptive track and field scene GRAYSON BUNING Daily Sports Writer
For a second consecutive weekend, Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness program announced itself as a force to be reckoned with on the adaptive track and field scene. Two Wolverines, Dental student Leo Merle and sophomore Cathryn Gray, competed on behalf of the program at the Desert Challenge Games in Mesa, Arizona. In their first competitions representing Michigan, they’d have been forgiven for showing some jitters. But the pair — both experienced competitors — needed no time to get up to speed. Between the two of them, the Wolverines flew home sporting two gold medals, three silver medals and a national record. Paralympic hopeful Merle competed in just one event, the 1500 meter. Having set a new personal record of 4:09 just a few weeks prior — a time that would see him have little trouble securing a spot on the US Paralympic team if run on qualifying day — the hope was that Merle would stroll to a first place finish. However, a combination of factors meant that it wasn’t to be for Merle. An IT band and quadricep muscle issue had confined him to a stationary bike for the weeks leading up to the event, allowing some of his hardearned fitness to slip away. On top of that, the scorching conditions in the arid Arizona desert were a sharp departure from the Michigan weather Merle has become accustomed to training in. As a result, Merle finished the race in second place with a time of 4:23. While a silver medal is far from something to turn your nose up at, Merle wasn’t exactly over the moon. “Overall, it definitely wasn’t what I was looking for,” Merle said. “I know I’m faster than that. But you can’t control the conditions, and given how my leg has been, I’m content with how the race went.” With the Paralympic trials rapidly approaching, Merle will be up against the clock as he
works to overcome his injury and get his time back to where it needs to be to earn a spot on the US team. While he’s proven that he’s capable of running the 4:10 benchmark time needed to secure a seat on the plane to Tokyo, the coming days of training will be some of the most important of his young adaptive sports career. Michigan’s Gray, despite having a historic weekend, also left the competition considering the road ahead — but for much different reasons. Gray, who was the first ever member of Michigan ASAF’s track and field team, was utterly dominant at the Desert Challenge Games, collecting gold medals in discus and javelin and silver medals in shot put and the 100m. Her most impressive performance came in the discus event, where she threw a distance of 17.11m — a junior national record for her classification of F35. Remarkably, Gray wrapped up the games as her F35 classification’s world number one in javelin, number two in discus, and number nine in shot put. While Gray is no stranger to elite adaptive track and field competitions, this one felt different. “Every time I went up to compete, I thought about how this was bigger than just me,” Gray said. “This was about growing the program and encouraging people and representing women with disabilities and women in sports, so I really wanted to do my best.” In terms of Michigan’s adaptive sports program, Gray has been there since the very beginning. As a result, she’s acutely aware of the legacy she hopes to leave behind. “I just want to make a positive impact on the program and show other people that women with disabilities and people with disabilities in general can get involved in sports,” Gray said. “For this program, the sky’s the limit — we’re the leaders and the best. I’d love for us to get more athletes, more women in the program, more paralympic sports represented with more coaches.” For that legacy to be realized, however, a key box remains to be checked. “We need the university to see
SPORTS 11
Jackson State transfer Daylen Baldwin commits to Michigan JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan football team has a new weapon out wide. The Wolverines dipped into the transfer portal to land former Jackson State wide receiver Daylen Baldwin. Baldwin, who announced his intention to transfer earlier this month, committed to Michigan on Monday on Twitter. Last season, Baldwin racked up 540 receiving yards and seven touchdowns across just six games. He led the Southwestern Atlantic Conference in both categories. Baldwin, 21, played two seasons at Morgan State before transferring to Jackson State in 2019. He spent two years in the program, though did not appear in the 2019 season and earned a redshirt. He has two years of collegiate eligibility remaining.
At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Baldwin brings much-needed size to Michigan’s receiving unit. He figures to bolster a group that lost Nico Collins, Giles Jackson and incoming freshman Xavier Worthy
during the offseason. The Wolverines first offered Baldwin on Friday. The Southfield, MI, native chose Michigan over Ohio State and Central Michigan, amongst others.
Courtesy of Dennis Driscoll Michigan’s receiving corps will be joined by Jackson State transfer Daylen Baldwin.
Courtesy of Tom Kiel Cathryn Grey helped lead Michigan ASAF at the Desert Challenge Games.
us as contributing members of the university, as equal, as very much valued,” Gray said. “I hope that as the program grows, the university sees that it’s not just about athletics — we’re changing people’s lives. I don’t know where I’d be without this program.” After a weekend where she set the adaptive track and field scene alight, seemingly all Gray could
think about was using her success as a catalyst for the further growth of adaptive sports at Michigan. While admirable, it’s simultaneously a disappointing indictment of the paltry recognition the program has received from the university thus far. However, Gray remains both grateful and optimistic. “I was really self-conscious as
a child,” Gray said. “People would look at my braces and see that I had surgery and they wouldn’t think that I could amount to a lot. “I started to wonder if this was all there was for me. I couldn’t dream of having all of the opportunities that I do now. Having this program on an equal and recognized playing field as everyone else would be so amazing, and I think we can do it.”
12 SPORTS
Thursday, June 24, 2021 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.
U-M community reacts to Matt Schembechler’s press conference, debate renaming of Schembechler Hall and removal of statue MARTHA LEWAND Daily Staff Reporter
LSA sophomore Tommy Svetich sat around the TV with his friends to watch Matt Schembechler’s — son of former University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler — tell-all press conference, not knowing what to expect. But during the conference, the gruesome details made his insides turn. “I didn’t know what to feel, honestly,” Svetich said. “I was just shocked, I didn’t know what I was feeling. It was just like my gut sank. It was just disgusting to think about.” At the press conference, Matt Schembechler jointly alleged with former football players Daniel Kwiatkowski and Gilvanni Johnson, that Bo Schembechler knew of deceased U-M Dr. Robert E. Anderson’s continuous sexual assault of student athletes. Matt Schembechler, Kwiatowksi and Johnson discussed their experiences with Anderson and how Bo Schembechler failed to act upon the alleged abuse. Kwiatkowski said Bo told him to “toughen up” after his first experience with Dr. Anderson’s sexual abuse during an appointment in 1997, and the whole football team knew of and joked about the abuse persisting at the time. Johnson said players called Dr. Anderson “Dr. Anus.” “If you were to walk to our locker room at that time, it was a constant joke,” Kwiatkowski said. “If you had come back from the doctor, you got teased because you got ‘Dr. Andersized.’” Matt Schembechler said after his first appointment with Dr. Anderson in the fourth grade, he told his parents how Dr. Anderson abused him, causing Bo to lose his temper. “When Bo got home, I told him what happened and it did not go well,” Matt Schmbechler said. “Bo’s temper was legendary and he lost it. He screamed, ‘I don’t want to hear this. I’m not hearing this.’ “I tried to tell him repeatedly, but my efforts earned me a punch in the chest. This was the beginning of the end of the relationship with him. I hoped my father would protect me, but he didn’t.” Members of the U-M community took to social media to express their reactions and opinions to the press
conference. Jane Coaston, a 2009 “Our sympathy for all of “Rename the hall and blow the University and Michigan State U-M alum and journalist for The Anderson’s victims is deep and statue up with dynamite,” he wrote. University have. New York Times, took to Twitter to unwavering, and we thank them for “His own son was molested, and he “I think a lot of students and state her stance on why the statue of their bravery in coming forward,” went along with it! Both coach and alumni should have at least a strong Bo Schembechler on campus should the statement read. “We condemn doctor are culpable.” moral consideration to hold ourselves be taken down. and apologize for the tragic Kooistra told The Daily how to the same standard,” Fulton said. “So much of Michigan football misconduct of the late Dr. Robert the substantial number of people “There’s so much to be said about the hagiography is Bo-centered (‘the Anderson, who left the University who were sexually abused in history of the program, but a statue team, the team, the team’),” Coaston 17 years ago and died 13 years ago. addition to being complicit with and a hall named after someone who tweeted on June 10. “But absolutely We are committed to resolving the act has not and will never be has covered up decades of abuse is no hagiography or memory or their claims and to continuing the “acceptable.” Kooistra further not a history you necessarily want to halcyon ‘tradition’ is worth the court-guided confidential mediation expressed his disappointment continue to celebrate.” sexual abuse of young people and the process.” with the University’s statement in Coaston found the alleged abuse covering up of said abuse by people The statement also listed some addition to the alleged abuse by the to be “unshocking” given how who were in positions of power.” Coaston further explained in an interview with The Michigan Daily why she believes the statue should be taken down and the Hall should be renamed. “In order to have a statue or something named after you, that is a privilege. It’s not a right,” Coaston said. “And I think that the University, specifically the athletic department, can make a decision by saying, ‘You don’t get this. You don’t always get to have a statue.’” In a tweet from June 10, 2016 U-M alum Taylor Fulton expressed her resentment towards Bo Schembechler’s place in the football program. “i want no part of michigan football — michigan anything, really — where bo schembechler is still heralded as some paragon of leadership. this makes me fucking sick.” Fulton did not watch the press conference but instead read articles BECCA MAHON/Daily about the conference online. In an Former U-M football player Gilvanni Johnson speaks out about sexual abuse by Dr. Robert Anderson during a press conference. interview with The Daily, Fulton said she found the press conference to be of the policies the University has players but was not surprised given “common” and “ordinary” similar “disheartening” and “horrifying for adopted to protect student health the University’s “very poor” track situations have occurred in elite the victims,” and felt angry at how and safety in the 17 years since Dr. record regarding sexual misconduct. Division 1 athletic programs, like long Dr. Anderson’s abuse persisted Anderson departed from campus. “I found the apology laughable,” Penn State and Michigan State, and was kept secret. A few of the policies included Kooistra said. “At least during my across the country. “The thing that stuck with me developing a misconduct policy, time at the University, there have “When you involve this much was his son had mentioned this, and a policy designed to prevent been an additional eight cases that money, especially with athletic Bo was physically violent with him inappropriate student-teacher have gone through the judicial court departments, especially with about it, that was really upsetting,” relationships, required criminal system that have been determined to the power that that money has, Fulton said. “Especially in a situation background checks for new be abuse cases. Dr. Anderson left 17 universities tend to do a bad job with where Bo Schembechler is always University employees and more. years ago, but you hear just now all this,” Coaston said. “I would say talked about as some sort of leader Fulton denounced Public Affairs’ the recommendations to implement the University has done a bad job of or inspirational figure — to hear that statement and believes the statement regarding sexual assault and protecting students, and specifically is just really upsetting, just hard to could have been “stronger.” harassment allegations. I just think student athletes in this instance, swallow and hard to comprehend.” “You can’t just kind of turn the the University, from everything but that’s not rare. And I think that Following the press conference, other cheek on it and say, ‘Oh, we’re that’s come out, has not made any what’s most depressing: this is not a The University Office of Public so sorry that this happened.’ That’s actual progress.” story of this one rogue entity. This Affairs released a statement on just not enough.” Fulton said. Likewise, Fulton believes the is a story of something that has behalf of The University Board In a class of 2022 Facebook post University should confront the happened, happened, happened and of Regents and President Mark on June 11, LSA senior Joshua renaming of Schembechler Hall and happened.” Schlissel on Jun. 10. The statement Kooistra shared his feelings about the removal of his statue in the same offered sympathy to Dr. Anderson’s the removal of Schembechler Hall way other schools with “complicated Read more at michigandaily.com victims and condemned his actions. and the removal of Bo’s statue. sports legacies” such as Penn State