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April 13, 2015
Comet Town to break ground April 16 PRIYANKA HARDIKAR Mercury Staff
After years of planning and preparation, the construction of Comet Town, the development project on the north side of campus that will feature new dining and housing, is set to commence. Groundbreaking will take place on April 16 at 3
Journalist talks race in mass media CARA SANTUCCI Mercury Staff
CHECK OUT AN EXTENDED Q&A WITH TOURÉ PG 6
said Comet Town is an attempt to produce a live, play and study environment for a university previously known for being a commuter school. “It will set the tone, create the energy and provide our own flavor of a destination where our faculty and students can gather and obtain different amenities, as
→ SEE COMET TOWN, PAGE 12
A SHOW OF FAITH
THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM
Touré, a journalist and host of "The Cycle" on MSNBC, came to campus on April 1 to discuss the media’s role in the ongoing battle for civil rights. Touré is the author of “Who’s Afraid of PostBlackness?: What It Means to be Black Now” and “I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon.” He was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work of Non-Fiction in 2012 for “Who’s Afraid of TOURÉ Post-Blackness?” Sponsored by the Office of Diversity, SUAAB, Meteor Theater, the School of Arts & Humanities and the Multicultural Center, the event began with an opening address on what civil rights means in today’s society, while also touching on the various protests and movements of the past that gave way to the liberation of different oppressed groups. “This has been a critical battle in the history of America: the tension between being the great democratic nation that we think we are and the strangling power of these straight, rich, white men who have controlled this nation since the beginning,” Touré said. He also discussed how the media —specifically television— prevented protests and civil rights violations from going unnoticed. He said television made the events covered visceral and immediate, creating a sense of severity and urgency in the viewing population. “Television has been a key driver in all these movements because discrimination can survive in silence,” Touré said. “If we don’t shine a light on those things, they are able to persist. Silence aids and abets the status quo.” Following Touré’s remarks, Cinematheque presented a compilation of videos from various civil rights movements. The short documentary covered the African American, Chicano, Native American, Women’s, LGBTQ and Arab Spring movements, highlighting the role the media played in giving a voice to those who, at the time, had none. After the video, Touré sat before the audience and fielded questions. Touré engaged the audience in a frank, open discussion about race, often touching on more current examples of civil rights protests. He briefly spoke on the events that occurred in Ferguson recently and issues the United States has had with Boko Haram and ISIS. He often drew these topics back to the way media reframes and delivers news to the general public. For example, when the protests in Ferguson occasionally grew violent, he stressed the importance of keeping the context of the events in mind. “Sometimes to get heard, you have to burn something down,” Touré said. “I’m not saying they should have done it, but would media have been continued to be there if it hadn’t been violent? I don’t know.” As an example, he cited Malcolm X, who drew criticism for his militant remarks and was often compared to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Whether the instances of civil rights violations are based on race, gender, sexuality or income, Touré gave a call to action for all people to consolidate their protests and work together to eliminate injustice wherever it crops up in society. “Civil rights, as I see it, is about protecting rights wherever they might be deprived over demography,” Touré said. “If all Americans are born with unalienable rights, then why would we allow so many people’s rights to be constrained because they happen to be black or gay or female?”
p.m. in the corner of Rutford Avenue and Synergy Park Boulevard. Construction is slated for completion by the summer of 2016 and later that fall students will have the opportunity to move into the apartments and use the new venues. Calvin Jamison, vice president of administration,
Students navigate external, internal ways of expressing their faith ANWESHA BHATTACHARJEE
Web Editor
Iqbal Gill remembers being bullied in the first grade for wearing a turban and having long hair. He remembers coming home one day and making the painful decision to take his turban off, despite his parents asking him not to. “I’m not going to lie; it was sad,” Gill, now a biology sophomore at UTD, said. “It was hard.” Gill is a member of the Sikh community, the fifth-largest religion in the world. Yet, the lack of awareness among the children back in his school continues to astound him, he said. “A lot of people don’t understand,” Gill, who is also secretary for the Sikh Student Association here, said. “They didn’t really want to understand or try to understand. They just wanted to make fun.” In American schools, only the three Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — are brought up, Gill said. Children aren’t really aware of Sikhs, who wear a turban and grow out a full beard, just like Muslims, but are very different in their faith, Gill said. YANG XI | MERCURY STAFF Gill's experience in elementary school is reflective of a lack of Sara Melnick, president of Hillel, sports her necklace with a mezuzah penknowledge in American communities about diverse religious repdant. The jewelery was a gift from her grandmother and is a replica of the resentations and symbols of those faiths. The freedom to express Jewish door adornment that doubles as protection. one's beliefs through rituals and symbols makes for a unique conversation. For Sara Melnick, arts and technology and computer science double major, religion is a right of expression. “When I think of religion, I think of the First Amendment and the right to practice that religion,” Melnick, who is Jewish and the president of Hillel at UTD, said. “It might be wearing the hijab or a cross or a yamaka.” Choosing to wear a symbol of one’s religion makes an immediate statement about one’s faith, but sometimes faith need not be quite as obvious, she said. The sacred thread Hindu Brahmin boys between the ages of 8 and 16 traditionally go through a sacred thread ceremony, "Upanayanam," which marks the start of their learning and a devotion to the spread of knowledge. At the ceremony, they are required to wear a cotton thread, a combination of three threads, which they continue to wear around their upper body at all times for the rest of their lives. It is with this thread that Ramakrishnan Pitchai Kumar chants to the gods every morning, afternoon and evening for 20 minutes. As he chants, he performs yogic breathing exercises at the same time focusing on cleansing his mind, body and soul of toxins and sins. He adorns his forehead with "vibhuti," or burnt ash, and prays. YANG XI | MERCURY STAFF Traditionally, Brahmins are not supposed to partake in exterA Sikh student ties a traditional turban at Tie a Turban Day on April 2 on The Plinth. The event was an initiative by the Sikh Student Asnal pleasures because they are supposed to be the preservers of sociation to inform students of their faith. knowledge. They’re not supposed to have meat, fatty food or even spices, Pitchai Kumar, an information technology management graduate student, said. Today, a lot of Brahmin boys have let go of these restrictions, he said. Among his friends and peers are people who have told him repeatedly that most of what he does is simply a ritual — meaningless and silly. “Sometimes I feel if no one else performs these rituals then why should I?” he said. When he was baptized as a Brahmin, he was a fifth-grader who went through the motions without realizing the importance or reason behind the ceremony. As he grew older, ridden with doubts, he explored the historic meaning of the ceremony and found out the true significance of these
→ SEE RELIGION, PAGE 12
DISAPPEARING ACT America's bats are dying. Read about the fungus responsible for the plight.
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PITCH PERFECT Coaches, players break down the art of pitching
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PLUS + Violist invited to play at Carnegie Hall // PG 6 Photos from iWeek 2015 // PHOTOS, PG 7