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Campus talks LGBTQ rights case before US Supreme Court Community examines impact of workplace discrimination lawsuit JULIA FANZERES Daily Staff Reporter
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Match made in algorithm: students turn to dating survey
2,900 undergraduates take quiz in hopes of finding the one on campus ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter
Love is in the air — and online — at the University of Michigan. More than 2,900 undergraduate students — approximately one out of every 10 — have completed a new matchmaking service survey, dubbed the Michigan Marriage Pact, as of Thursday afternoon.
LSA junior Elien Michielssen, one of the survey’s creators, said a team of students created the online questionnaire for a class project in Psychology 223. “There’s a lot of dating sites out there — some that people are comfortable with and some that people aren’t — and we wanted to do something that was Michigan-specific,” Michielssen said. “We wanted to bring it to Michigan and spice
up the campus a little bit.” Michielssen said the questionnaire, which opened Saturday afternoon, has a lifespan of 21 days. At the end of the submission period, students will be emailed their match’s name and potentially a message from their match, though Michielssen said there is a possibility that not every person who completes the questionnaire will have a
match. Participants answer a series of 40 questions, ranging from the likelihood of using a prenuptial agreement to views on gun ownership. The questionnaire also asks students to rate the levels of their drug and alcohol use, sex lives, cleanliness, spending habits and other personality traits. See DATING, Page 3A
On Oct. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court heard three cases that could end protections for LGBTQ employees in the United States. In each of the three cases brought up to the Supreme Court — Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, Bostock v. Clayton County and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC — the employers dismissed their employees on the basis of their sexual orientation. In both Zarda and Bostock, the employees Donald Zarda and Gerald Bostock allege their employers fired them because their employers discovered the men were gay. In the Harris Funeral Homes case, the employee — Aimee Stephens, a trans woman — was fired because her boss claimed that it would be against his religion for Stephens “to deny (her) sex while acting as a representative of (the) organization.” Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from being discriminated against based on their race, color, religion, national origin or sex. In previous Supreme Court cases, “sex” discrimination has been interpreted as not discriminating based on gender identity. Now, the Supreme Court will decide if the language “sex” in Title VII covers sexual orientation. The University’s chapter of College Democrats came out strongly in support of the Supreme Court including sexual orientation as a part of civil rights. Camille Mancuso, communications director of College Democrats, emphasized the importance of the decision. “LGBTQ+ rights are civil rights,” Mancuso said. “From the inability of same-sex couples to adopt children, to being fired in the workplace for one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, to the murder of trans women of color across the country, the rights of LGBTQ+ folks are constantly being threatened.” See SCOTUS, Page 3A
Teach-in raises awareness about DEI panel Morning discusses Kashmir humanitarian crisis Brew CEO CAMPUS LIFE
uncounted statistics
Faculty respond to underrepresented demographic groups JULIA FORREST Daily Staff Reporter
About 70 faculty, staff and students were in attendance on Thursday at LSA’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion panel focused on bringing awareness to Asian Pacific Islander Desi/American and Middle Eastern/North African identities at the University of Michigan. The event featured five speakers, all of whom were faculty and staff members at the University. The event began with questions from the hosts directed to specific panelists. The first question was for Melissa Borja, assistant professor in A/PIA studies, about the history of APID/A individuals at the University. Borja explained the importance of individuals claiming a specific identity and then allowing it to be counted in the school’s demographics. She explored the concept by using the example of how Asian Americans have changed the way they identify themselves over time. See DEI, Page 3A
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BUSINESS
Paani hosts event aiming to provide Kashmiri perspectives CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
Paani, a non-profit started by University alumni in response to the growing water shortage in Pakistan, spearheaded a teach-in on the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, a disputed territory in the northern part of India, Thursday night. In particular, the event focused on the current state of Indian-administered Kashmir following India’s tighter control and erosion of democratic freedoms in the region. Paani organized the teachin in conjunction with several other cultural organizations on campus. Rackham student Nishita Trisal, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology studying Kashmir, and Rackham student Safwaan Mir, president of the University’s chapter of Stand with Kashmir, headed the teach-in by presenting on the current crisis in the region KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily and the history and context Rackham student Nishta Trisal speaks about the crisis in Kashmir and what the University can do to help at a teach-in held in of the situation. Though Annenberg Auditorium Thursday evening. both individuals come from issues right now. the suffering of the Kashmiri the Kashmiri people who have Kashmiri backgrounds, Trisal Mir explained both India people is lost in the struggle suffered the most,” Mir said. noted they are not speaking for and Pakistan are interested for dominance between these “Instead, the truly legitimate way to look at the situation is all Kashmiris, especially since in the Kashmir region for two powerful countries. the current communications its natural resources, such “(India and Pakistan’s) for Kashmiris to have a right are primarily to choose for themselves what blackout in Indian-controlled as water, and because of its interests Kashmir means those in the strategic military position going to be in their strategic they want to be and what their region may not be able to between the two countries political position, not in the future is.” speak themselves on these and China. Mir emphasized interest and the well-being of See PAANI, Page 3A
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Vol. CXXIX, No. 18 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
highlights storytelling
Business alum Alex Lieberman reflects on entrepreneurship JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan alum Alex Lieberman spoke about Morning Brew, the startup he founded after graduating from the Ross School of Business in 2015, at the Robertson Auditorium Thursday. Lieberman is the co-founder and CEO of Morning Brew, a daily email newsletter that condenses business news into content that appeals to a younger audience. During his time at the Business School, Lieberman said he realized there wasn’t a platform that made business news interesting for students and young adults. “These students are working their asses off to have careers in business, and yet they don’t have content that’s storytelling the business world in a fun and engaging way,” Lieberman said. “So I just started writing a daily business roundup — which at the time looked very different from Morning Brew — but I would say had a lot of the same DNA.”
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B EHIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, LSA sophomore Parnia Mazhar reported on the lack of diversity at the Ross School of Business. “It was a different process than most of my other stories because I had to really do an in-depth investigation to ensure that I was getting a true and different perspective on diversity in the Business School. Every time I interviewed a new source, new information came out that I wanted to look into further. While that made it a lengthier process, I think it was definitely worth it because I got information and perspectives from people who may not have their voices heard frequently a lot on campus. I think my process for this story helped open my eyes to how important our jobs are as student journalists.”
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We’re being very strategic about who is going to be involved with which things related to the debate. When we know we have a football game, the hospital steps up in ways that are very different than our normal operation, so that we can anticipate and plan for medical emergencies that might be affiliated with that. So, I would imagine in many of our areas, we’re going to do the same sort of planning to step up and be ready.”
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Ford School hosts inaugural James B. Hudak Professor of Health lecture
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The first-ever recipient of the James B. Hudak Professorship of Health Policy, Paula Lantz, gave her inaugural lecture to about 150 students and faculty on Thursday night. The event focused on the history and current policies surrounding population health disparities. The Ford School of Public Policy established the James B. Hudak Professorship of Health Policy in the spring of 2019 to be awarded to a faculty member at the University of Michigan Sudoku Syndication who is engaging in research focused on both investigating and addressing of problems
student Andrew Krantz said time thinking about health thinking about he wanted to hear some of without Lantz’s knowledge about her health care,” Lantz said. “But field, specifically that of the they’re not the same thing, history of health disparities. and health disparities are “I’m interested in hearing not the same thing as health her explain some of the care access, quality, outcome history of the population disparities. Health equity is health disparities,” Krantz not the same thing as health said. “I’m not as familiar care equity.” Public Health junior with the literature on that, and from what I understand, Catherine Marudo told The she’s kind of an expert in that Daily she was interested to learn about Lantz’s area.” In her lecture, Lantz distinctions between health described the current state of policy and health care policy, population health in the U.S., especially as an aspiring pointing to certain statistics physician. “I didn’t really realize such as life expectancy, which has declined in the there was a distinction where past few years. She also spoke one was more downstream, http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ about the differences in life which was health care policy, expectancy according to or one was more upstream, varying social determinants which was health policy,” of health, such as race and Marudo said. “And I thought that was really interesting socioeconomic status. “Any health topic we for somebody who is going want to talk about — any to go into that field to come disease, any health issue to that realization, because MEDIUM — is going to be patterned I thought it was just all by social class and by upstream.” In an interview with race, ethnicity, gender, place; it goes on and on,” The Daily, Public Health junior Bianca Ghita said Lantz said. Lantz voiced her she believed the content concerns about the new that Lantz was delivering definition and movement was important, but would of Population Health perhaps have more impact Management. Though on an audience less familiar she said she is glad with the information. “There are things in our there are conversations about health disparities, society that most people Lantz said she fears the expect to function f lawlessly, issues are becoming and these are things that, “medicalized” — the when they do, kind of get off characterization of track or there are issues with certain health outcomes it, it angers a lot of people,” as medical conditions Ghita said. “I feel like her to be treated when they talk is really informative, could simply be symptoms and it was really great, but it would be really great for of a health disparity. The difference between people that aren’t already health policy and health super excited about this type © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. puzzle by sudokusyndication.com care policy was another of work.” focus of Lantz’s lecture. “We have a hard
within the United States healthcare system. In her introduction of Lantz, economics professor Susan M. Collins said Lantz is one of her close colleagues and someone with significant impact in the Public Policy School. “There isn’t much happening at the Ford School that Paula hasn’t had a positive inf luence on in a variety of different ways,” Collins said. Collins said Lantz is very knowledgeable in the field of population health and was the director for the University of Michigan Policies for Action Research Hub. In an interview with The Daily prior to the lecture, Public Policy graduate
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DATING From Page 1A Based on the responses, an algorithm finds another person who it deems the best fit for each individual participant and the two receive each other’s email as their match. Once that information is sent out, it is up to the students to decide how to proceed, as there is no requirement for participants to communicate with their matches. Michielssen noted the service is only open to undergraduate students, so any graduate students or alumni who attempt to fill out the questionnaire will be disqualified. Only a valid University email is required to fill out the form, but the software filters out nonundergraduate emails. LSA senior Beatrice KellyAndrews said she found the questions in the survey to be similar to those found in a compatibility test. While she is not seriously looking for a relationship, Kelly-Andrews said she is interested to see what the creators deemed important for a match and who the algorithm finds for her. “I would sort of love to meet the person who someone else says is perfect for me and see what aspects of myself from the survey are found in other people that make them ‘perfect,’” Kelly-Andrews said. “I’m also not looking for love or a relationship, so I would absolutely reach out to them and be like, ‘Hey, want to grab coffee and hang out?’ Like, maybe you’re my best friend, maybe you’re my arch nemesis, maybe you’re just a cool person, but I sort of need to let them know I’m not looking to date them.” To come up with the questions, Michielssen said she and her group of co-creators researched compatibility. The group used their findings to draft questions related to issues important to a successful relationship, while also keeping the questions engaging for students. LSA junior Nick Cassar, who is also a student in Psychology 223 but not a member of this group, took the questionnaire and said he would be interested to meet the person who matches with him. Cassar said he found the questions about sexual habits important, as they relate to healthy relationships. “It would still be really cool to see this person (who) is clearly a lot like me, their answers were extremely similar to mine,” Cassar said. “I’m actually in a relationship, so I’m definitely not looking for the love of my life, but, hey, maybe in 20 years I can go back to this person and marry them.” This type of service is not a new phenomenon on
DEI From Page 1A “The term ‘Asian American’ was first used in the 1960s for very specific political purposes,” Borja said. “Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans and other people’s Asian ancestry decided that it was politically advantageous for them to unite under that political category, and we can’t ignore that this category continues to be politically contested — that they are continuing to grapple about the boundaries of this category.” Matthew Stiffler, a lecturer in American Culture and researcher at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich., commented on the idea of identity further by describing a similar struggle for ME/ NA-identifying individuals. He explained how the umbrella term ME/NA is a relatively new concept, and the countries that fall under this term are still developing. “To think of ME/NA as a rallying identity for people in the United States … (is) a very recent history,” Stiffler said. “Where it comes from the need to have an
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college campuses. According to The Harvard Crimson, Datamatch, a matchmaking system created by Harvard University students in 1994, expanded to Brown, Columbia and Wellesley Universities in 2018. In 2017, students at Stanford University created an algorithm, named the Stanford Marriage Pact, to match students. Michielssen said the Stanford Marriage Pact was her team’s original inspiration, though the questionnaire was private, so all the questions her team asks are original. LSA junior Kendall Johnson said she felt the questionnaire was a better avenue for finding a relationship than dating applications like Tinder, but she does not like the fact she will only receive one person back as a match. Johnson also said she recognized there may be issues if students who took the survey looking for a relationship were matched with students who took it for entertainment. “Even when you’re on Tinder, you don’t know who’s that serious about it and who’s not, and that’s just part of the dating experience,” Johnson said. “You’re not always going to find someone who’s looking for the same thing as you, and you just have to be able to handle that and bounce back and be cool with it. So, obviously, if someone was really hoping to find their future partner, hopefully they find them, but they can’t be that upset if they don’t.” Kelly-Andrews said, if anything, the matching service was the opposite of Tinder because participants know they have something in common with their match but have not had a chance to talk to them. On Tinder, there is an immediate opportunity for discussion but no guarantee of similarities. Johnson noted Tinder is heavily based on photos and physical features, while the questionnaire is focused on personality, which could provide the opportunity for more meaningful connections. However, others, like LSA sophomore Patrick Potoczak, still find at least some knowledge about physical appearance important. Though he said he can understand the value in not having any information about looks in the matching system, he said physical attraction is necessary for relationships to succeed. “I think physical appearance is very important, so I’m curious to see how that would be or what the general consensus is to see if personalities match, but appearances do not,” Potoczak said. “My biggest concern is that, number one, I’m just going to get matched with my friend or someone I already know, and then my
second biggest one is that I won’t be physically attracted to the person because of their appearance.” While Michielssen said the Pact’s website did poke fun at Tinder and the awkward situations students can find themselves in, her team was not trying to brand their service as an alternative for the application. The purpose of the service, Michielssen said, is actually to give participants a backup plan so they can focus on their academics and careers. Then, if they do not have a significant partner in the future, they can go back to their Michigan Marriage Pact match. “It’s not really a dating service, and it isn’t meant to set people up with a match right away,” Michielssen said. “Its main intent is just to provide people with a backup plan so that if they both end up single in 20 years, then that’s the person that they get married to.” Barstool Sports, a sports and pop culture blog, featured the questionnaire in a story on its University of Michigan-focused Instagram account. According to Michielssen, the account owners wrote in the post that the questionnaire creators were lonely computer science students, but noted her and her group members were neither lonely nor majoring in computer science. The link has also gained traction by circulating in group chats for fraternity and sorority life and other organizations on campus, as well as through word of mouth. Kelly-Andrews, who is not on social media, said she heard about the questionnaire from her roommates and sent it to many people she knew in addition to a group chat for students in her major. She also noted the importance of having a diverse set of participants. If the majority of respondents are one gender and looking for the opposite gender, she explained, then it would be more difficult for the algorithm to find the people in that group a match. “I filled it out, and then I realized I was sort of scared that if, depending on how small it got, it would just be my friend group and my friends’ friend groups and some computer science majors,” Kelly-Andrews said. “If (the creators) are looking to make people fall in love, I think they have a responsibility to make sure everybody has an option to be in love, or meet a friend or ghost someone new.” Michielssen said her team has seen more female participants than male so far. She said they are hopeful this will even out over time and have recently noticed an uptick in heterosexual males completing the form.
identity is recent. Where we’re at as a nation, (ME/NA) boxes matter.” The discussion then moved to why checkboxes exist, what data is collected and where the University is going in terms of demographic data collection. Traci Buckner, lead analyst at University Human Resource Records and Information Services, spoke about the ways in which federal requirements play into how the University handles demographic information regarding faculty and staff. The office of UHRRIS follows the federal guidelines in collecting demographic data, but the process can be complicated when a faculty or staff member does not disclose their ethnicity. Paul Robinson, associate vice provost at the Office of the Registrar, discussed the extended ethnicities initiative for both students and faculty at the University that allows students to update their identities in Wolverine Access according to their specific racial and ethnic identities. “In the last several months, we enabled our students’ systems and HR systems to be able to capture some data of ethnicities,” Robinson said.
Ravi Pendse, vice president of information technology and chief information officer at the University, reminded the audience that while demographic data collection is essential to representation, the University must also respect students’ rights to information and data privacy. “All of that information, powered by data that we all generate, has to be somewhere work has to be analyzed, has to be protected, has to be thoughtfully used,” Pendse said. “I’m a director here saying that we must make available to our entire campus for students first, a data dashboard that students can look at and see what data we are collecting on them, and why.” Rackham student Alyssa Park told The Daily she attended the event because of her interest in the desegregation of data around Asian American students and erasure of specific ethnic groups who fall under the pan-Asian identity. “Something that really stuck out to me in this event is the power of data and the actions that can be taken from what we find out or what we choose to find out,” Park said.
PAANI From Page 1A The modern division of the Kashmir region came about following the partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, which displaced millions of people along religious lines, including the Kashmiris, Trisal explained. Since the implementation of the Indian Constitution in 1950, which gave Kashmir semiautonomy, there have been Kashmiri movements for self-determination often met with violent responses by the Indian government. On Aug. 5, the Parliament of India repealed Articles 370 and 35A in the Indian Constitution, taking away Kashmir’s autonomy. Trisal explained this decision was announced amid a total communications blackout and a military lockdown of the region, both of which are still ongoing. “What was so shocking about this act is that overnight these protections were taken away,” Trisal said. “I think
SCOTUS From Page 1A “The Supreme Court must protect the rights of these individuals, and including the protection of sexual orientation under Title VII is a necessary step in the work to achieve full LGBTQ+ equality. Without such protections, LGBTQ+ folks will be discriminated against, targeted, and forced to choose between living authentically and making a living for themselves and their families.” LSA senior Alyson Grigsby, co-chairwoman of the Coalition for Queer and Trans People of Color, also said she was worried that the if the Supreme Court decides not to protect sexual orientation, it could lead to members of the LBGTQ community being unable to be comfortable in the workplace. “(It would) affect me depending on … how I would choose to present myself to work or my partner,” Grigsby said. “Am I fully able to be authentic in the workplace?” Grigsby also added the decision could impact how LBGTQ members present themselves in their work environments. “Even with things like presentation, depending on
BUSINESS From Page 1A The event was sponsored by the TAMID group, a club that helps business students connect with Israel’s economy. Shalena Srna, assistant professor of marketing at the Business School, moderated the event. Lieberman, a former TAMID group member, shared insights about the fundamentals of starting a business and how the company has fared through rapid changes. He started the newsletter as a senior in 2015 with Austin Reif, a 2017 University alum . Currently, Morning Brew has an audience of more than a million subscribers. Lieberman said Morning Brew is coming out with new ways to share business content all the time, noting the company currently offers four products: the core newsletter, the retail newsletter, the emerging technolog y newsletter and a podcast. “Basically, for the first two and a half years of being full time in this business, we did one thing: We just sent out our daily newsletter, and we did it extremely well,” Lieberman said. “I think focus is the biggest thing. A lot of people would say that it isn’t very sexy to send out one email newsletter every single day for two and a half years. People think it probably can get
Friday, October 25, 2019 — 3A it’s important to point out the decision f lew in the face of international norms.” In addition to other complications, the blackout has caused a medical crisis in the region as hospitals struggle to coordinate and people are unable to call for help. Thousands of Kashmiris have also been allegedly tortured and detained without trial or due process since the crackdown began. “I consider it war, that the Indian government went to war with the Kashmirian people,” Mir said. “You’re looking at thousands upon thousands of unmarked graves that exist in the Kashmir valley, disappearances, arrests — all these things the Indian army had the rights to do without repercussions.” Trisal and Mir urged the audience to continue to inform themselves and others of the situation in Kashmir by attending similar events, engaging in social media campaigns and contacting legislators. Paani co-founder Omar Ilyas, a University alum, explained the organization intentionally worked to
empower the voices of Kashmiris, who he said often go unheard in the discussion about the Kashmir crisis. “A lot of different information come out from a lot of different news outlets, and each of them have their own sort of bias. But something you don’t hear often is the perspective from Kashmiris,” Ilyas said. “We wanted to create a space that upholds and focuses on the Kashmiri narrative, where Kashmiris are able to speak on behalf of their own people instead of where people are speaking on behalf of them.” LSA senior Humza Hemani told The Daily he came to the teach-in specifically to hear Kashmiri perspectives on the issue. “I actually wasn’t going to come until I found out they were making an effort to make it Kashmiri viewpoints rather than Pakistani ones,” Hemani said. “I’ve seen the propaganda from the Pakistani side, from the Indian side, but I feel like this is a viewpoint that has more legitimacy to it.”
where you work at,” Grigsby said. “Your gender presentation — that could get you potential discrimination.” Mark Chung Kwan Fan, the assistant director for engagement for the Unversity’s Spectrum Center, explained how students who have felt adversely affected by LGBTQ discrimination can turn to the center’s resources. “The Spectrum Center is professionalized in being able to support (students) no matter what type of concern they are going through,” Chung Kwan Fan said. “They might be going through, let’s say a financial concern, because maybe they’ve been disowned by their family, right? We can help with that. Looking for resources, a transition of sorts, we work hard to get help with that. One of the things that we do here is to be able to make bridges and gaps between resources.” Chung Kwan Fan added these national issues often impact students’ day-to-day lives, and the Spectrum Center can help students navigate these difficulties on campus. “So when those national issues are happening right now, whether that is work discrimination and women’s condition or whether to (it is) be able to use different bathrooms, or being fired
because of your identities, all of those things, we are able to help typically in regards to how they can navigate campus, especially, when these national issues are happening,” Chung Kwan Fan said. LSA senior Konrat Pekkip, co-chair of Stonewall Democrats, noted the impact of the Supreme Court decision will disproportionately affect LGBTQ members in underprivileged communities. “Institutionalized homophobia is a lot more of an issue when it intersects with poverty,” Pekkip said. “It probably won’t affect me personally, because I am very privileged, because I have a degree, or I will have a degree, from the University of Michigan. Overall, I’m in an economically secure place. But a lot of people are not as privileged as I am.” Pekkip hopes people will look beyond their own communities to understand long-term effects. “I think it’s not only important to think about the people you know in your personal life and how they can be affected but think about the broader picture and think about those people who you don’t interact with,” Pekkip said.
monotonous and email is not like an exciting technolog y, but often in my view is that what is sexy is building love. With an audience that you can then parlay into other things, there are so few media companies in the world right now that have actually built deep loyalty with their audience.” When Lieberman attended the University, he said he expected to go into finance. After graduation, he got a job at Morgan Stanley. However, he was working on Morning Brew at the same time and said he found he enjoyed that more than his day job at Morgan Stanley. Ultimately, he decided to leave Morgan Stanley and go all in with Morning Brew. Lieberman said he is OK with being uncomfortable as long as he enjoys what he is doing. “I think it’s this perspective that was forced upon me, that life is so precious that kind of got me thinking: I actually am more scared by not being uncomfortable,” Lieberman said. Business freshman Avery Bradshaw said hearing about Lieberman’s success made her more confident about her education at the University. “My favorite part about this event as a new member of TAMID was hearing about the immense success that Alex Lieberman has had in his business,” Bradshaw said. “As a student at the University of Michigan and
a member of TAMID, it was really reassuring that this institution and all the opportunities available will only lead students to success in the future.” Lieberman said he focuses on the creative aspect of the newsletter while his co-founder, Reif works on the analytical elements of Morning Brew. He said storytelling is the secret to his success at Morning Brew, adding that making complex topics relatable to the readers is a top priority. “To me, understanding how to teach something makes you hypersensitive to good storytelling, and how to distill things that are complex in a simple way that, at the end of the day, at the heart of Morning Brew, think about what we do,” Lieberman said. Business freshman Richard Shu said he enjoyed learning about the process of entrepreneurship. “I really liked how Alex talks about his process in going into entrepreneurship,” Shu said. “Entrepreneurship seems like a really far off goal that not everybody — but a lot of people — go into and there are a lot of failures, and seeing somebody who was successful in it talk about his thought processes behind it, I thought that was extremely insightful.”
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Opinion
4A — Friday, October 25, 2019
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VARNA KODOTH | COLUMN
Why you should care about representation
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MARISA WRIGHT | COLUMN
The consequences of a conservative Supreme Court
E
arlier this month, the Supreme Court began its new term. On the docket for 2019 through 2020 are several paramount cases, ranging from potentially limiting women’s access to abortion to weakening the Affordable Care Act to stripping LGBTQ folks of their civil rights. This term will be the second full term with the current group of justices following the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexually assaulting multiple women and lied under oath. With the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2018, who was often considered a swing vote, Kavanaugh’s confirmation means the Supreme Court is now solidly conservative. Though Republicans scoffed at women’s fear that Kavanaugh’s confirmation meant the end of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, even calling women “hysterical,” Kavanaugh’s confirmation marked the court’s sharp ideological shift to the right and the beginning of the end for legal abortion in the United States. In 2016, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that limited abortion access; however, it has now decided to hear a case about a similar Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Eager to avoid controversy and legal liability, though, local hospitals are unwilling to give abortion providers admitting privileges. Masked as concern for women’s health, given abortion is an “extremely safe” medical procedure, the law is ultimately geared toward ending abortion access without overturning Roe outright. In another set of cases, the court will decide if workplace discrimination and firing is legally based on an employee’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The first pair of cases concern two men who were fired for being gay. The other case was brought by a transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, who was fired after telling her boss that she was deciding to embrace her gender identity and begin transitioning. The Supreme Court will decide if the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, specifically Title VII, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion, applies to LGBTQ people. In other words, it will decide whether or not queer people have rights. As if this wasn’t atrocious enough, the rulings could have broader impact on all workers because the case challenges protections for anyone who does not conform to gender stereotypes. “A rule in (the Trump administration’s) favor could drastically change workplace protections for all women, whether or not they are LGBTQ, and anyone who does not conform to the administration’s preferred gender norms. That could include men with long hair, women with short hair, men who are primary caretakers of children or parents, women who wear pants, women who work outside the home or are the primary breadwinners,” said journalist Ann Friedman in a recent conversation with Chase Strangio, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and trans rights activist. The other important cases the Supreme Court will hear involve immigration, the Affordable Care Act and the Second Amendment. One case on immigration will decide if the Trump administration can end protections for “Dreamers” in DACA, and another will decide border control policies. A case involving the ACA would allow insurance companies to receive $12 billion from the federal government as a result of Republicans voting to gut the healthcare law. Finally, another case will decide the legality of New York’s gun law limiting the distribution and transportation of firearms. With 2020 looming, it is hard to believe the Supreme Court would hear cases on such divisive issues in an election year. And yet, here we are. With one single vote, the Supreme Court could eliminate decades worth of progress for women and queer folks. Border patrol and gun advocates could be strengthened. The ACA could be undermined. So how did we get here? In case you forgot or
haven’t been paying attention for the last three horrifying years, we’re here because of President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a politicallybrazen move, McConnell stole Merrick Garland’s seat on the Supreme Court in order to hold it open for a conservative justice. It is important to remember how Trump’s campaign released a list of potential conservative Supreme Court nominees during the 2016 campaign, which was at least a partially motivating factor for Trump’s voters. Then the Republicans, including disappointing votes from U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed a second man who was accussed of committing sexual abuse to the highest court in the land. Some of the candidates in the Democratic primary have put forth ideas about how to make the Supreme Court more democratic — as in democracy, not the Democratic Party. Many candidates are open to court packing, enacting term limits for justices or impeaching Brett Kavanaugh for new sexual assault allegations. Notably, the Democratic frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, does not support an impeachment of Kavanaugh. While I understand the pushback on court packing because it enables the Republicans to do it freely in the future, we should remember that the Republicans already changed the number of justices on the Supreme Court. When McConnell refused to hold hearings for President Obama’s nominee—Chief Judge for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals Merrick Garland— he limited the Supreme Court to eight seats for more than a year. Though Chase Strangio of the ACLU has urged people on show up and protest outside the Supreme Court chambers, there is little Democrats and progressives can do to stop the Supreme Court from stripping rights from millions of Americans at this point. Going forward, though, it is essential for Democrats to make the Supreme Court a priority at the ballot box. Marisa Wright can be reached at marisadw@umich.edu.
KAAVYA RAMACHANDHRAN | CONTACT CARTOONIST KAAVYAR@UMICH.EDU
N
owadays, I’ve noticed that there’s been a growing wave of female celebrities who are using their platform to incite change by speaking against social injustices, like the gender pay gap. In her Emmy acceptance speech, actress Michelle Williams urged the audience, “The next time a woman – and especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart – tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her. Believe her.” It’s so important to heed the underlying message here: This is a call to the greater community to make a conscious effort to create a healthy and inclusive work environment in which male, female and non-binary individuals are valued for their work. Growing up, when I watched award shows like the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and MTV awards, I’d watch solely to confirm whether or not my favorite artists or actors secured wins in the most mainstream categories, and then promptly fall asleep thereafter. The next day I’d wake up and continue listening to and watching the same artists and actresses. It wasn’t a huge of a deal to me. Fast-forward to the present day, and I find myself looking specifically for women of color, and in general, Black, Latinx, Asian and South Asian representation across the nominations, and ultimately, award winners. This doesn’t exclusively apply to awards shows, but also on the covers of magazines like Elle and Time. For example, Mindy Kaling and Hasan Minhaj were recently featured as the front covers of Elle and Vanity Fair, respectively. Mindy Kaling is an Indian American comedian and a success in the Hollywood industry: a director, writer and actress, known for her original role as Kelly Kapoor in “The Office.” To top it all off, Kaling has written two New York Times bestselling memoirs entitled, “Is Everyone
Hanging Out Without Me?” and “Why Not Me?” Another example is “The Daily Show” alum Hasan Minhaj, who is Indian American and Muslim, hosts his own Netf lix show providing a nuanced political commentary to global news. When I saw the two covers come out, I recall feeling a sense of pride. It’s funny because it’s not like a family member or best friend of mine was on the cover. But as a person of color, there’s something especially impactful and personal about seeing someone who looks like you or talks like you or whose beliefs deeply resonate with yours make it big in a field that is predominantly occupied by white men. I look up to all the female,
Support budding student comedians, activists and artists Indian-American trailblazers attempting to break the glass ceiling. It’s essential to support, share and re-share all the content produced by up-and-coming women of color to assist them in achieving their goals, no matter how small or large scale they may be. For example, Lilly Singh, an openly bisexual Indian-Canadian woman — better known as YouTube’s “Superwoman” — recently became the first woman of color to host her own latenight talk show, “A Little Late with Lilly Singh.” She joined NBC’s league of male hosts: Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Conan O’Brien. In 2016, the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism faculty conducted a research study on “Hollywood Equality: All Talk, Little Action.” The results of the study confirmed
expectations: Across 800 films, representation of gender, race/ethnicity, sexual identity and portrayal of disability misrepresents the diversity of the American population. A few key, alarming highlights from the study include: Among 886 directors, only 5.5 percent were Black and 2.8 percent were Asian. To break this down even further, of the 5.5 percent black or AfricanAmerican directors, only three were female and of the 2.8 percent Asian or Asian-American directors, only one was female. What’s even more frustrating, USC concluded that if filmmakers added five female roles to scripts each year this would bring us to roughly a 50-50 male to female ratio. This is a seemingly simple fix to address gender inequality in films. As students at the University of Michigan, we are privileged to have unrestricted access to a wide variety of educational resources and hundreds of year-round opportunities to attend events run by multicultural clubs and student organizations, which include annual cultural shows, student dialogues and culturally informative fundraisers. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to go out and support budding student comedians, activists and artists. This will amplify the representation of people in important platforms and creative spaces that lack nonwhite roles. It only makes sense to populate industries with the same level of diversity that is ref lective of the composition of America and aligns with American ideals of equity and inclusion. Perhaps the most important line from Williams’s speech, “they understood that when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value. And then where do they put that value? They put it into their work.” Varna Kodoth can be reached at vkodoth@umich.edu.
TIMOTHY SPURLIN | COLUMN
Fossil fuel divestment is complex but necessary
T
his year, the University of Michigan saw the development of a massive ongoing student protest regarding climate change on campus. Thousands of students, faculty and community members attended the climate strikes held on the Diag last spring and again this fall, highlighting just how important fighting climate change is in students’ minds. On Oct. 10, some of the students who were arrested at last year’s sit-in at the Fleming Administration Building following the strike appeared in court to fight the charges. The movement itself, headed by a coalition of student groups and individuals known as the Climate Action Movement at the University of Michigan, includes many demands involving the University’s current climate policies. One demand involves the complete divestment of fossil fuels from the University’s endowment. Last year, it was calculated using information from the University’s 2017 financial reports that roughly $1 billion of the total $12 billion endowment is tied up in investments related to fossil fuels. This raises two questions: how can the University’s carbon neutrality pledge and current climate action plans coexist with their investment in fossil fuels? And what would the actual effect of divestment be? What exactly is divestment, anyway? Divestment is the process by which a company or institution sells off stocks or financial assets for a certain cause, often associated with an intentional statement of protest. The thought process behind it is if a large number of big investors intentionally pull their resources, the affected party will be forced to cease whatever bad practice has drawn criticism, or simply become financially damaged altogether. In the case of the climate movement, we and other institutions ought to divest from fossil fuels to stand against
the industry, which is responsible for worsening the issues of climate change. The University is no stranger to calls of divestment, as other student activists have called on this tactic for social change in the past before. The only successful divestment campaign on the University’s campus was back in the ’80s, when students pressured the regents to fully divest from companies that did business in South Africa in response to Apartheid. More recently, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS) on campus tried to push the University to divest from Israeli companies in response to the ongoing dispute and violence in Palestine. The University put out a statement that its “longstanding policy is to shield the endowment from political pressures and to base our investment decisions solely on financial factors such as risk and return.” Given the pretext that they will indeed only divest based on risk and returns alone, should they divest now? Based on some recent financial analysis, yes. According to a 2018 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, there is a legitimate case for divesting from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel stocks are now increasingly speculative. According to IEEFA, “Current financial stresses — volatile revenues, limited growth opportunities, and a negative outlook — will not merely linger, they will likely intensify.” Suffice it to say, investment in fossil fuels is likely to become riskier over time, and it would be a smart financial decision by the University to divest. Everything is a trade-off, and divestment is no exception. One of the biggest questions surrounding divestment is how effective it is in actually fighting emissions. A 2018 report published by the Political Economy Research Institute,
found “that divestment campaigns, considered on their own, have not been especially effective as a means of significantly reducing CO2 emissions, and they are not likely to become more effective over time.” This is a concerning fact that needs to be kept in mind during these discussions. Another issue is who gains control of companies once stocks are sold from divesting firms. It could be the case that if we were to sell our holdings, another lessclimate-friendly group could buy up shares, who could put less pressure on fossil fuel companies to have better practices. By holding onto our investments, we could take a so-called “one hand on the wheel” approach. This is a double-edged sword: On the one hand, we want the ability to nudge bad actors in the right direction. On the other, holding onto our assets means financing something we do not support. Still, it seems wrong that the University holds onto such a large investment in an industry whose values are so misaligned with the University’s climate goals. It is important to remember that divestment, as big and complicated as it is, is ultimately a moral decision at its core. When the University divested from South Africa it wasn’t a financial decision. It was because students stood strong and demanded the University act. It is understandable to want to avoid politicizing something as big and important as the endowment, but climate change is not really a political issue — or at least it shouldn’t be. If the University is actually committed to being a leader in the climate action space, then divestment from fossil fuels needs to remain on the table as a serious possibility. We can’t have it both ways. Timothy Spurlin can be reached at timrspur@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, October 25, 2019 — 5A
COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
TV REVIEW
‘Meguri’ to bring culture and feeling through dance ZOE PHILLIPS For The Daily
The University Musical Society first invited Sankai Juku to Ann Arbor in 1996. Now, over 20 years later, this weekend will mark their eighth and ninth performances at the Power Center. Between those visits to Michigan, the Japanese dance group has performed in over 700 cities and 48 countries worldwide. That may be a lot of travel, but Artistic Director and Choreographer Ushio Amagatsu is not tired by his international reception. In an email interview, he told The Daily that he has found a “universality” between those hundreds of different microcultures, writing that “this difference composes a culture” of its own. He uses this concept to continue his ongoing fomentation of the Butoh dance style. Born in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s atomic bombings, Butoh is not loved for its prettiness. Instead, the dance form garners attention for its grotesque imagery and uncomfortable movements. Dancers use Butoh’s uneasy nature to bring attention to darker and more complex aspects of modern Japanese culture. When Amagatsu founded Sankai Juku in 1975, he melded that history with his training from other dance techniques to create the second generation of Butoh that we see today. His group performs with the traditional head-to-toe white body makeup and shaved heads, and the effect draws dramatic lines between the dancers and the negative space that surrounds them. Using this contrast, performers move
Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land Oct. 25-26 @ 8 p.m. Power Center Student Tickets $12-$20 Regular Tickets starting at $24
Dancers use Butoh’s uneasy nature to bring attention to darker and more complex aspects of modern Japanese culture
HULU
‘Looking for Alaska’ does try to seek a Great Perhaps MAXWELL SCHWARZ Daily Arts Writer
through undulations in a process that Amagatsu describes as “conformity with gravity.” Some claim the result is simply slowmotion movement, but Amagatsu disagrees. In his email, he took care to point out that “it’s the careful correspondence with gravity.” That hyper-control is far more distinct than a description of speed, and the effects are far more powerful. Even through the video clips on the UMS website, the performances leaves your heart feeling uncommonly still. This weekend, the group will perform “Meg uri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land,” a work that found its inspiration in a biohistory book that Amagatsu read. The work first premiered in Paris in 2015 and focuses on the rhythmic repetitions of earthly processes. Given his childhood spent by the ocean, Amagatsu added that he’s especially interested in the “boundary between land and sea.” In the work, dancers focus on the universality and timeless nature of oceanic processes, which Amagatsu connected to the “universality beyond the differences of cultures” that he has found through his years spent abroad. “It is difficult to explain the details (of that simplicity) in words. The image in my mind leads me to construct a creation,” Amagatsu said. With that, he touched on the very essence of dance; conveying a concept that comes from deep within. Though we often share these ideas or feelings with everyone around us, they often sit untouched until a dancer comes along to uncover them.
If you were a teenager between 2010 and 2016, you’ve probably been caught with the smoky cover of John Green’s “Looking for Alaska” propped open on your lap. It’s the nowclassic tale of the skinny loner at a new school who gets mesmerized by the mystifying girl with the strange name, only to have his friend group rocked by tragedy. The book is filled with cigarettes, books, sexual promiscuity and pranks. It’s halved in two sections — “Before” and “After” — centered around the tragedy. Fortunately, all of this finds its way into this aesthetically-polished adaptation for television. Miles Halter (Charlie Plummer, “Granite Flats”) knows famous peoples’ last words. Anyone could quiz him on them. But no one would because he’s a bit of a loner. So, he leaves Orlando, Florida for Culver Creek, a boarding school in Alabama, trading beaches for sweat and oak trees, so that he can “seek a Great Perhaps,” in the final words of François Rabelais. There, his roommate — The Colonel (Denny Love, “Lucifer”) — shows him the ropes of Culver Creek. This brings him to Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth, “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”), the troubled yet alluring girl with a room full of books and a knack for trouble. The first episode follows the Colonel instructing Miles (dubbed “Pudge,” for his slim physique) how to smoke. But when Alaska’s roommate gets kicked out for drinking, smoking and “genital contact,” drinking and smoking, the Weekday Warriors — a collection of rich students who go home on the weekends — think someone ratted on her and her boyfriend, and
they mean to make them pay. So they go after Pudge. “Looking for Alaska” takes place in 2005, but it certainly doesn’t feel like 2005. Everything about the show — from what the kids are wearing to the music featured — feels very modern. At first, this felt like a bad thing. It felt wrong, lacking the grungy, sweatiness of puberty that the novel so eloquently utilized to its advantage. It almost felt fake, too polished and false for the kind of emotions the novel induced. Hulu’s “Looking for Alaska” did not feel like the one I grew up adoring, then growing out of, then loathing. Realizing this made me understand that the show wasn’t meant to feel like the “Looking for Alaska” that helped usher me through adolescence. The unfortunate fact of adulthood is very much upon me. If the same is true of you, then you, with the dog-eared, creased-spined copy tucked discreetly in the back of your bookcase, will also not see yourself in any of the main troublemakers of Hulu’s version. But after coming to terms with my youth’s mortality, it became evident that “Looking for Alaska” serves much the same purpose for modern disgruntled teenagers that it did for the ones of yesterday. For all its sleekness and freshness, “Looking for Alaska” does resemble its source material in many ways. It is still the same story with the same message, stylized in its “Before” and “After” chapters. It also suffers from the same pretentiousness that plagued the novel. Ultimately, whether or not “Looking for Alaska” is good depends purely on where you’re at in life. If you’re older than the novel’s target audience, the show will fall flat. But if the novel currently has you torn to pieces, the show will be a great supplement.
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
Chick Corea & co. aged well CLARA SCOTT Senior Arts Editor
It’s not often that a man just shy of 80 has the energy of a twenty-something. It’s especially rare for that man, famed jazz pianist Chick Corea, to have continued touring through his later years, just as excited to perform as he was at the beginning of his career. In fact, when I sat in Hill Auditorium Saturday night to hear him perform with bassist Christian McBride and percussionist Brian Bladee, I couldn’t quite put my finger on his age at all. Corea seemed to transcend any expectations the audience may have had for him, bounding out onto the stage in jeans, sneakers and a striped t-shirt that I swear my 14-year-old brother also owns. For the legendary musician, it was clear that age, looks and anything else superficial doesn’t actually matter in the long run — for him, it’s the music that really makes the difference. They began with a typical tune-up of their instruments, until Corea began to riff around with the audience. “We’re just gonna tune our instruments up real quick,” he chuckled, “then we’ll tune you all up, too.” The quip led to a burble from the audience, and as soon as the three musicians finished perfecting their respective instruments, Corea turned to them, mischievous smile across his face. He played a riff on the piano, then waited patiently for those seated in the auditorium to repeat it. They did, and on and on until we were all buckled over with laughter. It wasn’t until then that I realized how full Hill was that night, as the voices of everyone from the front row to the back of the balcony echoed into the space. The concert was a special performance to support the trilogy’s newest album, Trilogy 2, which follows a 2014 collaboration between the three that won two Grammys that year. The title of that one? You guessed it: Trilogy. All three of the musicians have a penchant for finding beauty in simplicity, but also in a contained chaos that jazz thrives on. There is power in restraint with modern jazz improvisation, and Corea, McBride and Blade know this all too well. Despite that fact, they seem to make the craziest riffs seem simple in their own right, moving from chord to chord with a cascade of notes that seem to appear out of thin air, much less produced by human hands. But that’s the magic of their collaboration: Though the group is listed as the Chick Corea Trio, they could easily be the Christian McBride Trio or very believably the Brian Blade Trio. They are all musicians at the top of their game and the second act of their careers, resting comfortably in their status as jazz greats. Beginning with classic Corea composition “La Fiesta” and moving between renditions of other songs like Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” and Thelonious Monk’s “Work,” the performance was widely varied in its creative choices. It seemed
like the three were close enough to not even have a tracklist, as Corea stood up from his grand piano to murmur with the other two before each song was decided. But that spirit of off-the-cuff ingenuity is what made the trio stand out on the stage, as each of them held up their part with a nearly effortless talent. To put it simply, the trio are all monsters of jazz, imbued the creativity that comes from years of practice with the best of the best. Beyond that irreproachable savvy for music, they’re some of the coolest guys you could ever be in the same room with. I was stunned by everything they mentioned in between songs, the intention that every word came with, and also Brian Blade’s incredible baritone voice. The same goes for McBride’s skills with the bow, a special, almost classical interlude in a sea of straight jazz. The shimmering cymbals and undulating bass tones of the group flowed freely through the auditorium’s rapt audience, and at one point Corea even played the strings inside the piano to complete a composition’s otherworldly sound. When the three came out for an unexpected encore, my heart lifted with delight. They played a Coltrane composition, the simplest, most classic sound to round out the night. From the craziness of the last two hours, it was a beautiful example of their love for jazz in all its forms, especially those that put them where they are today. The night was a perfect example of what can happen when friendship and genius come together, creating a partnership in which innovation can flourish.
The shimmering cymbals and undulating bass tones of the group flowed freely through the auditorium’s rapt audience, and at one point Corea even played the strings inside the piano to complete a composition’s otherworldly sound
Looking for Alaska Hulu Miniseries Premiere Streaming Now
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN
None of us have cable, OK? IAN HARRIS
Daily Entertainment Columnist
We’re all living cable free, right? We’re the digital generation, we cut the cords, we use streaming services and we don’t pay for cable. But would we be better off if we did? While fewer college students have cable subscriptions than in the past, I would hazard a guess that most still watch an impressive amount of television. Netf lix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube TV, CBS All Access, Apple TV, HBO Go, soon Disney+ and more; the number of streaming services continues to increase year after year and the ways in which people of our generation pay for the right to watch slowly become more and more convoluted. In many college units, at least one of the aforementioned services is being provided by a parental unit of some member of the household. How long will that last, though? My generation has slowly come to expect that all forms of media will be provided for them for free, but that’s not reasonable for the entertainment industry or a given consumer. Surely, Netf lix and HBO know how many people share their accounts with each other, right? Is this something technolog y can stop, or is it simply a matter of time before this entire ecosystem begins to resemble the cable packages that everyone so despised? No one knows for sure what the streaming landscape will look like in a few years, but most are in agreement that consumers are not going to shell out five to 10 dollars per network they want. Bundled streaming deals feel inevitable, and when they do come, it will be right back to where we started. Sports in particular have a difficult road ahead. Last year it was estimated that the NBA is losing billions
of dollars a year on people illegally streaming the league’s games through sites as open and accessible as Reddit. Personally, I used to use r/cf bstreams all the time to watch college football games that weren’t being aired on a net work someone in my house had access to. This fall, Reddit seems to have cracked down on the existence of threads like that, which just f unnel people to illegal streaming sites, costing the corporate content creators boatloads of money. I think one of the main reasons streaming is so prevalent is that it feels like a victimless crime. ESPN doesn’t need more of my money, nor does Disney, Warner Bros or any of the rest. Is it really so bad so deprive them of my five dollars so I can watch Michigan play a basketball game at Illinois? This is pure speculation, but I suspect many people who are guilty of illegally streaming would never consider stealing so much as a candy bar from a Walgreens. In reality, illegally streaming content is just as much of crime and just as much of a theft as stealing a candy bar is, but it doesn’t feel that way. Stealing from a store feels like stealing, whereas illegally streaming something from a billion dollar corporation feels like getting one over the man. Even film majors like myself have seemingly little moral issue stealing films and TV show files from the internet and costing content creators money, despite the fact that they themselves one day hope to be the ones creating the content. Surely at that point we will hope that illegal streaming has been limited or erased entirely. Surely then we will see that what we are doing is wrong ... maybe. But until then, I’m going to keep watching Netf lix on my parents’ account and borrowing CBS access from my roommate. I don’t need to pay money to watch the Lions lose on Sunday — I’ve got enough problems as it is.
Arts
6A — Friday, October 25, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CONCERT REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Kero Kero Bonito brings love and light to Detroit DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer
Kero Kero Bonito is on a hot streak. The British indiepop trio has spent the last year radiating big suburban energy with the nostalgic Time ‘N’ Place, and has since widened their sights with Civilisation I, dropping right before their North American tour. If Bonito Generation was a celebration of inner childhood cheer and Time ‘N’ Place was a reflection of early-adulthood melancholy, Civilisation I is a grimdark mourning of society’s imminent implosion. I can think of no better tunes to get down to in Detroit than KKB’s new über-doomer anthems. It’s the night of Oct. 16, and I stroll into the Magic Stick with my concert companion. For some reason venue security is not taking shit from nobody tonight. The box office is past the security check, so I get big X’s magic marker’d onto both my under-21 hands and get badgered for my camera bag before finally getting a press ticket and entering the venue. The concert opens with a performance from Negative Gemini. She’s only got 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify but the crowd is dancing like she’s got 30 million. This is a testament to the loveliness of her groovy electropop. It’s genuinely dreamy and I contemplate getting some of her merch (it looks pretty cool). Between performances, I nervously inch my way through the tightly packed crowd, hoping to get a picture when the band comes on. But I’m shy and I’m nervous and this is my first time trying photo coverage so I stop before getting to the front row. I don’t want to take space from the superfans who probably lined up long before the doors opened to secure their spots. A group watches me fumble with my camera, trying to find a good angle between the shoulders of two people much taller than myself, before motioning for me to fill in between them. They are all full of smiles and encouragement for my concert coverage as the band takes the stage. In addition to their core members — Sarah Bonito on vocals, Gus Lobban on keys and Jamie Bulled on bass — guitarist James Rowland and drummer Jennie Walton join the band’s live performances. Except for Sarah, the band enters the stage to a steady roar. 30 seconds later, Sarah saunters in to the tune of hundreds of screaming fans. It suddenly occurs to me that I forgot earplugs. I think I need them more for the screaming than the music. The show opens with the foreboding bopper “Battlelines” and the world is indeed ending, so we have every reason to get down. At any given moment there is
also good reason to scream, cry, laugh or all three at once. Sarah holds a stuffed flamingo as she raps “Flamingo,” waving it tauntingly over the crowd. Another stuffed animal graces the stage, this time a crocodile during “Pocket Crocodile.” Gus, rocking a Bob Evans baseball cap, is full of goofy quips and banter. “This one’s dedicated to the Detroit People Mover,” he says before one song. Sarah enlists the crowd to sing happy birthday to Jennie. A fan’s phone ends up on stage, and the band responds by taking a crowd selfie with it. There’s one thing I witness that makes my life complete: Gus and Sarah perform the iconic voicemail interlude from “Break,” complete with a pink prop telephone. At this point, I think nothing could make my heart more full. Then Sarah calls for a joint performance by the “KKB and Detroit choir” to do a heartfelt singalong to “Sometimes.” As she stands over the crowd with her baton, a cluster of devout fans (myself included) cram beneath her waving arms, belting every last lyric. Jamie even dances a jolly jig onstage. I don’t notice it at first — I can’t see it behind the outstretched arms of a group of fans recording the scene — but I witness Jamie’s goofiness through the cameras of their raised phones. My heart overflows. Much of the band’s charm comes from the glossy twinkles and chimes peppered throughout their production that are difficult to replicate live, but this does not stop KKB. The band is as faithful as could be to their quirky samplefilled sound. They even recreate the cacophonous noise breakdown of “Only Acting.” It speaks to their creativity and the strength of their relationships with their instruments. The band gives their goodbyes after “Picture This,” but Detroit would not walk away without hearing their favorite song. When the chants begin — “TRAMPOLINE! TRAMPOLINE! TRAMPOLINE!” — they will not stop until the band returns. Sure enough, they waltz back onstage and blast into a cover of U2’s “Vertigo.” In a cute homage to Detroit, James plays the opening to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” on guitar. Finally, “Trampoline” begins, and the floor of the venue flexes to an alarming degree as the crowd bounces, but I cannot stop jumping and jumping and jumping. All my energy has been jumped out of me. I walk out of the venue into rainy weather and a $45 parking ticket, but no amount of rain (or financial misfortune) can drown the joy and elation that is post-KKB-concert bliss. Kero Kero Bonito just made a goddamn bounce house out of Detroit, and I am humbled by their wholesomeness. My co-concertgoer and I scroll through pictures in the car. Most of them are ones she took of me shedding tears during the “Sometimes” singalong. Come back soon, KKB, I think to myself. Come back soon.
Much of the band’s charm comes from the glossy twinkles and chimes peppered throughout their production that are difficult to replicate live, but this does not stop KKB
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
‘Memory’ falls just short SARAH SALMAN Daily Arts Writer
One thing that I retained from my introductory psychology class was that memory, which I believed was somewhat permanent, is unreliable. Take cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus’s famous car experiment for example. In it, participants watched a car crash. The participants had to estimate the car’s speed. Loftus was able to manipulate the participants responses by framing her questions. By using adjectives that described a severe crash, Loftus found that participants were more likely to report the car traveling faster than it actually was. Just as I started to deconstruct everything I learned from “Law and Order,” we discussed false memories, and, in the ways that Loftus was able to retroactively influence the perception of certain events, James Coan demonstrated that people can claim to recall entire events from their childhood that were false. What happens if we can make memories disappear altogether? Described as a “haunting Orwellian novel,” Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police” imagines a dystopian island where memories of certain objects disappear. First, ribbons, bells, emeralds and stamps go. Then, perfume, photographs and even birds. After a day of commemoration, most of the island’s inhabitants are unaffected by these changes. They don’t even notice
The Memory Police Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder) Pantheon Jan. 1, 2019
that these seemingly insignificant objects are gone. For example, when the narrator, a struggling novelist, experiences perfume after it disappeared, she cannot reconcile it to anything more than a “few drops of water.” “Some girls held the bottles up to their noses one last time — but the ability to smell the perfume had already faded, along with all memory of what it had meant. The river reeked for two or three days afterward, and some fish died. But no one seemed to notice. You see, the very idea of ‘perfume’ had been disappeared from their heads.” That precious memory, and everything that it entailed, is gone forever. The authoritative Memory Police ensures that no one ever recalls these objects again — even if they have to make people disappear, too. After the young woman discovers that her editor, R, can still remember these objects even after they had disappeared, she goes to great lengths to hide him from the Memory Police. As more and more people that the narrator is close to begin to vanish, the thrill intensifies as the readers are left wondering if R will meet the same fate. For a novel described as “Orwellian,” the “The Memory Police” was surprisingly slow. Each word was carefully plucked to convey the most meaning. It was like the “Memory Police” was embodying its own themes, worrying that it, too, may fade over time. Even paragraphs were powerful in a particular way, laden with nostalgia and sentimentality. Right before the narrator hides R, R tries to describe his memories of the objects that had already disappeared: “Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.” Without question, the prose is lovely. I found myself pausing between chapters in order to absorb the provocative themes. And still, I never felt a compulsion to finish. Unlike George Orwell’s “1984,” I did not feel as threatened by the Memory Police as I did by Big Brother. From the beginning to the end, “The Memory Police” was quiet. It relied on a slow-burn climatic setup that did not pack a punch as masterfully as other dystopias manage to. I wanted my mind to be psychologically warped. I wanted to apply its heavy surveillance to real-world situations, condemning the NSA in my head. It’s easy to appreciate “The Memory Police” for its prose, less so for its plot.
COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
HELP WANTED
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
DOWN 1 Low 2 Nearly 9% of Earth’s surface area 3 Half-baked 4 Chicken producer
5 Pays a share of 6 Arab leader 7 Subjects of bovine mastication 8 Lake ultimately fed by 15-Across 9 Denial from Denis 10 Auto mechanic’s concerns 11 Pop or tot, e.g. 12 Bailiwick 13 Heavy metal 18 Right on the map 23 Web prefix with cat 24 Tech review website 25 “__ Nobody’s Business”: blues standard 26 Assess the depth of 27 “Blue Sky” Oscar winner 28 Where everything should be 29 Online money 30 Ventilation source 31 Roof edges 32 “I can’t go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands” speaker
37 Donation 38 Big comm. company, once 39 __ load 41 Trendy nightclub 42 Pine, e.g. 44 Son of Akhenaten 45 Box score statistic 46 Gambling game involving matching cards
DANA PIERANGELI Daily Arts Writer
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2019
ACROSS 1 Bewildered 6 Public row 11 Friend 14 Missouri tribe 15 Lake that ultimately feeds 8-Down 16 “__ we good?” 17 Bingeing on chicken pieces? 19 Meadow 20 Vote against 21 Employee’s request 22 Tale of Achilles and Agamemnon 24 Tasting room container 25 Soon, to a bard 26 Roman naturalist’s baseball-playing namesake? 33 Climbing and passing places 34 Preserves, in a way 35 “Hooray!” 36 Inch, e.g. 37 Source of the fairy-tale sequence that creates four long puzzle puns 39 Interlaced 40 Executive gp. 41 Chart entries 42 Tailed orbiter 43 Prize coveted by competitive trees? 47 Negotiate a green 48 Echelon 49 Airport conveyors, or what are sometimes placed on them 51 Wispy clouds 53 Spanish she-bear 56 __ Today 57 Sports Officialdom Illustrated cover image? 60 Apple product 61 Superficial 62 Boredom 63 Take to court 64 Is crowded (with) 65 Falls from the sky
‘Caberéy’ was illuminating
49 Borrows without returning 50 Jacob’s brother 51 Dove home 52 List part 53 Hyatt competitor 54 Like a web 55 Sale warning 58 Tint 59 Duessa’s foe in Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene”
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10/25/19
Basement Arts broke from tradition this year and opened their new season not with a play or musical, but with their brand new “Latinx: Caberéy.” Directed by School of Music, Theatre & Dance senior Lauren Kenner with assistance from SMTD sophomores Ruby Pérez and Sammie Estrella, this performance gave Latinx identifying students the chance to share the pride in their culture with peers. In a night full of singing, dancing, poetry and virgin margaritas, everyone was alive with energy and enthusiasm. Before even entering the small studio, theatre-goers were offered a feast of Latinx cuisine. Inside the studio, the set, designed by Stamps sophomore Ryan Espitia, was vibrant and homey, welcoming in the audience with bright blankets and warm lights. The loving atmosphere made the audience feel welcomed into the space and involved in the show. “Caberéy” included a variety of acts: Songs ranged from traditional Spanish lullabies to “Hamilton” ballads. Traditional Latin dances were both performed and taught to the crowd, and poignant poems were written by the students. Some of the highlights include SMTD senior Maya Ballester and SMTD junior Cristina Holder’s rendition of “Remember Me” from the movie “Coco,” a beautiful duet incorporating both Spanish and English lyrics, and SMTD sophomore Sammie Estrella’s poem “Little Brown Hands,” a piece about growing up Latinx.
Basement Arts provided a space for the voices of underrepresented artists to soar. They featured artists from different Latinx countries and different backgrounds. In a stunning finale, each artist spoke their name and the culture that they identify with, proving that Latinx culture conforms to no ideals and knows no boundaries. Not only was this show necessary and important, but it was fun. Whether gasping at a gut-wrenching poem or clapping to a spirited Spanish song, everyone was engaged and enjoying every minute. Each performance illuminated a different aspect of Latinx culture; some songs were in Spanish, some songs were written by Latinx composers and poems spoke to different facets of what it means to identify as a Latinx artist. What made the night so powerful was the coming together of all of these unique artists and experiences to celebrate a common culture. For the artists involved, it was an opportunity to bond over a commonality that society doesn’t always allow them embrace. For the audience, it was a chance to deepen our understanding of a likely unfamiliar culture. Everyone needs the chance to be introduced to these conversations to perpetrate growth and understanding in our society. Opening the season with such a powerful statement on inclusivity within the theatre opens Basement Arts up for further conversations about important topics. This show gave those in the Latinx community a place to use their voices and those not in the community a place to listen. Seeing Basement Arts on the track to inclusivity gives us hope for more events like this in the future and a more inclusive theatre community.
For the artists involved, it was an opportunity to bond over a commonality that society doesn’t always allow them to embrace
Raise the ruff! It’s Friday!!! By David Alfred Bywaters ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/25/19
FOOTBALL SATURDAY
OCTOBER 25, 2019
2019 Schedule
After its second loss of the season de facto eliminated Michigan from College Football Playoff contention and takes the Big Ten out of the Wolverines’ hands, Notre Dame comes to Ann Arbor to renew one of college football’s oldest rivalries. The two will play under the lights at Michigan Stadium, bringing back memories of the classic 2011 matchup, as Michigan attempts to salvage its season by beating the first of three rivals — the Irish, Michigan State and Ohio State — still on the schedule.
3 4 6 7
Penn State (Oct. 19): Hey, Mike.
Middle Tennessee State (Aug. 31): Look man, the middle of Tennessee is decidedly not a state.
TABLE OF CONTENTS With two losses, here’s what’s left for Michigan to play for. Defensive line coach Shaun Nua is part of a small group of Samoan-American football coaches. On his roots, and what they mean. A look back at the 2011 Under the Lights matchup against Notre Dame.
Breaking down this weekend’s matchup and what Michigan needs to do to win.
Army (Sept. 7): The Army football team: The only time running behind enemy lines is a good idea.
Notre Dame (Oct. 26): You think beating Michigan is special? Everyone’s doing it these days!
Wisconsin (Sept. 21): Sure, your town is sick and your beer is elite but you lost to Illinois and Michigan didn’t. So there!
Maryland (Nov. 2): Maybe Mike Locksley and Josh Gattis shouldn’t have been so quick to fight over credit for their offense after all.
Rutgers (Sept. 28): My grandma’s New Jersey retirement home mahjong group could beat Rutgers in football ... basketball would be close, too.
Michigan State (Nov. 16): The Michigan Daily has beaten The State News 14 years in a row.
Iowa (Oct. 5): The year is 2080. Aliens have taken over. Iowa capped off a 7-5 season with a five-year extension for Kirk Ferentz. All is well.
Indiana (Nov. 23): Hoosier favorite to be the next head coach of this supremely mediocre program?
Illinois (Oct. 12): It turns out Lovie Smith does still have a pulse!
Ohio State (Nov. 30): Do you think Justin Fields can play The Game online, too?
STAFF PICKS The Daily football writers pick against the spread for the weekend’s best games.
Ethan Sears
Max Marcovitch
Theo Mackie
Finn Storer
Aria Gerson
Managing Editor
No. 13 Wisconsin at No. 3 Ohio State (-14.5)
Wisconsin
Ohio State
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Ohio State
No. 5 Oklahoma (-23.5) at Kansas State
Oklahoma
Kansas State
Kansas State
Kansas State
Oklahoma
No. 20 Iowa (-9.5) at Northwestern
Iowa
LIowa
Northwestern
Iowa
Northwestern
No. 21 Appalachian State (-26.5) at South Alabama
South Alabama
Appalachian State
Appalachian State
Appalachian State
South Alabama
No. 9 Auburn at No. 2 LSU (-11)
LSU
LSU
Auburn
Auburn
Auburn
No. 6 Penn State (-6.5) at Michigan State
Penn State
Penn State
Michigan State
Penn State
Penn State
No. 15 Texas (-1.5) at TCU
TCU
Texas
Texas
TCU
Texas
Maryland at No. 17 Minnesota (-16.5)
Maryland
Maryland
Minnesota
Minnesota
Maryland
Oklahoma State at No. 23 Iowa State (-10.5)
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
Iowa State
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State
Arkansas at No. 1 Alabama (-31.5)
Alabama
Alabama
Alabama
Alabama
Alabama
Boston College at No. 4 Clemson (-34)
Clemson
Boston College
Clemson
Boston College
Clemson
No. 8 Notre Dame at #No. 9 Michigan (Pick)
Michigan
Notre Dame
Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
No. 24 Arizona State (-3.5) at UCLA
Arizona State
Arizona State
UCLA
Arizona State
UCLA
California at No. 12 Utah (-21.5)
California
Utah
Utah
Utah
California
Washington State at No. 11 Oregon (-14)
Oregon
Oregon
Oregon
Washington State
Oregon
2B
Illinois at Purdue (-10)
Illinois
Purdue
Purdue
Illinois
Illinois
Indiana at Nebraska (-2.5)
Nebraska
Indiana
Indiana
Indiana
Nebraska
Mississippi State at Texas A&M (-10)
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
Texas A&M
Mississippi State
Texas A&M
South Carolina (-4.5) at Tennessee
Tennessee
South Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
Tennessee
Missouri (-10.5) at Kentucky
Kentucky
Missouri
Kentucky
Missouri
Missouri
Texas Tech (-4) at Kansas
Texas Tech
Texas Tech
Kansas
Texas Tech
Kansas
Miami at Pittsburgh (-5.5)
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Miami
Pittsburgh
Syracuse at Florida State (-10)
Syracuse
Syracuse
Florida State
Syracuse
Florida State
Virginia at Louisville (-3.5)
Virginia
Louisville
Virginia
Virginia
Louisville
Duke at North Carolina (-3.5)
North Carolina
Duke
North Carolina
Duke
Duke
Overall
28-41-3
36-33-3
40-29-3
26-43-3
N/A
FootballSaturday, October 25, 2019
M
ichigan won’t make the College Football Playoff this year. It hasn’t been statistically eliminated from the Big Ten, but for now, its chances of a conference title reside on technicalities and blind hope. Those were the goals the Wolverines harbored before the season started, ETHAN the goals they SEARS kept clinging onto after Wisconsin blitzed them in Madison last month. “We know that we’re gonna see them again in my hometown, for the Big Ten championship,” said redshirt freshman linebacker Cam McGrone a week after that loss. “I don’t really mind hearing it, cause I know when we see them again, we’re gonna smack ‘em in the mouth.” Barring an unforeseen charge by Michigan and multiple slip-ups from Ohio State and Penn State, that’s not going to happen. “Win our next game,” Jim Harbaugh said this week when asked what would make a successful sea-
What’s left to play for? son. “That’s our goal.” There’s not much else to say at this point. There is no big-picture goal because all of those evaporated into the State College night last Saturday. As far as front-facing public declarations go, brash statements have been beaten out of the Wolverines. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to salvage for the season. The gulf between 7-5 and 10-2 is still wide, both in terms of public perception and of what this season will mean to those inside Schembechler Hall. Michigan, in many ways, is playing only for itself at this point. That’s not nothing. Much as everything with this program centers around Harbaugh’s record on the road against ranked teams — the record that ultimately brought down his team this year — he still has the opportunity to notch wins against Michigan’s rivals. He has yet to beat Ohio State in four tries. He lost in his first matchup against Notre Dame last year. He has yet to beat Michigan State at home, with a lackluster 2-2 record against the Spartans. That adds up to a 2-7 record against Michigan’s biggest rivals, despite the Wolverines being favored in six of those nine games. As far as
reversing narratives go, there’s still a pretty big one staring Harbaugh, and Michigan, in the face. Much as the Wolverines have disappointed this year, all three of those games are at home. Winning all of them is a tall order, especially with Ohio State looking like one of the best teams in the country. Notre Dame and the Buckeyes are both top10 teams. But beat them and nobody will go into the offseason feeling apprehensive about Josh Gattis as offensive coordinator, and nobody will feel anything but good about 2020. Do that and Michigan can claw its way to a New Year’s Six bowl, giving way to unfounded optimism around the program. If the Wolverines take moral victories against those three teams, they’ll have their worst season since 2014, when they went 5-7, missed a bowl game and fired Brady Hoke. That’s what these next six weeks mean. No equivocating. Not if Michigan wants to be considered a top-tier program. “Do you define struggling as, are you winning the games? If you look at it in terms of winning, yeah, I guess our record doesn’t really reflect everything that goes into it,”
said Carlo Kemp when asked about struggles against top-10 teams this week. “... But we fought (against Penn State). We fought our way all the way back to present ourselves with an opportunity to win the game. And the score of the game and the records of those ranked matchups that you’re talking about, they don’t reflect that. And it’s a curse and it’s a blessing. It doesn’t reflect everything that goes into those games and the preparation and how they’ve been on your mind since the last time you played them or the last time you lost to them. “Sometimes, they don’t go your way. But you don’t document the fight or the good plays and the positives of those games. The only thing that gets reported is the score and the record.” It might be wrong to say that Michigan struggled at Penn State when it had a chance to tie the game at the 3-yard line and force overtime. But there is no doubt that Michigan has struggled to win these kinds of games. Fair or not, that’s what matters in the end. Most of Michigan’s players and coaches fell into Harbaugh’s rhetoric — “win our next game” — when asked about bigger-picture goals this week. It fell to senior quarterback
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily Jim Harbaugh has struggled against Michigan’s rivals.
Shea Patterson to expand on that. “We have an opportunity,” Patterson said. “We have a decision to make. Our goal is to win every game the rest of the season. I love this team. We’re all so close, and we trust each other, and we love playing together. I don’t think there is any other goal than to just win.” Do that, and this season will feel a whole lot different at the end of November than it does right now. Sears can be reached at searseth@ umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_sears.
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FootballSaturday, October 25, 2019
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
Shaun Nua knew something was wrong. A hard cast stretched from his hip to his foot, but beneath it, the swelling had become unbearable. A few days earlier, he had been in the back of a coach’s Toyota pickup truck, speeding from football practice to the nearest hospital. This was the reality of American Samoa in 1998. Nua is careful to note that it’s not a third-world country. Food, as his 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame attests to, was never short. But life there is simple. When he attempts to describe the islands to an outsider, the first comparison his mind drifts to is the show Survivor, before acknowledging, “it’s not as bad.” So by 1998, when Nua was 17, few modern medical advancements had reached the islands. A pickup truck was the delivery method of choice for incoming hospital patients and, more importantly, there was no way to diagnose a torn ACL — Nua’s injury. “I had no idea what an ACL was or what any of that was,” Nua told The Daily. “I was just like, ‘My leg is broken.’ It was a numbing, burning feeling so they put me in the back of a truck and took me to the hospital.” Leaning into a black leather chair inside Schembechler Hall’s second-floor lounge — 21 years and 7,000 miles away from Tafuna High School — Nua can’t remember who asked him the question that changed his life: “Don’t you cast only broken bones?” What he does remember is his response. By that point, Nua knew he hadn’t broken his leg. So with the pain becoming unbearable, he came up with his own remedy: boiling a pot of water, pouring it on his leg and cutting the cast off. Seven years later, he won the Super Bowl. “Man,” Nua said. “I’m telling you, my story’s crazy.” ***
By his senior year of high school, football consumed Nua’s life. Growing up with his grandparents, he discovered the sport on a trip to go see his parents on Tutuila, American Samoa’s main island. “I wanted to watch Smurfs sometimes, but (my dad) would turn on football,” Nua said. “Football, football, football. And that got ingrained in my head. I was like, I want to play that sport.” In American Samoa, though, there’s no Pop Warner or Little League football. The game, in its official form, starts in high school. Immediately, it was all Nua wanted to do. He hadn’t yet committed to a position, playing quarterback, tight end and defensive line, but going into his senior season, the Division I interest had started to arrive, awed by his imposing frame. Then came the injury. “It was probably the darkest time in my life,” Nua said. “Cause that was everything to me, was trying to get a football scholarship. I wanted to play Division I football. I wanted to play football, period.” So, even with his leg boiling beneath a cast, Nua couldn’t let the game slip away. After a year of hobbling around on crutches, he graduated and moved to live with his aunt in Hawaii, where he could get a proper diagnosis and surgery. Six months later, he continued on to Arizona to live with his sister. That’s where he thought his football career would take off. But the early results didn’t cooperate. It didn’t matter where he tried out — Scottsdale Community College, Phoenix Community College, Mesa Community College — no school would take him. “It was discouraging, but I was so convinced that I was meant to be a football player,” Nua said. “So convinced, like nothing was going to stop me from becoming a football player. The only question was
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when was the opportunity going to come. And that’s when Tom Ellsworth came in.” Twenty years later, Ellsworth — a renowned athletic trainer in the Phoenix area — is only willing to accept credit for three of his patients’ athletic careers. Nua is one of them. An aunt whom Nua lived near in Phoenix put him in contact with Ellsworth to continue his ACL rehab. Within three weeks, it became clear he needed a second surgery. The problem is, this was in late February 2000. His surgery was the first week of March. Football season starts in August. That’s not a timetable that usually lines up. By early April, Ellsworth had a sense Nua was the exception. “When you get around (elite athletes), you just know,” Ellsworth said. “You know when somebody has it. He’s athletic, he’s huge and he’s hungry. And he wants to play football.” Ellsworth worked his contacts, calling Scott Giles, the head coach at Eastern Arizona College, a small-town community college 160 miles east of Phoenix. After one glimpse of Nua, Giles was swayed. “I knew he was a Division I athlete just based on his physical presence,” Giles said. “He is just a mountain of a man.” *** For most players, the first drive to Eastern Arizona is a moment of reckoning. It’s a three-hour drive from Phoenix, through a canyon, an Indian reservation and very few traces of civilization. The only things emerging from the desert landscape are a Walmart and a few Mexican restaurants. There used to be a K-Mart, but that’s closed since Nua left. “Even a place like Thatcher was still — it had still modern stuff compared to where I came from,” Nua said. “Like the Walmart was like, ‘Wow’ to me.” It was in Thatcher that the bigger names started to come calling. According to Eastern Arizona’s thendefensive coordinator Kalani Sitake — now the head coach at BYU — Nua had offers from Pac-10, Big 12 and Big Ten schools. But in Thatcher, Nua had found something comfortable. Eastern Arizona had established itself as a feeder school for Polynesian players not yet ready for Division I football. In any given year, Giles estimates they had five to eight players from the islands — a significant number for the smaller roster sizes of JUCO. “Any time you’re around people with the same mindset and the same culture, it makes everything easy,” Nua said. “You eat the same food, you cook the same way, you dress the same way. And the communication, you have someone to talk to. It makes it easy.” As a born Tongan who moved to Hawaii when he was eight, Sitake quickly developed a unique playercoach relationship with Nua. “From the beginning, being both islanders, we knew each other’s culture and ability for us to share and hang out and really connect, it was not even a problem,” Sitake said. “Once we met, it was like it was meant to be. He’s like a little brother to me.”
Nua didn’t convert to Mormonism until later, but Sitake had graduated from BYU a year earlier and knew it would be a good fit. At the time, it was among the schools on the forefront of Polynesian recruiting, creating a similar environment to what Giles — another BYU graduate — had fostered at Eastern Arizona. That, combined with the unique ability to focus on football, pushed Nua over the edge. “We just talked specifically about the distractions,” Sitake said. “He came from the islands and then when he went to Arizona, he was in Thatcher so it’s not like there were a lot of distractions there either. And he flourished. So we talked about it quite a bit and he knew.” *** Five years after graduating to an NFL career in 2004, Nua found himself back at BYU, back in a stats class, back in a world he had left behind. This time, it was to be a graduate assistant coach on Bronco Mendenhall’s staff. Through a stroke of good fortune and his own preparedness, that’s where Ken Nuimatololo found him. Nuimatololo, Navy’s head coach, had a son at BYU at the time, allowing him to watch the Cougars practice. He was there simply to be a dad, but football coaches have a hard time compartmentalizing that. Nua’s enthusiasm on the sidelines immediately brought his coaching side out. “I loved his energy, I loved the way he coached,” Nuimatololo said. “… He kinda stood out to me as I was watching practice so I watched him a little more and I remember just telling my wife … ‘If I ever get an opportunity to hire a D-line coach, I’m gonna hire Shaun Nua.’ ” For Nua, it was the perfect opportunity. Nuimatololo is the only Samoan head coach in Division I, continuing the trend of comfort in familiarity that began in Thatcher a decade earlier. He gave Nua someone to confide in as he adjusted to his first full-time coaching job as a Samoan in a profession devoid of them. “I feel like a proud dad,” Nuimatololo said. In their six years together at Navy, the two developed a special bond, discussing their family members back on the islands and even making a trip back to American Samoa together for a Troy Polamalu coaching clinic. “Any time you’re from a small group of people, the pride that you have for each other is that much stronger,” Nua said. “Cause you’re representing a small group of people so you don’t want to disappoint them.” At Navy, Nua developed into one of the most sought-after young defensive line coaches in the country, even turning down an offer to reunite with Mendenhall at Virginia to stay on Nuimatololo’s staff. When Arizona State came calling in 2018, though, the Sun Devils offered something none of those previous offers could — proximity to family, allowing Nua to limit his trips to see family to annual visits back to the islands. A year later, he had to leave that behind to come to Michigan, an offer that he called “too good to turn down.” These days, he coaches in front of a crowd nearly twice the size of the island he came from. But even when he’s back home, in the 32-family village where he grew up, he doesn’t see himself as any more than a kid who made it out. “You always want to have the mindset that you don’t think, ‘Oh, I’m a role model,’ ” Nua said. Then, he paused, staring into the oversized block ‘M’ adorning the wall in front of him. “Maybe I am a role model,” Nua said. “I just hope I’m a good one.
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5B
In Michigan’s locker room, memory of ‘Under the Lights’ endures
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson found Roy Roundtree for the game-winning touchdown with two seconds left when Michigan played Notre Dame in 2011.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
Before the Wolverines took the field for the first-ever night game at Michigan Stadium in 2011, they heard from Desmond Howard and Charles Woodson. The two Michigan legends talked about the importance of the rivalry with Notre Dame. They told the team about how to win big games like this. They said these were the types of matchups where legacies are made. You probably know what happened next. Down by as much as 17, Michigan clawed its way back, capping off a comeback when Roy Roundtree jumped up and caught the ball in the corner of the end zone with two seconds left to lead to an improbable 35-31 win. But not long after the traditional frenzy of the rivalry with the Fighting Irish reached its apex that night, Notre Dame canceled the series. The two teams added one more home-and-home — with the Fighting Irish’s portion last year and the Wolverines’ on Saturday — but after that, there are no more scheduled games between two of the oldest rivals in college football. Though most members of the current Michigan team were in middle school — or even elementary school — during the original “Under the Lights,” the program today still has shades of that game. Roundtree is a member of the staff, helping coach 6B
wide receivers. Ed Warinner, Notre Dame’s offensive line coach in 2011, now holds the same position with the Wolverines. Pictures of scenes from the game can be found in the locker room, just before running into the tunnel, as well as the museum where press conferences are held and the press box. That’s not even to mention that Saturday’s game kicks off at 7:30 p.m., and while night games at the Big House are not nearly the novelty they were in 2011, there’s no question what people remember when they think about Michigan vs. Notre Dame under the lights. It’s safe to say most Wolverines today are familiar with the legacy. But on Saturday, Michigan will have its last chance, at least for a while, to add their names to the legacy. *** The original “Under the Lights” was about as hyped as a matchup between two unranked teams could possibly be. For all the shortcomings of then-athletic director Dave Brandon, he pulled out all the stops for that night. Both teams wore 1960s throwbacks and even the referees got in on the uniform nostalgia. There was a pep rally on the Diag. A special ceremony honoring Howard happened on the field before the game. For two teams with such storied histories, neither was actually expected to be that good in 2011. Michigan was in its first season under Brady Hoke after three
FootballSaturday, October 25, 2019
lackluster years of Rich Rodriguez. Notre Dame lost its opener to South Florida, of all teams. Despite that, College GameDay still ticketed the game as its featured matchup. Maize pom-poms were distributed to nearly 115,000 fans — a record at the time and still the second-largest crowd ever assembled at the stadium. It was a crisp September day, not too hot, not too cold — perfect football weather. The excitement was palpable, and it was every bit the spectacle everyone had hoped. “I think that’s probably the loudest I’ve ever heard the Big House, since I’ve been there,” then-Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson told The Daily. “Since I came afterwards, I think it’s the loudest I’ve ever heard the Big House.” Robinson hated night games, because he’d get butterflies all day and come into the game too amped up. Day games didn’t give you as much time to think. Robinson still appreciated the atmosphere, the uniforms, the tradition, but his worry of being too anxious came to fruition, and the Wolverines came out playing sloppy. They were down 24-7 at the start of the fourth quarter. Even their next touchdown came from a fumble at the goal line that Robinson picked up and ran in. Somehow, Michigan found its groove and scored two more touchdowns in the quarter, but when the Fighting Irish got the ball back
and scored with 30 seconds left, it seemed like the Wolverines’ death knell. To everyone but them. “One thing about our team, we kinda chilled and got through well,” Robinson said. “We all had that same common goal and the seniors that year was some great seniors and we had great leaders on the team. We’d been through so much and if we could go win the game together, we could do anything together. “ ... (We knew) we could win the game and no matter how much time was on the clock, we could win this. So when they left 30 seconds on the clock, I turned to them, I said, ‘That’s too much time.’ ” Every Friday, Michigan practiced three plays for situations like this. In the waning seconds against Notre Dame, Hoke called two of them. And after missing a wide-open Jeremy Gallon on first down, Robinson got a second shot. It was a different playcall, but the same uncovered Gallon. Robinson didn’t miss twice, and the play went for 64 yards. Down three, the Wolverines were playing for a field goal. But with eight seconds left, Robinson took one last shot. Roundtree hadn’t been targeted all day. He turned to Robinson. “I need the ball,” Roundtree said, according to Robinson. Robinson responded: “I trust you.” There was no time to doubt. Robinson had to get the ball out
quickly so there was still time left to kick a field goal if the pass fell incomplete, and he couldn’t take a sack. So he found Roundtree in the corner of the end zone. Roundtree jumped up, and the rest was history. “It was probably the loudest I ever heard the Big House,” Robinson said. “It reminded me of — I couldn’t hear myself. I couldn’t hear, everyone was yelling, ‘Get up! Get up! We gotta do our celebration!’ I couldn’t hear it. (Someone) was just grabbing me by the chest like, ‘Get up!’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool, I’ll get up,’ and I moved and it was like amazing. “You can’t even put into words the feeling of what happened, and how you felt at that moment.” *** The photo of Roundtree’s touchdown is immortalized now. It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the locker room from the tunnel. Roundtree declined to comment for this story, but Michigan players say he still talks about the play sometimes — albeit as merely something that happened “back in his day.” Even eight years later, the history lingers. “I get to work side by side for two years now with the guy who caught the pass on the last play to win the game,” Warinner said. “ … Just the angst that you have when it happened, but then, because I’m a part of Michigan culture now and I work with Roy, I’m like, ‘Man, what a great play!’ For the rest of his life, he’s a hero.” The significance of the game — and the play in the pictures plastered everywhere — isn’t lost on the Wolverines. Neither is the gravity of the coming matchup. Jim Harbaugh said Monday that he’d be open to resuming the rivalry, and that there are already discussions being had. Still, Michigan’s schedule is full through 2028, so even if there is an agreement, chances are the series is over for the near future. That gives it even more weight in the eyes of the Wolverines, and Roundtree is there as a beacon of that same message Howard and Woodson gave him eight years ago. “It’s historic and being able to be a part of this game coming up on Saturday,” said senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp. “ … And one of the things that I think is really cool is, this game I don’t think is scheduled for a little bit, so there’s a chance to make a name for yourself, a name for this team, a name for the offense, a name for the defense, historically. “And they can talk about what happened in this Michigan-Notre Dame game in 2019.”
What to watch for as No. 17 Michigan takes on No. 8 Notre Dame MAX MARCOVITCH Managing Sports Editor
We’re about to find out how long that hangover lasted. There’s no rest for the weary, as No. 19 Michigan welcomes No. 8 Notre Dame in a game that would have meant far more six weeks ago. The Wolverines, as you likely know, suffered their second loss of the season last week at Penn State, a heartbreaking 28-21, the ramifications of which will continue to ripple. They have little more than pride to play for through the rest of the season, but this program could sure use some pride these days. The Fighting Irish come to town scathed in their own right, with a narrow loss at Georgia poking holes in the sails of their College Football Playoff hopes. They need to win out, and they need to do so in impressive fashion. Even that will require some help from others. Here are just a few things to watch, in a top-20 matchup that feels far more like the semifinals of a consolation bracket. Is Michigan up for this? We’ll know early on whether this is a game it truly wants to play — if all that talk about moving on
quickly, refocusing attention and rearing up for a night game against Notre Dame was substantiated. “We have an opportunity — we have a decision to make,” said senior quarterback Shea Patterson on Tuesday, stopping just shy of elucidating that decision. “Our goal is to win every game the rest of the season. I love this team. We’re all so close, and we trust each other, and we love playing together. I don’t think there is any other goal than to just win.” That is an admirable goal, and exactly what a senior quarterback should say the week after a loss that effectively ended his season hopes. Point all you’d like at Notre Dame’s weak schedule or pedestrian showing against Southern California two weeks ago. The Fighting Irish are ranked 21st in SP+, which is slightly more bearish than the more traditional rankings. But if the Wolverines aren’t mentally, emotionally and physically invested in these outcomes, none of that will matter. We’ll know pretty early whether talk is cheap inside Schembechler Hall or whether this team believes it still has something to play for. If it does, there’s a real argument
EVAN AARON/Daily
The Michigan football team lost in South Bend last season, 24-17, to the Fighting Irish and gets a chance at revenge this week.
it is the better team on Saturday — and should win. If it doesn’t, nothing else really matters. How will the Wolverines start? In two top-15 matchups this year, Michigan has fallen into deficits of 28-0 and 21-0, both of which proved insurmountable. Needless to say, another early dud would spell doom for a Wolverines team in desperate need of a therapeutic win. There are endless reasons for
slow starts, a trend that dates back to Michigan’s 21-3 deficit in the first half of last year’s season opener at … Notre Dame. The quickest way to sink hopes of a season resurgence would be to come out flat — squandering any perceived energy carried over from last week’s promising second half. This offense needs to hit the ground running, building on the back of a lively 21-point second half last
week. It cannot revert to old ways. This defense can’t afford to spot the opposing foe multiple touchdowns before it finds its footing. Sometimes, football is complicated. Other times, you just can’t afford to hand a top-10 team a multiple-touchdown lead before either team can catch its breath. Most teams aren’t good enough to do that. Michigan certainly isn’t. Continued ON PAGE 8B
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7B
From Page 7B All starts in the run game After a boon in attention at the start of the year, Zach Charbonnet reminded fans that he’s the most talented freshman running back Michigan has had in quite some time. His two touchdowns against Penn State marked his fifth and sixth of the season — only trailing
Mike Hart and Tyrone Wheatley (each with nine) for the most in a rookie campaign. Smart money lies on his topping that. He looked spry against the Nittany Lions, seeming fully recovered from an injury that kept him limited for a few weeks. This week seems to be a prime opportunity for 20-plus carries, coming against a solid — but
still vulnerable — Fighting Irish defense. The Irish have allowed 100-plus yards rushing in each game this season except one — including two 200-plus yard games. On average, Notre Dame allows 154 rushing yards per game, sitting a middling 64th in the country. “Establishing the run” can be one of those colloquial
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Freshman running back Zach Charbonnet (#24) must get out to a strong start against a porous Notre Dame run defense.
football cliches that ostensibly means nothing, but it would be surprising if Michigan didn’t make a concerted effort to involve Charbonnet and the other running backs early and often. This is particularly true if Patterson’s health permits a true read on some of those read options. Turnover margin Oh, great, another football cliche! But one of the Wolverines’ most fatal flaws this year has been its propensity to turn the ball over at will. They’ve lost nine fumbles of 17, and Patterson has four interceptions — including a maddening misfire on a screen pass last week that led directly to seven points. Notre Dame has the best turnover margin per game of any team in the country — plus-1.67 turnovers per game. The easiest way to quell a team trying to build momentum is to snag an easy turnover and pin Michigan in a difficult spot, perhaps an early deficit. If a scenario like that unfolds, it could be deja vu for the Wolverines, and the clear recipe for yet another big-game loss. The Pick: Michigan hasn’t lost in the Big
House in 698 days, which is also the last time it wasn’t favored in a home game. The Fighting Notre Dame Irish went to Georgia and at Michigan nearly beat Matchup: the Bulldogs Michigan (5-2 between the overall, 3-2 Big Ten) vs. Notre hedges earlier Dame (5-1) this season, so they certainly When: Saturday, aren’t going to 7:30 ET be frightened by a road Where: game against Michigan Stadium a limping Michigan team. TV: And they’re ABC better. Maybe not substantially so; maybe Michigan’s offense has truly turned a corner; maybe the unforced errors and turnovers are a thing of the past; maybe the focus is there, and the team truly has put last week behind it; maybe the defense is in for a signature performance, shirking the earlygame, big-play struggles. But that’s a few too many hypotheticals for my liking. I’ll take the better, more proven football team. Notre Dame 24, Michigan 20
WALLACE HOUSE PRESENTS 2019-2020 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 1/28/20 | 6-7:30 PM RACKHAM AUDITORIUM
3/18/20 | 6:30-8 PM HILL AUDITORIUM
“The 1619 Project: Examining the Legacy of Slavery and the Building of a Nation” Nikole Hannah-Jones, reporter, The New York Times, discusses her groundbreaking work on “The 1619 Project”
“What Big Tech Owes Us: Ethics and Transparency in the Social Age” Kara Swisher, co-founder and executive editor of Recode, interviews former Facebook executive Alex Stamos
1/29/20 | 4-5:30 PM FORD SCHOOL, ANNENBERG AUDITORIUM
3/24/20 | 3-4:30 PM RACKHAM AMPHITHEATRE
“Duterte’s Facebook-Fueled Rise to Power: Manipulating Public Opinion to Capture an Election” Davey Alba, reporter, The New York Times and 2019 Livingston Award winner
“International Trolling Networks and the Hidden Threats to Female Journalists” Elodie Vialle, Reporters Without Borders and 2020 Knight-Wallace Fellow and Rana Ayyub, author and investigative journalist
Free and open to the public | wallacehouse.umich.edu/events
8B FootballSaturday, October 25, 2019