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‘U’ President reflects on racial equity, letters of rec. Schlissel says prof. personal politics can’t come before commitment to students SAYALI AMIN & RILEY LANGEFELD MIKE ZLONKEVICZ/Daily

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Dr. Sheria G. Robinson-Lane answers questions in a UM faculty forum on heath research in the School of Nursing Wednesday morning.

Nursing DEI panel discusses health disparities in minority communities All four panelists note importance of interdisciplinary research and mentoring JULIE RAKAS For the Daily

On Wednesday morning, School of Nursing assistant professors Lenette Jones and Sheria Robinson-Lane, Nursing research fellow Jade Burns, and Gender and Health Research Lab Director Jaclynn Hawkins discussed their research on health disparities affecting African-American and Latinx communities as part of a panel discussion.

During the discussion, they also shared their related research and work in mentoring students. The event, which was a part of the Nursing School’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Healthcare Series, saw about 40 students and faculty members in attendance. Prior to the event, Jones said she hoped the panel would help students understand why looking at data for a wide range of populations is essential to medical research. “I hope that the audience,

especially students, gain a better understanding of why we decided to become researchers and why research with diverse populations is important,” she said. “I also hope that it is inspiring to learn about our backgrounds.” Nursing graduate student Catherine White said she attended the event because she hopes to apply what she learns from the panel to her career. “I would like to be a family nurse practitioner and I also want to be a professor one day, she said. “I want to also be able to

translate research into practice, so disparities among minorities in research is really important to me because it affects my practice.” While all the researchers said they are interested in studying health in minority populations, the focus of their research spans a wide variety of health disparities and subgroups within the African-American and Latinx communities. In Wastenaw County, for example, Black infants are twice as likely to be born at a low birth weight See HEALTH, Page 3

In a monthly interview with The Michigan Daily, Mark Schlissel, president of the University of Michigan, outlined the University’s stance on the recent denial of letters of recommendation for students planning to study abroad in Israel and the Sixth Circuit Court verdict against the University’s sexual misconduct policies. He also touched on the lack of concrete deadlines for their recent carbon neutrality goal announcement and the need for greater investment in diversity, in addition to current University initiatives and more. Academic Freedom Two University faculty members have rescinded offers to write letters of recommendation for students to study abroad in Israel as part of a boycott against Israel in support of the Palestinian people.

American Culture Associate Professor John Cheney-Lippold, one of the academics who denied writing a letter, has faced punishment from the University including the cancellation of sabbatical eligibilit, frozen credits for two years and no pay raise for the year. The affair has sparked conversation on campus about free speech and the responsibilities of faculty members. Schlissel said he doesn’t view the problem through the lens of freedom of expression, noting all faculty members are free to express their thoughts and opinions through other avenues such as teach-ins, editorial pieces, academic writing and speeches. He said personal political beliefs cannot come before faculty commitments to students. “To me, it’s not free speech,” Schlissel said. “It’s a shared commitment to help students pursue their ambitions.” Schlissel recalled his own tenure as a full-time professor, See SCHLISSEL, Page 3

First-generation college students talk Fake news New panel tool charts different study abroad experiences comprised

RESEARCH

CAMPUS LIFE

platforms’ credibility

Panel aims to lower barriers to academic opportunities for growing student

The Iffy Quotient tests how well a social media site spreads news overall

The University of Michigan organization First-Generation College Students at Michigan held a panel Wednesday evening, during which firstgeneration students shared their experiences abroad, the resources they used and how they told their peers about going abroad. The event was a part of First-Gen week, a slate of programming dedicated to raising awareness for resources available to firstgeneration students at the University. According to a 2016 campus climate survey, first-generation students constitute 8 percent of the University student body. Though the University ranked sixth in the nation in number of studnets studying abroad in 2016, financial constraints like cost of living and travel, and less institutional memory are a few hurdles this demogrpahic faces with a new, and sometimes expensive academic opportunity. The barriers extend to low-income students as well. LSA junior Kallie Bernas told The Daily last semester she was not able to study abroad despite scholarship opportunities. “I didn’t have the money to support myself without being paid for the research I would have been doing,” Bernas said.

ANDREW LANHAM For the Daily

In efforts to highlight the prevalence of misinformation, the Center for Social Media Responsibility of University of Michigan School of Information has developed the Iffy Quotient, which measures the proportion of “iffy” articles shared on a given social media platform. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter make sharing news articles — whether real, fake or somewhere in between — as easy as clicking a single share button. The spread of news can occur at exponential rates. As such, fake news has been a topic of academic discourse on campus since the term became popularized during the 2016 presidential election. Business professor Andrew Hoffman, for example, teaches about the environment and sustainability and told The Michigan Daily last fall he views fake news as a problem of disengagement within academia. “When you come into the classroom, you are an empty See CREDIBILITY, Page 3

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“I crunched the numbers and decided that I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have any financial aid based on my household income, but it doesn’t really take into account the fact that I have a lot of siblings and the money is being dispersed in a lot of ways.” Panelists Heriberto Gonzalez, Mallory Sprague, Alasia Tardy, Victoria Thach

and Jana Wilbricht sat at a table facing the audience, passing a microphone around to answer questions and describe their experience in the study abroad procedure. From choosing a program to coming home, the five panelists discussed the process and how being a firstgeneration student affected their experiences. LSA senior Heriberto

Gonzalez studied Public Health abroad in Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, and said he enjoyed the process of finding the perfect program for him. “It’s just really fun to look at the programs and see the options that they have,” he said. LSA senior Victoria Thach See ABROAD, Page 2

CARTER FOX/Daily

LSA senior Alasia Tardy speaks on a panel of first generation college students about her experience in preparation for, during and after studying abroad at North Quad Residence Hall Wednesday evening.

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entirely of senior profs

Critics say panel on duties of instructors to students needs greater diversity ANDREW HIYAMA Daily News Editor

Some University of Michigan faculty took issue with a lack of diversity on a panel intended to “examine the intersection between political thought/ ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students” since the University publicized the panel’s composition in a press release Wednesday. The panel was first announced after the University imposed sanctions on American Culture Associate Professor John CheneyLippold for declining to write a letter of recommendation for a student applying to study abroad in Israel as part of an academic boycott of the nation. Rackham student Lucy Peterson, a graduate student instructor in the Political Science department, joinedCheney-Lippold in declining to write a letter for a student also intending to study in Israel. According to an open letter to the campus community from University President Mark Schlissel and Provost Martin Philbert, the panel will accordingly See PANEL, Page 3

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6

SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7

News

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MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

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ABROAD From Page 1 did a service learning program in Ishinomaki, Japan, and said the Center for Global and Intercultural Study makes finding a program a smooth process. “It’s actually pretty easy,” she said. “I mean, it’s not

easy choosing because there are so many different programs, but the process is pretty smooth especially if you do it through CGIS.” LSA junior Alasia Tardy said she studied abroad in Palestine and Israel in the summer following her freshman year, where she studied conf lict-resolution and coexistence. She said going abroad as a first-

generation student was exhilarating. “The process was exciting. I’m first-gen, so I felt like I had to go abroad,” she said. “No part of it was boring. From start to end, coming back home and all, it was amazing.” Branching out into how being a first-generation student impacted her studying abroad experience, Social Work student Mallory Sprague said she had to argue with her family members who initially thought studying abroad was not a good idea. “I always knew I that wanted to go abroad,” she said. “I was told by my family that it made no sense and that I shouldn’t. Not only am I first-gen, but I’m the only person in my family who has a passport. In doing it, I kind of really had to do some soulsearching and write some good arguments.” Sprague has since participated in five study abroad programs and traveled to Ecuador, Italy, England, Russia, Amsterdam and Berlin. Financial aid is a very important factor for first-generation students in studying abroad, as panelists discussed how proper budgeting is a common concern students have before

leaving. Tardy said handling financial aid put her mind at ease, as the process was clear and smooth. “I think it was the easiest part for me,” she said. “They follow you step-by-step. You’re never questioning what’s going on, they’re so open and available to you. There are so many options with financial aid. As soon as I talked to Financial Aid I never worried again. ” Some tips and advice the panelists gave to fellow firstgeneration students included going into itwith an open mindset, reaching out early and remembering there is a lot of time to have fun in the countries, too. Tardy ref lected on her time abroad, saying there was plenty of time for adventure and new opportunities. “We swam in the Mediterranean Sea, we f loated in the Dead Sea, we went to so many places and yes, we were learning a lot, but there was so much time for fun as well,” she said. Communications Studies doctoral candidate Jana Wilbricht echoed the sentiment of taking the time to immerse oneself in the local culture. “Don’t be afraid,” she said. “Immerse yourself as much as you can in different ways, like if there’s a local festival happening, just go. That’s really how you make a lot of authentic experiences.”

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SCHLISSEL From Page 1 during which he wrote “hundreds” of recommendation letters. He noted he denied requests for letters regularly, stating there are a number of legitimate reasons for denying a letter such as not knowing the student well enough, but said personal political disagreement is not one of them. Schlissel emphasized faculty responsibility and said the administration hopes faculty members share values that prioritize students and their various academic endeavors. “We also want the faculty to share this consensus that it’s about the student,” Schlissel said. “It’s not about (the professors). It’s not a platform for their speech and their politics. It’s about our obligation to support students. And it can’t be imposed as a rule; it has to be imposed by values.” The University also announced the creation of a panel to review current University policy and provide recommendations for amending it. The panel is composed of senior faculty members and chaired by former University President James Duderstadt, and will make decisions on how to amend University policy on political expression and instructor obligations. Other professors criticized the panel, however, for a lack of diversity in faculty levels. Sixth Circuit Court Decision The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied the University’s request to rehear their case regarding the ruling that mandates an in-person crossexamination from the accused in sexual misconduct hearings. The implications of this result could complicate the process followed for sexual misconduct claims. Schlissel said the sexual

PANEL From Page 1 make recommendations for the University’s policy to clarify expectations of faculty with regard to writing letters of recommendation for students. Although there is currently no written policy on professors’ obligations — or lack thereof — to requests for letters of reccomendation, a press release published Wednesday explains faculty members are expected to withhold personal and politcal beliefs from their responses. “Students have academic freedom as well to pursue programs of study and research that they are most interested in,” Philbert said in the release. “Writing letters of reference for students is a responsibility that arises from the educational relationship. The university can set expectations for instructors charged with teaching our students.” The panel will now review institutional guidelines on professors’ political expressions and responsibilities to students. The Wednesday release also made the body’s membership public. James Duderstadt, president emeritus and professor of science and engineering, will lead the panel, and will be joined by longtime professors Deborah Ball from the School of Education, Susan Collins from the School of Public Policy, Deborah Goldberg from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Don Herzog from the Law School, and Bill Lovejoy from the Ross School of Business. Kirsten Herold, a lecturer in the School of Public Health and the vice president of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization, noted the seniority of all the faculty on the panel. “It’s kind of funny, actually, when you look at them, that they’re all full professors,” she said. “They have probably all known each other for 20 years at least, which is not usually the way we try to get diverse voices.” Herold said the panel’s composition left out a variety of perspectives, including lecturers, who are often intimately involved in the process of writing letters of recommendation for undergraduates. “Lecturers teach most of the first- and second-year classes; we often teach small classes, so we tend to know the students quite well, like the lecturers who teach writing and language classes,

misconduct process needs to be redesigned to align better with this new ruling. According to Schlissel, a large part of this process will involve supporting students. “We have to be consistent with the law,” Schlissel said. “The council’s office and student affairs and then some faculty advisers with expertise are looking at our existing policy, (with) the goal of making sure that we do everything possible to support people who are coming through the process and want to bring forward a claim of misconduct.” Schlissel acknowledged a hearing like the proposed is sensitive to both parties involved and crafting the hearing to be supportive is the goal. “We’re trying to design a way to do that so the questions are fair and reasonable to minimize the deterrent of coming forward,” Schlissel said. “Confronting your accuser and vice versa is very emotionally challenging and we want to minimize the extent to which that becomes a barrier to reporting. One way we’ll do that is structuring the hearing in a way that is as supportive as possible to both parties.” The University’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center and Office of Student Affairs will continue to be sources of support for the students going through this process. The Special Victims Unit, which is part of the Division of Public Safety and Security, will also continue to assist with criminal cases. Schlissel said the redesign will hopefully be available in the next few weeks. This new process will have to be explained to those coming forward. “We’ll have to make sure that when people come forward they understand what the process will be,” Schlissel said. “It’s always up to the individual whether to bring forward a case. The idea is to work within the confines of the law but

math classes. And they know the students well, so the students often come to us to ask for letters,” she said. “If you really want to have a thoughtful, deep dive into this complicated issue of –– you know, their decision is they want to be able to compel people to write letters even when they’re not necessarily comfortable writing them … there’s a lot of different ways of looking at this issue.” History Associate Professor John Carson agreed, noting the panel did not include any faculty members who worked in the humanities. “The set of individuals, as far as I can tell, and I only know a few of them, are not necessarily those who are particularly close to the issue right now,” Carson said. “The number of them that are likely to be even writing many undergraduate recommendations is probably on the low side. It just seems important given the many implications of what the committee could come up with that the set of individuals helping to talk about this be pretty broad and diverse.” In a letter obtained by The Daily, Philbert responded to concernsraised by the American Association of University Professors that the University did not follow due process in determining the discipline given to Cheney-Lippold, which included a year-long pay freeze and two years of ineligibility for sabbatical credits. In a letter addressed to Schlissel, Philbert and interim LSA Dean Elizabeth Cole, AAUP Associate Secretary Hans-Joerg Tiede advised AAUP standards for the severity of the discipline called for an informal inquiry by a faculty committee and then a hearing before an elected faculty body. In the letter addressed to Tiede, Philbert responded Cole had consulted with the LSA Executive Committee, which comprises six elected faculty members. “The university understands and wholeheartedly shares your respect for the principles of appropriate process and fairness,” Philbert wrote. “While we do not discuss individual personnel actions, please understand that the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and the university as a whole have procedural safeguards in place of the same nature as the AAUP’s Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure.”

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Opinion

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ERIK NESLER | COLUMN

Preparing the world’s next business leaders

Davis leads the lackRock, the $6 trillion investment firm, Business+Impact initiative – a announced early last multidisciplinary initiative that provides programs week that it plans to and opportunities introduce a suite of to students with sustainable exchangethe skills and traded funds. Customers knowledge to will be able to choose an become “social investment vehicle that impact leaders.” will invest their funds Davis and his in environmentally colleagues define sustainable enterprises. define social impact Brian Deese, the global as promoting head of sustainable ERIK “a significant, investing at BlackRock NESLER positive change believes the new offer is a business imperative: “Sustainable that addresses a pressing social investing is becoming challenge.” The Business+Impact initiative mainstream investing.” This is not BlackRock’s first has created a slew of opportunities socially responsible decision — in for students pursuing careers January this year, Laurence Fink, that positively impact society, the founder and chief executive regardless of whether those of BlackRock, wrote a letter to the careers are in the private, public world’s most powerful business or nonprofit sectors. Students of leaders saying their companies all majors and disciplines can take need to contribute to society if advantage of different courses, they want to receive financial lectures, summits and challenges support from BlackRock. It’s offered every semester. (A energizing to see Fink use his comprehensive list of the available clout (BlackRock is the world’s largest investor) to make such demands. In addition, Fink was one of the first corporate chiefs to back out of the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia after the suspicious disappearance of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. His refusal to attend reveals his actions support his beliefs against corruption. BlackRock clearly supports the argument that private sector organizations can achieve impressive financial results while having a positive impact on society. As an undergraduate student opportunities can be found at studying at the Ross School of www.RossImpact.com.) I could tell during my Business, this idea has frequently surfaced. My peers and I have conversation with Davis that been exposed to a multitude of he was committed to the private sector organizations that Business+Impact initiative. His use their power to work toward enthusiasm over procuring the next solving some of the most pressing generation of social impact leaders challenges our society face. This was contagious. This enthusiasm, exposure (through coursework, paired with his retelling of how he extracurriculars and various managed to become interested in programming) can be attributed this work, was inspiring. Much of Davis’ early research in some part to the hard work of Jerry Davis, the associate dean of focused on corporate governance for large American corporations the Business School.

Business schools across the globe have made social impact and sustainability core pillars of their curricula.

and the effects of finance on society. Davis began noticing during his years as a researcher the far-reaching implications of the tech boom on the U.S. economy. With the displacement of millions of American jobs that are now outsourced or eliminated, Davis realized the private sector (what remained of it at least) needed to have a more positive impact on society. The Business+Impact initiative mirrors well known initiatives at other prestigious universities. In fact, business schools across the globe have made social impact and sustainability (more broadly known as corporate social responsibility) core pillars of their curricula. This strategic modification of the curriculum comes as a response to students’ dissatisfaction with the most recent financial crisis. Business schools, as the common stereotype goes, are breeding grounds for selfishness and greed – and the financial crisis served to reinforce that stereotype. Schools began teaching the world’s next business leaders that they should consider the effects of their decisions on a variety of stakeholders (including employees, the community and the environment) instead of simply shareholders. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently began offering a new course on the ethics and regulation of technology and artificial intelligence, and Stanford University plans to follow suit this upcoming semester. These courses will teach students to consider what is right and wrong when it comes to developing innovations that can have destructive implications for consumers. As universities concentrate on corporate social responsibility, the next generation of business leaders will be more willing and prepared than ever to tackle the pressing societal issues of our time. Hopefully we will see more Laurence Finks in corporate America.

EMILY CONSIDINE | CONTACT EMILY AT UNIQUNAME@UMICH.EDU

Erik Nesler can be reached at egnesler@umich.edu.

Promoting ascendency

o grow up in the United from obtaining mortgages and saving States is to be inculcated with earnings, further distancing them the promise that this land is from the American Dream enjoyed by their white peers. unique in its opportunity. The Fair Housing The legend of the selfAct has proved to be propelled individual is similarly incomplete ubiquitous for Americans, when observed with from the revolutionaries in affirmative action in Philadelphia establishing college admissions. a new kind of nation to Even after the Fair the pioneers who grittily Housing Act, cities took the West by force in became more Black the following century. while suburban It has instilled the idea ETHAN centers grew more of universal economic KESSLER white. Neighborhoods ascendancy, typified most prominently by the idea of a that were redlined 80 years ago are white picket fence and two cars in much more likely than not to still be the driveway; it is what most of us low-income. Discriminatory lending over the past century would call the practices are still alive and well, American Dream. But what happens which has allowed de facto racial when certain Americans, on the basis segregation to persist in housing. of their race alone, are so egregiously The act, and all of the affirmative discouraged from attaining this action efforts it entailed, succeeded in recognizing the problem but failed dream? Assuming no inherent disparities to pursue a truly effective path of in intelligence or moral fiber among remedy. These efforts also have their fair different races exists, calling for these discriminated Americans share of critics, many of whom would to be afforded the baseline level of point to the failure of affirmative opportunity should not be heralded action in college admissions, in as magnanimous; it should be particular, as an undeniable evidence expected. When the efforts to restore of the practice’s innate faults. The parity among all races in this country idea that correcting centuries of are attainable only through artificial Black dismantlement should fall means, there should be no act of on the white and Asian college applicants of today is, in the eyes of surprise or leap to indignation. After all, it was only through these critics, both unfair and actually artificial means — more specifically, harmful to the Black students unconstitutional and violent ones affected. The elevation of otherwise— that these Americans were underprepared Black students in the subjugated in the first place. These application process is indeed a real racially divisive corrections have issue, and this “mismatch” effect is left these Americans to watch on the clearly supported by the phenomenon sidelines as the American Dream of disproportionately low college bequeathed all its wonders only to achievement among Black students. However, arguments that those lucky enough to possess the proper birthright. What could be affirmative action is unfair to the non-Black candidates it displaces and more un-American? These artificial means are characterizations of the mismatch comprised of so-called affirmative effect as an evil inseparable from action policies implemented over the idea of affirmative action are the course of the last half-century. complete mischaracterizations of the The present day provides a golden issue at hand. Critics of affirmative opportunity to look back on how and action often lament the fact that our why these affirmative action policies affirmative action policies only seem have succeeded and failed where they to lend themselves to minorities well did. The legacy of affirmative action past the formative times of childhood remains in housing policy through and adolescence. In this view, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, but is affirmative action policy effectively hotly contested in college admissions; neglects minority children until ultimately, the problems addressed it comes time to apply for college by those midcentury reforms have or to a job, only serving to secure continued to persist in ways that them seats in colleges they are not justify affirmative action in the prepared for and bringing upon them all the subsequent shame of being present. As a tactic promoting equality of an “affirmative action hire” if they opportunity among races, affirmative manage to graduate. While these are fair complaints, action is notoriously difficult to judge because of the contrasting vision for affirmative action applications.. Should the goal be to eliminate discriminatory practices against minorities and thereby create, from that point on, a level playing field? This signature view of earlier liberals should be noted as contrary to the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who famously articulated the reasoning behind artificial restorations of racial parity: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and say, ‘You are now free to compete with all the others,’ and they neglect the fact that the still justly believe that you have been solution to this problem was already implemented in America decades completely fair.” Incidentally, the later vision ago with forced school integration. of affirmative action that actively The landmark U.S. Supreme Court promoted the hiring of minority decision Brown v. Board of Education workers — was not only affirmed struck down legally enforced school by Johnson but also carried on segregation in 1954, but integration by Republican President Richard of schools was only accomplished Nixon — resembled the controversial by the advent of mandatory busing majority-white and use of affirmative action in college between admissions more than the Fair majority-Black elementary, middle Housing Act’s less radical, egalitarian and high schools. Not long after, a government-commissioned language. The 1960s saw the same U.S. flavor of affirmative action reach report found the individual racial and upper education, buttressed by socioeconomic attributes of students the 1968 Supreme Court decision were less predictive of their future upholding efforts to desegregate academic achievements than were schools. Finally, it seemed that their schools’ levels of integration. It African Americans — along with is unsurprising, then, that the period other minorities — were on their from then until the tapering off of way to achieving more through more mandatory desegregation policy saw balanced college enrollment, which certain measures of academic ability would go hand in hand with higher between Black and white teens leap dramatically. material attainment. Why, then, was full racial parity However, that dream has not yet been accomplished, as there in education (or something close to are still major racial gaps in college it) not achieved? The answer is white enrollment, and massive gaps flight. Both politically and physically, between white and Black wealth the white families burdened by accordingly. We could look to the the act of busing their children to more egalitarian interpretation of lesser schools soon resisted the affirmative action, in the Fair Housing inconveniences associated with full Act of 1968, for answers. Passed in educational integration. Often, it the smoldering aftermath of bloody was by moving to the suburbs that riots following the assassination of whites escaped busing, which left a Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the void in their place that would more act aimed to help African-American often than not be filled by nonfamilies participate in the process white families, rejecting the idea of of home ownership and wealth integration at its very core. One way generation from which they had been or another, the level of integration excluded for generations. Decades achieved was deemed satisfactory of government-sanctioned redlining by the late 1990s, bringing an end policies effectively prevented them to the legal justification for forced

Why, then, was full racial parity in education not achieved? The answer is white flight.

integration in the first place and leaving room for many of the same disparities to creep back. This white flight was not novel; America had seen it a generation earlier, in response to the aforementioned Fair Housing Act. For all of the controversy surrounding the act’s passage, it ultimately demanded little more than the equal treatment fort those seeking to purchase a home. Driven by the same dream of a white picket fence and two cars in the driveway as their white peers, African Americans welcomed the act as a relief to the incessant discriminatory and predatory practices levied against them in the years before 1968. Despite the earnest ambitions of African Americans, the prospect of integrated neighborhoods, like integrated schools, drove a large amount of whites out the inner cities and thus solidified the ghetto as the community of urban Blacks. None of this is new knowledge. The racialization of the American living space and the wholly unequal division of society’s resources along explicitly racial lines was realized by the famous Kerner Commission, convened after the rampant riots of the summer of 1967. With regard to the ghettos now synonymous with minority communities, the Commission was unambiguous: “White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” This is not to say that white Americans as an entire race were, or are, guilty orchestrators of the formation of Black ghettos in America. Far from it. They were, however, beneficiaries in a country simultaneously occupied by those who were suffering for no other basis than melanin content. Running away from the racial nature of the divide in the intertwined realms of housing and education between Black and white Americans is a dangerous first step toward not only impeding, but also dismantling the goal of equality of opportunity. This is, indeed, a racial issue. If the attainment of equal opportunity is truly the aim of affirmative action policy, then equality of outcome should not be a factor. Low-income Americans, regardless of race, are not the target of affirmative action – those disproportionately excluded from wealth attainment along lines that racial are. Suggestions, largely from conservatives, that the structure of affirmative action be tweaked to target the socioeconomically disadvantaged as opposed to racial minorities reflect a misplaced approach marketed as colorblind. The reality is that such a restructuring would only perpetuate the disparities that persist between Black and white Americans even after income alone is controlled. In other words, a colorblind affirmative action policy for college applicants of lower socioeconomic status would still elevate disproportionately more whites than Blacks, neglecting racial inequities in the aggregate. Additionally, the mismatch effect would only replicate itself in such a scenario, doing nothing to close the wide race gap in graduation rates, as it would beset Black and white Americans alike. It’s important to note that this holistic perspective is often crowded out by invocation of such outliers as former President Barack Obama or U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose successes distract from the socioeconomic challenges facing a vast majority of those who would benefit from affirmative action policies. Even then, their successes are qualified by racially disproportionate rates of downward mobility, further poking holes in the idea that a purely socioeconomic affirmative action would constitute desirable policy. All of this has served to disprove the original characterization of affirmative action as ineffective. There is also, however, the challenge that affirmative action at its core is unfair to the majority of students it affects, whether it is white middle schoolers bussed to inner city schools or white college applicants rejected from Harvard University in favor of Black students. Viewed on their own, these actions do, in fact, contradict the ideal of meritocracy. The idea that every college should get its pick of the very best applicants, and every student their pick of the very best schools they are qualified for, is at odds with affirmative action. That much is undeniable.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Ethan Kessler can be reached at ethankes@umich.edu.

Arts

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DAILY COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN

FILM REVIEW

Complicity & historical awareness

ABRAMORAMA

‘MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A.’ paints an electric portrait ROBERT MANSUETTI Daily Arts Writer

For a good while now I’ve been searching for clear footage of M.I.A.’s performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards, intrigued by the quite mythological reverence articles that describe the dignified spectacle of it all. While a filtered recording of the ceremony on Dailymotion scratched the itch, I was in awe when I saw it unfold in crystal clear definition about halfway through the documentary “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” Enter Mathangi Arulpragasam, her polka dot top making no effort to hide her nine-months-pregnant belly, swaggering onto that stage. She just barely got through “I fly like paper, get high like planes” before a hard cut to grainy, visceral newsreel footage of an airport bombing in Sri Lanka. Harsh juxtapositions like this lie at the core of “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.,” a glitchy depiction of the rapper / singer / producer / activist M.I.A., directed by her longtime friend Steve Loveridge. Comprised mainly of heaps of archival footage pulled from over two decades of her life, the film is a comprehensive delve into the life of M.I.A., a polarizing figure in her own right, behind the music and beyond the stage. Like many others, I’ve always been a fan of M.I.A.’s catalogue — no one has even come close to her masterful ability to fuse hip-hop, electronic and world music into a compelling product entirely specific to both herself and outsider, immigrant experience — but have never known how to reconcile with her politics. Sure, I can appreciate the impact her monumentally exceptional albums Arular and Kala had on popular music, but I simply cannot fully understand the power dynamics at play in Sri Lanka, her home country, as someone born and raised in the comfort of the United States.

Thursday, November 1, 2018 — 5

In portraying such an atypical popstar like M.I.A., the documentary offers an objective look at her life: where she came from, the environment in which she was raised and the personal reasoning behind all her opinions that often warrant the moniker of “terrorist” from American media. It does this by employing her music mostly as background accompaniment. M.I.A. knows she will be remembered for more than her discography, and she

“MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” Abramorama Michigan Theater wants that; “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” understands this and lets the artist take center stage with little to no obstruction from the documentarian. Loveridge must have thanked his lucky stars M.I.A. wanted to be a filmmaker when she grew up, because there is a wealth of homemade videos from her childhood and teenage years which gives the doc a quite holistic quality. There’s footage of her shooting the shit with her friends during her time at Central Saint Martins Colleges, there’s footage of her producing songs with thenboyfriend Diplo, there’s footage from a tour with friend and Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann. It’s safe to say either M.I.A. or someone else was filming every major life event of hers. Rarely does Loveridge opt for showing more contemporary interviews with the artist; he lets real life speak for itself. The documentary follows a somewhat linear structure, but it often returns to a trip M.I.A. took to Sri Lanka before she was engulfed by the public eye. The M.I.A. depicted in these pre-

Arular days is affectionately referred to as Maya, a young girl struggling to come to terms with her own displaced identity. In these vignettes, you see the deepset reasoning behind her views and come to empathize with her fellow Tamils, who were brutally oppressed by the government and lived in constant fear. “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” never tries to push an agenda. It only wants the viewer to understand the deadly pressure cooker environment which fueled M.I.A.’s impassioned rhetoric and the ignorance that comes with labeling her as a hypocritical terrorist sympathizer. There is a bit of slant when it comes to portraying M.I.A.’s critics, but it is often a symptom of righteous anger. The documentary leaves the viewer sharing in that anger, as it’s hard not to be mad at Lynn Hirschberg for misrepresenting her in a New York Times profile or Bill Maher for being patronizing and essentially telling her to stick to music in a nationally televised interview. There is also an insane montage surrounding her performance at a Super Bowl halftime show where she flipped off millions of viewers. M.I.A. walking through the tunnel to “The Message” with the audience aware she’s about to willingly piss off a sizeable chunk of white America proves she is more punk rock than any of us. While one can’t help leaving the theater thinking the documentary was slightly disjointed, “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” is an unapologetic exploration of one of the 21st century’s most important artists, standing out in the world of carefully curated music documentaries. You may hate M.I.A.’s politics, and if so, the documentary won’t do anything to change that. But like it or not, M.I.A. has earned her place as one of the baddest girls in music and doesn’t care for anyone’s attempts to shut her down. She’s going to keep doing what she wants, and do it well.

Last week, I read about Cardi B’s paid performance at the bar mitzvah of Ryan Lutnick, the son of Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Apparently, Cardi was paid around $500,000 to attend the event — she performed, took photographs with some of the guests and even posted about the event on her Instagram account. While I am no particular fan of Cardi’s music, I was still fairly upset to hear about this. I like to think of musicians as being separate from the pressures of the market. Whether it be the most abstract, academic sound art or the most popular, low-budget SoundCloud rap, I like to think that musicians are never entirely reliant on money. I like to think that their performance at an event cannot be bought by the highest bidder. Ultimately, I worry that in taking money to appear at a party, Cardi discredits her own work as something that can be bought and sold — something with no artistic value independent of its monetary value. It is no longer a vehicle for self-expression but a vehicle for profit generation. Now, I will of course concede that it is not my place to make grand statements about Cardi’s music; I am far from the biggest fan of rap and popular music. And culturally, as a white male from Westchester, N.Y. studying classical music, I think few would perceive me to be Cardi’s usual, if not intended, audience. Nevertheless, I think it is important to think critically about the culture changes that the internet has brought to previously geographically (and I would argue demographically) contained art forms. Anyone with Internet access can now consume any music that they desire. Art is becoming democratized. And there is perhaps no better example than the integration of rap and hip hop music into the larger pop music lexicon. What I worry about is the line between cultural appropriation and genuine cross-cultural interest that often gets blurred in this era of democratized art. A good example of this cross-cultural appropriation is Duke Ellington’s “Jungle Jamboree” spectacle. As I learned in musicology last year, Ellington gave a much-criticized televised performance in what was deemed “jungle” attire — racist Flintstonesesque attire modeled after the stereotypical “primitive African” musician. Ellington received a lot

of criticism for this attire but also a lot of fame. And while I think it is hard to fault Ellington for doing

SAMMY SUSSMAN this, it is easy to fault the culture that sought out this performance for encouraging Ellington to do this. On a much larger scale, I fear the same about Cardi’s general cultural presence, at least in the cultural circles in which I witness her being referenced. I fear that she has been used in popular as a connotatively distinct “other,” as a dog-whistle to those that take pleasure in noting her mannerisms that fall outside the mainstream. Cardi’s appearance as co-host on Jimmy Fallon’s show last year, for example, was a particularly awful example of this. She made some jokes on the show that were funny both to her and the audience. But most of the time, I noticed, this upper class majority-white audience was laughing not with her but at her. They laughed at her funny pronunciations, her strange answers to Fallon’s questions and her general “otherness.” It is important, I will note, to differentiate between forced expression and self-expression. Cardi does seem to be expressing herself in these appearances and I do not get the sense that she does so as a means of conforming to defined cultural expectations. Much like Ellington, however, I think this undertow of stereotypical “otherness” is very much present, if not in the artist than in the audience. The best example of this on campus, in my opinion, is our Greek life culture. Full disclosure: I am incredibly skeptical of Greek life and am known to criticize it frequently among friends. I rarely walk by the frat houses on Central. But a couple of weeks ago, when I found myself walking there late at night, I was struck by the music playing at many of these frat parties. Almost every fraternity I

passed was blaring rap music. My immediate emotional reaction was one of being upset, but I couldn’t place where these feelings were coming from. Then all of a sudden it hit me. In one of the songs I heard a particular fraternity listening to, the main singer said the n-word multiple times. I’m not sure if any of these brothers sang the word along with the song. But I could tell that they were consuming this because they thought it was cool; because they were attracted to the “otherness” of the music without any understanding of what it stood for. Rap music was traditionally a means of expression for those that had been shut out of American popular culture for geographic, economic and demographic reasons. It is not something to be bought by a rich CEO for his son’s bar mitzvah. It is not something for a bunch of brothers in what is historically an economically, racially and culturally exclusive organization to listen to while they party. It is a genuine means of expression for those that couldn’t pay half a million dollars for their family event or probably couldn’t get into a fraternal organization. I don’t know what the solution to this problem is, and I don’t know if it is my place to propose any solution. I don’t mean to say that Cardi should not be compensated for her private performances or that it is up to me to decide where she should and should not perform. And I don’t think it is up to me to tell fraternity brothers what music they can and can’t listen to. But I do think it is my place to call out those who engage with this music for all the wrong reasons. I do think it is absolutely the duty of a white audience member at Fallon’s show to refrain from engaging in this stereotypical laughter at the way that Cardi communicated through tongue clicks or other extra-verbal tics. Every artist has a right to express themselves however they choose, but not every audience member has a right to consume art however they chose. It isn’t a crime to listen to music from a different culture, but it is inappropriate to consume it for its “otherness” with no understanding of its historical underpinnings. Music isn’t divorced from culture — every style of music has a history behind it, and without understanding this history you can’t fully understand and appreciate what you are consuming.

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW: ‘ALIEN’

SINGLE REVIEW: ‘KING OF THE HILL’

SUB POP

BRAINDFEEDER

There was no way that a collaboration between Thundercat, BADBADNOTGOOD and Flying Lotus could ever live up to expectations. But “King of the Hill” comes close, a song released as a single from the upcoming Brainfeeder X compilation of highlights and unreleased tracks by artists on Flying Lotus’s independent label Brainfeeder. If 21 Savage and MF DOOM were ever to rap on the same track, I would expect the beat to sound like the intro to “King of the Hill”: a tonally menacing mix of eerie bells and cartoonish strings.

When the song does finally kick in, it’s a space funk jam propelled forward by the power of Thundercat’s bass. If you don’t know who

“King of the Hill” Thundercat (feat. Flying Lotus & BADBADNOTGOOD) Brainfeeder Thundercat is, he is maybe the best active funk bassist right now; if you know of a tepid or boring Thundercat bass line, please send it my way, because I just don’t believe it exists. In “King of the Hill,”

sparkling Rhodes piano keys and Thundercat’s soulful layered falsettos glide over a pulsating bedrock of drums and bubbly jazz bass. “The king in his castle / The king of the hill / Wasting his time / Chasing cheap thrills,” he hums, and the resulting melodic ambiance is the best possible blend of all three artists’ individual sounds. I mean, there really isn’t much more to say about it. Thundercat is good. BADBADNOTGOOD is good. Flying Lotus is good. It’s a good song, OK? Just listen to it. - Jonah Mendelson, Daily Arts Writer

Dream pop duo Beach House has always been difficult to categorize. The ambient sprawl of albums like Depression Cherry, Bloom and most recently 7 extends past the clear-cut minimalism of bands like The xx, yet also does not quite reach the same level of jarring starkness as artists like Arca. Beach House fuses elements of pop and indie rock underneath thin layers of warped, abstract production. Never enough to hit the complete surrealism of, say, FKA Twigs’ LP1, but just enough to send elements of their songs, the various synths, chords and vocalizations skyward. Beach House’s music always seems to come at you from a great distance, resting high above the clouds. Their most recent single

“Alien” is no different, and its accompanying animated video fits the song’s dreamlike quality perfectly. “Alien”’s video showcases

“Alien” Beach House Sub Pop a f luid progression of black and white geometric shapes. Much like a Rob Gonsalves painting, the music video plays heavily with positive and negative space: A series of black triangles swimming across a white background expands into a series of white triangles swimming across a black background; a globe of shifting black and white patterns f lattens into a solid black horizontal line;

black shapes emerge as plant shoots, growing upward until they extend into the horizon like a ghostly highway. In a similar sense to previous animated videos “Lose Your Smile” and “Lemon Glow,” the point of “Alien”’s video is not to tell an illustrated story of the song itself, but rather to fit the song’s slow, steady and organic rise and fall of tempo. In watching the “Alien” video, you not only get an idea of the song’s overall tone but also a glimpse of Beach House’s overall essence; just as the video seems to exist in an alternate dimension, so does Beach House — the duo’s musical transcendence warping time and space into nonconformity. - Shima Sadaghiyani, Daily Music Editor

Arts

6— Thursday, November 1, 2018

TV NOTEBOOK

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FILM REVIEW

BBC

NETFLIX

New ‘Doctor’ exposes the ‘Been So Long’ is a sloppy, fandom’s latent sexism tepid musical romance SAMANTHA DELLA FERA Daily Arts Writer

In early Oct., the 11th series of “Doctor Who,” a sci-fi thriller with a cult-like following, premiered. Everything seemed on par with a typical season — the quirky Doctor, the shocked bystanders, the impending doom from beyond — but there was one apparent difference. For the first time in the 55-year run of the show (which includes a much needed hiatus from 1989 to 2005), the witty, beloved Doctor is being played by a woman. For those unfamiliar with “Doctor Who,” here’s a quick crash course: The Doctor is an alien time lord that regenerates a new body every time the current one is too severely damaged to be healed normally. There have been 13 Doctors in the history of the show, starting with the original Doctor, William Hartnell (“To Have and to Hold”) in 1963 and culminating in the reveal of Jodie Whittaker (“Trust Me”) as the thirteenth Doctor in 2017. The show doesn’t shy away from its controversy — it leans into it. When a character informs the Doctor that she is a woman, she’s shocked. “Am I?” she replies, “Does it suit me?” Later, the Doctor is talking with a young female police officer who is reluctant to report the show’s bizarre incident to her boss. The Doctor tells her, “You’re worried about how you’ll explain all this to a superior officer who won’t believe you.” It’s a clear shoutout to the #MeToo movement and the lack of credibility given to a woman’s voice. Coming from a male Doctor the statement wouldn’t carry much weight, but the conscious choice of having a female Doctor, knowing the public repercussions, gives the

words a level of power. It’s a decision that for many was long overdue. The past few years have seen a renaissance of female representation, with iconic movies like “Ghostbusters” and the “Ocean’s” franchise being remade with all-female casts. And for a show that stands strong at the center of nerd-culture television, having a woman in the lead role would be a welcome departure from the constant stream of men as leaders and women as their ditzy or weaker sidekicks (“Big Bang Theory” binge-session anyone?). Or maybe not. The announcement of Whittaker as the doctor was met with an avalanche of responses from the public, and an unfortunate amount of them were negative. Most were overtly sexist, as viewers seemed able to conceptualize a two-hearted, time-traveling humanoid alien but not the fact that a woman can play that role. The backlash escalated to the point where BBC had to issue a statement justifying their decision to cast Whittaker. It’s not revolutionary to declare that nerd culture is ridden with misogyny. There is TEDtalk after thinkpiece after op-ed that addresses this issue. But as more women are represented in strong leading roles, it’s becoming painfully apparent that this vicious behavior and sexism is not isolated. The shouts of boycotts and entitled “how-dare-yous” have been prevalent against strong female leads long before “Doctor Who” had the audacity to put a talented woman on screen. When Glenn Close (“The Simpsons”) played a hard-hitting attorney on FX’s “Damages,” her character was called a liar, backstabber and — a fan-favorite — a bitch. The premiere of “Wonder Woman” in 2017 and

subsequent all-female screenings left many men calling unfairness and reverse sexism. If the focus is on a woman, particularly an independent and powerful one, backlash is practically inevitable. There is a consistent similarity between the media that garners backlash: They all originally started with males, and have replaced those men with women. This is where the unacceptance is born. Men and women alike harbor misogyny that tells them a woman could never fill the shoes of man. It’s a sentiment that carries real-world consequences beyond potentially ruining a TV show for closeminded individuals. Just look at Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign. Or the fact that women make up only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. There is a widely held sentiment that women can not do the job of a man, and this has detrimental effects on everything from our politics to our media. So how do we fix this? While we’ve made a lot of progress, there are clear indicators that the problem of sexism still remains. There is no easy answer to this, but I have a simple suggestion: Keep making people angry. I want 100 more Jodie Whittaker’s taking roles that used to belong to men. I want a female remake of “Die Hard” and “Superbad” and all three installations of “The Godfather.” I want women of all body types, races and identities to saturate our media until the people who hate them have nothing left to watch. With every disgruntled viewer a show loses, there are 10 little girls feeling empowered and excitedly pointing at the screen because they see someone that looks just like them in their favorite show. They are our future. Let’s not let them down.

SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer

There is nothing quite like the magic of a musical. Arguably the most “extra” segment of the entertainment world, musicals allow us to simultaneously escape reality through vibrant costumes, song and dance and aggrandized emotions, while still grounding us in reality by exploring universal human truths or life lessons. Out of the broad pool of musicals that have taken the bold leap into film adaptation, there are few that find success: “Rent,” “Les Misérables,” “West Side Story” and a sprinkling of other fabulous theater-to-film pieces. The one essential ingredient that all of these iconic adaptations share is that they adapt, which is where “Been So Long” falls short. Though filled with well-defined and intriguing characters and a solid plot, Netflix’s latest musical romance forgets that audiences are watching through their laptop screens, not in the balcony seats of a live Broadway production. Secure with herself, unbending in her morals and protective of her heart, Camden resident and single mother Simone (Michaela Coel, “Chewing Gum”) isn’t exactly looking for love. With her daughter’s upbringing as her top priority, men are close to the last thing on her mind. One night, after some coaxing (and alcohol) from her boisterous and bold best friend Yvonne (Ronke Adekoluejo, “Christopher Robin”), Simone finds herself in a match of back and forth flirtatious banter (in song-form) with an attractive and mysterious stranger named Raymond (Arinzé Kene, “The Pass”), who Simone soon learns has a criminal record. When Simone’s

blunt probing into Raymond’s past hits a nerve and he leaves the bar with a bruised ego, it seems that the twos’ paths are unlikely to cross again. Sure enough, however, Simone and Raymond meet again later that night on the bus and, induced by their curiosity about one another and magnetic chemistry to rekindle their connection, they exchange phone numbers. As the film progresses, Simone struggles to sift through

“Been So Long” Netflix her conflicting feelings of desire and affection for Raymond and her fears of rashly falling for a man she worries she can’t trust. To Michaela Coel and Arinzé Thomas’s credit, the two actors are successful in making the romance between Raymond and Simone genuine. One of the most tangible moments occurs when the two share a duet, purely and deeply expressing their feelings for one another under the glowing, pinktinged ambiance of Raymond’s bedroom. Along with this welldeveloped character spark between Simone and Raymond, the film’s presentation of Simone as in control of both her blossoming bond with Raymond and her life overall is unexpected, especially within the Netflix romance genre. Simone is not the typical life-inshambles, quirky trope of a singleparent woman. She is solid, present and invested in her daughter’s health and well-being, confident in her beauty and she doesn’t play into the “woe is me” routine. Additionally, with Raymond, there is a demonstrated effort to portray

Simone as the pursuer and driver of the relationship. Raymond puts his number in her phone. She sends the first text, initiates the date on her terms and doesn’t play into the tired stereotype of the woman lying in wait for a text back. And it’s refreshing, to say the least. While not devoid of charm, largely brought on by its sturdy characters, the majority of song and dance in the film is unnatural and forced. Song sequences are hastily interjected, preventing the development of consistent pace or rhythm. In fact, many musical numbers are just plain awkward and uninvolving, including an unwarranted, oversexualized number from Yvonne and a bizarre solo sung by the minor bartender figure. Not to mention, the dance throughout the film is weak and watered-down. Whenever a character begins to sway or jive, it is almost as if they know they are performing for a MacBook screen, not a theater stage. They hold back half their effort, afraid to generate a real wow factor. The attempts to incorporate more characters into the musical aspects of the film draws attention to the underdeveloped and uninteresting subplots and away from what the film should invest its focus on: Simone and Raymond. It would be unfair to say pointblank that “Been So Long” isn’t worth a watch. With positive elements like the energy between the two protagonists and a compelling plot, the movie isn’t by any means a flop. However, the unavoidable frustration that comes with watching this film is that, as a film, it is so-so, but as a musical on an open stage, filled with theatrical zest and pep, “Been So Long” could have had the potential to shine.

FILM REVIEW

What’s scarier than a spooky skeleton on Halloween? The decline of local journalism! https://tinyurl.com/spookyTMD

‘Indivisible’ is just fine for Pure Flix but mishandled by other standards JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer

“Indivisible,” the latest release from Pure Flix — purveyors of fine copy-and-pasted sermons disguised as real movies and the odd “Donald Trump is the Second Coming; liberals are the real Nazis” propaganda piece — opens with stock footage of soldiers at war set to audio of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Not only does this have literally nothing to do with the rest of the film beyond the reality that “Indivisible” does, in fact, feature both soldiers and children, it actually does the film that follows a disservice. “Indivisible” isn’t good by any standards other than the incredibly low bar Pure Flix has set for themselves, but it also isn’t, as that opening would imply, “God’s Not Dead 4: God Goes to Iraq.” Rather, it follows the true story of Darren Turner (Justin Bruening, “He’s Out There”), an army chaplain who was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and returned home with PTSD that threatened to tear his family apart. For the first time in their company’s history, Pure Flix has stumbled upon a movie

that’s about something: the but that’s mostly communicated effect deployment can have on through external means and families. If you think that sounds out-of-nowhere bursts of sudden like something the people best anger. Drew’s character isn’t in known for a trilogy of movies the spotlight nearly as much, yet based on the most generic due to her performance, Heather worship song in existence are feels much more fully formed. Pure Flix does deserve some in no way qualified to handle, you would be right. Pure Flix credit for at least attempting drops the ball on what could to make a movie about faith in have been an inspiring movie times of war as well. There’s by continuing to plenty of the clunky misunderstand sermonizing we’ve come to expect, their core but the fact that message, but Ann Arbor 20 + it’s in service of an before everything IMAX, Goodrich idea rather than falls apart, Quality 16 just preaching to “Indivisible” the choir goes a does show some Pure Flix long way. That’s promise. Most of this is definitely not down to the cast. As with last high praise, but then, most of year’s surprisingly watchable what works about “Indivisible” “The Case for Christ,” works because of just that; other “Indivisible” proves to be Pure Flix films have failed so genuinely well-acted, especially completely that when their by Sarah Drew (“Grey’s newest reaches even baseline Anatomy”) as Darren’s wife competence, it’s a win. Every Heather. In a role that director Muslim character is not treated David G. Evans (“The Grace as a terrorist; there’s one who Card”) does everything to help plays a mourning father. Good her with — Heather’s scenes for you, Pure Flix! The atheist are shot like a commercial for character is not struck by a car a for-profit community college and killed for his sins on the — Drew manages to build the way to a Newsboys concert; he only character in the film with becomes a Christian, then he’s some sort of internality. Sure, killed. Good for you, Pure Flix! her husband deals with PTSD, The abused wife does not learn

“Indivisible”

that she is the problem; she’s only half the problem. Good for you, Pure Flix! At this rate, by the mid-2020s, you may even start exhibiting basic human empathy! Then we come to the second half, where “Indivisible” has to provide commentary on a difficult subject and finds it just isn’t up to the task. Darren doesn’t have PTSD after he returns; it concludes. But not really. He’s just not believing in God hard enough. This is Pure Flix’s biggest problem: their constant Biblically incorrect preaching that Christianity can and will solve all your problems before you can say “Jesus.” That’s not how faith works. That’s not how the Bible even says faith works. Speaking as a Christian who has dealt and continues to deal with mental illness, it can be useful when dealing with these things. It can be a comfort. It can be a guiding system. It isn’t, like “Indivisible” argues, a one-stop shop for curing all your ails, and until these films can understand that, they will continue to come close yet still fail as “Indivisible” does. This is Jeremiah Vanderhelm’s 100th article for The Michigan Daily. Congrats, Jeremiah!

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, November 1, 2018 — 7

Michigan prepares for exhibition on Friday Michigan’s offense adapting to personnel BENNETT BRAMSON Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan women’s basketball team will look to shed some offseason rust before it officially begins its season next Friday, Nov. 9, with an exhibition game tomorrow against Findlay University. Led by senior forward Anna Hintz, the Oilers – a Division II program – are coming off of a 22-8 season which ended in defeat in the first round of the Division II Tournament. Hintz, who was Findlay’s leading scorer last season after averaging 18.4 points per game, will pose a preseason test for the Wolverines’ forwards – good preparation for the season to come. For Michigan, this game will be a test run to see how they can adjust to life after Katelynn Flaherty (22.9 points per game), who graduated last year as the most prolific scorer in program history. “Losing Katelynn … is a tremendous loss,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico during the Wolverines’ media day, Oct. 10. “But our program is in a tremendous spot and I am super excited about the team that we have right now.” Barnes Arico will primarily look to senior center Hallie Thome and senior guard Nicole Munger –Michigan’s second and third leading scorers from last season at 17.4 and 9.1 points per game, respectively – to fill in for Flaherty on the offensive end this coming season. Thome, who is 6-foot-5, should find success against the smaller Oilers in this exhibition matchup, as the

THEO MACKIE

Daily Sports Writer

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Senior center Hallie Thome was Michigan’s second leading scorer from last season with 17.4 points per game.

only Findlay player taller than 6-foot-2 is center Sydney Kin, a 6-foot-3 freshman without a minute of college experience. Going forward, Barnes Arico will place a heavy workload on Thome’s and Munger’s shoulders, but she also expects this year’s team to not rely on any one player nearly as much as it did last year with Flaherty. “(Thome) is going to have a great senior season, as well as Nicole Munger,” Barnes Arico said. “Those two are leading the way with their

“(Thome) is going to have a great senior season...”

leadership and their skill, but our junior class has improved tremendously; our sophomore class is playing with a ton of confidence. … Our freshman class, it’s been the highest-ranked class in program history.” Of all the highly-heralded freshmen, guard Amy Dilk will play the most significant early role as she is set to replace Flaherty at point guard and will get the opportunity to show why she was a five-star recruit. The Findlay game will give Barnes Arico a final glimpse of

Dilk before the season’s start and allow her to correct any f laws she may have ahead of their first regular season game. “(Dilk) is going to be our point guard and she’s a freshman, and that’s a big role for a freshman,” Barnes Arico said. “But I think she’s capable of handling that (role).” While the game against the Oilers will not count for anything in the stat book, it does mean one very important thing: Michigan basketball is back.

“But I think she’s capable of handling that (role).”

Finding a rhythm

f one thing is certain after the Michigan hockey team’s first five games, RIAN it’s that Wolverines RATNAVALE coach Mel Pearson and his team are doing more than just trying to kill bad habits — they’re actively looking for rhythm and routine. Look at Michigan’s series against St. Lawrence, for example. Sure, the Saints aren’t nearly at the same level that the Wolverines are, but Michigan came into the series with concrete issues it wanted to work on — and executed. After a series against Western Michigan where the Wolverines accumulated 12 total penalties, Pearson and some players mentioned that they strived to be one of the least penalized teams in the country. Michigan responded with just three penalties in 120 minutes of ice time against St. Lawrence, and through the season, only have 18 total penalties to their opponents’ 34. Having that stability has also helped the Wolverines stay disciplined with the puck. While Michigan was plagued with untimely turnovers deep in the defensive zone in both games against Western Michigan, the Wolverines significantly cut those down against St. Lawrence. Likewise, when sophomore defenseman Quinn Hughes saw the Saints clogging the ice near the goal on Saturday, having that puck discipline kept him attacking from the left side of the zone, and he points three times. The Wolverines have a few different options to keep that rhythm on a day-to-day level. Players have the option to see a sports psychologist to

Of the countless memorable moments during John Beilein’s tenure at Michigan, two timeless images stand above the rest. They are, of course, Trey Burke stepping back and releasing an inch-perfect shot over the outstretched arms of Kansas’ Kevin Young in 2013, and Jordan Poole, legs spread, f lailing to the f loor at the buzzer as his shot propelled the Wolverines past Houston in last year’s tournament. There are plenty of differences between the two shots, but the important thing is what the they have in common — both came from 3-point range. That’s not a coincidence — 3-point shooting has always been a core identity for Beilein’s Michigan teams. And he’s always had the personnel to match. Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Derrick Walton and Moritz Wagner, all of whom rank among the Wolverines’ biggest stars under Beilein, were prolific from beyond the arc. This year’s team is completely different. Beyond Poole, Beilein’s biggest offensive weapons will be junior point g uard Zavier Simpson, redshirt junior forward Charles Matthews and freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis, none of whom have proven an ability to shoot 3-pointers at the collegiate level. “Let’s face it, we lost our three top shooters (from last year),” Beilein said at his first press conference of the season. “That’s a lot of threes in those three and highpercentage g uys so we have to replace that somehow.” Part of Michigan’s adaptation to its lack of 3-point shooting will be a heav y reliance on its suffocating defense. But it might also do something unprecedented under Beilein — predicate its offense on getting to the basket. “(Getting) downhill, I think that’s gonna be our identity right now,” said assistant coach DeAndre Haynes. The Wolverines have added new sets on offense to better match their personnel. Michigan’s identity may center around its defensive prowess but its offensive talent isn’t weak, just different. Brazdeikis was the team’s

top scorer in its three exhibitions in Spain this summer. He f lashed that ability again at Monday’s open practice, finishing a silky reverse layup through traffic on an otherwise quiet day. “Igg y, he’s like a, I don’t know what you want to call him, he’s just barbaric,” Haynes said. “Like he’s just one of those dudes that once he gets into the paint, he’s tough (to) g uard.” Matthews is known as a defensive standout but he began to display his scoring ability last March, when he averaged 14.8 points per game in the Wolverines’ run to the national championship. Even in his best offensive stretch of the season, he scored by getting to the basket and hitting short-range jumpers. Just four of his 36 made baskets in the NCA A Tournament came from beyond the arc. The key to Michigan’s new offensive identity might be Simpson. As Beilein’s point g uard, the offense runs through him. His offense was often criticized last year, when he shot just 28.6 percent from deep at the point g uard position — a role previously occupied by Walton and Burke. But 3-point shooting just isn’t Simpson’s game. “Zavier, he’s one of the best g uards at getting downhill. You know, everyday we work on different finishes,” Haynes said. “If we can get him a little 15-footer pull-up, that would be great. “But right now, everything with a f loater — or we call it a three o’clock, nine o’clock finish at the wide layups — he’s probably one of the best g uards I’ve seen finish those types of layups in the country.” Beilein admits his team’s 3-point shooting needs to improve. The subject has dominated pre-season headlines. He also knows that this offense is unlike any other that he has had at Michigan. And that might mean venturing into uncharted territory. “That’s the genius of coach Beilein,” said assistant coach Saddi Washing ton. “He’s always tweaking the offense to the streng th of the personnel, whether it’s our shooting, whether it’s our g uys’ ability to get downhill, coach is masterful at adjusting the offense so that it’s the streng th of our personnel.”

“Let’s face it, we lost our top three shooters...”

“Zavier, he’s one of the best guards at getting downhill.”

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Junior forward Will Lockwood has returned to the ice in 2018-19 after suffering a season-ending injury last year.

help them stay sharp over the course of a game. “Some guys just need to relax and take a nap,” Pearson said. “Other guys need to keep active and stay busy… The thing that we’ve learned over the years is that you’ve gotta find a routine. Get in the routine that works for you, to not only be ready physically, but mentally as well, and be prepared to play.” Another part of that newfound rhythm may well be because of continued chemistry. Michigan has seemingly settled in on a top front line of sophomore forward Josh

Norris and junior forwards Will Lockwood and Jake Slaker. On Friday night Norris and Slaker each assisted each other on goals, accounting for two of the team’s three goals that night. It might not be the “DMC” line from last year, but settling in on these combinations early will serve the Wolverines well. Lockwood, of all people, knows the importance of finding a routine since he himself hasn’t had much of an opportunity to do so after suffering a season-ending injury last year. “I’ve kind of gotten in a routine for things,” Lock-

“Some guys just need to relax and take a nap.”

wood said. “I like to stay relaxed and loose throughout the day… once you enter the rink it’s all intense, and you’re not really thinking about anything else besides the game … Personally I’ll come to the rink, take my stick right away and then go out.” Establishing a groove is important because Michigan is no stranger to slow starts — last year the Wolverines were under .500 as late as January — and time will tell if Michigan can find another groove. If the St. Lawrence series is any indication, the Wolverines are off to a good start in that regard. Ratnavale can be reached at rian@umich.edu or on Twitter at @RianRatnavale

EVAN AARON/Daily

Charles Matthews made four 3-pointers in the NCAA Tournament last year.

Sports

8 — Thursday, November 1, 2018

t’s been well publicized at this point that Don Brown thinks about last year’s 42-13 loss to Penn State every day. That’s 376 days replaying the deepest stain on his three years at ETHAN Michigan. The 506 WOLFE yards and 42 points the Nittany Lions put up exposed his seemingly impervious scheme. Recently, Brown showed the defensive players a clip of Penn State going for another gut-punching touchdown as time expired last season. With part of his memory reserved for that game, he didn’t need the extra motivation. His players probably didn’t either. “We still remember, fourth quarter, five seconds left in the game, they had their players in, they ran a last play,” said sophomore defensive end Kwity Paye. “So we put that in our back pocket and we just remember that every single day as we’re working that they disrespected us.” For a defensive coordinator that Jim Harbaugh called “one of the all-time great football coaches in the history of the game,” this weekend’s game is reclamation of that description. Saturday, whether the outcome is good or bad, is for Don Brown. The 63-year-old walked through the door Wednesday afternoon with a spry jaunt to meet with the media. “Happy Halloween,” he said to the scrum. “What are you dressing up as?” In response to junior safety Josh Metellus calling him an “old man,” Brown says he’s

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Saturday’s game is for Don Brown

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown says he has thought about last season’s Penn State game every day since the Wolverines lost, 42-13.

dressing as a younger version of himself, though his black sweater and khakis suggested he wasn’t in costume yet. And therein lies Brown’s mystique. Behind a mustache, Boston accent and storyfilled wrinkles, Brown is chipper with no signs of restlessness. He is coaching one of the biggest games of his lengthy career — Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff implications at stake — and he remains measured and funny with his answers. “That’s what happens in 41 years — you win some battles, some you’re not gonna

win. But at the end of the day, you’ve gotta get better,” Brown said. “The thing that drives me is when I don’t give our players the best possible chance. I want to make sure I remind myself of that. … At the same time, you’ve gotta move on and learn from it. Make sure you have all the tools in the toolbox at your disposal. Don’t say ‘Ah, we’re good without that.’ ” Brown won’t tell you what’s in his toolbox this year that wasn’t last year, because he is still implementing it in his stalwart defense. But his defense is smarter and more

“But at the end of the day, you’ve gotta get better.”

trustworthy, they can talk on more defensive concepts and be better at it. “You have to have a cerebral approach,” Brown said. “I was looking at third-down stuff, we repeated a bunch of stuff on third down against Michigan State two weeks ago. But you go back beyond that — Northwestern, Nebraska, just going back — there’s somewhere about 65 different concepts that we’ve challenged opposing offenses with.” And then, Brown gets asked how he knows his players love football. In other words, how does a football guy recognize

“This isn’t Happy Jack City. You better like football.”

From PSU to PSU, Kwity Paye filling potential MIKE PERSAK

Managing Sports Editor

Last season’s matchup with Penn State is one that many Wolverines have tried not to forget. The Nittany Lions embarrassed the Michigan football team, 42-13, and went so far as trying to score late in the game when they could have just run out the clock. Defensive coordinator Don Brown has said he wakes up every morning and thinks about that game. His players have echoed that sentiment. For sophomore defensive end Kwity Paye, though, the memory is a little bit different. Sure, he wants revenge against Penn State just like any of the other Wolverines. But in last year’s game, when things got out of hand and the starters subbed out, Paye showed his capability. He finished with three tackles — one for a loss — and assisted on a sack, which was the first of his career. That gave a glimpse of what could

be expected from him when he rose to the top of the depth chart. “It was exciting last year, finally getting my first sack,” Paye said on Tuesday. “But this year, you know, trying to get some more sacks, obviously. You know, just trying to get that new page and just keep working.” With junior defensive end Rashan Gary sidelined the last three games due to injury, Paye has gotten another opportunity, and he has gotten more sacks. Two, to be exact. More importantly, though, the Michigan defense hasn’t missed a beat with Gary’s absence. Paye has filled in for him seamlessly. “When I found out I was going to be starting the Maryland game, I was a little nervous. I was a little on the edge,” Paye said. “(Gary) was just like, ‘Don’t be nervous. You’ve been doing this. You’ve been working throughout two camps, and you know what you’re doing, so just go out there and play your game.’ ” Paye says he finally relieved himself of his nerves after the

Wisconsin game. In his words, the Badgers’ offensive line was “big as hell,” and once he and the Wolverines defense hung in against them, he knew he belonged. “After I played with them, I was like, I can hang,” Paye said. “After that, I just started going out and playing my game.” That might mean more than just his play. The Rhode Island native is admittedly quiet, something his teammates corroborate. But against Michigan State last week, Paye came out of his shell. Maybe it was the rivalry and the emotions surrounding that particular game, or maybe it’s the growing self-confidence, but Paye began talking trash on the field, as Michigan held the Spartans to 94 total yards. “Kwity is a really quiet person until something happens,” said sophomore defensive tackle Carlo Kemp. “Then you look over, like, ‘That was Kwity doing that?’ So, you know, it’s fun getting to see when Kwity brings out his

another football guy? “You can’t come here and play football here and not love football because it’s too much a part of your DNA,” Brown said. “This isn’t Happy Jack City. You better like football, and you better like the things that go into it.” He hasn’t even discussed this year’s Penn State team yet. That doesn’t happen until 12 minutes into an 18-minute conversation, and lasts two minutes. He likes quarterback Trace McSorley, wide receivers K.J. Hamler and Juwan Johnson, running back Miles Sanders and tight end Pat Freiermuth.

personality. He does that on the field a lot.” So what exactly does that look like? “All you see come out of Kwity is his teeth,” Kemp said. Added Paye: “Usually I don’t like to talk a lot. But that game, we were jawing at each other, us and the offensive linemen, so it was real fun.” In the end, though, the burgeoning personality is a side piece, and possibly a product of what really matters. If you had told Wolverines fans before the season that they would have to face the Badgers and Michigan State without Gary, there would have been concern. But Michigan’s defense dominated both offenses. With the 14th-ranked Nittany Lions coming into town, Gary still might not be healthy enough to play. And yet the Wolverines are double-digit favorites. That is, in part, because Paye has followed through on the potential he showed a year ago in Happy Valley.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Sophomore defensive end Kwity Paye got his first career sack against Penn State last season, and since then, he has developed into a solid option on the line.

It’s a listicle of the primary weapons that Michigan’s defense will see from the Nittany Lions. Then, it’s back to his unit and its most recent performance: allowing just 94 yards to Michigan State. “Just relief for another week,” Brown said of his reaction. “I’ll share something with you — that didn’t surprise me. This team, this defensive football team that we’re coaching presently, is the best practice team I’ve ever been around. I don’t have to out there with my hair on fire, screaming on guys, ‘You’ve gotta hustle, you’ve gotta run, get to the ball, blah blah blah.’ This team practices like they’re supposed to practice.” Don Brown could just be doing Don Brown things and complimenting his guys. But even when poked and prodded for answers, he didn’t dwell for too long on last year and what he is preparing for this year. He’s felt accountable for over a year about last season’s blowout, and shares that feeling with his players. Of course that’s what he wants to talk about. His defense is fourth in points allowed and first in yards allowed per game, after all. On Saturday, a replication of last year’s nightmare can undo all of this year’s accomplishments and squander a hopeful season. Or Brown and his players can turn the table and keep title dreams intact. “Happy Halloween,” Brown repeated with a smile as he finished his press conference. The mental weight of 376 frustrating days were nowhere be seen. Wolfe can be reached eewolfe@umich.edu or on Twitter @ethanewolfe

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Eli Brooks looking for increased role this year ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Writer

Eli Brooks’ phone rang, and DeAndre Haynes was on the other end. Haynes, an assistant coach on the Michigan men’s basketball team, called Brooks to give the sophomore guard a little extra boost before the season. “Man, I’m proud of you,” Haynes said. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, keep being a great leader and keep playing with confidence.” It would be easy for Brooks to lose the faith. At the start of last year, the point guard position was one of the Wolverines’ most pressing questions, and for a time, Brooks looked like he could be the answer. He earned the starting job in November, but had lost it by January. Brooks faded into the background as thensophomore Zavier Simpson broke out on defense. He was eclipsed as backup point guard by fifth-year senior Jaaron Simmons and backup shooting guard by freshman Jordan Poole. By February, Brooks was averaging less than five minutes a game. This year will be different. Brooks knows he won’t have a starting role, with Simpson and Poole firmly entrenched at the ‘1’ and ‘2,’ respectively. But Brooks has a different perspective, an improved game and with it, a clearer path to more playing time. “He handled it last year really well and … he got chances to go back on the scout team and really get reps,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “And he’s been one of our best players this fall.” Brooks’ experience with the scout team led him to take more of a leadership role among the freshmen, especially forward Ignas Brazdeikis and guard David DeJulius — something he didn’t do last year. He has

never been very vocal, but with Simpson’s fiery “bulldog” personality, he doesn’t need to be. Instead, Brooks leads by example. Frequently, he stays after practice with the freshmen, teaching them the finer points of the game. It helps them, but it also helps him. “It’s just his confidence,” Haynes said. “He’s just been a great teammate. I was telling someone earlier, the things (guard Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman) was doing with him last year and doing with the team, you see him doing.” During his time on the bench, Brooks learned the importance of confidence — something that has increased with his leadership. Beilein and Haynes have noticed the difference, and the improvements that have come along with it. Beilein praised Brooks for shooting the ball as well as any Wolverine. Haynes mentioned him as one of Michigan’s best defenders — high praise for a player on one of the country’s best defensive teams. If those changes show up in games, other teams will start to notice, too. “We don’t know if he’ll back up at the point, play more of the ‘2,’ I don’t know what,” Beilein said. “But he’s gonna be on the court.” After last year, Brooks could have given up and resigned himself to a diminished role. Instead, he recognized his unique position to help other players improve — and carved out a place for himself in the process. And no matter what position he plays this year, Brooks knows he has a lot to offer, on and off the court. “Just maintaining your confidence, cause that’s one of the biggest things I learned,” Brooks said. “You’re gonna have highs and lows, but just being able to limit the lows is one way to stay on top.”