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Wednesday, November 21, 2018
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“No-Lease” rentals draw concern from 2 A residents Some dub phenomenon a symptom of lack of affordable housing in Ann Arbor AARON BAKER/Daily
Rackham student Vidhya Aravind speaks at the Transgender Day of Rememberance event, hosted by the Spectrum Center, at the Michigan League Tuesday evening.
Victims of transphobia honored at Trans Day of Remembrance
phenomena was somewhat common. In the state of Daily Staff Reporter Michigan, landlords are not required to provide a written STINE JEGARL N BY CHRIlease On aILLU Monday afternoon if the tenant is renting STR ATIO in late October, Ann Arbor month-to-month for less resident Brian Young and his than one year, although the girlfriend drove up to a house agreement can be terminated on State Street across the street with 30 days notice. from Yost Ice Arena. Young Having had good had driven by the property experiences in the past, Young a few days prior and noticed decided to give the house a shot a sign that read “Rooms for and take a tour. The liability Rent/No Lease.” He was on of not having a written lease the search for a new home and didn’t bother him. the sign immediately caught “I feel like it wouldn’t his attention. be smart for somebody to It was not the first time jeopardize (their) business,” Young looked to rent a room Young said. “To mistreat without a lease. Growing up people or do somebody in Detroit and Ypsilanti, he wrong. So I kind of overlook See RENT, Page 3A said the no-lease, rental rooms ZAYNA SYED
The Price of Experien
Local “Out Loud Chorus” performs at annual memorial hosted by Spectrum Center NIKKI KIM
Unpaid internships and the student job
and commemorate the lives of transgender individuals lost in acts of transphobia and cisThe University of Michigan sexism at the Michigan League Spectrum Center hosted its on Tuesday night. The event annual memorial to honor recognized the impacts of antiFor The Daily
trans discrimination, as well as to reflect on the power of the trans and non-binary community. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was created in 1999 by transgender activist
Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to remember the life of Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman who was murdered in her own apartment in 1998. Since then, See SPECTRUM, Page 3A
Professor examines role of podcasting, Ex-MSU Food drive president new media in South Korean protests organized
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charged in Nassar case
After shift in power, citizens reportedly used new tech to stay informed, mobilize
Attorney General claims Lou Anna Simon lied to police about Nassar case
Youngju Ryu, Institute for the Humanities Hunting Family Faculty Fellow and associate professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, spoke to approximately 40 students and faculty in Osterman Common Room Tuesday afternoon about the role of new media in South Korea’s protest culture. The talk was part of the FellowSpeak series, a program allowing faculty and visiting fellows to discuss their area of study outside the classroom. Ryu discussed the history of political activism in South Korea and the relatively new inf luence of cultural texts in helping citizens be informed and mobilized, specifically in regards to the transition of power in South Korea in 2017. “It was all very, very peaceful and was celebrated by press around the world,” Ryu said. “An example of very robust people’s power and democracy at a time when there is so much handwringing over the crisis on liberal democracy around the world and the rise of corrosive nationalism in those parts of the world where we are used to thinking about democracy.” In May 2017, South Koreans voted a new president into office after the impeachment of Park Geun-hye on charges
RACHEL CUNNINGHAM Daily Staff Reporter
Lou Anna Simon, former president of Michigan State University, was charged on Tuesday by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for lying to police regarding the investigation of Larry Nassar, former USA Gymnastics and MSU doctor. Simon was arraigned in Eaton County District Court on two felony and two misdemeanor counts. If convicted, she faces up to four years in prison. Authorities say Simon allegedly knew Nassar was the subject of a Title IX investigation but lied to police on her knowledge of the manner. Nassar was sentenced to 40-175 years in jail in January after more than 150 survivors came forward accusing him of sexual abuse. Simon resigned as MSU president on Jan. 24 following Nassar’s sentencing, saying the scandal was “politicized” and it was “understandable” why she was the focus of public See NASSAR, Page 3A
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of political corruption. Dubbed the Candlelight Revolution, the shift toward democracy was a result of street demonstrations. Scholars, including Ryu, credit the spark of the Candlelight Revolution to new media types, specifically the podcast. South Korean government mass censorship skipped over podcasts, meaning the people had more access to unregulated information and news than ever before. This, in turn, energized the people of South Korea and lead to the formation of “poli-tainment,” the practice of bringing politics into entertainment programs. Business freshman
Madeline Adler said she was interested in the talk because of its focus on how media engages citizens in politics. “I’ve always been interested in program politics, especially things like this, how digital media gets people involved in their politics more,” Adler said. “I was really interested in her talk about accessibility and just talking about how the use of podcasts and satire are making politics more accessible to people and making people understand their politics more.” Noah Bland, an Institute for the Humanities fellow, introduced Ryu at the event. Bland said this talk had a bigger turnout than similar events and noted her
expertise in the area of study and her book, “Writers of the Winter Republic.” “A few days before Thanksgiving break, we appreciate this enormous, huge crowd. It’s wonderful,” Bland said. “Her areas of research include aesthetics of dissidence, cultures of authoritarianism and philosophies of reconciliation in 20th-century Korea.” Ryu said there was significant movement in two areas in recent history: K-Protests, a form of grassroots political activism, and K-Pop. Protestors weaved elements of K-Pop into the revolution’s message. During the Candlelight See PODCAST, Page 3A
PRASHANTH PANICKER/DAILY Youngju Ryu, associate professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, speaks about South Korea’s podcast revolution in Osterman Common Room Tuesday afternoon.
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Vol. CXXVIII, No. 36 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
to benefit Native org
Drive was co-sponsored by MESA and Native American student org KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan’s office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs held its 11th event for Native American Heritage Month this year, sponsoring a food drive with the American Indian Health and Family Services on Tuesday afternoon. The drive took place at the AIHFS community center in Detroit and was sponsored by the Native American Student Association. The event marked the first collaboration between the University and AIHFS. AIHFS is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and provides medical services in the greater Detroit area including women’s care maternal health, diabetes care and substance abuse counseling. The clinic is open to all, and caters specifically towards uninsured individuals identifying as American Indian/Alaska native. The center also offers outreach programs and provides community-centered activities such as a garden, a kitchen and cultural events. See DRIVE, Page 3A
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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: HUNDREDS ATTEND ASSEMBLY TEACH-IN ON DEPUTIZATION, ACTIVISM By Jon Casden Students who spent last week shouting “No Guns, No Cops, No Code,” quelled their chants to speak on the issue of campus deputization yesterday at a Michigan Student Assembly-sponsored teach-in. Event organizers estimated more than 1,000 people attended the teach-in held during the day at the Michigan Union. Faculty and student speakers addressed deputization as well as the installation of a non-academic code of conduct, and the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The largest crowd of the day was drawn by Michigan Student Assembly representative and Student Rights Committee Chair Corey Dolgon, who discussed the deputization issue in front of an
estimated 350 people. Dolgon emphasized the need for the administration to listen to students’ concerns and to put funds into improving safety in other ways on campus. Students and speakers at the teach-in encouraged people to become involved with the movement and to press for student input into other decisions at the University. “Our goals have broadened, now we believe that every student group that has demands has the right to negotiate those demands with the University,” said Carl Burns, LSA senior. Smaller seminars informed students about the development of social movements, and how they related to the current state
of activism. Another discussion focused on student apathy. The teach-in also featured discussions on homeless people and their relationships with police, on women and police and on how the University administration operates. “I was never really previously concerned with the student rights movement,” said LSA first-yearstudent Pete Kroll. “I’m here to get more informed. I read a lot and hear a lot (about deputization), but until I’m informed, I can’t get involved.” LSA sophomore Lisa Yanoff had similar reasons for attending. “As far as student rights is concerned, I have not done anything and I wanted to come here to see what was going on. Now, I’m definitely for (the anti-deputization movement),” Yanoff said.
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Court rules faculty can cross-examine accuser in sexual misconduct cases Court of Appeals ruling follows suit on Doe vs. Baum case from September JORDYN BAKER
Daily News Reporter
According to a court opinion filed Monday, a federal judge ruled professors undergoing trial for accusations of misconduct have the right to cross-examine accusers — particularly if defendants face serious disciplinary actions. In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Doe v. Baum that universities “must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to crossexamine the accuser” in cases of sexual assault investigations. According to the court opinion,
the University of Michigan failed to comply with the holding that accused students have the opportunity to crossexamine their accuser when credibility is in question. The ruling has widespread ramifications for the student sexual misconduct policy and hearing processes. Now, faculty and staff misconduct is under the spotlight. “Plaintiff has adequately pled that the University violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights by sanctioning her under SPG 201.96,” the court opinion reads. The defendant in the case is Prof. Pamela Smock, who faced
charges of sexual harassment from three graduate students, but was cleared of Title IX violations in December 2016. She was reported as conducting “inappropriate behavior,” and LSA Dean Andrew Martin stated he found this report “troubling” before freezing Smock’s salary, removing her sabbatical and disabling her role as an advisor to doctoral students for three years. David Nacht, counsel for Smock, stated while Doe v. Baum applies to students, this ruling on faculty’s right to cross-examine accusers extends the previous case precedent. “Doe v. Baum was, in fact, a student case, but the logic of the opinion doesn’t necessarily limit itself to that, and so the judge was guided by that precedent in making his decision,” Nacht said. “Why should a freshman in college have more due process rights if they’re facing suspension, for instance, than a tenured professor who is accused of the same conduct, or similar conduct? It is not as if the professor has less at stake, so I think there’s an inherent logic to the court’s decision.” A press release from Nacht argues the opinion from the federal court also applies to professors accused of bullying under SPG 201.96, which is the University’s anti-bullying rule for professors, and discrimination or harassment. In Smock’s case, the press release states she was not given the names
of her accusers nor was she allowed to question them. The court opinion maintains, however, Smock did not make an adequate constitutional challenge to SPG 201.96, nor did she adequately plead that her “sanctions constituted retaliation against her exercise of protected speech.”
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RENT From Page 1A it, because I feel like people should be about they business more than trying to trick somebody or get over them. If there ain’t no lease, then I’ll take a chance because I feel like they wouldn’t jeopardize they business to do me wrong.” The owner of the house on State Street, who also owns the Campus Student Bike Shop on Maynard Street, declined to comment. Young, a gregarious grandfather, moved to Ann Arbor in 1989 for a better life. He works part-time as a custodian and receives disability benefits for a leg injury. “I haven’t seen an abandoned building here since I’ve been here and I’ve never heard no gunshots,” Young said. “I feel like this is a good place for me. The cost of living is high, but there’s jobs here, so you can afford to live here. I just like Ann Arbor. The atmosphere, it’s a walking, running, talking, active town. The future is bright for me here. I tell my friends and people that wanna have something in life, that want to enjoy life, come to Ann Arbor.” While Young said he has never experienced any issues with no-lease rentals, those familiar with affordable housing policy in Ann Arbor still caution against it. Zack Ackerman, Ann Arbor City Councilmember, D-Ward 3, strongly advises against entering into a rental agreement without a lease. The liability, he said, is too great. And while the flexibility of no-lease renting may be attractive to tenants without dependable streams of income, Ackerman said it’s not a solution to the lack of affordable housing in Ann
Arbor “by any means.” “I think it’s a profiteering band-aid to the affordable housing issue. Leases mostly exist to protect tenants’ rights,” Ackerman said. “And if a tenant is entering in a relationship with a landlord without a lease, they’re entering into it without any right whatsoever, which means any personal property they bring into the property, they’d have no proof it’s their own. And the landlord or any other tenant could lay claim to it, and the original tenant would have no legal recourse whatsoever. So this is an extremely dangerous proposition for a tenant, and I would strongly not recommend any tenant enter into it unless they’re in desperate enough
I think it’s a profiteering band-aid to the affordable housing issue
straits.” LSA senior Christopher Olson, co-president of the University of Michigan’s Roosevelt Institute –– a student-run, progressive think tank and advocacy organization –– said the phenomenon is a symptom of the affordable housing problem in Ann Arbor and similarly cautions renting without a lease puts tenants at the whims of their landlord. Rents have risen steadily in Ann Arbor in last decade — the median rate for rent in Ann Arbor increased 14 percent
from 2010 to 2015 reaching $1,075 per month, despite the amount of high-density housing areas also rising by 32 percent. “I would think that (monthto-month rentals) are more of a symptom of the fact that we have an affordable housing problem here,” Olson said. “Leases provide legal protections to tenants in a number of ways. They have to give you notice of entry, they have to fix the stuff that you ask them to fix. Not having a lease puts you more at the discretion of the landlord.” Gayle Rosen, a lawyer with Student Legal Services, the University’s law office for students, said verbal agreements between a tenant and landlord can be legally binding, if they meet certain criteria, though she “certainly wouldn’t recommend” it. “You have to agree to certain terms in order to have a valid verbal agreement,” Rosen said. “You have to agree on the rent amount and the length of time that you’re going to be there, but it could just become a month-to-month lease, where each month the other party gives notice that they were terminating the lease, that it continues. It’s effectively a verbal agreement, a verbal lease.” According to Rosen, University students almost always sign leases and she does not often see cases of disputes between tenants and landlords without a lease. “I don’t see it frequently,” Rosen said. “I’ve seen it probably less than five times. Sometimes they’re sublease situations, where someone wants to sublease and they do that without a written agreement and that’s a little bit more common. Why they do it, I don’t know. In some
PODCASTING From Page 1A
SPECTRUM From Page 1A
Revolution, Ryu said people were coming up with new slogans and artwork for their protests based on global popular culture. Ryu also said one podcast in particular, “I
the day has commemorated the lives of many transgender people lost to violence and thus begun an important tradition of recognizing the many who fight for the rights of their community. Raivynn Smith, program specialist for events and partnerships at the Spectrum Center, highlighted the fears that many transgender individuals have of coming out and presenting themselves in the world. Smith said she hoped for a day when Black trans women could not only exist, but thrive, and nonbinary children could grow up without the fear of violence in their own homes. “Maybe one day I can wake up and breathe knowing that my community is safe. However, today, unfortunately, is not that day,” they said. “I hold my breath for over 350 trans and gender nonconforming people that we know of were murdered this year … My people are drowning in the ills of the world, drowning at the hands of transphobia and misogyny and racism and poverty and deep discrimination.” Smith’s introduction was followed by a performance by the Out Loud chorus, a community chorus group dedicated to creating safe spaces for LGBTQ folks and their allies. The Out Loud Chorus is a performance group that uses music as an outlet and is a community to promote open environments where gender non-binary individuals can feel welcomed. They performed two songs that paid homage to the deaths of their peers and
It brought about a complete change in the way South Korea has engaged with North Korea Am a Petty Cheat,” had a large impact on generating interest in the revolution. Throughout the event, Ryu emphasized the peaceful nature of the Candlelight Revolution. She attributed this as an explicit shift toward a new era for South Korea and is hopeful this trend will change the country’s diplomacy in the future. “The fact that it was peaceful — not a single window was broken — even though some 16 million people came out on the streets was itself also a departure and paradigm shift from earlier histories of more violent protests,” Ryu said. “It brought about a complete change in the way South Korea has engaged with North Korea and a possible path to ending the Korean War that now seems to be a real prospect.”
NASSAR From Page 1A anger. Other prominent figures associated with MSU and USA Gymnastics were arrested earlier this year in the wake of the Nassar scandal. Steve Penny, former chief executive officer of USA Gymnastics, was arrested in October for tampering with
evidence. Kathie Klages, former gymnastics coach of MSU, was arrested for lying to police. William Strampel, former dean of MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, was arrested in March regarding his handling of the Nassar investigation. Lindsey Lemke, a survivor and former Michigan State gymnast, wrote in a Twitter statement that she is not surprised by Simon’s arrest, and sees it as taking a step forward toward holding
instances it might be they never got around to signing a lease. I certainly don’t think it’s a preferred option because the lease is a little bit unclear.” Students and Ann Arbor residents alike have mobilized this year to revive the Ann Arbor Tenants’ Union, which shut down in 2004 due to lack of funding. Students were then redirected to Student Legal Services for mediation and legal assistance. Last month at a Central Student Government meeting, however, SLS director Doulgas Lewis said he’d like to see the union in action again. “The tenants’ union helped a lot of things happen in government in this town that wouldn’t have happened without it,” Lewis said at the meeting. “I think their last shot was trying to get rent control in Ann Arbor.” In the end, Young and his girlfriend did not rent the space. The room in question was $600 per month with a bathroom and access to a kitchen and living room, but Young did not feel the space was an adequate return for the rent. Young said his past experiences have led him to trust his landlords. He would, however, like a written agreement stating his security deposit is refundable. “I’ve done it before in the past and never had no problems. But I feel like you ought to have something written out to give me so you can let me know that I’ll be assured I can get my security deposit back,” Young said. “We be on even playing fields. Because (the landlord) needs a security deposit, to make sure his place won’t get damaged, and I need something written saying that I get my security deposit back if nothing’s damaged. And that’s good business.”
reflected on the power of the trans community. “We try very hard to get people to think about acceptance and LGBTQ issues in the general population; it’s part of our mission to educate people and hopefully reduce discrimination,” Tim Hamann, a member of Out Loud Chorus, said. “The way we do that is by changing gender pronouns in music, flipping things upside down, taking traditional songs and changing them.” The memorial concluded with the invited speaker, Nursing graduate student Vidhya Aravind, speaking about her narrative and the personal impact the memorials have on her every year. Aravind has been doing activist work for years to create local change within her immediate community. Aravind has led multiple advocacy efforts for trans students on campus through the Graduate Employee Organization and other channels. Aravind began by speaking about the disproportionate violence against trans women of color to highlight the intersections of racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia. “It’s a full-blown crisis,” Aravind says. “I want to be clear and say that transphobia is a cis problem but I don’t know what it will take for them to shift their opinions on such a massive scale. Our bodies’ very existence challenge capitalist and colonialist structures so much.” She expressed her desire to focus on growing the strength of the trans community rather than trying to fight against the inevitable nature of cis mindsets. Such bottom-up solutions, Aravind said, are
enablers of sexual abuse accountable. “She knew all along that Nassar should not have been treating us but yet she chose not to do the right thing and continued to employ Nassar at Michigan State University,” the statement said. “When I confronted Lou Anna in the court sentencing of Larry Nassar, she had no answers, she didn’t know who I was, and she proved that she was unfit to be in the position she was
indicative of her acceptance of the structural nature of antitrans violence. She argued it is a systemic problem where antitrans or anti-Black thoughts cannot be reformed and where assimilation will never be enough. “Promises of not being the grotesque creatures they think we are continue to remain unheard,” Aravind said. She recognized, though, there is a future for the community. She said her fight is not against the cis community but rather, with the community of supporters and allies. She desires to build a world for the trans community rather than change the anti-trans world they live in right now. “I still think there’s hope to be had. There’s hope in a different world where instead of fighting for cishet change, we become a resilient enough community that they can’t touch us,” Aravind said. The last 30 minutes of the memorial was open to any attendees to speak about their personal experiences. Erica, a member of Out Loud Chorus who requested her full name not be published, also shared her story. After transitioning at 13 and getting kicked out of her family’s home, she went years without having a proper community. She described her experience of finding herself through the Out Loud Chorus and spoke of her gratitude. “It was the first time that I had a group of people who accepted me for who I am,” she said. Aravind’s last words to the audience were a call to action. “Practice radical and creative compassion,” Aravind said. “Especially when you feel uncomfortable doing so.”
in … this serves as a statement that we are continuing to hold our fight and that we are not backing down until all enablers are held accountable for their poor actions.” LSA sophomore Morgan McCaul, also a survivor, echoed Lemke’s sentiment that these charges represent an important moment of increased accountability regarding the Michigan State University administration, as well as justice for survivors.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 — 3A
DRIVE From Page 1A The Native American Student Association contributed eight turkeys to the center, where AIHFS staff planned to both deliver food and hold a feast Tuesday night. MESA also funded a community lunch Tuesday during which members of AIHFS and University students talked about contemporary issues affecting Native American communities, and especially students. These issues spanned from the increasing need for Native students to specialize in environmental preservation as well as maintaining cultural values. Shiloh Maples, the healthy foods initiatives coordinator at AIHFS and member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, highlighted the necessity for Native American people to work together to continue growth and development within communities. “Native culture relies on interdependence to survive, whereas dominant culture really relies on independence,” she said. “The interdependence is about growing together. We support one another because our future and well-being are interconnected.” Teia McGahey, a 2017 U-M Dearborn alum from the Ojibwe tribe, serves as an assistant for the youth program AIHFS runs for students in high school and higher education. The program works with young adults to help prepare for college or joining the workforce and facilitate cultural engagement. She stressed the importance of outreach for Native American youth and collaborations with the University. “I feel like a lot of Native people and people from all over
have been very disconnected from our culture, histories and ways of living, and I feel that it’s really important to have those and hold on to them, for anyone who wants to,” she said. “That’s the most fulfilling thing about working here, is being able to help be the bridge for people to their culture and where they come from. I think that’s very healing, and that’s how I see a lot of the work our community programs do here, is facilitating healing for our people.” McGahey explained how partnership with the University can provide resources to educate and mobilize Native and non-Native students alike. “Collaborations like this are so powerful because it’s just growing our work in so many different ways, it can be planning events, starting movements, getting in the social justice world in a way that is beneficial for us, and being able to collaborate totally increases our potential,” she said. LSA sophomore Samara Jackson Tobey, activism chair of Native American Student Association External, has spearheaded Native American Heritage Month initiatives and explained how reconnecting with these communities will benefit students on campus. “As MESA evolves their relationships with (Native American Students Association) students and tribal communities, it’s vital MESA finds time to honor the commitment and opportunities AIFHS offers to its community,” Tobey said. “Bridging our students on campus with a greater network is what Native American Heritage Month is all about, learning your support systems.”
CSG talks medical amnesty, hazing CATHERINE NOUHAN Daily News Reporter
The University of Michigan Central Student Government passed multiple resolutions Tuesday evening, including amendments to the Statement of Students Rights and Responsibilities regarding medical amnesty for all ages of students and more substances than alcohol, as well as a new definition of “hazing.” In the current statement, medical amnesty is only applicable to minors and when under the influence of alcohol. This resolution aims to expand the definition to encompass other substances as well as people of any age. As of October 2016, the Michigan Medical Amnesty Law was expanded to include any controlled substance and apply to individuals of any age. Rackham student Nicholas Fadanelli, one of the authors of the resolution, expressed the importance of the resolution and was extremely pleased the resolution passed at the meeting. Fadanelli also said he and the other authors of the resolution were surprised these protections were not aligned with the state law already. “I am very excited that CSG has agreed to author this amendment … because I think it is very important that we extend these protections to students who have consumed drugs that are not alcohol that need medical
“Her charges mark a significant moment in the course of this story, one where enablers of sexual violence begin to face accountability for their failure to ensure the safety of those they were legally responsible to protect. This has been a long time coming, but it is one more long-sought step towards collective justice,” she said. She further recalled the hearings last January, in which Judge Rosemarie Aquilina
attention,” Fadanelli said. “The fact that this is not currently protected under University of Michigan policies is a big shock for me and other authors, and we are very gracious for the support that the other members of CSG and the members of SACUA and other administrators have given us thus far in the process.” Other resolutions passed put forth a request to the University to create a concrete definition of hazing in the Statement of Students Rights and Responsibilities. In the resolution, the authors stated in the current statement, the definition of hazing is hyperlinked with references to ‘Campus Community Perspectives,’ ‘University Policies’ and ‘Michigan State Law.’ “The lack of a definition for hazing leaves unclear how the Statement will be interpreted,” the Hazing Statement Amendment Resolution read. “The ‘University Policy Against Hazing,’ last updated 2 April 2004, remains the basis for current policy, yet is insufficient to match the contemporary needs of our student body by failing to explicitly define and condemn acts of hazing.” Both amendments to the statement will be sent to the Students Relations Advisory Committee of the Faculty Senate to be reviewed.
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garnered national acclaim for her empathetic support of the “sister survivors.” “Back in January, I asked Judge Aquilina to impose a sentence upon my abuser that would send an unmistakable message to those who ‘look the other way to protect their green-and-white,’” she said. “Today, that feels realized.”
Opinion
4A —Wednesday, November 21, 2018
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AARON BAKER | COLUMN
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ABBIE BERRINGER | COLUMN
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The danger of “living your truth”
he ideolog y of moral her? If we believe there is no relativism is a common objective morality, and no theme among today’s objective truths such as one’s biological ethnicity, college-aged youth. then condemning Phrases such as anyone for ethnic “live your truth” or cultural as well as maxims appropriation that prioritize becomes a individuality, hypocritical and autonomy and self moot point. In a definition above all world where there is other values have no truth, there is no swept youth culture. right or wrong. This philosophy has ABBIE The truth is that been largely painted BERRINGER while our youth in a positive light as the philosophy of diversity and are constantly saying things inclusion, a philosophy that like “live your truth,” they finally allows for every person aren’t living up to the true to truly be themself, and it is meaning of that ideolog y. largely associated with the They aren’t condoning all political left. Yet this ideolog y sorts of previously condemned of moral relativism could have actions such as the racial mentioned dangerous consequences that appropriation affect the very moral fiber of above. They are, if anything, society. In a culture where more polarized and critical there is no objective truth, than ever. As a society, we and everybody is free to define are constantly condemning what is right for themselves, our political adversaries as where do we end up? If we “immoral,” and I can’t help draw moral relativism out but note the inconsistency to its logical conclusion, of these two competing any number of frightening possibilities become a reality. My peers exemplif y moral relativism when they say things such as: “I don’t believe we can define the truth,” “everything we think we know is nothing more than a social construct” or “our experiences are all individual and therefore none of us has the right to judge anyone else’s decisions.” These such beliefs have led them to conclude that there are in fact no objective ideologies that are attempting truths and that there is not to coexist side by side on the an objective morality; “live liberal side of the aisle. My and let live,” as the old saying friend might tell me to live my individual truth when we goes. While, on its face, this disagree on something they ideolog y seems harmless and deem insignificant and, in the maybe even admirable, there next breath, tell me that my are some deep issues that can pro-life stance is “morally” arise in a world where we tell harmful to women. The objective truth is that everyone that the only person they are accountable to is inherently we all believe themself. When one applies in some measure of right this ideolog y to simple things or wrong, which comes out such as how to dress or what in the form of the truth to eat, maybe it is harmless. claims we make on a dayHowever, when we apply this to-day basis. No matter how ideolog y to greater moral philosophical we attempt to debates, we see that it falls f lat. be, or how much we attempt Let’s take the infamous case to understand the complexity of Rachel Dolezal, the white of the human experience, we woman who became the head know that there are objective of the Spokane chapter of the truths, and this is a good NA ACP by claiming she was thing. When young liberals Black. Few people feel that it and/or Democrats claim to was OK for her to appropriate believe in moral relativism, Black culture the way that she they undermine their claims did, but if we believe that the to being the party of human only person who can define rights and social justice, what is right or wrong for because if morality, dignity her life is herself, then who and equality aren’t inherent are we to judge? Maybe she qualities that we all possess, can “identif y” as Black as and are nothing more than a she so claims. Maybe then, social construct, then they when it suits us, we all can really don’t exist at all! They identif y as whatever we like. are as fragile as the whims She claims her ethnic identity of our culture. If tomorrow comes to me isn’t harming anyone else, and somebody while there are arg uments claiming that “women belong to be made to the contrary, in the kitchen,” I can’t tell in a world where we claim them this is a backwards and morality is relative anyway, oppressive ideolog y because then who can truly condemn that is their truth. There is no
In a world where there is no truth, there is no right or wrong
oppression in a world without truth because oppression can only occur when somebody’s freedom, dignity and equality are being infringed upon. If these are nothing more than relative social constructs, however, then the “oppressor” can simply claim his actions exist within the realms of his version of the truth and are therefore morally permissible. In fact, this is almost exactly what the Nazi law yers tried to claim in the Nuremberg trials, that they were just living out the ideolog y of their cultural beliefs and therefore, the rest of the world could not condemn them. It may be convenient to cla im t hat t r ut h is relative in a n increa singly politica lly-correct colleg iate env ironment, where safe spaces a nd t rigger wa rnings a re common ta lking points, but if t he lef t wa nts to cling to mora l relativ ism, t hen t hey w ill have to lea rn to let t heir “safe spaces” go, because on a ca mpus where a ny t r ut h, a ny conspiracy t heor y a nd a ny w ild cla im is t r ue a s long a s I believe it is, t hen t here a re no safe spaces at a ll. Libera l colleges a re on one ha nd becoming a n echo cha mber where only libera l v iew points a re accepted a s “right ” a nd “mora l” a nd yet, on t he ot her ha nd, t hese sa me “socia l justice wa rriors” a re pat ting each ot her on t he back for not oppressing one a not her w it h objective mora lit y. It ’s a huge hy pocrisy of today ’s new lef tist movement. While we should always be war y of those who attempt to oppress us with their versions of “the truth” that may not be decidedly true at all, if we believe that truth, justice and moralit y exist, we can keep seeking af ter them. We, as the next generation of difference makers, can seek to live up to the creed of “all men created equal” that is laid out in the U.S. Constitution. Because, while it may not have been truthf ully f ulf illed when written, due to our belief in the inherent dig nit y and equalit y of man, we can f ight for the realization of this equalit y. However, if we forego moralit y and truth, we have no g round to stand on to f ight for equalit y, justice or any other form of human rights. That is why we shouldn’t allow moral relativism to permeate our societ y f ully. We can be more inclusive and tolerant than past generations without foregoing our beliefs in objective truths and moralit y. In fact, we need these beliefs to truly be inclusive and tolerant at all.
Abbie Berringer can be reached at abbierbe@umich.edu.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com.
I
Zionism and racism
n the Trump era, whether to support Israel or not is becoming an increasingly partisan issue in American politics. Israel’s designation as a partisan issue has highlighted a bizarre association: white nationalists vocally supporting Israel, even calling themselves Zionists of sorts. Richard Spencer, in an interview with an Israeli journalist, called himself a “white Zionist” because he believes white people should have a homogenous homeland in America. Nationalists elsewhere, like Viktor Orban of Hungary, who are pursuing highly nationalistic agendas that seek to exclude minorities, also support Israel. In a weird twist, Orban, widely seen as anti-Semitic, is strongly proIsrael. Nationalists support Israel to justify their own nationalist visions. If Israel can be a nation-state founded on an ethno-religious identity, then so too can America, or Hungary, or any country, pursue an exclusionary national identity. To some, the support nationalists espouse for Israel proves the most biting criticism of Israel — that its very existence as a Jewish majority state is racist, as was asserted in UN Resolution 3379 and by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. That is, Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is racist and colonialist in the same way Richard Spencer’s call for America to be a white homeland is racist. However, this criticism of Israel is flawed. Zionism is fundamentally different than the prejudicial nationalisms of far-right movements all around the world. Zionism emerged as a solution to antiSemitism, and today it is the best and only solution to anti-Semitism. There is a clear difference between Jews wanting a state as a source of sanctuary and defense against antiSemitism and the racist visions of Richard Spencer. Zionism was a response to the very European nationalism and anti-Semitism which nationalists like Orban and Richard Spencer echo today. In the 1800s, Jews were emancipated in parts of Western Europe, meaning they were given citizenship and rights for the first time after a long history of persecution. In Eastern Europe, Jews were not emancipated and suffered violent pogroms and attacks. Emancipation in countries like France gave Jews hope that if they were assimilated they would not be persecuted. Theodor Herzl, seen as the founder of modern Zionism, originally thought the solution to anti-Semitism was for Jews to be baptized like Christians were.
But it was the infamous Dreyfus affair, when a French Jewish military officer was wrongly blamed for treason because he was Jewish, that changed Herzl’s mind. Herzl, after witnessing anti-Semitic mobs in the streets of Paris, realized the Jews could not count on assimilation to protect them from anti-Semitism. This was proven to be true when the Nazis committed genocide and murdered two-thirds of European Jewry, regardless of if they were assimilated or not. Anti-Semitism is not a matter of the past. In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League concluded that 26 percent of the world’s population held antiSemitic beliefs. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in both Europe and America, the places where the most Jews live outside of Israel. Rising anti-Semitism has been a concern in Europe for a while now. What is new is the rising anti-Semitism in America. As political scientist Fareed Zakaria said, “For over 2,500 years Jews have been vilified and persecuted everywhere, and then came Israel and America.” Yet, anti-Semitic hate crimes in America are up 57 percent and half of all religious hate crimes are against Jews, despite Jews making up under two percent of the American population. A neo-Nazi running for Congress in Illinois won 26 percent of the vote. And of course, there was the Pittsburgh shooting. America might still overall be a safe place for Jews, but the fact that the Holocaust started in Germany — then considered one of the least anti-Semitic European countries — should serve as a reminder that anti-Semitism can emerge in deadly form anywhere. Anti-Semitism has staying power because of its historic prevalence in European thought. Anti-Semitism developed as a sort of ideological means of scapegoating and opposing perceived change in European societies. In “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an infamous antiSemitic text published by Russian military officers in the early 1900s, Jews are blamed for all “ideas” which challenged the Tsar. Jews in Europe were depicted as being the progenitors of capitalism and communism, depending on which system the bigot disliked. That’s why anti-Semites today, like the Pittsburgh shooter, blame Jews for whatever changes in society they dislike, whether its refugees or globalization. The white nationalists in Charlottesville chanted “Jews will not replace us,” alleging that Jews were conspiring to replace white people with minorities. Having a
country where Jews have the right to live and defend themselves is necessary to ensure the continuity of Judaism, given the brutal history and continuity of anti-Semitism. Zionists today should remember that Zionism was originally an instrument against anti-Semitism, rather than an end in and of itself. Religious Zionism and expansionism stray from Zionism’s original moral justifications. Zionism should not be a fixed ideology unable to change in the future. If animosity between Israelis and Palestinians abated significantly, a binational state in which Palestinians and Israelis are equal citizens could be congruous with Zionism’s goal of ensuring the survival of Judaism. Both Palestinians and Israelis could have the right of return. Governance could be structured in a powersharing agreement or a confederate system. But today, a binational state would mean more bloodshed and suffering for both sides. The conflict, for which both sides share blame, has produced an animus on the part of Israelis and Palestinians which would take generations to heal. A two-state solution, for now, is thus the best option. Criticisms of policies by the Israeli government like settlements are totally valid and necessary. But the volume and intensity of Israel criticism often reflects or is directly motivated by the idea that Israel’s very existence is racist and illegitimate. There is a panoply of situations similar to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. None of them elicit outrage or concern in any way comparable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These situations include but are not limited to: China and the Tibetans and Uighurs, Morocco and West Saharans, Turkey and the Kurds and the Sinhalese and Tamils. Yet, there are no calls to boycott these countries, nor are there professors denying students letters of recommendation to these countries for political reasons. People single out Israel as a racist, colonialist state while ignoring the three two-state offers the Israeli government has made in the last 20 years. In an age of “alternatives truths” there is a lot to be upset about. We should be careful how we spend our attention and outrage. Taking the bait white nationalists lay out — and Israel’s harshest critics ascribe to — of equating Zionism with the exclusionary nationalist visions of white supremacists would be a huge mistake.
Aaron Baker can be reached at aaronbak@umich.edu.
REED ROSENBACHER | COLUMN
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Why college students are always anxious
he emotional arc for every college student seems to exist in a paradoxical state: On one hand, college is lauded as the best time of people’s lives, while on the other hand, college students seem to live in a state of existential dread about the future. This tension is created by the fact that college is essentially a transitional time in people’s lives. College students have one foot firmly planted in childhood, when the main concern in life is still school, while the other foot is in mid-air, charging towards the future. After all, college is supposed to be the time when people really pick what they want to do with their lives. The looming question of the future seems to arise in every decision that we make. Is this really the thing I want to study? What can I do with a degree in this? Will I really make new friends after college or is my social life mostly downhill from here? Is this the last chance I have to pick up a new skill or hobby? (Maybe I should go to the next kayak club meeting?) Who do I want to be and how the hell am I going to get there? The most common way of discussing and dealing with this anxiety is to discuss career paths. If I can figure out my job, then I can begin to craft a vision of myself around that. It seems like, for many college students, if there is a specific path and vision of a career, then the big decisions made in college can be navigated with a greater degree of certainty and ease. I feel like I have heard people say something along the lines of the following a million times: “If I study computer science, get certain grades and get certain internships over the summers, then I know that I will be able to get a job that pays a good amount of money, has a workplace
environment I like and is in a cool/ hip city.” This orientation toward college, however, follows a very odd temporal structure. Rather than beginning with things that happened in the past, or even the feelings occupied in the present, this orientation creates a futuristic vision of the self and works backward in time toward the now. This process of prioritizing a future self over a current one creates a massive amount of accompanying anxiety about crafting this future self. Don’t read me as advocating that students should only think about the present. A student who doesn’t create this complex chain of projection has anxiety of a different sort, an anxiety of the present, rather than of the future. For a student like myself, who studies philosophy, there is not a clear path for me into the working world; there is no Silicon Valley of philosophy. Instead of spending every day fearing I won’t reach my goals, I spend every day wondering what the hell I am actually doing. Should I have chosen to study something that will help me more in a future career? Could my prioritization of what I am doing now really just be a form of naivete? Recently, I went to my older brother’s Friendsgiving event, which featured a series of postcollege 20-something-year-olds who were all trying to make sense of post-college life. When this topic of conversation arose (namely, what the hell I plan on doing after college), it seemed that every person in the room quickly became an expert on the topic. All of my brother’s friends came from a place of caring, and they did genuinely want to share the knowledge they’d gained from their experiences with me. In this process of “helping” me,
however, one thing became very clear to everyone in the room: The line between generalized advice and self-projection was thin. In all fairness, the discussion we had was definitely thoughtprovoking and got me thinking about what other conversations I have had about career paths. I quickly realized that my critique, that people were mainly just guiding me into an edited version of their path, is the case for most conversations about career paths. After all, our society trains people to consider their career above all else, so what advice could people really give me that is beyond their personal experiences? To further complicate the whole situation, this form of projecting is actually what students, like the earlier described computer science student, are looking for — a clear, replicable path to follow. College students will always think anxiously about their future and seek advice that can bring release from this anxiety, so maybe what needs to change is not the occurrence of the conversation but rather how we engage in the conversation. Maybe students shouldn’t be concerned with what specific things people did in their careers to push them “to the next level,” but rather what life decisions people have made that felt important. The conversation should expand from discussing the minutiae of career strategies to something of the larger game of life these decisions are occurring in. Instead of asking for and giving prescriptions, we should all be discussing how our life decisions influence fluctuations in our anxieties. Reed Rosenbacher can be reached at rrosenb@umich.edu.
Arts
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ARTIST PROFILE
SARAH KUNKEL / DAILY
Gideon Mendel’s ‘Deluge’: Finding beauty in the flood JOSEPH FRALEY Daily Blog Editor
On the corner of Fletcher and South Thayer St. lies 202 South Thayer — a quaint building often overshadowed by the Modern Language Building and North Quad, with whom it shares the intersection. Inside is the Institute for the Humanities (among other offices) and the art gallery situated immediately to the left when one enters through the doors. This semester alone, the Institute for the Humanities has backed two powerful exhibitions tackling contemporary social and political issues. In Sept. and Oct., the gallery hosted Esmaa Mohamoud’s “The Draft” — a series of staged photographs that comment on Black representation in public spaces. The Institute was also the driving force behind “Luzinterruptus: Literature and
Traffic,” the one night instillation of 10,000 books on Liberty Street. Now, the Institute is hosting Gideon Mendel’s “Deluge,” a video installation contained within his “Drowning World” project — a photograph and video based work that confronts the consequences of climate change through floods. Mendel got his start as a photographer in his home country of South Africa in the 1980s. Mendel was known as a “struggle photographer,” a term for a small group of South African photographers documenting the drastic changes and hardships the country was undergoing during the final years of apartheid. This dedication to chronicling adversity and sociopolitical issues can be seen throughout the rest of his career. Mendel has produced photo series on the HIV crisis, disabled children in Africa and the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais, France. For the past 10 years, Mendel’s primary focus has been on his “Drowning
World” project. “Deluge” is a tactfully edited five-screen installation. When one sits in front of the screens and watches the 12 minute artwork from front to back, the extreme attention to detail is immediately recognizable. “(‘Deluge’) puts together all the narrative concepts of the Drowning World Project,” Mendel said in an interview with The Daily. Indeed, within “Deluge” there are aspects of all three photo series in “Drowning World”: “Submerged Portraits,” “Floodlines” and “Watermarks.” The video begins with all five screens displaying a “Floodline” against various buildings at equal height. We then are moved through the flooded cities and landscapes. People slowly start to appear in the frames, and we begin to comprehend the toll the water has taken on the communities. On each screen, several beautifully composed “Submerged Portraits”
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 — 5A
are shown one after another. A full day pases before we start to migrate into people’s homes with them. In this moment, Mandel positions his camera in such a way that the viewer feels that they are physically entering the house with the homeowner for the first time since the flood. The work ends with a collage of “Watermark” pictures with the sound of water rushing in the background. Mandel describes “Deluge” as “a journey,” and I certainly agree. The journey grants a holistic view of the flood’s impact. Adjacent to the gallery space is a multipurpose room, which Gideon described as: “is in conversation with the other room,” where some of his work is also on display. It is a space he has “been given the opportunity to do whatever he wants with.” With this freedom, he has chosen to include images from the three photo series of the project, as well as display a looping video titled: “67 film clips of South Carolina.” The South Carolina footage serves as a window into Gideon’s process. We can hear him giving instruction to subjects, commenting on the nature of his shots and moving through the
SARAH KUNKEL / DAILY
Anderon .Paak’s ‘Oxnard’ offers funk but little else NATALIE ZAK Daily Arts Writer
JUNE PICTURES
‘Wildlife’ asks too much Daily Arts Writer
How many of our parents’ fires can we be expected to put out? When we get close enough to know their fires — when we begin to act as their friends — do we lose them as parents? Paul Dano’s contemplative directorial debut “Wildlife” (an adaptation of Richard Ford’s novel of the same name) engages with questions that shake familial dynamics to their core, as the film refracts the dissolution of a marriage through the struggling couples’ son. In 1960s, small-town Montana, Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler”) loses his job as a golf pro. In his despair, Jerry decides to take a job fighting the wildfire raging nearby and sets his family’s tailspin in motion. Fourteen-year-old Joe (Ed Oxenbould, “The Visit”) consequently becomes the sole witness to his mother Jeanette’s (Carey Mulligan, “An Education”) rage in response to his father’s rash decision, as well as her primary confidant. Though the ensuing story hinges on his parents’ reactions to misfortune, in the spirit of the novel that inspired the film, it nonetheless foregrounds Joe’s experience. In doing so, it dares to tell the familiar tale of marital discord in an unfamiliar, important way. At the same time, however, Dano’s consistently contemplative tone makes for a complicated viewing experience. Cinematographer Diego García’s (“Neon Bull”) inventive camerawork does much of
damaged by the flooding water. Although what originally took up the frame is mostly destroyed, the water has added color and texture to the photographs that otherwise would be absent. The distortion of the pictures lure the viewer in and begs the questions: What is our position as an audience if we’re enjoying Gideon capturing the plight of these people, and does the audience become morally corrupt? Perhaps what Gideon provides is, as Krugliak put it, “a face” for the drowning world. Flooding in Europe and the United States alone has rapidly increased over the past 10 years due to climate change, and the curve is exponential. By 2040, it’s estimated that the total flood days in one year for 30 U.S. coastal cities will multiply by 18-fold. It’s easy for us to dismiss flooding as a result of climate change, especially when, here in Michigan, we aren’t directly subjected to its effects. Part of the reason Krugliak chose to exhibit Gideon’s work was to “show us something that would connect us to what’s going on beyond here.” The aesthetic quality of Gideon’s work forces us to pay attention, to wash away our apathy and imagine if our own spaces underwent a wave of destruction.
ALBUM REVIEW
FILM REVIEW
JULIANNA MORANO
spaces. The first thing I noticed about the “Submerged Portraits” displayed in the multipurpose room was the monotony of each subject’s gaze into the camera. Gideon describes it as, “a moment of connection” with the subject. It would be easy for each person’s face to illustrate pain or hope, but the poker-faced expression of every flood victim causes a conversation to take place between them and the viewer. What are they feeling? Where do they go from here? All of these people throughout the world are experiencing the ramifications of global warming in tandem. They live thousands of miles apart and their suffering is separated by years, but they are all linked through the water’s seizure of their homes. “(Gideon’s work) forces us to ask ourselves difficult questions,” gallery curator Amanda Krugliak said in an interview with The Daily. A primary reason I find Gideon’s work alluring is the aesthetic quality that damage adds to the pictures and videos. On the back wall of the multipurpose room is a group of framed “Watermark” pictures. The “Watermarks” are old family photos that have been
the work of emphasizing the underrepresented perspective Joe embodies. Take, for instance, how conversations are shot. During pivotal dialogues — his father’s boss firing him, his parents arguing over his father’s decision to go fight the wildfire — the camera redirects and zooms in on Joe’s face, prioritizing Joe’s witnessing of conversations over other characters’ participation in them, reminding audiences how children are inevitably mired in their parents’ actions and reactions. While the filmmakers endeavor to respect Joe’s perspective, Jerry and Jeannette are often too selfish to realize they cross the line in
“Wildlife” Michigan Theater June Pictures terms of what they say to and do in front of Joe. In that sense, they use him like a sounding board and treat him like a sponge. In one unsettling sequence, his mother brings him to the house of the man (Ed Camp, “Loving”) with whom she’s committing adultery. His father later forces him to retell and thus relive this traumatic experience. As countless other examples of his parents’ overstepping accumulate, you wonder: How much more can the boy possibly take? Over time, however, viewers might ask the same of the filmmakers. Oxenbould does the best he can with his howcould-you-do-that-in-front-of-me face, but the film does not give him the chance to show much
range. Relatedly, Oxenbould’s Joe lacks perhaps not depth, but breadth. Though his parents use him like a sponge, had the filmmakers allowed him to leak every once in a while, to break from his constant facial register, to snap, perhaps he would have seemed a little more lifelike and a little less superhuman with some bottomless capacity for his parents’ problems. Dano’s consistently contemplative tone likewise compromises the statements he seeks to make in “Wildlife.” There is such a thing as contemplative to the point of losing touch with your audience, and “Wildlife” always hovers on the verge of such a breakdown. For example, even the aforementioned technique used to capture conversations begins to feel overused with time. Can inventive camerawork compensate for cryptic dialogue? Can it tell us all we need to know about a character? Can it prop up visual motifs — e.g. wildfires, portraiture and frames within frames — that one cannot help but suspect might be symptomatic of the book-to-film adaptation? “Wildlife” does not concern itself with providing audience members any relief or gratification. The brutal honesty of the film is demanding, and its refusal of gratification requires much postviewing reflection and turmoil to arrive at any resolutions, no matter how provocative and necessary the questions regarding selfishness and parent-child dynamics within a marriage may be. While “Wildlife” may ask a lot of the viewer, the question each viewer has to ask in turn is whether “Wildlife” gave enough.
Here’s a take from a former Daily Arts writer: Why do we tend to gravitate towards an artist’s pre-fame albums rather than the ones made once they’re signed to a big label? Shafii originally used Chief Keef’s Finally Rich and Playboi Carti’s Die Lit as examples, but Anderson .Paak’s Oxnard, also falls into this category and simultaneously complicates it. Months before the album came out, when “Bubblin’” was released as a single, it was obvious .Paak was headed in the direction of “I’m rich now.” Everything about the single plays into extravagance and ostentation: “I been, broker way longer than I been rich so until it levels out / I’ma take your mama to the Marriott and wear it out.” He’s wearing a fur coat in the music video and straddling an ATM. He models himself after Salvador Dali while spraying cash. But the thing about .Paak’s excessiveness is that it’s fun. You can’t be upset about his cheekiness when the music and the rapping reaches towards perfection. Despite three singles which continually raised the stakes for this album (“Bubblin,” “Tints” and “Who R U?”) Oxnard doesn’t meet the standards .Paak has set for himself. Malibu — his second album, which he independently released in 2016 before being signed to Dr. Dre’s label — was a masterpiece, and because of its commercial success, the world was finally introduced to .Paak’s signature rasp and R&B. This was his come up, and combined with his debut Venice, .Paak drew attention from Dre as well as countless other artists whose songs he’d soon have features on. But Oxnard, no longer his come up but his claim to fame, he tries to do too much, making the 14-track album drag on rather than breeze through. There are high points to Oxnard: The opening track, “The Chase,” is a breathlessly beautiful
combination of neo-jazz and soul that has .Paak stumbling over his words as a chorus of drums and flutes unfolds in the background. We are eased into “Headlow,” “Tints” and “Who R U?” seamlessly, and the direction .Paak is taking with the album is clear. There seems to be a break down of his traditional R&B sound. His flow is slower, he’s taking his time on these tracks, but the payoff is still sultry and smooth. “6 Summers,” one of the high points of the album, takes on the role of the album’s most overtly political track: “Trump’s got a love child,
Oxnard Anderson .Paak Aftermath Entertainment and I hope that bitch is buckwild.” Even at his most serious, Cheeky Andy remains cheeky, and these are the lyrics that will be following the presidency around for the next six summers or until Trump is out of office. It’s after these first few tracks that the album starts to dip off. “Saviers Road” and “Smile/Petty,” while incorporating more funkstyled influence than we’ve heard from .Paak in the past, seem to hold .Paak back from what he’s good at. He never hits his stride with them, and the same can be said for “Mansa Musa.” Between the Dr. Dre and Cocoa Sarai features, the song comes across as more of a “King Kunta” pastiche. There are points when it feels like .Paak is going to hit the flow that both made Malibu a triumph and, more recently, made “Bubblin’” a summer essential, but he never quite gets there. It must be said that in comparison to the flawless features .Paak always delivers to other artist’s music, they don’t do the same for him. For such a feature-heavy album, there are only a few who seem to match
.Paak’s rhythm and vocals. Kadhja Bonet, Pusha T and Snoop Dogg deliver, while J. Cole, Q-Tip and BJ The Chicago Kid fall and falter. On “Brother’s Keeper” Pusha T brings Daytona to Oxnard. The guitar and drums fall heavy, leading to an immersive and sprawling track that sets it apart from the lighthearted songs to come before it. But from the heaviness comes a breath of fresh air: “Brother’s Keeper” which ends in .Paak’s desperate voice calling, “How I ever, ever let you go?” takes a left turn and sends us straight into Snoop Dogg’s “blunts.” Hand him his mink, .Paak. Is this a going to be a bad take? Maybe, but I genuinely think that the Snoop Dogg feature on Oxnard is the best of them all. In the Pitchfork review, Torii MacAdams calls Snoop Dogg the Willie Nelson of rap music these days. And, despite this being an extremely Pitchfork claim to make in a hip-hop review, it holds some truth. Snoop comes through on “Anywhere” and immediately lightens the mood, and beside Kendrick Lamar on “Tints,” he seems to be the only collaborator on the album who can match .Paak’s smooth lyricism. It’s the California double-feature the second half of this album needed to stay afloat. Where .Paak succeeds on this album, his collaborators appear to fail and vice versa. “Trippy” is a funk-infused, sprawling song that has potential until J.Cole comes in with no regard for the tone of the song and marrs it. The Q-Tip feature places him second to Snoop and sounds, if anything, uncomfortable. But even when .Paak isn’t doing his best, he’s still doing better than most. We saw him on his rise, praised this new R&B sound a Cali-raised boy gifted us with on Venice and Malibu and expected even more from an album born and bred in .Paak’s nouveau riche lifestyle. In trying to do too much though, in trying to bring this “I’m rich now” extravagance to Oxnard, .Paak falls short.
Arts
6A — Wednesday, November 21, 2018
DAILY ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN
FILM REVIEW
How to choose a Thanksgiving movie
20TH CENTURY FOX
‘Widows’ soars with one of the best casts of the year JEREMIAH VANDERHELM Daily Arts Writer
Running down the “Widows” cast list is like running down a who’s who of in demand Hollywood talent. There’s dramatic powerhouses like Viola Davis (“Fences”) and Carrie Coon (“The Post”), action genre favorites like Michelle Rodriguez (“The Fate of the Furious”) and Liam Neeson (“The Commuter”), major TV players like Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”) and Jon Bernthal (“Marvel’s The Punisher”) and spotlight newcomers like Daniel Kaluuya (“Black Panther”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Bad Times at the El Royale”). It’s an insane group of insanely talented performers director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) has assembled, one that could easily could have gone undeserved, as any number of stacked casts do every year. The foundation of “Widows” isn’t in its cast, though; it’s in the script written by McQueen and Gillian Flynn (“Sharp Objects”). For a story that, at times, is almost intimately focused on the internal lives of its leads and even its side characters, thematically “Widows” is an epic work that examines inequity in all its forms, from racism to class to the pitfalls of capitalism. The world is founded on viciously abusive cycles, it
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argues. Everyone is indebted to someone higher up the food chain. In what is destined to be the movie’s most memorable moment, McQueen mounts a camera on the hood of a car to make his film’s heart manifest and shoots a tracking shot that takes viewers
“Widows” Ann Arbor 20 + IMAX, Goodrich Quality 16 20th Century Fox from a poor, predominantly Black neighborhood to ritzy, white mansions in the space of just a few blocks. It’s a breathtaking bit of filmmaking not just for its technical merits, but for what it says without saying anything at all. This is also a crime film, however, one sold on car chases and gunplay, and from the immediately visceral opening scene, “Widows” establishes itself as a thrill ride just as concerned with the character beats in between the heists as it is with the heists themselves. We’re treated to quiet, idyllic shots of Davis and Neeson in bed together, juxtaposed without warning with scenes of frightening violence, cracking
gunshots and screaming. The rest of the movie proceeds in much the same way; even at its most internal moments, the specter of a bloody death – personified with terrifying psychotic energy by Kaluuya – is never far removed from the minds of the characters. It takes its time establishing its story and its huge cast of characters, which only makes the breathless second half that much more enthralling. It’s on this foundation of smart writing and direction that McQueen’s cast soars. It would be easy to imagine Davis, one of the most wildly talented actresses alive, stealing the show, and while she’s as commanding a presence as ever, the spotlight just as often belongs to Elizabeth Debicki (“The Cloverfield Paradox”) as Alice, a woman struggling to claim her own agency after the death of her abusive husband forces her to find work as an escort. For how brutal and cold “Widows” can be, in Alice’s arc there is an ounce of catharsis without which the film may have proven too bleak. And make no mistake, for all the popcorn thrills that are promised and eventually delivered upon, “Widows” is a hard movie, one that forces its viewers to look at society and reckon with its flaws and injustice. You’ll gasp at its twists and turns just as you’ll sit back and think long and hard about what you’ve just seen.
TV REVIEW
Hulu’s ‘The Bisexual’ is the new mumblecore queen beginning that Leila is the MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN titular bisexual — following Daily Arts Writer her breakup with Sadie, she begins to explore her attraction Had Desiree Akhavan not to men. But it’s Leila herself explicitly said that she dislikes who is most afraid to adopt being called the bisexual the label. “It’s tacky,” she says, Lena Dunham, I might have balking at the term when a compared her excellent new new roommate uses it. “It’s show on Hulu, “The Bisexual,” gauche, it makes you seem to HBO’s “Girls.” It’s a difficult disingenuous, like your genitals comparison to resist — there’s have no allegiance. Like you something awfully familiar have no criteria for people, just about the pithy, neurotic an open door policy.” dialogue, fumbly sex scenes Her reluctance stems from and skittish, scruffy characters a few places: her judgmental who straddle the line between social circles, her own being in on the joke and being the punchline. But “The Bisexual” “The Bisexual” manages to do what so many Hulu introspective mumblecoretype shows — “Girls” included — often struggle to pull off: It finds something to say. Despite insecurities and, most of all, having all the trappings of a the fact that she has only show about nothing, it’s very identified as a lesbian her much a show about something; entire life. “Everyone under it’s a new sort of coming-out 25 thinks they’re queer,” Leila story that muses thoughtfully explains to a college student on intergenerational and who can’t understand why cultural tensions. identifying as bisexual is such Leila (Akhavan, “Appropriate a big deal. “When you have to Behavior”) is an Iranian- fight for it, I think that being American woman living in gay can become the biggest London with her longterm part of you. You’re gay or you’re girlfriend and business straight and one comes with an partner, Sadie (Maxine Peake, entirely different lifestyle than “Silk”). Together, they’re the other, like different clothes working on an app they market and different friends, and you as “Shazam for clothing.” But can’t do both.” just before the app’s launch, And indeed, to Sadie, who Sadie proposes, and Leila is several years older than gets cold feet about the whole Leila, Leila’s bisexuality relationship. They decide to comes as a kind of betrayal, take a break, and Leila is left to a flippant position to take on reflect on her own history and something loaded with trauma identity. and struggle. “Have you any We know from the show’s idea what it takes to be a dyke
growing up in the ’80s?” Sadie yells. Though “The Bisexual” is steeped in raw, uncomfortable vulnerability, it is also intensely, mordantly funny. We’re given some comic relief in Gabe (Brian Gleeson, “Love/Hate”), Leila’s painfully straight roommate who goes to dinner with Leila’s lesbian friends and immediately asks them what they thought of “Blue is the Warmest Color.” The show’s best zingers, though, are reserved for Leila’s friend Deniz (newcomer Saskia Chana), who compares Leila to a girl in a Judd Apatow movie when she begins socializing with straight people. “I didn’t realize you were so familiar with his oeuvre,” Leila snipes back. In another episode, an employee accuses Leila and Sadie of filling the office bathroom’s Aesop bottles with Imperial Leather. It’s the sort of reference you’ll only understand if you’re well-versed in the world of expensive hand soaps, but the joke’s unapologetic nicheness almost makes it funnier. It’s the humor that lends “The Bisexual” its emotional authenticity, with motivations that feel real and lived-in. Despite being the sort of people who could easily be unlikable — the type that goes to bizarre performance art shows and buys plantains at the farmers market — everyone on “The Bisexual” is endearing and appealing. Careful plotting and Akhavan’s own tender writing let each character have their own awakening, big and small.
Thanksgiving is a time for family. A holiday with no religious affiliation, a day filled with food and pie and football. The day begins with cooking and ends with cleaning. Somewhere in there the Lions will probably lose and someone will proclaim that Jim Harbuagh “really hasn’t been given enough credit.” Tears will be shed, a toddler will hit their head on a foosball table and the family will take their collective ability to talk at the speed of light and use it to verbally berate some politician or ghost of the family’s past. Once the tryptophan starts wearing off and everyone has woken up from their mid afternoon naps, only one thing remains: choosing a movie to watch that night. Choosing a movie to watch with any group larger than two can be difficult. Studies have shown that the more options human beings are given the more difficult it is for them to make a decision. When faced with only two options it is much easier for our brains to weigh the pros and cons of each and by directly comparing the two come to a decision. This is why sometimes you find yourself having analysis paralysis when staring at your Netflix, unable to make any kind of decision. It’s hard enough for a single person to decide on a movie to watch when the entire history of cinema is available to them at the touch of a button, but throw in 10 more people of varying ages and dispositions and you’ve just created the perfect recipe for endless arguing. My grandparents have a taste that consists almost exclusively of really bad romantic comedies from 2004. My uncle always wants to watch “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Some people like action movies and some hate them. My mom won’t watch anything that doesn’t pass “the Mom scare test.” Harry Potter barely passes. I have a cousin who went through a long period of time where he would only watch Disney’s “Miracle.” Trying
to find a movie that is suitable for everyone is a Sisyphean task not worth the trouble. Soon someone will tell me, “You’re the movie guy, Ian, find something everyone will like.” Right. Because that’s what they’re teaching me in my film classes, where to find the list of
IAN HARRIS movies that are suitable for both 70-year-old women and teenage boys. They used to make movies that fit this description. We’ve watched them all. “Back to the Future.” “The Karate Kid.” “Ferris Bueller.” There is a whole genre of what I like to call “true family comedies” that no longer exists. Films that have a real story and real characters that are funny and intelligent and can be enjoyed by all ages. There aren’t really movies like this anymore. Nowadays there are three kinds of comedies made and none of them check all the boxes. There are super raunchy R-rated films like “The Hangover” and “Bridesmaids,” there are movies like “RV” that are unwatchable if you’re over the age of nine and there is whatever Adam Sandler crapped out most recently. None of these appeal to everyone in my family. The sheer number of options available today makes finding a movie an endless quest that will make you wish you had never suggested it. My grandfather has a penchant for scrolling mindlessly through the new releases on Comcast OnDemand. With no real knowledge of what any of these movies are about, you’ll often find
Classifieds
him proclaim some R-rated raunch fest to “look kind of interesting” or to go “What is Ant Man? Is that a real movie?” Don’t even get me started on my dad’s strange obsession with Robert Downey Jr. despite having not watched anything starring the man in almost a decade. “I heard the new Robert Downey is good, maybe everyone will like that” he’ll proclaim before my brother reminds him that he wouldn’t understand “Avengers: Infinity War” if we gave him a Marvel encyclopedia to keep next to him the entire time. Inevitably someone will remember that “Cheaper by the Dozen 2” exists and will try to convince the rest of the family that we haven’t seen it a dozen times before. In the end, a “Seinfeld” DVD will hit the back of the player and everyone will be more or less content. After an episode and a half the grandparents are basically asleep, my parents aren’t far behind them and the Wii is calling and it’s saying let’s play “Madden 2008.” If anyone reaches the third episode on the disk they’ve made it farther than any of us could have anticipated. Slowly the beds are filled. A last piece of pie is snuck out of the kitchen. An aunt laughs over a game of Scrabble as my grandfather tries to play the word “Hrot” claiming that it is an “obscure plant that can only be found in Thailand.” Discarded movies that had no chance of being chosen litter the ground. Tomorrow will see the usual criticism of Black Friday, bewilderment at how quickly the apple crumb pie was eaten and discussion of a possible trip to the movies. That might lead to an argument too. Most of the movies in the theaters are bad after all. Why not just stay in and watch something at home? What should we watch? No one knows. It all begins again. We don’t really care though, because it’s never really been about the movie. It’s just about being together. Year in and year out, that’s still something to be thankful for.
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SERVICES Release Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Plane engine housing 4 Hindu philosophy 10 “Don’t leave” 14 Previously 15 Signals for firefighters 16 Only state with a non-rectangular flag 17 Big beverage server 18 Church official 20 “I’m game!” 22 Business abbr. 23 Singer Mann 24 Vermont senator since 2007 28 Gambling city on the Truckee 29 Golden Delicious, e.g. 30 Hosp. recovery area 32 Prepared 33 Add to the staff 37 With 39-Across, seed money ... or what 18-, 24-, 48and 58-Across each has 39 See 37-Across 41 Jedi master with pointy ears 42 Twaddle 44 Business losses, figuratively 45 Biting desert lizards 47 Buddhist temple bell 48 “Thus with a kiss I die” speaker 53 Amazon Echo’s voice assistant 54 Youthful fellow 55 Difficult journey 58 Baked pasta dish 62 “__ you alone?” 63 Flood-anticipation precaution, briefly 64 Was nearly empty 65 Fabric flaw 66 Dollars for quarters 67 Word from a poser 68 Thus far DOWN 1 Folklore lumberjack Bunyan
2 Fantasy meanie 3 “Chin up!” 4 Touch lightly 5 Harlem Renaissance writer Locke 6 C.S. Lewis’ fantasy world 7 Bench press beneficiary 8 White House’s 132: Abbr. 9 Firepit detritus 10 Threedimensional 11 __ park 12 Broadcaster 13 Oxen connectors 19 Stick for a walk 21 Nissan sedan 25 Ginger or ginseng 26 Builder’s guideline, briefly 27 Ring exchange place 28 __-Rooter 30 “Gangnam Style” musician 31 Festival in the month of Adar 33 Holed up 34 Travel plan
35 Hit the bell 36 Caribou cousin 38 Sport for equestrians 40 Simon who co-wrote and co-starred in “Shaun of the Dead” 43 Sun worshiper’s mark 45 Nanny __ 46 Bread or butter
48 Not so well-done 49 Salade niçoise morsel 50 Fox of “Transformers” 51 Precise 52 “Until next time” 56 Cleveland’s lake 57 Held on to 59 Tolkien monster 60 “Don’t think so” 61 Little lamb’s mom
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Sports
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 — 7A
Patterson is familiar with, and ready for, Ohio State MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
When Shea Patterson announced his transfer to Michigan last December, he did it in the way any college student makes announcements: on Twitter. As one would expect, the reactions were varied and plentiful, and one of them came from a surprising source. Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins quote-tweeted Patterson’s announcement, saying: “Rivalry just got a lot more interesting bro.” From the outside, it was an innocuous comment from the Wolverines’ rival quarterback, simply commenting on the state of the rivalry. But Patterson and Haskins know each other well. They were the No. 1 and No. 8 quarterback recruits, respectively, in the 2016 recruiting class, so they went to plenty of camps together. Tuesday, Patterson spoke to media and estimated that he and Haskins have known each other since seventh or eighth grade. “I would (call us friends),” Patterson said. “We’re not gonna be friends on Saturday, but just like anything else, it’s football. Off the field. Before the game, probably not. Later down the road, yeah. “But nobody not wearing the maize and blue is my friend on Saturday.” His relationship with the opposing quarterback is a reminder that Patterson is more familiar than a normal transfer would be with the history surrounding the program he joined. Patterson grew up in Toledo, Oh. as a Michigan fan — his father was a season-ticket holder — and he says his favorite memories of The Game growing up were of watching highlights of Charles Woodson playing the Buckeyes. It makes sense Patterson
would look back to those games, since Michigan is 2-15 in its last 17 matchups with Ohio State. The last real good Wolverine memories from The Game are the Woodson days from 19951997. Patterson is familiar with that history too, and he knows what Saturday’s edition of The Game means to fans and players alike. However, he also recognizes there is more than just bragging rights at stake this season. “Obviously, everybody knows how big of a game it is and how much of a rivalry this is to us and them,” Patterson said. “But there’s just a lot more at stake. There’s a Big Ten title and a national playoff spot, so not too sure how often both of us have that opportunity. So there’s a lot more at stake than just the rivalry.” In that, Patterson is correct. Michigan has a chance to send itself to the Big Ten
Championship and keep its national championship aspirations alive for at least another week. And, Patterson is to thank for that. Quarterback play has severely handicapped the Wolverines in past iterations of The Game. Last season, especially, comes to mind, when a consistent quarterback may have been enough to push Michigan over the top in a close matchup. Patterson has thrown for 2,177 yards, 18 touchdowns and just four interceptions this season. He has the 17th-best passing efficiency and the 19th-best completion percentage in the country. His ability to run the ball has changed the dynamic of the Wolverines’ offense, and what they are capable of doing completely. “Shea has been an integral part of this team,” said fifth-
year senior linebacker Noah Furbush. “Really just being an anchor on offense for us. He’s kind of that guy that makes plays for us. He is what you want a quarterback to be — somebody who controls the game, makes plays for you when you need it and really is a leader for your offense and for the team as a whole.” Patterson’s impact is undeniable, and he can make an impact on Michigan’s history Saturday — if he can do what no Wolverine quarterback, or team, has been able to do since 2000 — beat Ohio State in Columbus. If there was any Michigan team who had a good chance of doing that, it’s this season’s team, and that is, in part, because of Patterson. In that sense, it seems Haskins may have been right back in December. Patterson has made this rivalry game a lot more interesting.
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior quarterback Shea Patterson has improved Michigan’s quartback game this season, throwing for 18 touchdowns.
WRESTLING
Michigan ousts Lehigh, 21-13 in first home meet LILY FRIEDMAN For the Daily
Wrestlers swipe at each other’s ankles, referees circle the mat and AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasts from Crisler Center’s speakers. Michigan wrestling is back in Ann Arbor. In the first home dual meet of the season, themed ‘Wrestle ‘n Roll,’ the fifth-ranked Michigan wrestling team (2-0) beat sixthranked Lehigh (0-1), 21-13, with key wins from sophomore Drew Mattin, redshirt junior Myles Amine and redshirt freshman Jelani Embree. The Wolverines started the meet strong with dominant wins in the 133 and 141-pound weight classes, delivered with gritty takedowns by redshirt junior Stevan Micic and redshirt sophomore Kanen Storr, respectively. The wins swung Michigan’s score to 6-0 early in the meet. Despite initial momentum, redshirt senior Malik Amine faced a tough opponent in the 149-pound division and came away from the second period tied 2-2. Amine left the match with an injury soon after and went through concussion protocol, dropping the match by default and evening the team score to 6-6. Frustrated by the default loss in a close match, the Wolverines came back with a 9-7 win by redshirt junior Ben Lamantia and a 5-3 win by redshirt junior Logan Massa. Michigan began taking control of the meet, after Myles Amine’s 5-4 win over Lehigh’s Jordan Kutler in the 174-pound division. Amine and Kutler, both All-Americans and ranked in the top-10 nationally for their weight class, wrestled each other twice last year — each earning a win. Amine delivered a takedown to start the match, which Lehigh’s coach challenged. Despite the
objections, the referees upheld the call and Kutler responded with a takedown, tying the score at 2-2. Quick footwork at the start of the second period led to a Michigan escape, and a final takedown in the last 30 seconds captured the win for Amine and pushed the overall score to 15-6. “I knew that if I went out there and stayed offensive that I’d come away with a win,” Amine said. “I wrestled a very similar match to how I did at the NCAA’s against him, so it feels good.” Embree continued Michigan’s success, ousting his opponent 7-3 after early takedowns. Though the Wolverines lost their next two matches in the 197-pound and heavyweight divisions, Mattin rounded out the meet with a dramatic pin and scrappy 3-2 win. Mattin’s win brought the team score to 21-13 and secured the win for Michigan — a hard fought result considering the letdown after the meet was postponed from Friday. “We won against Central (Michigan) and then we had a lot of buildup, and I feel like our guys were really keyed up to wrestle Friday night,” said Michigan coach Sean Bormet. “Continuing to wrestle hard and work over the full seven minutes will be an important piece going into Las Vegas.” Myles Amine seconded the disappointment of the change in date, but noted the importance of the win on the team’s preparations for the Nov. 30 tournament in Las Vegas. “You really just have to not focus on those things and just focus on what’s relevant, which is just showing up and wrestling, whether that’s on a Friday or a Sunday,” Amine said. “Lehigh was a team that beat us up pretty bad last year, so to turn around and gain some momentum going into Las Vegas is a good win for the team.”
Wolverines cap season For Gary, frustration for last two years lingers CROSS COUNTRY
at NCAA Championships AIDAN WOUTAS For the Daily
The wintry white of the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis. was streaked with maize and blue on Saturday as the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the NCAA Championships. After its fourth consecutive Great Lakes regional title last weekend, the No. 6 women’s team capped off its 2018 season on the national podium with a fourthplace finish behind Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon. The No. 20 men’s team beat its ranking with a 19th-place finish — the fourth top20 finish in the last five seasons. Redshirt freshman Camille Davre and fifth-year senior Avery Evenson led the women on the snow-covered course at 29th and 38th, respectively. Those under-40 finishes qualify Davre and Evenson for All-American titles. “It definitely was tough in that the course had a few inches of snow on it,” said Michigan women’s coach Mike McGuire. “But that’s something that everyone had to navigate. “We were well prepared knowing that a midwestern city like Madison would possibly present those elements to us, and being from Michigan, it isn’t like we haven’t been in it before.” This strength in the elements was evident in the Wolverines’ recovery from a difficult start to the six-kilometer race. “At the start, it felt a little dicey just with the snow and everyone getting out pretty quick,” Davre said. “We kind of got swarmed because we were in the middle of the pack, but I think looking back I was surprised at how good I felt at the halfway point and I kept moving up, looking ahead to the next pack and trying to catch them.” In the tough terrain of the last two kilometers, Michigan settled into its fourth place position — which held until the end of the race — and edged out the Stanford team that had been nipping at their heels
in the final stretch. Ultimately, Michigan finished seven runners in the top 100. The men’s team was led by All-American sophomore Jack Aho’s 35th-place finish and also highlighted by true freshman John Travers’ 79th-place finish in just the second ten-kilometer race of his cross country career. After a strong start, Aho maintained his place in the pack in the last five kilometers. Aho’s performance marked a significant improvement from last year’s race. “I had run here last year and finished 122nd, which was alright but nothing crazy,” Aho said. “So I took that experience and knew this year I wanted to get out hard and put myself in contention to be AllAmerican right away. “You just have to keep your foot on the pedal I guess — that’s how I’d describe my strategy throughout.” Despite Aho’s strong performance, the men’s team believed that there was some room for improvement. Its 19th-place finish was the culmination of a season that saw both ups and downs. “We didn’t necessarily run our best race yesterday,” Aho said. “But I really don’t think we can hang our heads at finishing 19th in the nation.” “I think it was a good season for us to build off of — we graduated three really high quality seniors from the team last year and so we’ve been in a bit of a rebuilding mode this year,” said men’s coach Kevin Sullivan. “We’ve got everybody back next year and we’re adding some really good parts to the team, so I think the future is very bright for us moving forward.” Both teams ultimately felt their seasons ended on a positive note, in spite of the snowy conditions. “It really did help that we were wearing our maize bows,” Davre said. “Just having those colors — the maize and blue — against the snow to keep pulling me and the others forward throughout the race was a tremendous help.”
MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor
Tuesday afternoon, Rashan Gary faced reporters with a measured edge. Asked about his brief recruitment with Ohio State, Gary provided terse answers. “What else do you want me to tell you about that?” he chided. With the biggest game of his college career to date looming, Gary had only one thing on his mind. “Everybody knows what week it is,” he said. “I’m focused. I’m trying to hurry up, get back to watching film. It’s one of those types of weeks.” The junior defensive end will anchor the top-ranked defense in the country heading into Saturday’s de facto Big Ten East title game. At this point, everybody knows what’s on the line: a spot in the Big Ten Championship game against Northwestern, College Football Playoff hopes, perhaps the balance of power in the conference for the foreseeable future. So, in short, just about everything. It mirrors the game two years ago — Gary’s freshman year — in which Michigan fell, 30-27, in double overtime. For those around at the time, Gary among them, that heartbreak festers. “My freshman year, we were close to winning. A couple of plays went sideways,” he said. “It’s just that one big play that everybody remembers. I don’t want to talk about it, but everybody knows that play. That’s what I keep in the back of my head, and I know my brothers keep that in the back of their head and use it as motivation going into this game.” “That one big play,” of course, was JT Barrett’s fourth down conversion. The referee awarded Barrett a first down, despite inconclusive replays questioning the spot of the ball. Gary doesn’t want
CARTER FOX/Daily
Junior defensive end Rashan Gary had 1.5 sacks last week in the Wolverines’ 31-20 win over Indiana in Ann Arbor.
to talk about it, but the trauma still lingers. Asked about his recollection of those moments, the memories unspool. “Man. Bring me back,” he said. “I was highly disappointed, because I’m looking up at the screen and to myself I’m like, ‘Nah, can’t be a first down.’ Then they end up getting it. It’s a little slap on the face, but you know what it is, it is what it is.” A year later, more disappointment. Michigan led 14-0 after the fourth quarter and appeared poised to upset the Buckeyes. Led by backup quarterback Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State subsequently stormed past a tired Michigan defense. For the Wolverines, that’s what this rivalry has been for the better part of two decades: annual frustration.
“We came out hot to a good start (last year), then we just started making small mistakes,” Gary said. “And small mistakes end up putting points on the board. They started gaining big yardage plays. That’s something I take apart from last year. This year we’re a different team, and I feel like we’re closer as a team. We know what we need to do and we know what we need to take care of.” Gary says that this year, it feels different. This is no lip service. Michigan has marched its way through the “Revenge Tour” with utter dominance, rattling off nine consecutive dominant wins after the loss to Notre Dame. For one, it has quarterback Shea Patterson running the show, who is in the midst of one of the best statistical seasons
“‘Nah, can’t be a first down.’ Then they end up getting it.”
by a Michigan quarterback in several years. Gary called him “a piece of the team we needed.” The Wolverines enter Columbus a four-point favorite for good reason. And Gary, for his part, appears ready to make his mark. He returned from a lingering shoulder injury three weeks ago against Penn State. Last week against Indiana, he notched 1.5 sacks, tossing around offensive linemen the way he’s shown in f lashes during his three years. He won’t make any guarantees or offer any baited one-line zingers. But Gary and his teammates aren’t hiding their confidence. What makes this year different? “Just our brotherhood. I feel like how our swagger is and what we want as a team goal.” And for Gary specificially, there are conversations to have, NFL decisions to make in the near future. No time for that now, though. He’s got film to watch.
8A — Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ to face first real test in No. 21 Missouri Matthews adapting ROHAN KUMAR Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women’s basketball team (3-0) might have rolled through its season so far, but the Wolverines are still heating up. So far, they’ve faced Mount St. Mary’s, Western Michigan and Detroit Mercy. None of those teams have posed any real threat whatsoever to Michigan, who has outscored opponents 262-144. After Thanksgiving, though, the Wolverines will head to Estero, Fla. for their first test of the season at the Gulf Coast Showcase. Friday night, they are set to play No. 21 Missouri (3-1) in the tournament’s opening round. Program-wise, the Tigers are a step up from the squads Michigan faced the last three games. They are coming off a 24-8 season that culminated in their third consecutive NCAA
Tournament appearance, where they lost in the first round to Florida Gulf Coast. Missouri returns three capable starters from last season — guards Sophie Cunningham, Amber Smith and Lauren Aldridge — all of whom are upperclassmen. Cunningham led the team in scoring last year, averaging 18.5 points while boasting an impressive 54.2 percent clip from the field, and currently puts up 16.3 points a night. She is the engine of her team’s offense. Smith is also a key offensive contributor, posting 13.5 points a game, while Aldridge led the Tigers in assists last season. Combining those three veterans will create a challenge for the Wolverines’ young backcourt of freshman guard Amy Dilk and sophomore guard Deja Church. Missouri also has two talented freshmen, forward Grace Berg and guard Akira Levy. The
former was a five-star recruit; the latter, a four-star. Both have logged significant playing time. The Tigers aren’t without fault, though. Following their first two games, they were ranked 16th in the nation but then fell after losing to Green Bay. That loss was primarily due to poor shooting. Michigan has the height advantage, which has helped the team succeed so far. Nobody has been able to stop 6-foot5 senior center Hallie Thome from dominating the paint. The Wolverines are also the better shooting team, as they’ve converted 51.5 percent from the field for 11th in the country. Much of the shooting success can be credited to freshman forward Naz Hillmon, who has drained 23 of 27 shots on the year. Right now, she’s the most efficient shooter in the nation. During the Wolverines’ 95-62 victory against Detroit Mercy on
Monday night, she dropped 22 points while also spearheading the defensive press. “I think Naz is incredible,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico after Monday’s game. “When you have that type of size and length upfront, I really think she’s able to pressure people and get it going from the top.” Added Hillmon: “It was awesome. It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that my coach, as soon as I get into the game, trusts to put me at the top of that press. It gives me confidence that my teammates and my coaches believe in me and it makes me want to work harder on both ends of the ball.” It’s hard to judge how good Barnes Arico’s team is because it hasn’t faced a real test yet. But Friday’s matchup against a ranked opponent will provide the perfect opportunity to see just how well the Wolverines fare.
ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Freshman forward Naz Hillmon has hit 23 of 27 shots on the season, including on Monday, when she drained 22 points against Detroit Mercy in a 95-62 win.
An unselfish play to define top-line chemistry TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
Most players, when presented the opportunity, would go for the goal. Not Will Lockwood. The junior forward stared straight down the empty net in front of him and cocked back his stick. Instead of skating in and shooting the puck, he instead gave it up to junior forward Jake Slaker, who proceeded to score. Think that was unselfish? Now imagine that emptynetter Lockwood had passed up was the dagger to end a comefrom-behind win against a topfive team in the nation. Because in the No. 16 Michigan hockey team’s 6-4 win over No. 5 Penn State Friday, that’s exactly
what happened. And there didn’t seem to be any room for unselfish play. “It just goes to show the character and type of person that Will is. Really unselfish play, passed it to me for the empty net,” Slaker said. “He made the play, and I haven’t stopped to think, not just necessarily for giving me the goal, but just the unselfishness he displayed there.” Slaker couldn’t describe what had exactly happened and struggled to find the words to explain it. “You don’t see that often in sports, an unselfish play like that,” Slaker said. But the situation presented itself. Right before the goal, the Nittany Lions had made a push to
“Really unselfish play, passed it to me for the empty net.”
tie the game at 5-5, but Lockwood skated in front of the shot and blocked it. With the loose puck leaking out, Lockwood took it and skated down the ice. There was little time to think. Right behind them were Penn State defenders looking to deny the easy goal and keep the game close. But Lockwood and Slaker, with the early start, didn’t relent. “Him and I were on a clear two-on-(none),” Slaker said. “And I think we were both trying to skate as fast as we could just so we wouldn’t get caught. And he could have easily kept on skating it and put it in the net but he just passed it over to me and made the easiest play, and we got rewarded for it.” And as much as it defined Lockwood, he is not the only one
who would have made that play. It’s the mentality that the team is trying to incorporate, to show the quality of players the Wolverines have on the team. “I’ve seen instances where a guy won’t pass the puck,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “He’ll just go on and shoot it. I think it says a lot about the kind of teammates you have, but in this case, it says a lot about Will and his unselfishness and the team player he is. I think that’s a good thing for your team, it helps build your team’s camaraderie and trust in that.” If it had been Slaker in that situation to choose between an easy empty-net goal or a pass to a teammate, he would have done the same thing. “He’s one of my best friends on the team, and we have really good chemistry on and off the ice and just shows what type of person he is,” Slaker said. “And it meant a lot to me. Like I said, I’d do the same situation if I had that. If I could give him that, I’d give it right back.” Added Lockwood: “I’ve played with Jake a lot, and I think he would do the same thing for me. I think it was more about just setting an example of how we need to play as a team. We’ve gotta be thinking of the guy next to us and not just ourselves.” It’s an example for the rest of the fourth-youngest team in the nation to follow. As Pearson noted, a person has to be willing to put aside personal goals and agendas to be part of a team, and on Friday, no one exemplified that mentality better than Lockwood. “You can tell. If you don’t like a guy or something, you probably don’t pass it to him,” Pearson joked. “But they have chemistry. I just think that just speaks to who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish together. And they’re in it for each other and not just themselves.”
“If I could give him that, I’d give it right back.”
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Junior forward Jake Slaker scored an empty-net goal in Friday’s 6-4 win with an assist from linemate Will Lockwood.
as isolation scorer JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer
Two and a half minutes into Michigan’s game Saturday against George Washington, Charles Matthews caught the ball on the left wing and faced up against Colonials guard Justin Mazzulla. The redshirt junior wing dribbled into the post and turned to back Mazzulla down before quickly spinning to his right and launching a higharcing baseline jumper that found nothing but net. It was a typical isolation setup: as Matthews received the entry pass from point guard Zavier Simpson, the Wolverines cleared out for their go-to-guy to do his thing. It’s these situations — Mazzulla on an island with a preseason All-Big Ten honoree — where individual talent, more than anything, can shine through. The result? Two points for Michigan. But while Matthews, the Wolverines’ leading returning scorer, came into the year as their presumed focal point — and showed why on that aforementioned play — the reality is a bit more complicated. The 6-foot-6 forward from Chicago indeed averaged 13 points per game last season while shooting a respectable 49 percent. But at other times, Matthews delivered inconsistent performances seemingly at odds with his considerable talent and athleticism. Matthews’ inconsistency with his jump shot and from the foul line — he hit just 32 percent of his 3-point attempts and 56 percent of his free throws — came coupled with decisionmaking struggles, as he led Michigan in turnovers last season. These deficiencies combined to create a lackluster 101.6 offensive rating, the lowest among the Wolverines’ regular rotation. The start of the season saw more of the same. Against Norfolk State and Holy Cross, Matthews hit just 12 of 29 field goals, including a meager 20 percent figure from behind the arc, while turning the ball over five times. It’s worth noting, however, that Matthews’ struggles coincided with an overall sluggish start for Michigan on offense, in which it averaged just 59.5 points per game on just 36.4 percent shooting. Meanwhile, Michigan coach John Beilein never lost faith in Matthews’ ability to get going. “He was just 5-for-6 (on free throws during Monday’s practice),” Beilein said after the win over Norfolk State. “But he’s got to get through it, and it’s not a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. … Charles is better than that, and he will be as we go forward.” Last Wednesday at
Villanova, Beilein’s faith was rewarded. Matthews paced the Wolverines with an unstoppable series of athletic finishes at the rim and midrange jumpers over smaller defenders, finishing with 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Against George Washington, he was even better, dropping in 25 points while hitting 10 of his 13 attempts from the field, and both from behind the arc. Matthews’ offensive excellence didn’t continue against Providence on Sunday as he scored just five points. However, his performance over the last week was only partly about him finding his scoring touch — against the Wildcats, Colonials and Friars, Matthews had clearly found a role. Instead of having to rely solely on Matthews as a source of playmaking, Michigan’s offense was expertly piloted by Simpson, who dished out 22 assists in those three contests. Meanwhile, the Wolverines began to catch fire from outside, shooting 44 percent from 3-point range for the weekend. These two developments, when taken in tandem, helped to take pressure off of Matthews in his areas of weakness, and allowed his strengths to rise to the forefront. In isolation play, Matthews was just about unguardable with his high release on his jumper. He cleaned up on the boards — half his rebounds last week were on the offensive end — thanks to his athleticism. Perhaps most strikingly, he didn’t turn the ball over once last week. “I play one-on-one a lot, and I feel like we all do,” Matthews said Saturday. “… Playing one-on-one, it makes us better defenders, but it also makes us better isolation players. There’s going to be times where you have to just make a shot.” Over the last week, Michigan’s offense has begun to fire on all cylinders. Simpson’s emerged as the facilitator. Forward Ignas Brazdeikis is the downhill, ever-aggressive slasher. Center Jon Teske is the screen-androll weapon and pick-and-pop ‘5.’ Forward Isaiah Livers is the versatile, small-ball weapon to run teams off the floor. Guard Jordan Poole, after a sluggish start to the year, appears to have discovered his shooting stroke. That leaves Matthews as the Wolverines’ isolation weapon in the midrange; the player they can turn to to get a shot off against any defense. It’s a role — judging by the last three games, at least — that fits him perfectly. It’s a role that lets him do what he does best, instead of having to do too much. And it’s a role that may just allow him to become the go-toguy he’s long been projected to be.
“Charles is better than that, and he will be as we move forward.”
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt junior forward Charles Matthews is finding comfort in a new role.
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 201 8
ILLUSTRATIO
N BY CHRISTIN
E JEGARL
The Price of Experience:
Unpaid internships and the student job market
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 2 1 , 201 8
Managing Statement Editor: Brian Kuang
Editor in Chief: Alexa St. John
Managing Editor: Dayton Hare
Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford Jennifer Meer
Photo Editor: Amelia Cacchione
Copy Editors: Elise Laarman Finntan Storer
Designer: Elizabeth Bigham
Foreword BY GRIFFIN ST. ONGE & LAUREN SCHANDEVEL
W
hen we founded Affordable Michigan — formerly known as the Michigan Affordability and Advocacy Coalition — we were attempting to address a need that is twofold: An institutional need for University of Michigan policies that accommodate low-income students and a social need for low-income students to connect with one another and build organizational capacity. In our first semester as an organization, we have worked to pinpoint which aspects of the University’s rhetoric on socioeconomic inclusion are the most dissonant with how its policies and its distribution of resources actually impact the student population. This brought us very quickly to the problems surrounding unpaid and poorly-paid internships, how the University provides funding and how many students are still left without the financial and community support they need. For many low-income and/ or first-generation college students, the idea of working for free or next-tonothing seems completely unintuitive. The experience, connections and resume bullet points unpaid internships provide do not pay the bills. In fact, they create bills. When considering the cost of working for free, covering living expenses and potentially moving to a large, expensive city for the duration of the internship, the completion of an unpaid internship becomes less a result of genuine merit and instead the product of supplementary funds and connections. This is especially troublesome considering the value entry-level positions in many fields place on unpaid internships completed
while in college. College students (who are able to do so) complete these unpaid internships year after year because getting one’s foot in the door of their career is sometimes next to impossible without them. The University’s $11 billion endowment makes it one of the wealthiest universities in the country, and programs such as the LSA Opportunity Hub, the Public Service Intern Program, the LSA Internship Fund and the internship funds that virtually every University school and department offer, attempt to provide both the institutional knowledge required to obtain an internship and the money necessary to complete one. Overall, University students can access far more resources than most when it comes to this type of support, and the scholarships and counselling available are a main reason students apply to universities like Michigan in the first place. However, as unpaid internships are one of the main ways not-rich students are excluded from certain careers, it is important to listen to students navigating this process to see if their needs are being met. We hope the following testimonies from Monica Kim, Lydia Murray and Zachary Tingley about the difficulties they have faced during the unpaid internship experiences despite being University students help to illuminate this problem.
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
Wednesday, November 21, 2018// The Statement
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Debt and resume bullet points
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ike many University of Michigan students, I am from the deep Midwest, in a district likely dubbed “Trump Country, USA” by coastal reporters. My father has worked in manufacturing his entire life. Unlike many of my peers, my parents didn’t go to college, nor are they in an income bracket to finance any of my college experience. Because of this, I wasn’t able to acquire a Capitol Hill internship by riding the coattails of my parents’ wealth or social capital, but my family’s working-class background drew me to public service. During the summer after high school graduation, I worked at a factory assembling chairs and other odd bits of furniture. The next summer I worked in the same factory as my dad, where I assisted in the production of countertops. While these summers didn’t give me as many resume bullet points as my D.C. internship did, they enabled me to save money for the school year — somewhat of a necessity for low-income students. I remember feeling so frustrated my second summer at home. Many of my new college friends spent their summers working impressive internships, honing their professional interests and networking in large cities. It was disappointing to spend the summer in my small Ohio town. This feeling of failure stuck with me during my sophomore year. I spent countless hours applying to internships, curating my resume and using the few connections I had to try and find an opening. While several unpaid internship opportunities did come up, they didn’t seem feasible for me. The logistics of a summer internship create a large psychological barrier when you don’t even know how you’re going to pay for it. How was I going to find housing? How will I pay for a plane ticket? I’ll probably need to purchase more professional clothing, but how much will that be? These questions persuaded me to skip out on any internship experience entirely, and I worked in a University Housing position that summer. The free room and board allowed me to skip another summer at home in a factory and I found work as a research assistant. The following summer, I made the finances work, but just barely. With the help of the Public Service Internship Program and additional resume experience from my research position, I landed an internship in the United States Congress. Like most internships on Capitol Hill, mine was unpaid. Even after a generous stipend from the LSA Opportunity Hub (they gave me MORE than I asked for), the expense of accommodation covered by the Office of Financial Aid and several birthday
BY ZACH TINGLEY, CONTRIBUTOR
gifts in the form of money from friends and family, I still walked away from the experience with debt. I ultimately was on my own financially, just like each summer before. This time, though, I had no source of income. arrived in D.C. with less than $50 to my name, as the stipend arrived the week after settling into D.C. While it was helpful to have something, the stipend I received from the Opportunity Hub barely paid for my sunk rent back in Ann Arbor. Each month I paid $640 for a house I wasn’t living in — its location far from campus didn’t make it a desirable spot for those interested in subletting. The flights to and from D.C., daily Metro fares and grocery shopping all further abused my wallet — oftentimes I charged my credit to pay for groceries. While I could splurge on a few dinners or happy hours, I meal prepped most weeks — consuming plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and other cheap meals and sometimes skipped events with friends to save money. The 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. days and their accompanying commute left little time to pick up a side job. Despite this reality, halfway through the summer I was filled with self-doubt that I wasn’t trying harder to find a way to make money. That said, I’m glad to have gained such an experience––my resume appreciates the facelift––and I truly enjoyed the work. It was worth it, but it was a financial nightmare.
I
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTINE JEGARL
“incompatible with human life.” She nearly died. During the weeks following her initial trip to the hospital, I tried to contextualize the implications of her near-death experience. First, it was hard not to politicize her hospitalization. A genuine financial constraint and inadequate American health care system put her in the hospital. Again, I was angry. Not at myself, but at the context of the entire situation.
Most of us aren’t the children of doctors and lawyers. Most of us can’t afford expensive clothing. During the second week of sorting mail-sorting and running errands, I received a phone call from my father. My mother, who has had Type 1 diabetes for almost 14 years, was in the hospital. She was in a diabetic ketoacidosis coma for 9 days. What led to her hospitalization is a story familiar across the country: Financial burdens and the high cost of medication had been restricting my parents from purchasing the insulin she needed to survive. She opted to ration her supplies rather than buying the necessary amounts our family couldn’t afford. Chronic lack of supplies led her to the emergency room that morning. The intensive care unit doctor receiving her said her body’s readings were
Few working-class students are entangled in the web of well-connected, affluent students working in the Capitol Building. Hill intern affluence was physically evident: 18 to 22-year-olds purchasing $13 lunches daily, sporting Louis Vuitton tote bags, Cartier bracelets or Tory Burch sandals. At the same time, their more intangible characteristics shed wealth as well — children of lawyers, dentists, professors — many of whom were educated at Ivy League schools. It was evident I was an odd one out, and my mother’s hospitalization made this even more clear. Most of us aren’t the children of doctors and lawyers. Most of us can’t afford expensive clothing. (Many days during my internship I felt like Nathan
Fielder, in a not-so-perfectly fitting suit with a broken button.) While these students are well-intentioned in their commitments to public service, they are also likely well-insured. When I pleaded with my upper-middle-class, liberal friends the necessity of “Medicare for All,” they still find excuses not to address the health care issue, unable to relate to my family’s struggle. When you’re not directly affected by the policy you’re interested in changing, it’s just an abstraction you’re allowed to disconnect from at the end of the day. My mother is still bouncing back, but doing much better. It had been scary, especially while I was halfway across the country. After grappling with this frustration, I look back and wonder if the internship was worth the financial stress I put myself through. Before I purchased my plane tickets to D.C., I remember hearing, “It will be worth it, it pays in experience!” over and over again. While I do think it was worth the experience gained, the context of my situation makes me we wonder who we are inviting into the realm of political jobs. I went into debt for my internship even with the financial support I received from the University, and it took two years of internship hunting to feel comfortable enough to take the plunge into an unpaid position. We need to have an honest conversation about who is invited to participate in policymaking. For too many policymakers and staff, their wealth safeguards them from their own legislation. This needs to change. A first step is ensuring all people irrespective of class background have the ability to afford access to these internships.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
Two jobs, one paycheck
Fighting for future interns’ pay
BY MONICA KIM, CONTRIBUTOR
BY LYDIA MURRAY, CONTRIBUTOR I knew that this internship would be unpaid when I was selected for it. I had worked for the year before with the goal of saving for the summer. I made a budget. I picked the cheapest housing I could find... But I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock of the D.C. world of unpaid internships.
I
n one of the first weeks of my summer at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington D.C., the chairman came down to introduce himself to the interns. When introducing ourselves he asked the interns to answer “how we found the DCCC, or how the DCCC found us.” As my fellow interns went around the room, I quickly realized that my story was not like the rest of my peers. “My aunt is a major political influencer and she connected me.” “My brother used to work here.” “My mother is a Congresswoman.” My answer: I had applied online and decided to accept the offer. No one flagged my resume or knew me before I had arrived. Before I arrived in D.C., I had no exposure to the networking-based job market, which often blurs the lines between professional connections and nepotism. My dad grew up lower-middle class and my mom immigrated from China just a year before I was born. I had no family connections in D.C. who could set me up for a job like so many of my peers.
Another thing the other interns had in common: They were wealthy and mostly white. In a class of 22 interns, four (including myself ) were people of color. My peers ate sushi and purchased food for lunch every day, while I budgeted $25 a week for groceries. They lived in townhouses in Georgetown, while I had a room smaller than my freshman dorm with three other girls on bunk beds. I knew that this internship would be unpaid when I was selected for it. I had worked for the year before with the goal of saving for the summer. I made a budget. I picked the cheapest housing I could find. So when I arrived in D.C., I felt relatively prepared to live frugally but ready to survive in
the city. But I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock of the D.C. world of unpaid internships. There were often points in conversation where I felt uncomfortable, like the odd one out. This was my first exposure to Washington and its East Coast elitism. The interns I worked with were nice and talented, but they came from a different world than I did. They all had pictures of themselves with famous politicians from fundraisers their parents were invited to and grew up talking politics, whereas my family never did those things. I also was not the only one who felt this way. Another intern (who also goes to the University of Michigan) became my ally in the organization, as we were both Midwestern Asians in the political elite environment. Often we would lock eyes when one of our colleagues said something controversial or strange with a mutual understanding of our circumstance. It was in this environment that I realized that something needed to be done. Someone had to step up and point out that not everyone had the same opportunities in this unpaid structure, that the unpaid nature of the internship prevents lowerincome and diverse candidates from working in an organization and for a party that
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prides itself on representing those groups. Thus began my crusade to create a paid internship program at the DCCC. I reached out to an organization called Pay Our Interns, who had just secured funding for interns in the Senate. They suggested that I draft a letter to the DCCC leaders urging them to start a paid internship program and have other interns sign on, which I did. Most of my peers supported the effort and signed on, though a few were hesitant and feared backlash. In the end, the letter picked up some traction in the press and the DCCC agreed to begin paying their interns in the future. This victory was not personal. I didn’t get paid from this, nor did I earn any significant praise for leading this charge, and I didn’t want any of that. If people bring it up nowadays, I tend to brush it off as just sort of something that happened without boasting. This article isn’t meant to brag about some accomplishment of mine. Instead, I hope to convey the message of why unpaid internships are harmful to lower-income students, as they grant opportunities only to those who can afford them. If we want to make significant change in Washington then the people who have the opportunity to get their foot in the door here with increasingly essential internships cannot just be rich white people. Even the well-intentioned and qualified rich people, like those at the DCCC, cannot truly understand the perspectives of those from lower-income or minority communities, and that gets reflected in their policies. Paid internships are essential to increasing representation in Washington and providing opportunities to all young people. I am proud of the DCCC — and now Congress — for taking action to pay interns.
ILLUSTRATION BY BETSY STUBBS
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n a sweltering day in Washington, D.C., the 8:30 a.m. Metro rush hour is filled with college students wearing a range of business casual to formal clothing, a lanyard and photo ID hanging around their necks. Knowing D.C., with its crowd of “Hillterns” and non-profit interns, most of these students are probably off to their unpaid gig. Probably the minority receive any payment, much less a stipend for transportation or housing. Eight and a half hours later: Cue the 5:00 p.m. rush. The same students have left their buildings — perhaps a tie is loosened, high heels switched for sneakers — and the Metro is full of bodies pressed against one another, trying to find a space on their way home, trying not to fall over as the Metro careens to an abrupt stop. As everyone rushes off their last stop to get home, I get off mine to walk to my next job for a sixhour shift at Anthropologie after an eight-hour one at my unpaid internship.
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t’s not that I didn’t receive any financial support from the University of Michigan — in fact, I was really lucky to receive more from an LSA scholarship than I expected — but it wasn’t able to cover all of my expenses in D.C. Hence, the second job at Anthropologie. I still had to think about the rent I had to pay for my off-campus house in Ann Arbor, my future rent for the school year and saving up for loans. You get the idea. And while my internship gave us a $50 monthly stipend for transportation, it wasn’t enough to cover my transportation costs (thanks, Metro peak pricing!). So while I had been applying for LSA scholarships for my internship, I was also applying for jobs in D.C. I arrived two weeks prior to the start of my internship to interview for a paid job, and luckily, I got the first and only one I interviewed for, at Anthropologie. Since my internship was set for 25 hours per week — the nonprofit was very flexible with our hours — I asked for
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHELLE FAN
20 at Anthropologie. For anyone who’s ever worked in food service or retail before, you’ll know that employers always schedule you for more hours than you asked for. And so it came as no surprise that Anthropologie
other touristy things, but I was always exhausted. Because I was working part-time at my internship, I often felt like I would be missing out on making personal and professional connections on the days that I wasn’t there. I wasn’t able to go to any of the happy hours that the nonprofit hosted because I’d always be scheduled at Anthropologie during those times, and this too added to my sense of missing out on opportunities. Looking back, it all sounds pretty silly, but at the time my FOMO got the better of me and made me feel like these kinds of events were essential for networking and thinking about future career opportunities, and that missing them would take me a step backward from everyone else. I realize now that this is an exaggeration. There were days, of course, when I wish I didn’t have to take on a second job in order to support myself with an unpaid internship. My mom
For anyone who’s ever worked in food service or retail before, you’ll know that employers always schedule you for more hours than you asked for. scheduled me for more than 20 hours per week, sometimes creeping close to 30. It wasn’t often that I’d have to go straight from my internship to my retail job. Most of the time, I’d be working six days a week, eight and a half for three days at my internship, nine for three days at Anthropologie. I still managed to squeeze some time to go to the free museums in D.C. and some
works two jobs seven days a week all year-round. I couldn’t even fathom doing so for more than a summer, and I have no idea how some students at the University juggle two jobs with a full course load throughout the school year. I can barely handle one. There were days when I wish I pursued studies in a field where they were guaranteed to give you a paid
internship. Hearing from my friends about their paid computer science internships, paid engineering internships and paid laboratory research internships made me jealous, though I never told them this, nor admitted it to myself. There were days when I reminded myself that I was lucky and privileged to have an internship in the first place since there can be so many barriers to obtaining one. Who was I to complain about interning and working and living in D.C., when so many cannot afford to do so? Who was I to complain when the situation of juggling two jobs temporarily was the daily reality for so many? My experience is certainly not unique to what nearly all low-income, and some middle-income students like myself, have to face when deciding to pursue that unpaid internship. I knew three other people who also took on a second job in addition to their unpaid internship this summer. Having that knowledge made me feel less alone, and yet I was always aware that it seemed like there were fewer of us who had to do this in comparison to those who could afford to get by with just an unpaid summer internship. Finding internships for the summer is stressful. It’s that time of year when I need to start making plans for the summer again, editing my resume and thinking about what paid job I would need to get if I am accepted in an unpaid internship, or if I am not. In the midst of the holidays and looming finals, it all seems overwhelming — but if I made it through last year, made it through a 25-minute walk to Anthropologie in the humid, suffocating heat after an eight-hour day at my internship — then I can make it through again.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
On campus, students find some support for unpaid internships BY ANDREA PEREZ, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
ALEC COHEN/DAILY
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long with academics and extracurriculars, internships are critical for students to gain workforce skills and launch their career. Naturally, this often creates a problematic dynamic where students want employment more than employers need student interns, which sometimes leads to students paying to work. With around 40 percent of national internship opportunities being unpaid, it is sometimes difficult for students to accept
such opportunities as their financial burden can sometimes outweigh their benefits. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, hiring rates for students who chose to complete an unpaid internship are only 2 percent higher than those who did not acquire an internship at all, apparently offering only a small benefit for students who took an unpaid internship. This contrasts with another study that found that 60 percent of employers expressed a preference for applicants
who have had internships. According to the Department of Labor’s “primary beneficiaries test,” unpaid internships should only be legal if it can be deemed that the student is the primary beneficiary of the intern-employer relationship. This is measured by comparing the unpaid work to classroom activities, seeing that the student is compensated via academic credit and making sure there was no understanding between the student and employer that the opportunity would be paid. Nonetheless, a 2014 Pro-
A 2014 ProPublica investigation found that the Department of Labor doesn’t aggressively pursue complaints about wage violations when internships are unpaid. Publica investigation found that the Department of Labor doesn’t aggressively pursue complaints about wage
violations when the internships are unpaid, as the department only pursues exploitative employers after
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
complaints have been filed rather than proactively investigating them. That said, employment in some fields is so competitive that unpaid internships are increasingly necessary, particularly in journalism and public policy. Between 2016 and 2026, journalism is projected to have a 2 percent decline in job opportunities. On campus, University of Michigan offices such as the University Career Center and the Opportunity Hub attempt to facilitate ways for students to take advantage of unpaid internships with a vast array of programming. Joelle Fundaro Randall, an assistant director at the Career Center, said that though students may be insistent about getting unpaid internships, there are other opportunities that offer the same rewards. “If I am connecting with a student and they are really focused on the internship, I say let’s pause for a second, there are other ways of getting
Fellowship for students working in the countries on the Adriatic Sea. The Career Center also invites every student who is registered through the Office of the Registrar, including master’s degree and Ph.D. students, to their online employment database, Handshake. Fundaro Randall expressed that the Career Center has about 3,700 paid internships in their system. “I think the biggest piece is students not knowing where to look for internships, so when we coach students, if they mention that they are low SES (socioeconomic status) or any of those pieces, we coach them on how to find these opportunities,” Fundaro Randall said. The Hub partners with LSA Scholarships to help students on a need-based basis and they also, like the Career Center, have drop-in coaching hours in which students have conversations with coaches that have resources like scholarships, stipends and knowledge of other opportunities at hand.
Yet, as the testimonies of University students Zach Tingley, Monica Kim and Lydia Murray show, sometimes students’ interests are in fields where very few paid internships are offered, and the assistance of a scholarship these opportunities to help you develop your skills outside of a formal internship,” Randall said. “Sometimes there is research on campus, student groups that do a lot of different things and are part of a community. Those skills are transferable into the workplace.” Outside of coaching, the Career Center offers resources for students to find paid internships or to acquire the means to be able to financially accept an unpaid position. For example, the Public Service Intern Program coaches students on how to attain opportunities in Washington D.C. Alongside PSIP, they also offer the Applebaum Internship which allows students to find opportunities in Detroit, and the Samo Alajbegović
Yet, as the testimonies of University students Zach Tingley, Monica Kim and Lydia Murray show, sometimes students’ interests are in fields where very few paid internships are offered, and the assistance of a scholarship from the University isn’t always sufficient. According to CNBC, an unpaid internship could cost up to $12,986 and students with insufficient funds might be forced to obtain a second job or go into debt to be able to afford these opportunities. On the other hand, LSA junior Taylor Lind talks positively about her experience with an unpaid internship and the LSA Internship Scholarship. “It was the summer after my freshman year I didn’t really know what
I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to work in environmental advocacy and I didn’t know how,” Lind said. “I thought that working for government might be a good option, so I reached out to my local city government. I wanted to see if they had any opportunities but I didn’t see anything posted so I had to cold contact and I did it with the help of the Hub since I was an employee there at the time.” When she was finally hired by her local government for the internship position and they told her it would be an unpaid opportunity, she decided to apply for the LSA Internship Scholarship and was granted $1,500 to cover her expenses while working for her local government in California and living at home. “Although I am not necessarily going into government, I learned so much about how the environmental efforts can be integrated and the barriers that they face,” Lind said. “I really value the knowledge that I gained from it and … The fact that it was unpaid (didn’t take away from the experience).” However, a common theme of confusion and misinformation came out while talking to representatives of both the Career Center and the LSA Opportunity Hub. Lind expressed that she had contacts in LSA Scholarships while she was applying and suggested that, though she isn’t sure, other students that don’t have that may have some confusion in the application process. There are differing opinions regarding unpaid internships. Some companies view them as necessary to their vitality as organizations, but some others, such as Conde Nast, are known to use their interns as unskilled and free labor while giving them almost no recognition for their work or lasting skills or connections after their short internship experiences. Despite the disagreement on whether opportunities should be paid or unpaid, a 2012 study shows that 55 percent of students had a form of internship or co-op experience during their years in school. These rates more than double the numbers a similar study found two decades ago, according to ProPublica. As internships become more and more important tools for students who are trying to break into industries, some may be forced to go to extreme measures to get these opportunities.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018 // The Statement
VISUAL S TAT E M E N T: K9 Unit photos by Darby Stipe Nike is the official K9 Unit Dog for the University of Michigan Police Department. He is a Belgian Malinois and his favorite treats are ice cubes. Trained in two different capacities, he is certified as a patrol and explosivedetection K9. Nike works with his handler 4 days a week, with one day dedicated exclusively to furthering his training, which began when he was less than one year old.