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Fliegner highlights Michigan performance in Wolverine Invitational

JOSEPH ZAIN RODGER

For The Daily

After two shortened seasons, the Michigan women’s tennis team was finally able to make their long awaited return to a full slate of matches this fall with the Wolverine Invitational as their third event of the year.

The Wolverines hosted Michigan State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Arizona State and Western Michigan at the three-day meet this past weekend. The Wolverines had a positive overall record

for the event with a total of 17 wins and nine losses. The event didn’t count for team points but remains important to see how each of the players stand before the ITA AllAmerican Championships next week. Potential doubles teams had an opportunity to build chemistry in a competitive environment and the players received one of their first big tests.

The team started with a strong first day, going 5-1 in doubles and 4-1 in singles.

“We brought competitive teams in here and I feel like we got a high level of play,” Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “They’ve been practicing hard, and it showed that first day”.

Michigan’s biggest bright spot was undefeated freshman Julia Fliegner who finished the weekend with a 4-0 singles and 3-0 doubles record.

“She had an unbelievable weekend,” Bernstein said. “It was a great match against Notre Dame against a girl who’s going to play high for them. We didn’t see her much last year because of COVID, but she was very impressive. Really everybody was, I was proud of the whole group and how they competed.”

Fliegner would finish 7-0, but her final match was the most difficult of the weekend. Notre Dame’s Page Freeman jumped out to a two game lead to start the match, including a break in the first game. Fliegner broke back to make it 3-3, but later had her back against the wall with Freeman serving with a 5-4 lead. After a crucial break and hold from Fliegner, Freeman was down 6-5 and had to win her serve to force a seven point set tiebreak. However, at 30-40, she double-faulted to lose the set 7-5. The second set was also back and forth, but Fliegner never gave up the lead and cleaned up the match to win, 7-5, 6-3.

The invitational was capped off with a gritty three set win from junior Nicole Hammond against Arizona State’s Cali Jankowski. After a 6-1 first set loss, Hammond commanded the rest of the match and never again gave up the lead in either of the final two sets. The 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, Wolverine win ended the event with a statement comeback.

Although the Wolverine Invitational was nonscoring, Michigan now has momentum that it will look to carry forward into the rest of the season. Five of the Wolverine’s top players will travel to South Carolina next week and compete in the Michigan’s first scoring event of the season.

“I’m going to use this event as a confidence point,” Fliegner said. “When I’m in tough points in next week’s tournament I’m definitely going to think back to here and how I played.”

Legendary hockey coach Herb Brooks used to yell “legs feed the wolf” at his 1980 Olympic team.

In 2020, the Michigan hockey team’s roster featured skill on both ends of the ice. But still, its legs couldn’t deliver a feast every night against faster opponents like Minnesota and Wisconsin.

If last Saturday’s 7-1 exhibition win over Bowling Green is any indication, though, the Wolverines could be a few strides ahead this season.

From the early minutes of the game, speed dominated Michigan’s game plan. When sophomore forward Matty Beniers found sophomore forward Kent Johnson alone at center ice, Johnson used his legs to widen the gap between himself and the Falcons defenders. That gave him plenty of time to fool Bowling Green goaltender Zach Rose as a quick flick of his stick deposited the first goal of the season.

The same legwork that led to the goal also extended many of the Wolverines’ scoring threats. As hard shots ricocheted off Rose, the puck skittered toward the boards where the Falcons’ defensemen had a chance to dump it out. Michigan’s speed often won out in the ensuing footraces and, combined with their physical presence, it generated plenty of shots.

“Every team is going to be prescouting our skill,” sophomore forward Brendan Brisson said on Friday after the game. “But it’s about playing hard in the hard areas, getting pucks deep when we have to and getting pucks back quicker so we can use our skill in the right moments.”

On Saturday, the Wolverines executed those offensive moves faster than they did last season. In a

split second during the first period, Michigan set up a 1-3-1 power play. Bowling Green couldn’t account for the ensuing flurry of quick passes, and Brisson skated away with a goal.

The Wolverines’ transition game relied on its speed advantage. Quick strides down the wings opened up clean odd-man rushes and lagging defenders couldn’t break up the zone entries that led to long offensive setups. Michigan controlled the pace of play all game by using that speed, unlike last season.

Freshman defenseman Luke Hughes played a prominent role in that, lurking closer to the top of the faceoff circle even when the Falcons threatened a breakout. Many

defensemen playing that far up would get burned. But Hughes’s confidence in his skating ability proved effective as he chased down anyone that slipped by him with ease. That kind of confidence — a trait Michigan coach Mel Pearson said reminded him of his brother Quinn Hughes — allows Hughes to make the most of his ice time.

The same rang true for senior forward Jimmy Lambert, whose speed looked deadly in the bottom six. Lambert, Hughes and junior forward Eric Ciccolini swarmed Rose as the first period waned. With a little over 50 seconds on the clock, all three crashed the net as Bowling Green’s defenders could only watch. Before they could even poke their sticks at the loose puck, the red light cast a glowing aura on the goal. The Wolverines’ speed won again. Speed in the bottom six could be an X-factor against tough opponents. As Michigan’s stars draw the undivided attention of opposing defensemen, speed like Lambert’s can bring advantages against worn-out players. That difference could lead to secondary scoring in close contests, something that didn’t often happen in intense games last year. While there’s no guarantee that this speed will stack up against teams like Duluth or Minnesota — teams full of talent and conditioned to a T — the increase in speed could bode well for forcing the pace of play down the line. With as much talent as this roster boasts, the Wolverines can turn that speed into additional goals.

If Michigan can keep up its speed, the wolf will be eating more often than not.

GRACE BEAL/Daily In their final non-scoring tune-up, the Michigan women’s tennis team won the Michigan Invitational.

CONNOR EAREGOOD

Daily Sports Writer

ALLISON ENGVIST/Daily Jimmy Lambert added speed to Michigan’s roster this weekend in it’s exhibition matchup against Bowling Green.

The game was in a deadlock, neither team converting their chances. That is, until 21 minutes into the second half, when Michigan men’s soccer team junior defender Brennan Callow got called for a tripping foul, setting up an Indiana penalty kick. Forward Victor Bezerra buried the shot to make it a 1-0 game.

The Wolverines (5-4-1 overall, 2-1-0 Big Ten) played the Hoosiers (5-3-1, 2-2-0) in Bloomington, Ind., on Friday night. Looking for their second straight Big Ten victory, they found themselves trailing late in the second half. But following a game-saving goal in the 81st minute, Michigan forced it into overtime, where senior forward Derick Broche would score to win the game, 2-1.

The first half of the game was controlled by Indiana, which connected on deep passes to set up scoring opportunities and allowed its forwards to create traffic in front of the Wolverines’ net.

“They kind of worked our goalkeepers and we did not do that from our standpoint,” Michigan head coach Chaka Daley said.

Despite their abundance of chances, the Hoosiers couldn’t capitalize on any of them. Wolverines freshman goaltender Hayden Evans was up to the challenge, making three first-half saves.

With almost a minute left in the first half, Indiana defender Daniel Munie worked his way to the front of the net for a clean shot. Evans, however, made a huge stop in front of the net to keep the game scoreless heading into halftime.

Michigan wished to have more scoring chances in the first half. Instead, it was rewarded with stellar play from their goaltender. Every time the Hoosiers made a shot on net, Evans came up with the save, finishing the game with seven total saves.

Nine minutes into the second half, Indiana moved the ball down the field to find forward Maouloune Goumballe wide open for an almost certain goal on the right side of the net. But at the last second, Evans deflected the ball out of bounds with the fingertips of his gloves.

“Evans was strong and solid,” Daley said. “He gave us a chance when it was 0-0.”

Following Callow’s goal, it appeared as if the Hoosiers were going to walk away victorious. The momentum was heavily on their

Michigan men’s soccer completes comeback for 2-1 OT victory side, with the home crowd also MARK PATRICK providing energy. But Michigan Daily Sports Writer did not fold. After booting the ball deep into Indiana’s defensive third, junior forward Evan Rasmussen scored a critical goal to tie the game. “We caused them some problems,” Daley said. “It was not a comfortable afternoon for their guys in the back.” The momentum carried into overtime as the Wolverines were able to get the ball into the Hoosiers’ zone. Rasmussen sent a corner kick into the box, which found the head of senior defender Declan Gaffney. Gaffney sent the ball to Broche, who knocked in the overtime winner, their first shot of overtime. “We asked a lot of questions, we asked more questions than they could answer,” Daley said. “That was ultimately the difference in the end.”

For years, Eddie Elinburg was the go-to guy.

“If you called me at three in the morning, I’d be there to change your tire,” Elinburg said. “People counted on me.”

But since losing both of his legs in a hit-and-run vehicle accident in 2011, things have been different for Elinburg.

“Now, I have to go to others for help,” Elinburg said. “I just wasn’t used to that. There were some pretty hard times.”

Through sports, however, Elinburg was able to begin restoring balance to his life. Individual sports like pool, darts and horseshoes came first. Once he had mastered those, Elinburg began to seek out other adaptive sports, hoping to challenge himself and boost his fitness.

Unfortunately, these opportunities were few and far between. Despite his motivation, Elinburg struggled to find any adaptive sports programs in Canton, Mich., where he lives. At one point, Elinburg frequently took days off work and to make the hourlong trip to Lansing, just to take part in a few hours of adaptive sports programming at Michigan State.

This summer, Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness (ASAF) program began hosting biweekly wheelchair basketball and tennis drop-in sessions open to Michigan staff, faculty, and students, as well as all members of the community. Through this programming, a full 10 years after his injury, Elinburg finally gained the reliable, local access to competitive adaptive sports programming he had so desired.

“When (they) reached out, my head lit up like a Christmas tree,” Elinburg said. “I don’t know who sent the email, but I want to thank them for that, because that’s what’s keeping me happy.”

Elinburg attended wheelchair basketball practices consistently throughout the summer, improving markedly as a player with the help of veteran player-coaches Alex Saleh and Spencer Heslop. In fact, despite only having begun playing wheelchair basketball recently, Elinburg will suit up for Michigan this fall as part of the program’s first ever NWBA team.

While Elinburg’s story is rounded out by a happy ending, his struggle to find adaptive sports and fitness opportunities is unfortunately common among individuals with disabilities.

“I was injured just over five years ago and I’ve been trying to scope out adaptive sports programs ever since,” said Laura Stark, a fellow Canton resident and Elinburg’s soonto-be NWBA teammate. “I feel like they’re there, but they’re not advertised well.”

Stark, like Elinburg, was a frequent drop-in attendee this summer and has taken quickly to wheelchair basketball. While she’s always been active, she longed for the opportunity to play as part of a team.

“Wheelchair basketball is a community,” Stark said. “A lot of other adaptive sports I’ve played in the past are single player, where it’s only up to you. But when I play team sports, that’s where I feel the most value comes.”

For Michigan ASAF Assistant Director Erik Robeznieks, experiences like Elinburg’s and Stark’s are precisely why hosting consistent drop-in programming has been such an important goal for the program.

“By hosting these sessions, we’re trying to leverage our status as part of a great sporting and academic institution like the University of Michigan to address the gap that exists in the community for people with physical disabilities to engage in recreation, leisure and competitive adaptive sport,” Robeznieks said.

While providing a space for individuals to participate in adaptive sport is an important step toward Robeznieks’s goal, it’s not enough on its own to ensure that individuals who want to play can do so.

For example, sport wheelchairs are shockingly expensive. This cost, combined with the fact that individuals with disabilities are employed at approximately one-tenth the rate of those without, creates an insurmountable financial barrier for many.

To address this, with donor support, the ASAF program offers their programming completely free of charge while also providing sport wheelchairs and other equipment to all who need it.

“Even if it was free to play but you had to bring your own equipment, I think the numbers would drop significantly,” Stark said. “I couldn’t play. I don’t own a sports chair. Even for those in the disability community who do have jobs, you have to spend so much of your money on medical care and things like that — it makes a world of difference to be able to play for free.” Echoed Elinburg: “Right now, if this wasn’t free, the activity I’d be doing is probably nothing.” The obstacles to providing equitable access to sports and fitness don’t stop with finances.

Many without disabilities simply lack an understanding of why providing adaptive sports is such a vital part of any community, leading to a lack of motivation among organizations and institutions to really do anything about the problem. To that end, the program stresses that the programming is open to all, regardless of disability status. “Through drop-ins, we can bring adaptive sports to life in a sense,” Robeznieks said.

“We can actually get people involved and allow them to form a personal connection with adaptive sports. That will allow them to … change whatever preexisting bias they may have, and it will allow them to appreciate adaptive sports for the sake of its skill and the athletic ability that is required to participate.”

Added Stark: “Bringing in people outside of the disability community

Through drop-in adaptive sports, UM ASAF bridges gap in community is great because it shows that the GRAYSON BUNING sport is just as difficult this way as it Daily Sports Writer is when played by able-bodied people. I hope that people will start to see that a wheelchair isn’t just a piece of medical equipment — anyone who wants to play wheelchair basketball needs a wheelchair. I think that will do a lot for awareness.” While Robeznieks stresses that the most important goal of the drop-in programming is to provide equitable access to sports and fitness, he also hopes that by opening the program’s doors to all members of the community, they can accelerate the development of an elite-level wheelchair basketball team. “We’re only going to be able to form competitive intercollegiate teams if we’re able to recruit athletes,” Robeznieks said. “But a common problem that we’ve had in trying to recruit athletes is them telling us to come back when we have a team.” By participating in the NWBA’s adult division, the program will be able to field a team of both Michigan students and local community members. This way, the program can market itself to prospective athletes as having an established squad. Eventually, after the program can field a team in the intercollegiate division, this more recreational adultCOURTESY OF GRAYSON BUNING division level team can continue The UM ASAF program offers free drop-in adaptive sports programming open to students and Ann to serve as a competitive outlet for Arbor community members. community members like Elinburg and Stark. After the success of dropin programming this summer, Michigan ASAF plans to continue offering wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis and adaptive track and field sessions indefinitely — still free and still open to all, with or without disabilities.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Displaying skill and precision on top of sheer speed, Roman Wilson has shown his growth as a receiver so far this season.

Coming out of high school, football fans knew Roman Wilson as a burner. Considering his 4.37 40-yard dash time, that reputation was warranted.

But during Saturday’s 38-17 win over Wisconsin, the sophomore wide receiver stood out for other reasons. His team-leading six catches and 81 yards were a product of crisp route running and separation rather than pure speed. Both marks also set a new career-high, a testament to his connection with junior quarterback Cade McNamara.

“(Wilson) is growing leaps and bounds,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Saturday. “… It’s almost like some of those X-Men movies, where the little kid or the teenage X-Man finds their power. Now they know they have it, and they’re using it. It’s really exciting to watch as a coach.”

Watching Wilson’s high school film, it doesn’t take long to notice a trend. The Hawaii native made a name for himself as a national recruit by repeatedly burning defensive backs over the top, helping Saint Louis High School win four consecutive state titles. Wilson racked up long touchdowns during the fall and spent the spring running sprints and jumping for the school’s track and field team.

But during his first two years in Ann Arbor, he’s grown in ways beyond blazing speed. Wilson is no longer just a deep threat, and some of his most important catches for the Wolverines so far have come on short and intermediate throws.

Take Saturday, for example. With Michigan facing a 4th-and-two near midfield, McNamara hit Wilson in stride on a short out route to move the sticks. At another point, McNamara took a downfield shot to Wilson, who timed the ball perfectly for a leaping catch on 3rd-and-10.

Roman Wilson’s big day shows how far he’s come “Roman Wilson, of anybody, had DANIEL DASH the best day,” Harbaugh said Monday. Daily Sports Editor “Offensive player of the game, et cetera. Fabulous-type catches.” Wilson no longer has to rely on speed alone to make an impact on Saturdays. After developing the footwork to run short routes to perfection and the skills to make contested catches against physical Big Ten cornerbacks, he’s proven himself as a versatile threat. Senior wideout Ronnie Bell’s season-ending knee injury left the team’s receiving corps with plenty of questions, but Wilson’s emergence has provided an answer. He lacks Bell’s experience, but his rapid growth has allowed him to find consistency over the first half of the season. “I don’t know how much you can really tell from just looking at somebody’s eyes, but the demeanor,” Harbaugh said. “And then he’s catching the ball. Getting open, catching the ball, blocking. His blocking has improved so much.” In just five weeks, Wilson has already matched his reception total and surpassed his yardage total from last season. And as he comes into his own, the Wolverines are reaping the benefits of establishing yet another offensive weapon. But unlike the X-Men finding their powers, Wilson’s drastic improvement isn’t a sudden discovery. “Roman’s been working,” senior receiver Daylen Baldwin said Monday. “All the receivers, we’ve just been pushing each other in ways I don’t even think we know at the end of the day. I go out there and make a good block, that might inspire Roman to make a good block. Roman goes out there and makes a good catch, that might inspire me to make sure I catch the next couple footballs that come to me. “We’re pushing each other without even noticing, and we’re making each other a lot better.”

The Wolverines are a contender, just like they thought they’d be

MADISON — On Tuesday, Mazi Smith stood beside Schembechler Hall and grinned in anticipation of the Michigan football team’s pending trip to Wisconsin.

“Going into somebody else’s place and trying to take it from them… it shows you who you really are,” the junior defensive tackle said.

Early in the fourth quarter on Saturday, when junior receiver Cornelius Johnson executed a toetap touchdown catch in the corner of the endzone, posing in front of an abandoned student section, who they are was abundantly clear. The 5-0 Wolverines, fresh off a 38-17 thrashing of the Badgers, are a legitimate contender.

In essence, they are who they thought they were — it’s just a version of themselves that few others envisioned.

“These last few years, we’ve done enough flinching,” junior defensive back Dax Hill said after the game. “We didn’t want to feel that way anymore.”

For the past six months, Michigan has spoken ad nauseum about its culture change, rattling off platitudes about a revamped locker room and the benefits of a young coaching staff. From an outsider’s perspective, those buzzword-ladened refrains tend to sound artificial. Without any tangible on-field success, they would ring hollow.

Through five games, the Wolverines have made good on their word.

“We’ve taken control of this year and I think we made the changes that we wanted,” junior quarterback Cade McNamara said. “We know that’s not gonna be easy to be different, but so far what you’re seeing right now is just a reflection of everything that we’ve preached, everything we tried to make a difference for in the offseason.”

Camp Randall Stadium has been a house of horrors for Michigan for the better part of this century. Before Saturday, the Wolverineswere winless in Madison since 2001. Often, the trip to Wisconsin has induced a sobering reality, rendering any sort of early season success a facade.

This go-around had the opposite effect, solidifying Michigan’s undefeated record. The Wolverines both exorcised demons from past visits and backed up their seasonlong conviction.

McNamara spent the majority of September insisting that he was capable of leading Michigan’s offense through the passing game. The fact that he beat out 5-star freshman J.J. McCarthy without a competition and steered the Wolverines to a 4-0 start did little to stave off critics.

And yet on Saturday, playing in front of fans on the road for the first time in his collegiate career, McNamara threw for 197 yards and two touchdowns while Michigan’s potent rushing attack managed just 112 yards on 44 carries. McNamara had his fair share of hiccups, but he showed poise under pressure, made throws on the run and executed on a number of critical third and fourth down conversions.

The defensive line, which seems to be perpetually gashed by Wisconsin’s run game, wreaked havoc in the backfield, creating continuous pressure and allowing just 43 rushing yards. You wouldn’t be faulted for doing a double-take as Michigan players shedded blocks and flew around the edge with ease, demoralizing the Badgers’ typically dominant offensive line.

“A lot of our players, it’s a pretty young team,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said. “It’s almost like some of those X-Men movies where the little kid, the teenage X-Men find the power. Now they know they have it, and they’re using it. It’s really exciting to watch as a coach.”

This sort of growth and improvement from last season’s disastrous 2-4 campaign wasn’t supposed to happen this quickly. Sure, Wisconsin and Washington, who stand as the Wolverines’ two marquee victories on the season, are programs seemingly marred in down years. But Michigan entered this season in the same boat, with question marks up and down the roster and expectations on the floor.

From the very first possession, Michigan played with a sense of urgency, representative of a team conscious of the game’s importance. The Wolverines twice went for it on fourth down in their own half of the field. In total, they converted four out of five fourth down attempts, including a one-yard touchdown run from McCarthy.

“It’s a statement, a statement play,” sophomore receiver RomanwWilson said of the fourth down aggression. “We want to win and we’re not gonna back down.”

The game featured everything that Michigan fans have spent the last few weeks clamoring for. There was a more ordinary runpass balance, with 30 passing attempts compared to 44 carries; a blend of creativity, with a series of end-arounds to sophomore receiver A.J. Henning and even a 34-yard flea-flicker touchdown to Johnson; and even semi-regular appearances from McCarthy, whose speed adds an intriguing layer to the offense.

That’s not to say the win was perfect, but no game is going to be flawless. Michigan proved it can win in spite of its shortcomings, a trait of resiliency absent from last year’s group and one that Harbaugh said he felt when he arrived at the stadium Saturday morning. “A vibe that they weren’t gonna be denied,” Harbaugh said. The prevailing image of Saturday’s demolition occurred JARED in between the third and fourth GREENSPAN quarter, when “Jump Around,” Wisconsin’s adopted anthem, blared through the stadium. The Michigan sideline, players and coaches alike, spilled onto the field, thrusting their arms into the air and waving towels. Across the way, Wisconsin, trailing 20-10, stood stoic. It’s a scene that seemed inconceivable just a few weeks ago. And yet, in spite of the celebration, the Wolverines continue to maintain the mentality that has carried them this far. “We have big goals,” junior edge rusher David Ojabo said. “You can’t come in all complacent. It’s just day-by-day, week-by-week. Can’t be highfiving each other thinking we won a championship. We haven’t done anything yet.” In that context, they haven’t. But they have proven to be a bona fide contender in the Big Ten, something few would have thought a month back — except for the Wolverines themselves.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Throughout a dominant victory in Wisconsin, the Michigan football team continued to make good on its early season convictions.

SportsWednesday: In win over Wisconsin, running game shows ofensive potential

Earlier this week, an SB Nation poll showed that the majority of Michigan football fans weren’t confident in junior Cade McNamara as the starting quarterback.

It’s an easy conclusion to draw when — prior to this week’s matchup — more than 80% of the Wolverines’

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touchdowns

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had come on the ground and especially when, other than an 87-yard touchdown against Northern Illinois, McNamara had done little to show he can carry the offense when the run game can’t.

That changed on Saturday. Against Wisconsin, he showed that mistrust was doled out prematurely.

It’s no secret that up until this point, Michigan has primarily chosen to run the ball. Coming into this Saturday, the Wolverines were averaging 290.8 rushing yards per game compared to just 164 in the air. Meanwhile, Wisconsin holds the nation’s top rushing defense, having held its first three opponents to an average of 23 rushing yards.

And Michigan knows what happens when a team figures out how to stop its run game. It happened last weekend: Rutgers held the Wolverines to a season-low 112 rushing yards, and McNamara did little to pick up the slack. He played a decent first half, completing 8-of-11 passes for 156 yards, but his performance fell off later in the game, completing just 1-of-5 passes for seven yards in the second half. Michigan eked out a win while relying on a stymied run game that kept trying to shove a round peg into a square hole. Still, the struggles did little to damper Michigan’s confidence in its passing game.

“I think throughout the season, our intermediate stuff has been really good,” McNamara said on Sept. 27. “We’ve thrown it deep in the game, (and) we’ve been able to do that really well, so I think we’re building. … When we’re in those scenarios where we have to throw our way back into a game, I think I’m more than capable of doing that.”

And on Saturday, McNamara and his receivers followed through. It started with a 34-yard flea-flicker touchdown pass to junior receiver Cornelius Johnson in the first quarter and ended with another aerial play to Johnson that put Michigan up by 21 in the fourth quarter. In between those highlightreel moments, McNamara proved himself with smart, consistent second-half plays that culminated in 17 completed passes on 28 attempts for a total of 197 years — a seasonhigh.

While the passing game was markedly improved from previous weeks, it still wasn’t perfect. The first half was riddled with juggled balls and missed targets. McNamara threw 10 incomplete passes in the first two quarters. While some fault was on the receivers, McNamara’s throws were frequently misplaced, often lagging behind the route-runner.

The offensive performance was as much a testament to the receivers as the quarterbacks themselves. With about 10:48 minutes left in the third quarter, sophomore receiver Roman Wilson sprung up behind a Badger cornerback to snag a seeminglyuncatchable 38-yard bomb from McNamara on third-and-ten. Four

In leading Michigan to a dominant victory in Madison, Cade McNamara continued to silence critics. MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

plays later, J.J. McCarthy snuck the ball into the end zone with a one-yard rush.

Often, McCarthy proved himself to be a valuable supplement to McNamara’s offense. In the fourth quarter, the freshman quarterback extended the Wolverines’ lead to 28 with a 56-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Daylen Baldwin. The flashes of brilliance that have come from McCarthy, combined with fits and bursts from McNamara so far this season, are leading some Michigan fans to hope for a switch in the starter.

But, if the Wolverines’ coaching staff is to be believed, McNamara’s starting position has never been in danger. Nor should it be.

In the season opener, McNamara registered 136 yards for two touchdowns. At the time, the mark was the second-highest in his Michigan career. Two weeks later against the Huskies, that number was up to 191. Two weeks later — this weekend against the Badgers — he topped it again for 197 yards.

None of this is to say that those are stellar, game-changing numbers. But they’re going in the right direction.

By the time the second half started, McNamara’s mistakes were few and far between. The throws and catches looked much cleaner in the final two quarters, evidenced by McNamara completing 6-of-7 attempts.

“I kind of knew going into this game that it would be difficult to run the ball,” McNamara said after Saturday’s game. “I accepted the challenge, and we got the dub.”

Why start a competition at quarterback after Michigan won on the road at Camp Randall for the first time since 2001? After the first underdog win of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure? After a 5-0 start to a season that began with bare-bones expectations?

As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t throw a wrench in your entire offensive scheme to fix it.

Maybe McNamara won’t throw an 85-yard-game-winning touchdown against Ohio State next month, but, for now, he’s getting the job done.

And that’s all Michigan fans should ask for.

SPORTSWednesday SPORTSWednesday

17-38 Hey, what’s up, hello Madeline Hinkley/Daily Design by Sophie Grand

BRENDAN ROOSE

Daily Sports Editor

MADISON — The narratives entering Saturday’s game were plentiful.

Despite five different opportunities, the Michigan football team hadn’t won at Camp Randall Stadium since 2001. In those matchups, Wisconsin outscored the Wolverines by a combined 75 points, and in the last two meetings specifically, the Badgers emphatically exposed Michigan’s greatest flaws, from its weak run defense to its inept rushing offense.

Each time, it seemed, the worst version of the Wolverines would arrive in Madison, take a punch and fall helplessly to the mat.

On Saturday, Michigan punched back.

The Wolverines (5-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) trounced Wisconsin (1-3, 0-2), 38-17, earning a marquee road win for coach Jim Harbaugh’s rebuilding program. Unlike in previous years, Michigan managed to absorb the Badgers’ best shots while remaining in control the whole way.

“They did beat us the past two years,” junior receiver Cornelius Johnson said. “… So we really wanted to make sure we put a special emphasis on this one, to come into their building and make sure we put something good on tape.”

Somewhat surprisingly, many of the Wolverines’ best strikes came through the air. After averaging a meager 164 passing yards per game going into Saturday, Michigan and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis recognized that Wisconsin would try to stop the run — it was best in the country in doing so.

So, from the start, Gattis opted for a closer balance between the run and the pass. Despite some early hiccups, junior quarterback Cade McNamara boosted the offense when needed.

He had help from sophomore receiver Roman Wilson, who used his speed to create separation where he hadn’t in previous games. On a 3rd-and-14 midway through the first quarter, McNamara hit Wilson on a quick out for a 12-yard gain, then found him again on a crossing route to convert on fourth down. A play later, McNamara connected with junior receiver Cornelius Johnson on a perfectly executed flea flicker to open up the scoring. A pair of field goals from senior kicker Jake Moody extended that lead.

“I think the difference in us this year is that, when we’re expecting to be in a fight, we’re confident we’re gonna win that fight,” McNamara said. “And I think this team didn’t panic at all. When the fight came to us, we attacked back.”

Still, the Badgers didn’t lie down. Despite finding practically no offense for much of the first two quarters, the usually unreliable arm of quarterback Graham Mertz led Wisconsin to a field goal and one touchdown drive that cut Michigan’s lead to three at the half. For the first time all game, the Wolverines appeared vulnerable.

In the second half, though, Michigan came out swinging. After a 38-yard deep ball to Wilson set up a 1st-and-goal from the 10, freshman quarterback J.J. McCarthy ultimately snuck it in for the Wolverines’ second touchdown of the game.

“It’s a tribute to our brotherhood, man,” junior edge rusher David Ojabo said. “We came into the locker room (at halftime), and we just said like, ‘Let’s not panic. We got each other’s back through ups and downs.’ We really weren’t worried.”

From there, it was Wisconsin that failed to recover. After a blistering sack from Michigan junior safety Daxton Hill knocked a struggling Mertz out of the game, the Badgers’ already poor offense slipped into full-on anemia, tallying two punts, a fumble and an interception from Hill on its next four drives.

The Wolverines’ offense, meanwhile, continued to deliver blows — first with a field goal after the fumble recovery and then with a back-corner touchdown pass to Johnson that sealed the victory.

“They had that kind of vibe about them from when they first stepped in the locker room when we got there early this morning,” Harbaugh said. “The vibe was they weren’t gonna be denied, and they weren’t gonna flinch when punches were thrown.”

Even if Wisconsin isn’t the marquee opponent it normally is — Mertz’s struggles throughout the season have mostly derailed the team’s offense — Michigan’s win still represents a turning point for the program. The Badgers entered this game as the nation’s top rushing defense; the Wolverines were an offense intent on keeping the ball on the ground. It was clear Michigan would face a barrage of quick hits.

For what feels like the first time in forever, the Wolverines dealt some knockout blows of their own. We’ll see how they deal with the heavyweights later on.

When sustainability feels impossible

Climate change is ravaging the planet. Wildlife populations are diminishing rapidly around the world. The Earth is dying — and it’s all our fault.

This mantra cycles through my head every day, guiding my actions as I move through my daily routine.

“Can you turn off the lights?” “Did you make sure to shut off the TV before you left the room?” “You don’t need to keep the water running while you’re washing dishes; you only need it for rinsing.”

I have said all of these things and more to my roommates on a regular basis. Even the smallest action left undone fills me with anxiety about the possible negative impact it could have on the environment. I stopped eating red meat. I attend climate protests at state Capitol buildings. I walk or take the bus on campus. My mindset has gone beyond just doing what I can to promote the environmentalist cause — my stressors have instead morphed into a never-ending checklist that must be completed or the world will fall apart. Yet, even if I do accomplish every task, my personal actions still won’t be enough to stop what’s already happening. It won’t be enough to erase what generations of human activity, industry and development have already done to the natural world.

The barrage of warning signs indicating the planet’s Armageddon are inescapable in today’s world. Reports of dangerous weather events, species endangerment and worsening climate emergencies are constant reminders of the state of the Earth. Whether seen on the news, viewed on an Instagram story or learned in class, distressing details of these issues flood every medium of communication. It was precisely the prevalence of these crises that inspired me to pursue a minor in Environment when coming to the University of Michigan. And despite knowing my education in environmental science will only make me more prepared to take on the challenges of climate change, it also reminds me of everything I’m up against.

It’s hard to feel inspired to create change when your classes are designed to inform you about increasing emissions and the detrimental effects of the Anthropocene.

All of these experiences force me to constantly ask myself: Are my individual actions pointless? Do we have to completely redesign our lives to make a “sustainable” world? Is it too late to do anything?

Sustainability is Trending

In an age of widespread environmental awareness and activism, the concept of a sustainable lifestyle has become more mainstream, especially among members of Gen Z. Reusable water bottles, thrifted clothing and metal straws are staples in many young people’s homes. Many restaurants, and even U-M dining halls, have shifted to compostable packaging to reduce their plastic waste.

Large corporations have joined in on the trend to appeal to today’s environmentally conscious consumers. In 2018, Starbucks changed its disposable cups to a design that doesn’t require the use of a straw. In April of this year, they launched their Earth Month Game: an interactive experience in which customers can play games of chance or complete Tetris-like puzzles right from their phones. As they complete the levels, players can choose which environmental initiative they’d like the company to support, including clean water and habitat rehabilitation. Participants also get the chance to win in-store prizes while learning about what drink or food substitutions they can make for a more sustainable diet.

On a surface level, these actions show great initiative. In a society where a small number of companies are responsible for almost threequarters of greenhouse gas emissions, seeing large corporations actively spread information on sustainable consumption seems like a step in the right direction. But there is a caveat to consider: Though these big-name businesses are promoting sustainable practices, their approach puts all of the responsibility on the consumer instead of the producer. In turn, they fail to adapt the very actions they’re advocating for. And in reality, the “steps” they have taken to become more environmentally conscious may not even truly be helping: less than 1% of the world’s plastic pol- lution comes from disposable straws and the combination of their strawless lids and cup actually equates to a greater amount of plastic than their original design.

Starbucks is just one of many companies that advertises their commitment to sustainable practices while neglecting to examine or address the actions that are actually the most problematic. This phenomenon, called greenwashing, allows companies to market their “green” actions for a better public image without making true positive change.

Volkswagen and IKEA have also been confronted with similar issues of greenwashing. In 2015, the car company used a specially designed device to pass emissions tests without actually reducing their carbon waste. As for IKEA, the company has historically been praised for its sustainable practices, including a “buy-back” program where they repurchased customers’ old furniture for resale at a reduced price. Yet despite this admirable effort, the furniture conglomerate was later linked to illegal logging practices in Ukraine.

In many cases, it seems like sustainability is used as a marketing ploy instead of an actual commitment to improvement, with companies putting their “best foot forward” for the sake of advertising and consumer appeal. Dr. Stuart Kirsch, a professor of Anthropology at the University, criticized the mass market’s commodification of the term “sustainability” in an interview. He emphasized that those who do pursue eco-friendly actions will be better off in the long run as the government implements more environmental regulations.

“I have raised concerns about the ease with which we use the term ‘sustainability,’ to the point that we sometimes lose track of what it actually means,” Kirsch said. “Corporations benefit from their appropriation of the terms of their critique, claiming to be responsible, sustainable and transparent while watering these terms down or redefining them in ways that reproduce the status quo.”

But the issue of sustainability doesn’t just affect large corporations — small businesses feel the impact on a much more day-to-day scale. Due to their size, non-corporate companies are often left behind in the race for sustainability, with items such as compostable packaging often much more expensive than other standardized products.

If these large-scale corporations are doing little, or nothing, to improve environmental conditions, placing pressure on the individual to change their habits can feel overwhelming and almost impossible in a modern capitalist society with so many other issues to address. In her Ted Talk, “What to do when climate change feels unstoppable,” activist

Clover Hogan dives into this concept of “eco-anxiety:” a helpless, counterproductive and guilty feeling that many young people experience as we witness disaster after disaster arise as a result of climate change and human activity. She specifies that ecoanxiety has culminated in a surge of mental health issues for many individuals around the world.

This eco-anxiety is the root of my mindset as I complete my daily checklist, repeating my mantra in my head. But why is this mentality so particularly prevalent among individuals in our age group? Hogan perfectly articulates why Gen Z-ers especially feel this immense pressure to solve the world’s environmental problems: “Young people today have not created this reality. We’ve inherited it. Yet we’re told we’re the last generation with a chance to save the fate of humanity … And in the war against nature, young minds are the collateral.”

Dominance of the Collective

In the case of sustainability, the dissonance between individual and collective action can result in fear or distress over the choices we make: Should we even bother playing our part in the push for environmentalism if we don’t make substantial change, or should we shoulder the burden of everyone else not advocating?

It’s an example of the collective action problem in which individuals believe that their role in a large scenario will not make a difference in the grand scope of the issue. This occurs within many contexts, including election voting.

BY SARAH STOLAR, STATEMENT COLUMNIST Page Design by Sarah Chung

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Being a woman and having h air

Comical threads fill websites like Reddit and Quora with anonymous users who pose questions like these: “Why do many of the extreme feminists have short hair or buzz cuts? Is it a symbol of not conforming to long hair, or do they just like short hair? No hate or spite started this. It’s just my curiosity.”

The fixation on women and short hair is by no means unique to the modern-day. In 1915, the famous ballroom dancer Irene Castle cut her hair just below her ears for convenience ahead of an appendectomy — she kept it short after the surgery, creating the “Castle Bob.” Castle, a reputation trend-setter, rattled American traditionalists with her new look. In 1920, the Women’s Suffrage movement gained traction with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, and as more women joined the workforce during World War I, short hair took on a new meaning as an act against traditional ideas of femininity. Following suit, mid20th-century actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Joan Crawford sported bobs, pervading popular culture with the ethos of an independent, modern woman. The 1970s and 80s brought layers and texture to the hairstyle, and by the end of the 20th century, the pixie cut saw a rise in popularity. Victoria Beckham and Halle Berry, in the early 2000s, continued the look of short hair with stacked bobs and tapered cuts.

Fictional worlds, of course, have reflected this trend: the unsettling Margo Tenenbaum from “The Royal Tenenbaums,” the odd Amélie from “Amélie,” troubled Susanna Kaysen from “Girl, Interrupted.” The alluring Mia Wallace, from “Pulp Fiction,” Mathilda in “Léon: The Professional,” the prodigious Beth Harmon in “The Queen’s Gambit.”

These characters’ short haircuts, while varying in shortness, ultimately achieve a familiar brand of identity: cool girl. Cool unsettling girl. Cool odd girl. Cool troubled girl. Cool alluring girl. Cool troubled troubled girl. Cool prodigy girl. So it seems that popular culture’s idea of a cool girl, a postmodern girl, is one that makes a show of her femininity while also rejecting it — an intriguing contradiction that directors tend to like.

What exactly are we doing when we associate say, a haircut, with an identity, a persona? Would Margo Tenenbaum still be the same character, still have the same intrigue, if she had long hair? Or if she didn’t smoke cigarettes or wear a shock of a fur coat? Appearance as identity is a dangerous thing to buy into, except of course, when it makes for a good film.

In our postmodern world, appearance as identity has only become more of a complex and sticky matrix. Anthony Giddens has a cerebral term for what we’ve endeavored our bodies to become: a “reflexive project.” In our 21st century, the presentation of the self has become more and more of a false narrative, a canvas onto which we project who we hope to become, not who we actually are. Who actually, then, are we? ~

I’ve always admired girls with short hair, especially if it’s especially short, hugging the jawline or swirling in curlier strands near the ears. I’ve seen the same woman with bobbed, wind-whipped, honey-colored hair biking down my street every week, earrings wagging, all business. After a week of seeing this woman and thinking hard about the state of my own appearance, how all of my clothes seemed to fit having short hair anyway, I got mine cut. It’s like by getting my hair cut just as short as hers, I might also attain her confidence, and maybe even her bike.

I wasn’t trying to make a statement by cutting my hair short, at least not consciously. I was just trying to get a haircut, to prove to myself that I can still do bold things and say to myself later that night in the harsh mirror of my bathroom, this suits me.

Could it be true that by walking out of the salon on a cool Monday, with the now exposed nape of my neck, I destabilized, on some level, my feminine side? I certainly felt lighter, less burdened. The curled ends of my hair bobbed with every step, animating my walk with a bit more energy than I usually carry.

Having such short hair feels like I’m wearing a costume, like the formidable Joan of Arc (the 1903 portrayal by Albert Lynch), or like the sleek Louise Brooks — like it’s not actually me, but instead some much cooler version, one I could never actually be.

This haircut feels jaded or makes me look jaded, even when I don’t intend to. And it’s always when I try to look disaffected that I feel the most affected, a comical sort of paradox that prevents me from putting on a show.

This haircut makes me feel French, and I am French, but French Canadian. I should’ve said: This haircut makes me feel French Parisian. This haircut feels like the vivid cool of smoking a cigarette for the first time, this haircut feels like drumming nails on countertops, this haircut feels like wearing gloves in painting class instead of not wearing them, a ladylike and cleanly thing to do which for so long I’ve avoided until my hands cracked dry from the oils.

This haircut feels like it exists between girl and lady, but I hate both of those words anyway. This haircut feels like the candied thrill of Coke in a glass bottle, this haircut feels like disobeying the grip of my ponytail holder every time I step out the door for a few miles at lunchtime, this haircut seems to accentuate my bad posture, this haircut feels like calling instead of texting, this haircut feels like the shapeless comfort of a shift dress, this haircut feels like the smart plunk of a chess piece touching down.

This haircut feels like the only poet I’ve ever really loved might be Frank O’Hara, this haircut feels like a holiday train ride, this haircut feels like its curls mimic the pensive windup of an analog clock, this haircut feels like not taking my makeup off before bed, this haircut feels like the acrid taste of whiskey, this haircut feels, when straightened into submission by the force of 410 degrees, like the unconvincing charm of a 1950s actress, this haircut feels like the purchase of a leather jacket which is somehow religious, this haircut feels like being late and not walking any faster, this haircut feels, especially when seen in silhouette, like I’ve become a paper doll, weightless and newly lovely.

This haircut feels like not replying to what is intended to provoke me, this haircut feels like reading the lucid prose of Rachel Cusk or Rachel Kushner, this haircut feels like only smiling when I want to, not because I have to, this haircut feels like the unmatched bliss of noise-canceling headphones, this haircut feels like not deleting search histories, unashamed of the curiosities and checkins, this haircut feels like skipping school, which is something I can’t do without a great big stomach ache coming on.

This haircut feels like the estranged voice of Aimee Mann in her hit song “Save Me,” this haircut feels like liking small talk for what it reveals about a person, this haircut feels like walking around in the rain without an umbrella, this haircut feels like it deals in the business of never being dull, being fearful of it actually, this haircut knows bad things always happen on Sundays, this haircut feels like dancing to “Fantastic Man” by William Onyeabor in spite of Sundays.

This haircut, then, feels like not caring, which is hard because all I’ve ever done is try to disguise the fact that I do indeed care. I care whether people like me or not, or if they could look at me on the street and say I can tell that you’re a good person, I care whether people like my writing or not, this very sentence. I care about what people would say if I were to, very suddenly, stop talking altogether.

This haircut, then, is who I feel I am but also who I wish I was because while I love Frank O’Hara, I don’t play chess and I, though I’m getting better at it, find it incredibly difficult not to respond to what provokes me. And I’m still scared of Sundays no matter how many miles I run the morning of. ~

“To what extent is ‘identity’ a normative ideal rather than a descriptive feature of experience?” asked Judith Butler in her groundbreaking 1990 book, “Gender Trouble.” After all, what really is our identity? Is it the choices we make? Is it the things we say? Is it what we believe, but don’t wish to discuss? Is it all of it or is it none of it?

I’ve joked around and said that I cut my hair so that I was more recognizable as an art major, and while this was mostly a joke, not all of it was. By cutting my hair, I may have been pushing against more conservative ideas about women’s appearances and femininity itself, but by cutting my hair, I also may have been playing into what I think I should look like.

I think, in fact I know, that I got my hair cut because I was bored of my appearance. I felt it lacked a certain intrigue, which is, most definitely, a sad belief of mine that has to do with performance: My identity, despite the first letter of the word, is not for me. It is for others to watch and to be entertained by.

But how, in the age we live in, could this not be the case?

We’re lying to ourselves when we say that we do things just because we want to. We may very well have desires that could look like our own, but those desires are shaped by the desires of others, à la René Girad’s mimetic theory. We want things because other people want them. We do things because other people do them.

BY TAYLOR SCHOTT, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

short

How a summer of church burnings ignited a new understanding of my religious identity BY MARY ROLFES STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

A few years ago, as part of a summer professional development experience, I was asked for the first time to complete a Social Identity Wheel. LSA’s Inclusive Teaching website describes the Social Identity Wheel as “an activity that encourages students to identify social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat them.” The version that LSA uses, and the one I completed, asks participants to identify themselves across 11 social identities (such as race, gender and socioeconomic status), and then to “categorize those identities based on which matter most in their self-perception and which matter most in others’ perception of them.”

Describing myself in terms of the 11 parameters was fairly straightforward, as was picking out the identities I “think about most often.” When I arrived at the second categorization question, identities I “think about least often,” only one of the 11 options jumped out as belonging here: “Religious or Spiritual Affiliation.” While I thought about some of my social identities more than others, spirituality fell far behind the rest — upon reflection, I realized I rarely thought about my religious affiliation at all. In fact, the only times I consciously pondered this specific identity were the instances in which I was specifically asked to identify it, whether it be on an online survey, a demographic form or a Social Identity Wheel. In these cases, I answered “agnostic” or, more often, “non-religious” and moved on to the next question. Religion simply did not feel like a part of my life — at least, not anymore — and nothing about my lack of a label seemed complicated until this summer. ***

In late May of this year, a mass grave containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children was found on the former grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. The school was part of an extensive residential school system sponsored by the Canadian government and administered by churches. Under the guise of providing an education to Indigenous children, Canada’s residential school system systematically stole Indigenous children from their families to remove them from their culture, strip them of their heritage and force them to assimilate to the white culture of Euro-Canadian colonizers. This effort is described as a “cultural genocide” by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The still-unknown number of Indigenous children that died in residential schools, and the disrespect with which their deaths were treated, demonstrates that the Canadian government’s effort to destroy Indigenous culture would be carried out no matter the cost, including the destruction of Indigenous lives.

At the schools, children were forbidden from speaking their own languages or acknowledging their heritage. They were given Anglo names and many were baptized against their families’ wishes. Their hair was cut short and they were dressed in Western-style uniforms. Many didn’t receive an education, either — the curriculum was focused on prayer, along with manual and domestic labor.

Along with the inherent cruelty of forcibly separating children from their family and culture, conditions at the residential schools were horrific. The “schools” were places of severe physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Tuberculosis was rampant, and Indigenous children in these schools died of the disease at a much higher rate than children in the general Canadian population. Conditions that contribute to the development and spread of tuberculosis, such as “malnutrition, overcrowding and poor ventilation” were common in the schools. As early as 1907, the chief medical officer of Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs noted this problem and urged the federal government to improve conditions and to have tuberculosis nurses on staff. He was not only ignored but also prevented from conducting further research and sharing his findings. Two present-day tuberculosis experts, looking back, believe the devastating impact of the disease in residential schools was not an accident, but rather the “result of deliberate neglect and mistreatment.”

Kamloops was affiliated with the Catholic Church until 1969 when the federal government took over operations, using it as a residence for a day school until its closing in 1978. It was only one of 139 facilities identified within the residential school system, which an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend. And yet the tragedy of the residential schools is not reserved to the distant past — the last residential school closed in 1996, only 25 years ago.

The discovery of the mass grave at Kamloops spurred calls for further investigation, and since late May, more than 1,000 unmarked graves of Indigenous children have been found in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Many of the former sites at which these tragedies are being uncovered were affiliated with the Catholic Church.

To be clear, the Catholic Church was not the only religious organization affiliated with these schools — the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches also oversaw the operation of schools within the system. But the Catholic Church was the one whose schools were associated with recent findings of unmarked graves, and therefore was the focus of scrutiny this summer. In the wake of this discovery, 68 Catholic churches across Canada were subsequently vandalized or burned in “suspicious” fires, some of which completely destroyed the churches. While no suspects or official motives have been identified, the burnings seemed to be an act of protest. Additionally, statues of Queen Victoria (the leader of the British Empire from 1837 to 1901, during which the Canadian Confederation was founded) and Queen Elizabeth II (Canada’s current head of state, a reminder of their colonialist past) were toppled as part of protests on Canada Day.

The vandalism was met with criticism from some, including from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who happens to be Catholic. He claimed that while he understood the anger, these acts were “actually depriving people who are in need of grieving and healing and mourning from places where they can grieve and reflect and look for support.” Brian Pallister, then the premier of Manitoba, also “strongly condemn(ed) acts of violence and vandalism,” calling it a “major setback” and urging Canadians to “come together” to advance “real reconciliation.”

The response among Indigenous leaders in Canada was more ambivalent. Arlen Dumas, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, expressed shock at the vandalism and said he “personally wouldn’t have participated.” But he also shared that the discovery of the unmarked graves had been “very triggering” and the events were a symbol of hurt, frustration and anger. Greg Gabriel, chief of the Penticton Indian Band, said his community had “mixed feelings” about the burning of Sacred Heart Church on their land; while the memory of the Roman Catholic Church’s subjugation was painful, the church had also become an integral part of their community. Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band expressed similar ambivalence about Sacred Heart Church, saying that while he doesn’t believe in the Catholic church, “some of (his) people do.” Other Indigenous leaders said the church burnings were “not in solidarity” with Indigenous peoples, worsening the strife of those in mourning and furthering the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

While vandalism may not have been the most productive response, the burnings demonstrate the visceral anger and hurt that the Catholic Church created through its role in the residential schools. These feelings are only exacerbated by the Church’s response to its past wrongdoings. The Church, along with the federal government, has resisted sharing the records that would, among other things, help identify the remains within the uncovered graves. Pope Francis has yet to explicitly apologize for the Catholic Church’s part in this cultural genocide. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops did recently issue an official apology for their role in the residential school system, after years of refusal to do so.

But this isn’t nearly enough.

When the Church resists taking full accountability or working cooperatively with reconciliation efforts, property destruction directed at a destructive organization may feel like the only outlet. It should be mentioned that, though there were concerns that church burnings could add to already significant wildfire risk, there is no evidence that anyone was killed or severely injured by the burnings, only that property was damaged. Yet some responses to the burnings seemed more concerned with the hypothetical lives that could have been lost than the Indigenous lives that were.

To be clear, Indigenous voices should have been prioritized in the responses to these tragic discoveries. While the vandalism may have generated mixed feelings for Indigenous communities, the condemnation of the church burnings on behalf of Indigenous leaders was clear, and their calls to end the violence and the further damage it was inflicting upon their communities should’ve been heeded immediately. But the destructive protests demonstrated that the discoveries of unmarked graves created anger, and perhaps felt personal, even to non-Indigenous people.

I am not Indigenous, nor even Canadian. But the events of this summer created an anger that felt personal for me as well. Of course, it reminded me that boarding schools analogous to Canada’s residential schools were operated in the United States — including three in Michigan and 16 in my home state of Minnesota — with the objective, summarized by Captain Richard H. Pratt, to “kill the Indian ... save the man.” But the events of this summer also made salient an aspect of my identity I hadn’t thought about in years. Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Illustration by Katherine Lee, Page Design by Sarah Chung

H o oked o n

VEGAN NUGGETS

BY ANNIE RAUWERDA, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

If we are what we eat, we’re a generation of chicken nuggets. I grew up eating fun finger food as an after-school snack and an easy dinner, sometimes in the shape of dinosaurs and Disney characters. Nuggets please even the pickiest of eaters (case in point: this teenager who ate chicken nuggets for 15 years and practically nothing else) and take just minutes to prepare. As an adult, I pass on meat for environmental reasons but I join a growing number of nugget-inclined consumers opting for meatless alternatives. We’ve created a demand, and top companies are battling tooth and nail to be our supply. With release after release of new imitation chicken, fall 2021 is shaping up to be the golden age of imitation chicken nuggets. What a time to be alive.

What happens when you take chicken nuggets, an obscenely processed food to begin with, and remove the only recognizable ingredient? The vegan form emerges out of the shadows, a mystery meat sans meat … so, just a mystery. They’re not just fried tofu. Depending on the brand, they’re a concoction of protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, wheat gluten and preservatives no one’s great-grandma would recognize. Chickenless chicken is a slew of paradoxes: both earthy and artificial, highly processed yet classified as a healthy alternative, plant-based but without any recognizable plants (clearly made inside a plant, though). They taste eerily similar to the real thing, a pinnacle of food science.

Vegan chicken nuggets also play into a nuggetobsessed culture, for they are more than just a food. A generation of young people uses “chicken nugget” as a term of endearment and paste slogans like “nugs not drugs” and “nug life” on water bottles and laptops. Such phrases not only signal an affinity for breaded chicken but also a knowing lameness, a message that the nugget-lover is down-to-earth and easy to please.

“Even though I look like a burnt chicken nugget, I still love myself,” said a little kid in a 2016 Vine.

“Chicken nuggets is like my family,” says another kid in another viral video, before eating the breaded poultry for breakfast.

The most retweeted tweet in English is a 17-year-old’s attempt to win free chicken nuggets from Wendy’s.

One of RedBubble’s chicken nugget products is a shirt that says “Chicky Nuggies” above an image of Yoda eating nuggets. There’s a sticker that says “26.2 (chicken nuggets eaten)” and others that read “Netflix and chicken nuggets.” Chicken nuggets have transcended sustenance and entered the realm of cultural obsession — similar to Trader Joe’s and wine, two other consumables with great PR. Buying nuggets brings back memories of childhood family dinners and play date snacks, of simpler times and simpler cuisines. You don’t need the chicken itself to get the same nostalgic experience. Like alcohol-free wine (which is surging in popularity), chickenless chicken is about more than taste: It’s about participating in culture. The deep-fried, faux-poultry confections, despite their obscure ingredients, fill a need—a cultural soft spot and a growing market share.

The fake chicken wars

Fake nuggets fill my freezer. Right now, my roommates and I have four different brands, each packed in earthy green tones and labeled with lawsuit-skirting phrases like “chickenless strips” and “chik’n.” One brand is Boca, a stalwart vegetarian brand started in the late 70s (now owned by Kraft Heinz) that boasts “the original chick’n veggie nugget.” I find that their nuggets are quite similar to Morning Star Farm’s (owned by the Kellog Company), another decades-old company: powdery breading and not too greasy. In contrast, the nuggets from Raised and Rooted (owned by Tyson Foods) are a greasy nostalgia trip to McDonald’s play places; they waft umami flavors through the house and pack a deliciously huge caloric punch. We’ve also bought Earth Grown, Gardein, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods brands. Lightlife has new tenders and filets, MorningStar has Incogmeato Chik’n, and Nestle is investing in fake meat too.

It’s a packed market, but two booming rivals hog a lot of recent press: Impossible and Beyond Meat. Like Coke and Pepsi, the Whopper and the Big Mac, Starbucks and Dunkin’, the biggest difference between the two powerhouses is the branding, not the products. This year, both Impossible and Beyond have branched out from fake beef and taken a highly publicized stab at recreating chicken.

The fake meat giants, which boast millions in seed funding, are focused on converting meateaters. This month, Impossible came out with new vegan nuggets, and rival startup Beyond Meat is coming to the freezer aisle, too. After discontinuing its disappointing imitation chicken in 2019, Beyond is trying again. Its fava-bean-based tenders, which have been at restaurants since July, are coming to grocery stores like Walmart as soon as October.

Standing beside the big rivals is the cool kid of fake meat startups, Simulate (formerly Nuggs), which is led by a 22-year-old from Australia named Ben Pasternak. The company is a media darling, and its branding is unconventional — unlike the earthy hues of other brands, Simulate is less “veggie” and more “edgy.” In a recent post, the brand’s official Instagram account parodied social justice slideshows with an absurdist story about Iceland. It starts with “What’s going on in Iceland right now and how you can help” and proceeds to describe a narrator’s “friend Jared” who said the narrator had “’mice hands,’ which is just so rude of him, because he knows I’m so sensitive about my small hands.” Later, the post shows a drawing of the narrator’s hand with a Nugg for scale. It didn’t make any sense at all, yet that was the point.

Steeped in up-to-the-minute meme culture, and a whopping $44.99 for a pack of one hundred, the brand positions itself as the “Tesla of chicken

BY ANNIE RAUWERDA, STATEMENT COLUMNIST nuggets.”

Where’s the beef?

Vegetarians aren’t hippies anymore. Peeking behind the opaque walls of the meat industry can radicalize even the devout carnivore, and younger generations care more about the environmental impacts of what they consume. As observed in the rise of alternative milks, a climate-minded culture now invites vegan products — intentionally vegan products — out of health food aisles and onto end caps and advertisements: grocery’s prime real estate. At 15, I abruptly stopped meat after watching “Cowspiracy,” a documentary that unveiled the pernicious climate effects of the livestock industry. Some of its facts and tactics were misleading, but its message holds up: Eating large quantities of meat is unsustainable. A 2018 study published in the journal Science found that while meat and dairy provide 18% of calories and 37% of the protein in our diets, they use 83% of farmland and produce 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Those statistics have permanently changed the contents of my plate. Now, I am not only proud to have a climateconscious diet, but I am grateful that it’s easily attainable. It’s rare that I find a restaurant without a meatless option, and even fast-food giants are eschewing meaty menus at an astonishing rate. Passing on meat feels rather normal, not alternative. More than any time in recent history, the world caters to vegetarians.

Why can’t the chicken cross the road? It’s too

fat to walk

Imitation chicken is having a moment half a century after processed chicken itself captivated the world.

If capitalism grows like a tree, the chicken nugget is its fruit: born out of an oversupply of poultry in the 50s and 60s, it took your grandma’s chicken dinner and returned something deboned, battered, deep-fried and packaged. Marketing efforts promoted a notion that true leisure wasn’t cooking but consumption and nuggets allowed home cooks to sit back and relax. The work you once endured to prepare dinner had instead been done by an amorphous supply chain. The chicken nugget is, if nothing else, easy to prepare.

Decades later, humans have a $66-billion-ayear chicken habit. We’ve slashed their growing time to a third of what it once was and have bred birds that are nearly three times as large as birds a century ago. The chicken is the world’s most popular bird.

The chicken nugget’s ingredients, though questionable, don’t seem to phase people. Pink slime panic blew over, the headlines about lighter fluid in chicken dwindled away and the unpronounceable petroleum and corn derivatives weren’t enough to deter everyone. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver showed a group of elementary schoolers how chicken nuggets are made, and though they let out groans of disgust at the liquified carcass and skin, they had no qualms about putting the finished product in their mouth.

“Anyone want one of these?” he asked after his stomach-churning demonstration. When the kids proceeded to raise their hands and lunge at the plate, the camera panned to the chef’s disappointed expression.

Just like the traditional chicken nugget’s ability to transcend the bad press, fake chicken nuggets haven’t been phased by criticism of their ingredients or carbon footprint. Despite being ultra-processed and packaged in plastic, a nugget forged out of soy may still seem greener than the real thing.

Little research has evaluated the climate impacts of fake chicken, but there are studies about promising impacts of fake beef. A 2018 report commissioned by Beyond Meat and conducted by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan compared Beyond Meat burger with beef. Read more at MichiganDaily.com