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‘Best Buddies’ walk together at the Detroit Zoo, raise $41,000 for IDDs in Michigan University of Michigan chapter raises the most money to fund program helping those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities foster connections, find careers
UMich updates mask policy: masks optional in U-M buses, classrooms
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University scales back mask mandate as COVID-19 cases decline on campus, rise in Washtenaw county RILEY HODDER, ELI FRIEDMAN, & ANNA FIFELSKI
Summer Managing News Editors & Summer News Editor
Effective Monday, May 2, the University of Michigan will no longer mandate the use of masks in classrooms or on U-M transportation — including all campus Blue Buses and buses contracted by the University — according to an email sent to the U-M community by Robert Ernst, Associate Vice President of Student Life, and Preeti Malani, U-M Chief Health Officer, on Wednesday. “The changes to the face covering policy are consistent with the COVID-19 community level guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provides a measure of the impact of COVID-19 illness on health and health-care systems in addition to current case activity to help inform decision making for mitigation measures at the local level,” the email reads. Mask usage in classrooms will still be required until the end of the
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winter 2022 term for the two schools, the Law School and the Medical School, whose winter term classes and exams do not finish until early May. Masks continue to be required for all patients, faculty and visitors at Michigan Medicine, as well as in COVID-19 testing sites. The updated policy comes over a month after the University lifted its mask mandate for most indoor spaces. The campus community is still expected to remain up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations — completion of a primary series and a booster — according to University policy. Members of the campus community with an exemption from the vaccination policy are still expected to get weekly testing, which remains available through the University Community Sampling and Tracking Program (CSTP). Weekly COVID-19 cases in Washtenaw County have consistently risen since early March. The case rate reached the year’s lowest point the week of March 5, when only 219 confirmed cases were recorded. Cases have been
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steadily increasing since then, with 949 cases confirmed in the last full week. However, the number of new COVID-19 cases on campus has decreased over the past two weeks but remains at a rate hundreds of cases higher than this year’s low rate of 29 additional cases in the week ending in March 5. Other college campuses have reinstated mask mandates this month after a rise in COVID-19 cases. Colleges such as Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University have made masks required in classrooms and in certain indoor spaces. “Masks remain an effective measure for enhanced personal protection against the spread of COVID-19, especially for individuals who have a compromised immune status, who are not up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, or who have an increased risk of contracting COVID-19,” the email reads. Managing News Editors Riley Hodder and Eli Friedman and Daily News Editor Anna Fifelski can be contacted at rehodder@umich.edu, elisf@umich.edu and afifelsk@ umich.edu.
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RONI KANE & GEORGE WEYKAMP Daily News Editors
In 2019, Jordan Tolmie from Rochester, Mich., and Kelley Mutschler from Warren, Mich., became “Best Buddies.” The pair had both signed up to participate in the one-to-one friendship matching program coordinated by the Michigan state chapter of Best Buddies — an international nonprofit organization that supports individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Tolmie, who is on the autism spectrum, said before Best Buddies her intellectual disability made it hard for her to form meaningful relationships. However, after being matched with Mutschler, Tolmie said her life changed. “I’ve had a hard time making friends, finding employment,” Tolmie said. “I wish I had all of this earlier — in my high school days.” Three years after being matched, Tolmie and Mutschler are still “Best Buddies.” With the warm April sun
shining down on the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, Mich., on Saturday, the two walked side by side wearing their purple Best Buddies shirts. They were joined by over 300 other Michiganders for the state’s annual Best Buddies Friendship Walk. Friendship Walks take place across the country in various cities throughout the year and are an annual fundraising event for Best Buddies. Saturday’s walk raised $41,439 for the Michigan chapter of Best Buddies, which will help expand their programming across the state for the coming year. The University of Michigan chapter won the prize for fundraising the most money — a total of $9,183. LSA senior Lydia Goff, the co-president of the U-M chapter of Best Buddies, worked with LSA senior Jake Weissman, the chapter’s executive director, to plan this year’s Friendship Walk at the zoo. Both Goff and Weissman have been involved with Best Buddies since high school.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 75 ©2022 The Michigan Daily
NEWS................... 2 ARTS...................3 STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MIC......................5 OPINION................6 SPORTS..............7
News
2 — Wednesday, May 4, 2022
A look at immigration enforcement through public health research and art: ‘ICE in the Heartland’ exhibit
Adelante Lab from the School of Public Health opens exhibition for spoken word and visual artwork in the Michigan League
FILE PHOTO/Daily
RACHEL MINTZ Daily News Reporter
The Adelante Lab, an academic team within the School of Public Health, hosted a presentation in the Michigan League on Saturday for the opening of the ICE in the Heartland art exhibit. The exhibition featured student spoken word and visual artwork inspired by the Adelante Lab’s research on the effects of worksite immigration raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigrant and mixed-status communities living in Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Nebraska and Tennessee. The exhibition on Saturday aimed to showcase the lasting effects of immigration raids, in which ICE agents target workplaces that employ undocumented workers. Through their artwork, artists aimed to illustrate the chaos and separation of families caused by the raids. Dr. William Lopez, a clinical assistant professor at the School of Public Health who leads the Adelante Lab, discussed why the Adelante Lab planned the event in an interview with The Michigan Daily prior to the opening of the exhibition. Lopez said the Adelante Lab hoped to show the viability of discussing the effects of large-scale worksite immigration raids through visual art. “Creating art is simply energizing in a way that’s really important to keep the movements going,” Lopez said. “And it’s really important
to be able to have something that energizes us to keep going, but also that tells a very rich story about our communities.” Lopez and Nicole Novak, an assistant research professor at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, researched the use of immigration raids prior to the Trump presidency. Lopez said he hoped the Trump administration would end this practice and described feeling disappointed when they did not, citing large-scale raids in Iowa and Texas in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Lopez opened the event by thanking the Carceral State Project — an interdisciplinary project within the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts that attempts to address mass incarceration, policing and immigration detention in Michigan — for the funding of their second wave of research into how communities respond to raids and survive persecution. Public Health senior Kaveh Ashtari was the first to perform and shared a spoken word piece he had prepared. Ashtari told a story of returning home to the U.S. after visiting Iran, the place where his family is from. “I exited the plane,” Ashtari said. “‘Okay, it’s time to lay low and keep quiet. If I can get through customs without any trouble, I’ll be okay.’”
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CAMPUS LIFE
La Casa’s 2022 LatinXcellence awards celebrates Latinx community on campus
American Culture Professor William CalvoQuirós speaks; students, faculty and staff gather to celebrate the Latinx community on campus TINA YU
Daily News Reporter
On Friday, over 150 students, faculty members and professors in the Latinx community came together in the Greats Lakes Room in Palmer Commons for the annual LatinXcellence event hosted by La Casa, a student organization at the University of Michigan founded to support and empower the Latinx community on campus. The event — La Casa’s last of the academic year — welcomed American Culture Professor William CalvoQuirós as the keynote speaker and celebrated the accomplishments of the Latinx community through various awards. LSA freshman Christian Loredo-Duran, the lead coordinator of LatinXcellence,
spoke on LatinXcellence and what it means to the Latinx community on campus. “(LatinXcellence) is an event in which we’re able to celebrate one another, advocate one another and support one another … and (celebrate) all of the accomplishments that we have had,” Loredo-Duran said. “On the personal (level), but also as a community, like recognizing how we have been able to advocate for ourselves and support each other throughout the years.” The theme of this year’s LatinXcellence was “Si puedes soñarlo, puedes hacerlo,” which translates to “if you can dream it, you can make it happen.”
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“Expanding social and economic opportunity have always been among my top priorities,” Chairperson Hodge said
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has appointed Justin D. Hodge, University of Michigan professor and Washtenaw County Commissioner, as Chairperson of Michigan’s Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity. Hodge currently works as a clinical assistant professor at the School of Social Work and serves on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners representing District 5. Hodge was first appointed to the Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity by Whitmer in 2021. He began his term as chair of the commission on April 26. The Commission on Community
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Social Work professor Justin Hodge appointed as Chairperson of Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity
Summer News Editor
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Action and Economic Opportunity, first established in 1981, works to develop policies and programs to reduce poverty in the state and provide opportunities for lowincome Michigan residents to participate in the development of such policies. At the University, Hodge specializes in government and social policy. He has also served on the boards of several government service and social policy agencies, including the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office Community Advisory Board for Law Enforcement and the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy in Washington, D.C.
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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is publishing weekly on Wednesdays for the Winter 2022 semester by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. If you would like a current copy of the paper mailed to you, please visit store. pub.umich.edu/michigan-daily-buythis-edition to place your order.
Arts
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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 — 3
Lizzy McAlpine crafts an honest narrative of love and heartbreak on ‘five seconds flat’ KAITLYN FOX Daily Arts Writer
In the world of TikTok and playlists, many artists trying to break into music are ditching big projects like albums and EPs and opting for more frequent single releases to increase their chances of being heard. Despite these arguments surrounding algorithms and playlisting, Lizzy McAlpine’s latest album, five seconds flat, has seen widespread success and is a testament to the power of full-length albums. Upon release, McAlpine advised fans to listen to the album start to finish, writing on Instagram, “i really put a lot of work into making sure that the track list was in the right order and the story that it told was cohesive so i would urge you to listen through the first time in order.” Following McAlpine’s advice and listening to the 45-minute long album track-by-track, it’s clear that she put a lot of care into her storytelling, and the
listening experience is entirely different when thinking about the songs as a story arc instead of individual tracks. The album opens with “doomsday,” the first single off five seconds flat that McAlpine released last fall. With the haunting opening line, “Pull the plug in September / I don’t wanna die in June,” the song sets the tone for what’s to follow and primes listeners for the nostalgic undertones that permeate the album. five seconds flat walks listeners through the phases of moving on from a relationship. Starting with melancholic reflections of a breakup on “an ego thing,” McAlpine then transitions into “erase me (feat. Jacob Collier),” which McAlpine describes as a song that depicts the “hoe phase,” which typically follows a breakup. From there, she moves to “all my ghosts,” a song that wrestles with the challenges of falling in love again after being hurt by a previous partner. Likewise, “reckless driving (feat. Ben Kessler)” and “firearm” also explore the idea of past pains inhibiting
trust in new relationships. Even as McAlpine moves between new forms of love and mourning, a common thread
McAlpine’s father, who passed away two years ago. “I still play with my food, I’m a child at the grown-up’s table / It’s
This image is owned by Owned by AWAL Recordings America.
always persists: It’s nearly impossible to completely erase someone’s memory, even when life continues on. There’s a pause in this narrative on “chemtrails,” a song dedicated to
so hard to believe, but right now, I feel stable,” McAlpine croons over a gentle piano. The song ends with samples from home videos of McAlpine and her father from when she was younger.
The movie lover’s guide to graduation
KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer
With coming-of-age stories, there’s often a fascination with senior year of high school. Graduating from high school represents the death of grade school, the inflection point where you leave your hometown in favor of college, the epitome of new: new places, new experiences, new people. College is the beginning of the rest of your life; high school graduation represents the end of everything you knew. There are a lot of movies, across genres, that show high school graduations. In the past few years, many outlets made lists of them in honor of the graduation ceremonies that were canceled due to the pandemic. But these movies usually stop short of showing the next step, as if college is the happy ending rather than just the beginning. When I applied for Daily Arts, I wrote about Greta Gerwig’s 2017 coming-of-age story, “Lady Bird,” which came out, aptly enough, when I was a senior in high school. My friends and I made plans to watch the movie with the joke that we would “watch ‘Lady Bird’ and have an existential crisis together,” but high school got
busy, and we never got around to it. For my application, I wrote about how I’m pretty sure “Lady Bird” would’ve made me incredibly uncomfortable if I’d watched it as a senior. My main reasoning is a sequence near the end of the movie: Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”) is in college in New York and goes to a party where she gets drunk, throws up and finds herself desperately missing home. It’s a harsh look at college — not as a happy ending, but a whole new world to conquer and get used to.
symbolically significant, college graduation is exponentially more terrifying. Most people think of a few discrete paths after you graduate high school, whereas the potential postcollege routes, despite being roughly the same, feel more infinite when the scale is changed. And instead of leaving behind a class full of people that you’ve known for most of your life, you’re graduating along with thousands of people you’ve never met before and a handful of people that have become the most important
In my opinion, although high school graduation might be more
people in your life — like members of a strange, often stressed, sometimes
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intoxicated, consistently loyal family. This is the last piece that I’m going to be writing for The Daily before I graduate, and all I think about is how I’ll feel when graduation finally hits. It’s difficult to fully process that I’m about to leave a place I’ve called home for four very full, very strange years. It’s worse to consider that, even if I return to campus, things will be irreparably different as soon as I don my cap and gown and get my diploma in the mail. And so, like most self-respecting film writers, I turn to movies in times of difficulty. Like many rational, older Generation Z’ers, “graduation movie” makes me think of a classic: “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” Ignoring the cheesy tone of the movie and the logistical inconsistencies (how exactly does Gabriella start going to Stanford before high school is even finished?), it’s a sweet movie that encapsulates the feeling of trying to hold on to the final moments before you leave. The characters all seem to be stuck in a nostalgia before they’ve even graduated, and I’m finding myself in some of the same spirals. What will I remember about my time here before I leave? What will it be like to return? It’s surprising how relevant the songs of “HSM 3” feel in the context
McAlpine concludes the album with “orange show speedway,” an anthemic pop track that is vastly different from any of its predecessors on the album. Like “chemtrails,” “orange show speedway” samples vlogs from McAlpine’s YouTube channel, featuring her and her friends. Despite the energy of this ending track, the last line brings us full circle and is a reminder of the album’s central message: “When you’re racing headfirst towards something that’ll kill you in five seconds flat / When I’m racing head-first towards everything that I want back.” Whether it’s a past relationship or a lost family member, McAlpine brings comfort to those who are still chasing feelings that have been lost. While this line doesn’t necessarily provide the closure one would expect, it emphasizes the fact that mourning is not a linear process. Our pasts shape how we approach future relationships and life experiences.
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of graduating, in any sense. Troy’s regularly-scheduled, angst-ridden “what do I do now?” song, “Scream,” demonstrates the difficulty of making decisions that will affect the rest of your life. With Gabriella’s regularlyscheduled, dramatic “I have to leave now” song, “Walk Away,” the lyrics (like “No goodbyes ’cause I can’t bear to say it”) hit a little too hard when you’re ready to say goodbyes of your own. Not to mention that part of me wants to come back to campus in a few years and recreate my own version of “The Boys are Back.” I also watched another memorable graduation movie, “Booksmart,” which follows two girls who, trying to make up for an academically-focused and socially-lacking high school experience, bounce between raucous parties the night before graduation. The story comes to a climax in dramatic fashion: Molly (Beanie Feldstein, “Impeachment: American Crime Story”) bails Amy (Kaitlyn Dever, “Dear Evan Hansen”) out of jail, drives a flashy, flame-covered car through a fence, passionately kisses a boy onstage in front of the entire senior class and then delivers a sweet, “unscripted” valedictorian speech.
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11
4—Wednesday, May 4, 2022
STATEMENT
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Do we ever lose what was once ours? Reflections from a U-M reject turned graduate ANDIE HOROWITZ Statement Contributor
I don’t know why I thought writing this would be easy, or why I thought it would resemble the same process of all my past Daily pieces. I thought I would make my short trek to the Law Quad, bask in solitude with a carefully curated, mood-setting playlist and dedicate two hours to pouring my heart onto paper. In my head, it should have been that seamless. Automatic almost, or at the very least, a wellrehearsed routine, considering how integrated the Daily became in my life. Instead, writing this article has been quite the opposite. For the last five days, I’ve started to write, then stopped, then started again, drilling into all corners of my consciousness to find some profound yet understandable way to articulate my feelings about graduating. And yet, I found nothing, just blockage. And the thought that writing my final column for the Statement section — my home, my child, my haven wrapped in one — would be easy, was admittedly naive. Yet for some reason, I’m not surprised. I’ve been feeling this way for quite some time now: a stoic limbo of mixed emotions, as if everything in my life is ending and starting all at once, leading to a catastrophic explosion of numbness. My world is changing right in front of my eyes: My college friends and I are leaving the city we spent the last four years making our own, moving to different corners of the country in hopes of starting our capital-A ‘Adult life.’ Family members are getting married, my childhood house is on the brink of being sold. The weekdays of classes and extracurriculars are soon to be replaced by a nine to five (or six? maybe seven?) job. And yet, altered they may be, each facet of my life will carry on without me, all morphing into someone else’s. Ann Arbor will remain relatively unchanged by my departure, destined for an annual influx of new students. In fact, its functionality will be virtually unchanged,
completely unbothered. The University will continue to be the maize and blue, work-hard-playhard, Leaders and Best institution it prides itself on. Football games will still happen every weekend in the same rowdy Big House, with parties in driveways I once frequented every Saturday still filled to the brim with excitedly inebriated students. Pizza House will still be open late into the night, Revive will still have weird hours and the Law Library will still close its doors to undergraduate students at 6 p.m. My freshman year dorm room will be filled with four brand new bright-eyed students — they will quickly learn the joys, trials and tribulations of sharing a sleeping space with three other people. My senior year home will be transferred over to the next set of tenants — sophomore frat boys, if I remember correctly — and the legacy that my four best friends and I curated for our little blue house will soon be forgotten. Even so, I’m confident the love we gave and memories we created, be it our affinity for cabbage guacamole or our unique and often overused vernacular, will be sealed into the foundations of its walls. My two chosen student organizations, The Michigan Daily and the Michigan Fashion Media Summit (MFMS) will persist as campus trailblazers, fully stocked with eager, intelligent undergraduates ready to lead. Both organizations were crucial to my college experience, and yet, my time with each of them is already up: I wrote my goodbye to the Daily this past December, and caught a glimpse over the last few months of just how seamlessly something I love can function without me a part of it. I finished all that was needed for my role as Vice President of Digital for the MFMS when the day of our annual Summit concluded. Two hours after the Summit was over, I left for the airport to go to Nashville. I was on the plane when the idea hit me: I will be passing on all I worked to make my own to someone else, someone ready to assume the responsibility and impact of implementing new
innovations. It feels weird to say that it was a difficult reality to confront, ushering in the thought that my attachment to everything might purely be out of self-interest. Maybe my work at the Daily was more about earning a Managing Editor position and having a staff of writers to direct than it was about being a part of a self-sustaining paper. Maybe every role I applied for was more about satisfying my ego than contributing to something I love. And in entertaining these ideas, I found myself slipping deeper and deeper into clouded, intrusive judgment on how the best is all behind me, how I will be forgotten, how I should have held on tighter to my time here while it was still in the palm of my hand. Thankfully, in that very plane seat, I quickly realized how distorted my outlook was. Seeking a change in perspective, I forced myself to ruminate on the positives of the day, the past month, the past year, the past four. I immediately was drawn to the things I accomplished with my respective teams by my side, the beauty in the friendships I made, the tangible, inventive products we delivered. For the Daily, I daydreamed of my start as a Statement Columnist, my first interview with former Statement Managing Editor Maggie Mihaylova, who quickly became my mentor. I dreamt of the day I was voted on to be Managing Statement Editor in December of 2020. My heart grew fonder when remembering how scared yet invigorated I was for the time ahead, how much pride I felt in people trusting me to lead, how heavy the weight of responsibility felt in making sure I got it right. I thought of the two years of hiring and working closely with remarkably talented writers, editors and designers, getting to know their amazing, thoughtful, wonderful brains as well as I could. My eyes widened at the realization of just how many Daily staffers I’ve watched grow, assuming their own leadership positions, eventually succeeding me.
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KATRINA STEBBINS Statement Contributor
The first time I walked through campus as a student, I wore a Michigan crewneck that my mom bought me at a department store, hoping it would cover up the deferral and two rejections I was carrying around on my back. The font spelling out the name of the school was just the tiniest bit off-brand, but it would take a keen eye and a long look to recognize that it wasn’t the real thing, so I figured I’d get by. And then I hit the Diag, where I was swarmed by M Den–approved apparel, and my sweatshirt turned into an advertisement for my fraudulent presence on campus. I took it off in a bathroom in Mason Hall before my first class, and it sat at the bottom of my backpack for the rest of the day. *** I spent mst of my life listening to my family tell me that I belonged at Michigan — it was progressive, it would challenge me, “it’s just so you” — but I was academically burned out by my junior year of high school. My heart wasn’t in my first U-M application — which earned me the deferral and first rejection — my grades weren’t good enough and neither were my standardized test scores. So I committed to Michigan State, my safety school. I wasn’t necessarily bitter about ending up at State, so I decided to settle in and make peace with where I was. I made friends; I found a major I liked; I acted like I was going to spend all four of my college years in East Lansing. But my family wanted me in Ann Arbor, so I grudgingly applied to transfer. Rejection number two landed in my inbox a few months later. If I had any lingering desire to end up at U-M when I submitted that second application, there was absolutely none when I applied for the third and final time in my second year at State. My heart wasn’t in that application either, but my grades were better and I had kind
professors who were willing to write recommendation letters for me. Still, I’m partially convinced that what ultimately got me into this school was pity, the admissions committee finally deciding to give me a chance after noting how much money I’d spent on application fees over the years. Evidently, third time’s the charm. When I got in, it was a hollow victory; not only did I not want to leave Michigan State, I really didn’t want to go to Michigan. *** That first walk through the Diag in the fall of 2019 was marked by a deep bitterness. At the will of my family, I had left behind friends, opportunities, the relatively more affordable East Lansing renter’s market and, most importantly, over 30 untransferable credits. This doomed me to a fifth year in college, perhaps the most frustrating thing about the entire situation. A fifth year was never a part of my plans; it didn’t feel right to me that I would spend the majority of my college career at a university that I resented because I was sure it didn’t actually want me. Now, three years later and just days away from graduation, Ann Arbor is the first place I’ve ever felt truly comfortable calling home. I would describe my eventual love affair with the city as an unfolding. At first, I was determined to keep my arms crossed firmly over my chest. This would be the place where I got my degree and nothing more. Maybe I wouldn’t have a lot of fun, but at least I would have my convictions. But the first thing I was willing to concede that Ann Arbor had over East Lansing ended up being the key to my unfolding: I could actually walk around Ann Arbor. At Michigan State, memorizing CATA routes was essential for getting to anything on time; at Michigan, I can walk from my apartment (two blocks from East Quad) to Kerrytown (on the other side of town) in less than half an hour.
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Michigan in Color
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The cartoonishly-evil women characters of Asian entertainment One-dimensional is an understatement when it comes to the majority of female characters in East and Southeast Asians movies and TV — if they are even present at all. Of course, we are all too familiar with the doe-eyed damsel in distress with her dyed caramel locs getting scooped up, fireman-style, by her love interest in soapy
waiting to be rescued by her mythical hero, her mother would be strict, but loving nonetheless. And then there is her best friend, who is quick-witted and sharptongued, providing comedic relief in scenes where the main protagonist is too much of a proper lady to do so. Aside from these three core female characters, in an average Asian movie or TV show, you can find a slew of women who can be described as plot devices at best, and misogynistic
dramas. If this Mary Sue were not a helpless orphan
caricatures at worst. To me, the binary
ZOE ZHANG MiC Columnist
Design by Zoe Zhang
between the perfectly angelic main protagonist and the other cartoonishly evil women who serve as mere plot devices in these films revealed some deeply ingrained cultural attitudes toward women. First of all, rarely, if ever, are these “evil” women in Asian media written as fleshed-out characters with personalities, background stories and moral grayness akin to real life women. Take, for example, the “other woman” who is competing against the protagonist for the male love interest. She is often depicted as a seductress who wears an above-average amount of makeup, revealing clothing and excessively loud jewelry. Even the demeanor of this particular archetype remained almost unchanged throughout the emergence of entertainment industries in Asia: They curled their
lips, hurled snarky but nonetheless dispositional insults and seduced the male love interest with almost comical overtness. Of course, their intention behind approaching the male love interest is almost always for money or some other reason to serve the plot. Aside from the “other woman,” there is also the caricature of the cruel, often bourgeoisie motherin-law who disapproves of her daughter-in-law’s every move, believing her son to be deserving of a better partner. There is also the genius yet arrogant female classmate who vocalizes passive-aggressive remarks to the academically inferior protagonist. And finally, who can forget the peer who is jealous of the protagonist’s beauty and therefore tries to sabotage her many pursuits?
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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 — 5
Soy el dueño de mi propia vida BRANDON DE MARTÍNEZ MiC Contributor
Masking parts of my identities felt like dying from lack of oxygen. Transferring as a junior from a conservative college in Grand Rapids, I felt that I had to conceal parts of who I was to fit the status quo of my university. However, once I arrived at the University of Michigan, I felt that I could breathe again. I remember my first day of French class, when the professor went over the core curriculum and mentioned how we would be discussing LGBTQ+ topics. LGBTQ+? Is that even allowed here? Won’t they be fired? These questions might seem odd to the average U-M student, but for someone like me who came from a conservative institution, I felt that I was given a rare opportunity to start fresh and define who I wanted to become on my own timeline.
Coming from a marginalized background, I still marvel at how I even got to such a prestigious university in the first place. Being the first in my family to attend college, my brothers and sisters have always looked up to me as an image of success, even though the pressure to succeed often comes at the expense of my mental health. Growing up Latinx and Queer felt like a daily challenge, as I had to navigate the heteronormativity from my own Hispanic culture while also navigating the whitecentric presence within my own Queer community. Balancing these two sides of my identity continues to be one of the biggest struggles of my life. I joined student government with the purpose of redefining what it means to have intersectional identities.
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I am my mother’s child, or at least I hope to be ROSHNI MOHAN MiC Columnist
Throughout my life I’ve experienced two types of love. There’s the love you get from friends and the people you meet. It’s the type of love you can speak about and describe your feelings with words and actions. It’s a beautiful feeling created just by you and the other person. A bond that just you two share, that only you two know about. It’s a love that consists of random “i love you” texts and “text me when you get home” reminders when they’re leaving your place. It’s a happy birthday Snapchat post and a comment on every one of their Instagram posts. It’s a checkin text or a four-hour-long Facetime call. It’s non-stop conversations at the library when you both have an organic chemistry exam the next day. This type of love is beautiful and fulfilling, and it’s enough to get you by. But then there’s the second type of love. The love you don’t realize until you’re 19 years old sitting in your dark bedroom alone on a Tuesday night,
or in a random conversation with your roommates all talking about your futures. It’s a love I’ve been lucky enough to experience from the very minute I was born, only getting stronger every day. It’s the love I’ve realized my mother holds for me. But it’s more than motherly love.
love surpasses the bare minimum a mother should hold. It puts a box around her love, labeling it, defining it as something able to be defined. It’s not motherly love, it’s stronger and deeper. It’s emotional, healing, curing, adoring and warm. It’s a deadly love. A heartbreaking love and a devastating
ROSHNI MOHAN/MiC
Describing it as such reduces the love to something that is expected from every mother, when my mother’s
one. My parents were alone when they came to the U.S. It was a time
my mother described as filled with curiosity and excitement, but one I know was masked by the extreme feeling of fear and loneliness from navigating a country by themselves with no family. My mother kept these feelings secret so I would never worry or feel bad for her. And although she tries to hide it, I know that I’m one of the only reasons she has not gone back to India to be surrounded by her mother and her sisters, the people she hasn’t been able to see for longer than two and a half months at a time in over 25 years. Growing up, my mother and I had a rocky relationship. It was one filled with accusations, anger and arguments that turned into yelling matches over simple misunderstandings. It was one filled with resentment stemming from my willful ignorance for my mother’s situation and spiteful words on my end for no legitimate reason. These were all actions that would normally push the people that love you away, something I have consistently done for reasons I don’t understand, but she never budged. With everything she’s endured both from me and the
situation, her love for me only grew deeper. Her love for her kids is the strongest love I’ve ever felt. Her love is so powerful that it can be felt miles and miles away. I feel it when I come home after a hard week, when my mother immediately senses something is wrong when no one else could. I feel it when she texts me to remind me to take my vitamins every night. I feel it when I realize how upset she was that I didn’t text her that week, and when I found out she keeps my room door closed every time I leave for college because it pains her to go in it from how much she misses me. I felt it when she hugged me the one night I was at my lowest, immediately sending me into a melting puddle of tears on her lap. When she stayed up that entire night comforting me without a single complaint. When she spent every second of her deserved winter break from work searching the depths of the internet on ways to help me. When she begged for appointments with fully booked professionals for me.
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Opinion
6 — Wednesday, May 4, 2022
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Editorial Page Editor
BRANDON COWIT Managing Editor
Change in labor rights is brewing LINDSEY SPENCER Opinion Columnist
D
ec. 9, 2021 marked a historic day for union organizers, labor activists and caffeine enjoyers everywhere in the United States, as workers at a Starbucks location in Buffalo, N.Y., were successful in their vote to unionize. With more than 8,000 locations of the well-established chain throughout the country, this vote created a domino effect, and dozens of different locations have voted or made strides to establish unions, from Arizona to our very own Ann Arbor. Most of the recent unionization efforts by Starbucks employees come from similar workplace circumstances and share common goals as a newfound collective unit. In the past two years, there have been significant jumps in the turnover rate in the foodservice industry with no positive changes in hiring rates. Employees of chains such as Starbucks have been consistently mistreated by their employers and customers alike, from aggressive behavior over the requirement of masks in stores to a lack of response from Starbucks’s headquarters to workers’ requests for help. With this in mind, the recent push toward unionization is well within reason. Starbucks employees are not the only ones fed up with the maltreatment they face under their company management. Similarly, in early April, an Amazon warehouse voted to establish a labor union at their location on Staten Island, N.Y. After multiple failed attempts to unionize the Bessemer, Ala., location, this New York-based warehouse is the first successful effort to form a union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States. The fight for this Amazon union began in 2020, when former Staten Island employee and current union co-founder Chris Smalls staged a walkout against the unjust working conditions at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse. That day, Smalls was fired and told he was neither “smart” nor
“articulate” by a powerful corporate lawyer employed by Amazon headquarters. Quickly afterward, Smalls began to organize, hosting barbecues and bonfires, rallying warehouse workers together and successfully making a dent in the “Goliath” that is Amazon with the historic Amazon Labor Union. Former Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos’s net worth, as of 2022, is $171 billion. Howard Schultz, founder and interim CEO of Starbucks, is currently worth $3.7 billion. On the other hand, the federal minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25. This raises the question, why do the bosses continue to profit in such substantial numbers when workers are barely scraping by? The solution to this ethical dilemma is simple: unionization. The National Labor Board was created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. It was a federal agency dedicated to consulting with unionorganizing efforts and solving labor disputes. Weak and ineffective, the board expired, and in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act established the National Labor Relations Board. Rather than mediating labor debates, it would focus on enforcing the rights of laborers. Along with the institution of the “new” NLRB, Section 7 of the Act gave workers the right to both form and join labor organizations, and the right to collectively bargain with their employers for their own wellbeing, as well as restricting company interference in these processes. With the Act, the right to unionization in the U.S. was born. Unions have been the historical path toward solutions to labor disputes throughout the nation. From the American Revolution to today, collective action by laborers has been successful in making changes in various sectors of employment, including trade, artisanship and industry. The most famous of union federations is the AFL-CIO, which today represents 12.5 million workers in the United States of various labor unions. Labor organizations such as
this share the same objectives: provide equal opportunity, safe conditions and sustainable benefits for all workers everywhere. So, why is the establishment of unions by Starbucks and Amazon employees so revolutionary? Increasingly common successful unionizations in large corporations like these throughout the nation signify a change in the long-standing fight for labor rights. With hundreds of thousands of employees between them, these two corporations have intense influence over the labor market, the economy and our social lives. The success of these unions shows that change to the power of these gargantuan corporations is possible, and entirely necessary. Another example of this phenomenon is the Alphabet Workers Union, a union of Google workers that launched in early 2021. Google is a super-power of a corporation, employing hundreds of thousands and worth over a trillion dollars, and this union has been successful in undercutting some of their positional prowess. Organizers have won back promised bonuses for employees, and protected the rights of marginalized staffers. Unionized efforts established under the eye of powerhouses of the market have been successful, and pushes by these new collectives will more than likely have the same, if not greater, social and political impact. Joining together as workers to protect our rights is essential in our modern society. Unions allow laborers to voice their complaints and concerns, and to protect themselves in an age where profit is oftentimes held to a greater value than personhood. The successes at Starbucks locations across the country and the recent win on Staten Island for Amazon employees are indicative of a change in the tide for labor rights, showing workers everywhere that collective action is possible at any level, from a local restaurant to a multi-billion dollar tech
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Social Clout v.s. Social Good: The Youtube Charity Complex SOPHIA LEHRBAUM Opinion Columnist
O
ne March morning, as I browsed the Youtube trending page, a video entitled “Giving a Homeless Man $20,000” caught my attention. The clickbait thumbnail featured two halves of the homeless man’s face, seemingly to represent his life before and after the $20,000 was given to him: on the left side, the man stood unhappily in front of a dumpster with mud on his face, and, on the right side, he beamed in front of a modern business building wearing a suit. Surprised by the video’s unscrupulousness, I decided to click on the thumbnail and take notes as I watched. The opening was, of course, two unskippable Youtube ads, meaning that the creator had monetized the video and was profiting off of each view. Sitting atop his $3,249 TRX90, he explained, “Today, I’m gonna go find someone on the street that’s down and out, and I’m gonna show ‘em that we love them.” The video quickly cut to Jimmy Darts, the creator of the video, asking a houseless man, Tom, if he would like to participate in a game of hopscotch. Much to Tom’s shock, Jimmy immediately awarded him $500 “for playing hopscotch and being a kid again.” Over the course of the Youtube video, Jimmy spoils Tom with a brand new phone, two nights at a Hilton hotel, $500 in cash, brand new dentures and meals at local restaurants. After seven minutes of b-reel of Tom’s “brand new life” off the streets, Tom is hired at a car mechanic shop. Like a
the phenomenon of Youtubers filming themselves giving large sums of money, food or other goods to specific individual homeless people on the street. In some instances, Youtubers add an additional game-like element to their charity by putting the homeless person through challenges to assess their character before richly rewarding them if they “behave well” or play along, just like how Jimmy gave the money to Tom only after he played a game of hopscotch. While this Youtube charity complex may seem wellintentioned, exploitative motives lurk beneath the surface of its supposed benefits. For one, the Youtube charity complex thrives on giving homeless individuals things that are hard to refuse — money, food, clothing, temporary shelter, etc. — but with a caveat that the Youtuber must also personally profit from the interaction, whether socially or monetarily. Instead of simply making a charitable donation to homeless people or homeless shelters, many Youtuber donors provide these donations on the basis of reciprocity. They expect something (often permission to film the interaction) in return for their generosity, rather than doing it solely out of the “goodness of their heart.” This is the basis of the inherently exploitative nature of the Youtube charity complex. Take the aforementioned video for example. One of the most important questions to ask in this situation is whether or not the Youtuber would’ve made the
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Where are the flowers?
Design by Opinion Cartoonist Ambika Tripathi
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Sports
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 — 7
Michigan stays on top, claims CWPA Championship KELSEY RUFF
Daily Sports Writer
The No. 7 Michigan water polo team has not lost a conference championship since 2015. Over the past seven years, the Wolverines have gone unmatched against the Collegiate Water Polo Association. With six championships, the only time they didn’t win a title was due to COVID-19. On Sunday, the story was the same. In a two-day event, top-seeded Michigan (26-8 overall, 12-0 CWPA) sailed past two teams it had faced and defeated twice before. It beat No. 22 Brown (25-15, 7-5), 14-7, and Harvard (23-7, 9-3), 10-4. In both games, individual players used their own strengths to win. “Something that makes Team 22 so great is that we are all unique in our own ways, in our own skill sets and personalities,” graduate student attacker Maddie O’Reilly said. “When you bring all of those amazing characteristics together, it makes something special.”
In their match against the Bears, the Wolverines placed relentless pressure on their opponent with an early 4-2 lead at the end of the first. After going back-and-forth for the next two periods, it was ultimately a six-goal fourth period that gave Michigan the edge it needed to defeat Brown and advance to the championship match. Utilizing the same strategy that spelled victory against Harvard in the past, the Wolverines forced an overwhelming nine turnovers while exemplifying near-perfect control when the ball was in their possession. By maintaining its consistent goalscoring, Michigan was able to secure a victory against the Crimson and lock in a spot in the NCAA Championships. While many of the older players on the team have seen this success before, the Wolverines believe their key to success this season has been – and will continue to be – the chemistry between them. They are nothing if not hungry for more hardware.But the real challenge will be testing that chemistry against
top-tier opponents in the NCAA to win an NCAA Championship. Wolverines have been unable to make We’ll have to focus our energy and it past the first round since 2016 and Tournament. With such a seasoned roster, effort into (the quarterfinal) game, have never gotten higher than fourthMichigan is confident in its ability to and then prepare for the Final Four. I place in the NCAA Championships. keep its head down and focus on the think it’s one game at a time.” This year, they hope to change that Even with the presiding win streak — but not before they make it past next match ahead. The Wolverines are maintaining the game-by-game in conference championships, the their next match. strategy that has served them well throughout the regular season, looking only toward their next match. “It’s a one-day celebration at most,” O’Reilly said, “As soon as Monday at 8 p.m. hits, we’re onto the next opponent. We’re ready to go.” With the 2022 CWPA Championship in its back pocket, Michigan now looks to take its postseason all the way. “Our goals are part of our vision,” Michigan coach Dr. SAM ADLER/Daily Marcelo Leonardi said. The Michigan water polo team beat Brown and Harvard to win its sixth Collegiate Water Polo “ Ultimately, we want Association championship in seven years.
Joey Goodsir: Michigan needs to be able to self-motivate After dropping Friday’s seriesopener against Minnesota, the Wolverines now stand with one chance left to go undefeated for at least one weekend in Big Ten play. That feat has been a common occurrence in past years. In JOEY last year’s COVIDGOODSIR implicated Big Ten schedule, Michigan swept five weekend series. In the last normal year (2019), it earned six sweeps against Big Ten opponents. But the way the Wolverines have failed in securing a single sweep most recently suggests a flaw in their ability to take initiative in getting a win. Two weekends ago, the Wolverines traveled out to College Park and came up short in the first game. Unlike the other two matchups with Maryland that weekend, in which Michigan came up victorious — it left 10 runners stranded and fell to a 5-1 loss. Last weekend, in many ways, could’ve been described as triumphant. The Wolverines fought to win the majority of their games
another run, Michigan’s batting woes were debilitating toward mustering any response to DenHertog’s blast. Through all four innings that remained, it tallied a mere two hits. “Sometimes your passion is smothered,” Hutchins said after the Nebraska series. “Whether you’re fearful, whether you’re afraid of disappointing people, whether you’re afraid of not living up to your expectations. “… We have high standards, but expectations are something out there. It’s in your head, it’s pressure you put on yourself.” Given the Wolverines’ performances these past two weekends, it’s fair to expect they will ultimately show they are the more skilled team on the field. It’s even reasonable to expect that they will win the next two games and the overall series. It takes the disappointment of a weekend-opening loss to push them there though, SELENA SUN/Daily and that can become costly. After a coveted Big Ten sweep eluded it once again on Friday, the Michigan softball team needs to “They were all fired up in self-motivate to change that fate. in a homestand against Ohio State. Highlights included a walk-off triple from fifth-year third baseman Taylor Bump, a Buckeye-silencing outing from senior right-hander Alex Storako and some game-saving heroics from senior outfielder Lexie Blair in her return from a leg injury. The first game, however, still eluded them. This time, pitching and fielding
were the main causes of a 6-2 loss. In Friday’s game, the Golden Gophers came out swinging in the third inning. They capitalized on two straight singles with a three-run homer from Minnesota outfielder Natalie DenHartog. Even though fifth-year left-hander Meghan Beaubien went on to pitch the whole game without giving up
the locker room, but then you got to be in a competitive mindset,” Hutchins said after the Ohio State loss. “And it’s the only time it matters.” Going forward, Michigan will have to find the version of itself that responded to a loss with two wins at Maryland. It will have to find the version of itself that responded to a loss with two wins against Ohio State. The Wolverines can once again take advantage of that dynamic this weekend against the Gophers. With these games being the last ones in front of a home crowd this season, they have even more reasons to be motivated. But with Big Ten and NCAA tournament play just around the corner — tightening the room for error — Michigan can’t wait to respond. It has to take initiative to find that spirit from the jump. “You have to act like a champion before you become a champion,” Hutchins said after a win over Bowling Green last month. “You can’t wait to have energy … you have to have energy and that will dictate if you have success.” If the Wolverines can harness that energy — no waiting required — they will have that success.
Sports
8 — Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Michigan wins first Big Ten Championship since 1996
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
ABHIJAI SINGH Daily Sports Writer
Following on his serve, graduate student Nick Beaty rushed forward, volleyed the ball toward a Buckeye deep in his backcourt and screamed in bliss as his opponent failed to deliver a return shot over the net. His victory gave the No. 7 Michigan men’s tennis team a 3-1 lead and spelled a likely defeat for No. 4 Ohio State. Then junior Ondrej Styler finished the job. After winning his tightly contested second set tiebreaker, he displayed Michigan’s astounding versatility by sustaining a seven-shot rally to win — not just his third set, but the Big Ten Championship. Michigan (22-3 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) overcame a flurry of conference opponents — the last being Ohio State (24-3, 7-0) in a 4-2 victory — en route to retaining its first Big Ten Championship since 1996. It’s a victory that has been on the Wolverines’ mind for a while. “The ultimate goal would be to do well at the Big Ten Tournament,” freshman Patorn Hanchaikul said on Apr. 19. “Hopefully to win it.” Goal accomplished, but that seemed fleeting during Michigan’s opening tournament match. Two Wolverines faltered in their second sets, as senior Patrick Maloney lost his final game in straight points and sophomore Nino Ehrenschneider dropped his set, 6-1 — even after five of six Michigan players won their first sets. “We were scoreboard watching too much and waiting for other guys to finish,” Michigan coach Adam Steinberg said. “We lost that sense of urgency we had all year.”
Even then, senior Andrew Fenty maintained a heavy forehand to emerge victorious over Indiana’s Luka Vukovic, 6-2 and 6-1, while sophomore Jacob Bickersteth capped a two-set victory by winning his final service game in straight points, 6-3 and 6-2. Together, they gave the Wolverines a 3-0 lead, but Michigan was forced to dip in a few third sets in search of a clinching fourth point. After Maloney and Beaty lost to their Hoosier opponents, Styler won his third set, 6-3, and tacked on the final point to Michigan’s 4-2 victory over Indiana. “First rounds are always tough in tennis,” Steinberg said. “(The match) showed us that, when it’s win or go home, we really have to focus, and I don’t think we were (against Indiana).” Carrying these mistakes into the next round of the tournament, the Wolverines completed back-to-back match points in doubles in convincing fashion, including an ace by Maloney and Beaty. And while the matches only offered Michigan one point, it kickstarted their smooth 4-0 win over Illinois. That confidence extended to the singles matches as well. Even as Maloney fell behind in his first set, 3-1, he raced back with attacks at the net and finished his first set in a win, 7-5. A few courts away, Beaty also won his first set, 6-4. Both were one game away from winning their matches in straight sets, as they were called off due to Michigan clinching a victory. Leading the Wolverines’ explosion, Ehrenschneider jumped out to 4-0 first set leads against Indiana and Illinois.
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Underclassmen power Michigan to Big Ten Championship
GRACE BEAL/Daily
JOSEPH ZAIN RODGER Daily Sports Writer
It all came down to one match. Tied at 3-3, No. 20 Michigan and Northwestern looked to their five singles games to decide who would advance to the Big Ten Championship match. Freshman Julia Fliegner dropped the first set 7-6, just as she had to the exact same opponent, Christina Hand, a week before against the Wildcats. However, she fought back to win the second set, 7-5, and put herself in a spot to win it for the Wolverines. And that wasn’t her only win on the weekend. Fliegner and the underclassmen played an integral part in taking down Northwestern and Ohio State, propelling Michigan to its fourth Big Ten Tournament in the past five seasons. “I have been in that position a few times now and am much more comfortable being the deciding match,” Fliegner said. “It made me lock in and I knew there was zero room for error since I wanted to pull through for my team.” After splitting the first four games, 2-2, both teams arrived at the adjacent court when the other matches ended. Thriving under the pressure, Fliegner rattled off three straight games, but then she went down 40-love while serving. Just as it looked like Northwestern still had a glimmer of hope, Fliegner won four straight points to clinch a spot in the championship for Michigan. “(Hand) flew a backhand long that I didn’t think was going out, but as soon as it landed everything was a blur,” Fliegner said. “I looked at my
team right away and they were all sprinting at me and we were jumping up and down. It was one of those moments you watch as a junior player and hope to feel as a college athlete because it’s one of the best feelings in the world: winning with your best friends.” Fliegner’s dominance continued through the Big Ten Championship on Sunday against No. 10 Ohio State, collecting singles and doubles wins to put her record at 5-0 on the weekend. Other underclassmen stepped up too. Sophomore Kari Miller took care of business soon after Fliegner at the No. 1 spot, and her clinical 6-2 6-2 victory put the Wolverines up 3-0. Michigan then turned to another underclassman to complete the unprecedented sweep: sophomore Jaedan Brown. The Wolverines were down in their three other matches, but Brown had a chance to bring out the brooms in a second set tiebreak. After battling to a 3-3 tie, both players took a break on the changeover. After that pause, Brown took control. Just as Fliegner before her, Brown won four straight points and swept Ohio State. Michigan not only pulled off the upset, but dominated through its young players. “It’s just incredible how these kids are stepping up and getting the job done,” Michigan coach Ronni Bernstein said. “I can’t stress how well we played today. Ohio State’s a great team. … We pretty much couldn’t play better on every court. So (I’m) just really proud.” The Wolverines’ underclassman flourished in the big moments. Not only did that young talent show poise to win the Big Ten Tournament, but it also heated up heading into the most important part of the year: the NCAA Tournament.