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Students head to polls on Election Day complicated by pandemic ASHNA MEHRA For The Daily Emotions were high Tuesday as people headed to the polls. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty about what the future may hold, University of Michigan students voting in Ann Arbor reported feeling that their voices matter now more than ever. Despite pushes for voters to use absentee and vote-by-mail avenues, some students said they preferred to vote in person. Michigan election law changed drastically in 2018 through the passage of Proposal 3, which allows voters to register to vote through Election Day, have a straight party ticket voting option and be able to vote absentee without needing an excuse. The state of Michigan is expecting to see a record number of voters voting by mail in this election, as well as potentially a record number of ballots cast in the state in this election, which could cause delays in final tallies for the presidency and U.S. Senate. Young people are showing up to vote early in the state, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office. Approximately 7,900 ballots from voters between the ages of 18 to 24 have been returned as of Monday — a 12-fold increase from the 654 absentee ballots from the same age group returned by the eve of Election Day in 2016. While voting absentee is a way to avoid large crowds, there are many reasons why voters might choose to go in person. Voting with an absentee ballot brings the possibility of having your vote discarded through issues with signature matching, which has made some students question if they should trust voting by mail, LSA junior Maggie Huber said. Engineering sophomore Joshua Thomas also agreed, saying the thought of President Donald Trump claiming he
won Michigan’s 16 electoral college votes before the absentee votes are counted was his deciding factor to vote in person despite the health risks associated with the ongoing pandemic. “There’s always that lingering chance that Donald Trump might just say, ‘Oh, wait, look, we won in Michigan, just stop the count,’” Thomas said. “That’s my biggest fear, and that’s why I decided to vote in person despite the risks.” Thomas’ concerns mirror those seen nationally, as people have raised concerns that President Trump will attempt to dispute the election results or not leave office if he loses. The Graduate Employees’ Organization — the union representing Graduate Student Instructors at the University that went on strike earlier this semester — released a statement Monday night saying it would join other unions across the U.S. in a nonviolent action, including a work stoppage, should Trump refuse to accept or attempt to undermine the outcome. For many students, this is the first presidential election they are eligible to vote in. On top of this, many out-of-state students are voting in Michigan for the first time because the state election policy allows those who have lived in the state for 30 days, including in residence halls or offcampus housing, to be eligible to register. Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry said last week that approximately 150-180 students were registering to vote in Michigan through the satellite office at the University of Michigan Museum of Art each day before the stay-in-place order. Though the stay-in-place order included exemptions for election-related activities, the number of students registering each day dropped to around 60, Beaudry said. The order ended at 7 a.m. on Election Day. These student votes could be critical to deciding which party carries the presidency and U.S. Senate seat in Michigan. President Donald Trump narrowly beat former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election in Michigan, winning by approximately 10,000 votes. The state’s executive branch flipped in 2018 as voters elected Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and re-elected Sen. Debbie Stabenow along with Democrats Dana Nessel and Jocelyn Benson for attorney general and secretary of state respectively. Michigan’s status as a battleground state is not lost on students like Kinesiology freshman Hannah Waller. Waller, who is from the Washington, D.C., area, said she voted in Michigan because she felt that her ballot held more value in a swing state. “I’m actually from D.C. so I was going to vote there, but I figured they need my vote here more,” Waller said. “I wanted to do it in person because it’s my first time so I wanted to get that experience. I’m really glad I did it in person.” In Ann Arbor, many polling sites saw little or no lines, with the exception of the UMMA, which was a location that processed same-day registration. Popular U-M buildings including the League and Union also were used as polling locations. While safety precautions, such as social distancing, mask requirements and sanitizing surfaces, were taken, some students, like LSA senior Audrey Silverman, didn’t trust that others were following public health guidelines. “I took my own personal precautions,” Silverman said. “Right now I’m wearing a mask that has a HEPA filter in it which is basically the same as an N95. And I brought my own hand sanitizer. I know that I am protecting myself even if I can’t speak for other people.” LSA freshman Duncan Goodman, an out-of-state student who voted in Ann Arbor, said he supported candidates who were in favor of small government, but only voted on races he was educated on and felt could personally impact him. He said he wanted to vote in person to understand the feeling of what it has been like to vote in past elections.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/DAILY Ann Arbor’s violin-playing wolf encourages students to vote while playing music outside of polling locations Tuesday afternoon.
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“It was definitely one of those moments that made me feel really proud to be an American,” Goodman said. “Regardless of the outcome, I’m just excited to know that my voice was heard, my vote counts and mattered and that I’ll get the opportunity to do it again and stay involved in the process.” A survey conducted by The Daily, which included 1900 students, found the environment and racial justice to be the most pressing issues for students this election cycle. Other top priorities included health care and the economy. Thomas said the country needs to take a new approach to health care and is voting for candidates who share this ideology. He is among the 85% of students, as surveyed by The Daily, who are voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president, respectively. “I think that not voting for Joe Biden, and not punishing Republicans for what they’ve done for four years, it’s inexcusable for me,” Thomas said. “The chance that my vote cancels out like some like, really nasty dude in my hometown is kind of satisfying.” For some, this election feels like they are voting to protect their rights and quality of life. Recent U-M graduate Emma Scott said getting Trump out of office is important to her. “As a queer person of color, it’s just terrible,” Scott said. “Just getting him out — that’s just the most important thing on my mind. Even if the other candidates aren’t ideal, just get him out. The current administration has just no regard for the citizens.” Election results can sometimes be shocking to students when they find themselves surrounded by people of similar ideologies on campus, LSA senior Sofia Calderon said. Calderon said she has a lot of friends who are environmental science majors so their beliefs strongly influence hers. The election has been a significant
source of stress for more than twothirds of adults, an increase from around half in 2016, according to the American Psychological Association. University administration has prepared for increased resources for students after the election through Counseling and Psychological Services, Wolverine Support Network and Michigan Medicine. “The community that I’m in, everyone agrees with me politically,” Calderon said. “Everyone has kind of the same views, same leanings (in) my group of friends, the people I live with and people I interact with. Most people that I’ve talked to at the University kind of are on the same page.” Calderon’s views echo those expressed in 2016, when students stunned by Trump’s unexpected victory congregated in the Diag for a “vigil” for the fate of the country and rights of minorities. More than 1,000 students, faculty and community members, including University President Mark Schlissel, gathered in the Diag the night after the election to protest Trump’s win. Approximately 90% of students who voted in the 2016 election did not vote for Trump. At the time, Schlissel said Trump’s win was revealing of the country’s feelings. Above all, students told The Daily they felt proud to exercise their right to vote in this election. After he finished voting at the Union, Engineering junior Tommy Pickup, an Italian dual citizen, said he felt excited to vote for the first time at such a pivotal moment for the country. “I feel like it’s just more of a feeling of civic responsibility,” Pickup said. “At this kind of political, state, and environment. I feel like this is the time where a lot of decisions need to be made, and people need to go out and vote.” Alex Harring, Paige Hodder, Martha Lewand. Nina Molina and Sarah Stolar contributed reporting from polling sites across Washtenaw County. Daily News Contributor Ashna Mehra can be reached at ashmehra@umich.edu.
ALEC COHEN/DAILY Polling workers wait for voters in the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School gymnasium Tuesday afternoon.
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2 — Wednesday, November 4, 2020
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U-M students, leadership prep for emotional toll of 2020 election University offers services to support mental health in light of turbulent times JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
University of Michigan students and leadership are preparing support services for the community as the turbulent election cycle comes to a close. Stress over the results of the election combined with ongoing issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism have students on campus concerned as Tuesday nears. More than two-thirds of adults have reported the election being a significant source of stress in their lives, an increase from just over half of adults polled in 2016, according to a study from the American Psychological Association. In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Rick Fitzegerald said the school has prepared for Election Day on campus by inviting speakers to address the importance of voting. He noted how the satellite clerk’s office at the University of Michigan Museum of Art — where students can register to vote and cast their ballots up until 8 p.m. on Tuesday — has made voting more accessible. What the University is offering The 2016 election left many students on campus rattled, with University President Mark Schlissel and other community members voicing concern at a vigil on the Diag. In preparation for the campus climate after Tuesday’s election, the University has created a Campus Climate Support group. In addition, resources will be available for students after the presidential election through Counseling and
Psychological Services, Wolverine Support Network and Michigan Medicine. University faculty will have access to consultation and support groups as well. “Election cycles by their nature can be very stressful times,” Fitzgerald wrote. “A fiercely contested presidential election during a pandemic, when some have questioned the democratic process itself, is creating high levels of anxiety for many members of our community.” LSA sophomore Nick Schuler, vice president of the University’s chapter of College Republicans, said he would not need to use campus resources after the election, but recognizes that the services are there for those who need it. “I do think that if you have to go see a therapist if Trump wins, then that’s a little out there,” Schuler said. “People have their rights and I guess if it helps you, go for it but it’s definitely not something I would do.” LSA junior Arya Kale said counseling services are valuable after an emotional event like a presidential election. “Mental health is important,” Kale said. “And judging from the conversations I’ve had with my friends, people are realizing it’s importance even more now than we were before. CAPS is a great service and it’s really nice to have that available.” CAPS has faced criticism for its long wait times and lack of accessibility, inspiring students to create their own resources to focus on mental health. As of press time, the next available date for an initial consultation is Nov. 30. In terms of safety after the
election, the University will have the Division of Public Safety and Security send alerts to students and make themselves available for students to express their concerns, according to Fitzgerald. “The university is always on alert for Election Day and the possibility of protests or other disturbances,” Fitzgerald wrote. “It’s clear we are headed toward a record turnout this year and that requires added attention from all of us.” During the weekly Friday Campus COVID-19 briefing, Public Policy Dean Michael Barr said University organizations are working with officials at the local, state and federal level. “Some of you are more worried about safety broadly during the election,” Barr said. “There are daily meetings, incident response teams and University protocols. The University will continue to communicate with the whole campus about staying safe.” Election heightens stress for some, but not others Gina Liu, LSA sophomore and United Asian American Organization advocacy chair, is coordinating an Election Day care package that students can pick up on campus. Liu said she wants to support students with material items as a distraction. “I think there is fear around the election, whether or not you actively participate in it,” Liu said. “With the election care package, we just want to have a no-stringsattached model and make sure people have extra support through material items.” Liu said she will volunteering as a diversion from the anxiety that
comes with a presidential election. “I’ve been relying on those Election Day tasks, but definitely putting off actually dealing with the results of the election,” Liu said. “People are also saying it’s not going to be 100 percent on the first day and that would definitely cause more anxiety for me and a lot of other people.” Business sophomore Taylor Bielefeld, a member of Students for Biden, noted that increased mailin voting could delay final results. “We have this natural predisposition where we think Election Day is one day and we know the night of,” Bielefeld said. “Now more than ever, this is not true. This is election season … We just have to perservere through that and not expect an immediate result.” Business freshman Nick Rea, who is involved with Students for Biden and the One Campaign Michigan, said he’s been trying to avoid “obsessively checking” polls and worrying about the results. Instead, Rea said he’s turning to physical outlets to deal with his anxiety. One coping mechanism Rea plans on using: purchasing a piñata of President Donald Trump’s head to take out his emotions on. “It will give me something to channel my stress out because I’ll need something to keep my mind off of a lot of the results because I know there’s a lot of states that won’t even start counting their votes until after polls close or Wednesday,” Rea said.
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Conflicting reports offer varying timelines for MI election results SOS tells CNN votes may be tallied earlier than expected with efficient processing LEAH GRAHAM, LIAT WEINSTEIN & IULIA DOBRIN Daily News Editors & Daily Staff Reporter
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told CNN Tuesday she anticipates the state’s votes will be tallied earlier than previously anticipated. “What we’ve seen is such high efficiency and so little problems that I now think we’ll clearly get results much sooner,” Benson told CNN reporter Miguel Marquez. “We anticipate a mix of both in-person voting results and absentee voting results will be part of the results, the first results, you hear out of Michigan.” According to CNN, Benson said on Tuesday she “expects cities and counties statewide will report results at about the same time meaning a so-called ‘red mirage’
may not happen in Michigan.” However, spokesperson Kelly Rossman-McKinney called CNN’s characterization overenthusiastic. In a tweet Tuesday night, she wrote that the outlet “was a little too excited about the story.” She noted that Benson “told the reporter there might be SOME counts completed. Definitely not ALL.” “Despite @CNN’s story, Michigan votes will NOT all be counted tonight,” RossmanMcKinney wrote in another tweet. In a statement to The Michigan Daily, Rossman-McKinney said Benson was misquoted. When contacted for clarification, Tracy Wimmer, director of media relations for the Secretary of State’s Office, said it is unlikely that all ballots will be counted tonight. “While there has been an incredible number returned, we know that the thousands of clerks and poll workers processing and tabulating these ballots have
been hard at work across the state today,” Wimmer wrote. “While that may enable certain jurisdictions to complete their counts later this evening or during the early morning hours tomorrow, we still do not believe we will have full unofficial results tonight, as we have been consistently saying for weeks.” State and local officials have been asking residents to temper their expectations, reminding people that tallying mail-in ballots will be time-intensive. At a Monday press conference, Benson warned that it could take several days to count the state’s votes. “Some jurisdictions may report their full unofficial results sooner and that’s great,” Benson said. “We welcome that, and from the moment the polls closed until the moment that full unofficial statewide tabulation is complete, we will continue to update all of you
and the public and the nation as to where we are in the process.” She also pointed out that Tuesday’s election will not differ significantly from other years if results take a while. “To ensure every ballot is counted accurately, that takes time,” Benson said. “In Michigan, our election workers count absentee ballots in pairs, one Republican and one Democrat, to ensure there’s no political bias and that every ballot is counted fairly. This takes time, it always has.” In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Benson said that over 92% of all Michigan absentee ballots were returned four hours before the 8 p.m. deadline to drop them off, adding that absentee counting is going “smoothly & very efficiently.”
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Biden, Obama visit Flint, rally voters before Nov. 3 Former President criticizes current administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response, endorses Michigan Democrats EMMA RUBERG Daily Staff Reporter
Only three days before in-person polls open for the Nov. 3 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama held their first joint appearances at car rallies in Flint, Mich., and Detroit on Saturday afternoon. The two repeatedly endorsed Michigan Democrats running for re-election this Tuesday, including Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.; U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.; and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. Obama criticized Trump for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, laying the blame for hundreds of thousands of lives lost at the president’s feet. “If Trump were focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country,” Obama said. “ … He’s going around having big events, no masks, no protective gear, no precautions. What’s his obsession with crowds, anyways? He’s still talking about his inauguration crowd being small, though he doesn’t admit it.” “Does he have nothing better to worry about? That was four years ago,” Obama added. “What kind of trauma
did he go through? Did no one come to his birthday parties when he was a kid? Is Fox News not giving him enough attention?” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke at the event in Detroit, urging people to vote for Biden. “The road to the White House goes through the great state of Michigan,” Whitmer said, a message echoed throughout the evening. In 2016, the margin of victory by which President Donald Trump won Michigan was the smallest of any state, with only 10,704 votes. ThenDemocratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton faced criticism for not adequately campaigning in the region. While polling shows Biden leading Michigan, Trump’s campaign has said they believe the numbers are wrong and that they can win the state. Trump is scheduled to visit Michigan three times in the two days before the election, after rallying supporters in Lansing, Mich., earlier this week. On Saturday afternoon, Trump made multiple stops in Pennsylvania, including a large rally with several thousand attendees. The Trump campaign has held large events consistently in previous months, despite experts’ warnings that gatherings of this scale
could spread COVID-19. As of Saturday afternoon, approximately 230,000 Americans have died of the virus. Obama also criticized the Trump administration’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Obama said Trump and his staff were trying to limit Americans’ access to health care, which he said was particularly egregious during a global pandemic. “Republicans love to say right before the election they’ll protect your preexisting conditions,” Obama said. “Joe and I actually protected them 10 years ago with the Affordable Care Act. We didn’t get Republican votes, not one … They promised a new plan for 10 years now, no plan. They still don’t have a plan, when asked about it, nobody can find it.” Obama then pretended to look around the podium, joking that Trump’s health care plan must be “in the same place with the pandemic playbook that we gave them” in reference to a pandemic preparedness plan developed by the Obama administration that Republicans have denied existed. Before the pandemic, the state of the economy had been a point of pride for the Trump administration and a central point of his reelection
campaign. Obama said Trump inherited a good economy from Obama when he left office and that the loss in jobs shows Trump’s failures. “Donald Trump likes to claim he built this economy,” Obama said. “America created one and a half million more jobs in the last three years of the Obama-Biden administration than the first three years of the Trump administration. That’s a fact. That was before he could blame the pandemic.” Obama also said manufacturing grew in Michigan by 15% during his years in office and only 1% during Trump’s term. He ended his remarks by urging Michiganders to vote. “Last time, we were complacent, some of us (were complacent),” Obama said. “We said ‘Eh, I don’t need to bother voting.’ I get why Americans get frustrated sometimes, government’s not perfect (and it) won’t solve every problem, but it’ll make things better … You’ve got almost half of eligible voters not voting, and those are some of the same folks complaining.” Biden highlighted the Trump administration’s insufficient response to COVID-19. “Imagine where we would be if we had a president who had worn a mask, instead of
mocked it,” Biden said. “I can tell you this, we wouldn’t have 5 million confirmed cases of COVID in this nation, we wouldn’t have 230,000 deaths … He knew and he hid it from the people, he knew it was so much worse than the f lu, he lied to the people. He knew it wasn’t going to disappear.” Biden also discussed his economic plan, including his plan to raise taxes on those making over $400,000 per year. He criticized Trump in light of an investigation into the president’s tax returns published by The New York Times, showing the president paid $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017. “I understand something Donald Trump doesn’t,” Biden said. “Wall Street didn’t build this country, you did. People like my parents, ordinary working people in this country, and unions build the middle class, that’s a fact … Why should all of you be paying more taxes than Donald Trump the billionaire?” Biden continued by discussing Trump’s previous remarks about soldiers and prisoners of war, some of which disparaged American troops. He also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had put bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and that Trump has not spoken to Putin about the issue.
“Donald Trump isn’t strong, he’s weak … Donald Trump doesn’t understand sacrifice, he doesn’t understand the courage it takes to wear that uniform,” Biden said in reference to his late son Beau, who served in the military, Trump commented on Biden and Obama’s remarks in Flint, which were similar to those delivered in Detroit, after the event. He tweeted about the Obama administration’s relationship to the Flint water crisis, criticizing their handling of the water contamination. “Biden & Obama owe a massive apology to the People of Flint,” Trump tweeted. “The water was poisoned on their watch. Not only did they fail them, Biden proudly accepted the endorsement of disastrous Gov Rick Snyder! Unlike Biden, I will always stand with the People of the Great State of MICHIGAN!” The event concluded with a final push for Michiganders to vote and move forward. “So for God’s sake, please vote,” Biden said. “Everyone knows who Donald Trump is, let’s show him who we are. We choose hope over fear, we choose unity over division, we choose science over fiction, and we choose truth over lie after lie after lie after lie.” Daily Staff Reporter Emma Ruberg can be reached at eruberg@umich.edu.
Kamala Harris’s husband calls on Trump campaign University students to exercise vote hosts LGBTQ+ rally Doug Emhoff travels to Ann Arbor, hosts canvassing event at Electrical Workers building Richard Grenell headlines program
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both conservative and gay. Bill White, former President of the Intrepid SeaAir-Space museum in New York City, highlighted his experiences working with Trump through the 1990s. White went on to criticize Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, just weeks after the FBI foiled a coup attempt. Whitmer has blamed Trump’s rhetoric for inspiring the kidnapping plot. “In California, you can recall your governor, can you do that here? Well, we want to help you with that,” White said. White also generally criticized Republican Senator and former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney. “The funny guy from Utah, who needs to be recalled too, but he gave us the vote for Coney Barret, so thank you, senator,” White said. Grenell dismissed criticism of President Donald Trump during his speech. “You know HRC has a list of 100 things that Donald Trump did to be anti-gay, and you know almost every single one of them are about big government versus small government,” Grenell said. Grenell was the final speaker and spent a significant amount of time arguing that President Trump has an immense amount of respect for the LGBTQ+ community. “Donald Trump was a New Yorker who in the ’80s was around so many gay people and was incredibly impacted by AIDS in New York City,” Grenell said. “(Trump) fundamentally understands what gays have been through. He doesn’t think of us as extra, he doesn’t think of us as anything other than a diverse group of people that are just like every normal American, and that’s exactly what we’ve been asking for.” Daily News Contributor Julian Barnard can be reached at jcbarn@umich.edu.
p w p o s b
JULIA FORREST & SARAH PAYNE Daily Staff Reporters
More than 50 people proudly wearing “I voted early” and BidenHarris stickers congregated in front of the Electrical Workers Local 252 building in Ann Arbor to hear from Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate. The stop was one of two in Michigan on Sunday for Emhoff, who was in town to launch a canvassing event. This comes a day after Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden joined former President Barack Obama in Detroit and Flint for his last campaign event in the state before Tuesday’s election. Emhoff spoke to the crowd about
traveling around the nation and seeing voters’ exhaustion with the Trump administration. “Everywhere I go around this country, it’s the same thing,” Emhoff said. “People are sick and tired of what’s going on right now, they’re sick and tired of this lack of leadership. They’re sick and tired, and they want change. And in just a couple of days Michigan, we are gonna win this state.” Michigan is considered a key battleground state for the 2020 election. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes, though Democrats saw big wins in state leadership in the 2018 midterm election. Biden is ahead by eight percentage points in the state with a few days to go before the election, according to The New York Times/Siena College poll. Emhoff went on to further
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From Better Health to Improved Lethality:
LSA COLLEGIATE LECTURE An online lecture. For more information, visit events.umich.edu/event/75455, or call 734.615.6667.
emphasize the need to win the election by turning out the vote. “We got to vote in massive numbers,” Emhoff said. “We got to win. We got to win big because we need a mandate. We need a mandate that’s so big, so clear, that this guy cannot refute it, no matter how hard, you know, he’s gonna try, and you know he’s gonna try. And the only way to push back on that is to crush him — crush him here in Michigan.” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., emphasized the importance of campaigning until the very last second to ensure that Biden wins. “We can’t take anything for granted,” Dingell said to the crowd. “The next 48 hours, we got to be on doors. We’ve got to be calling everybody. We can’t stop for the next 48 hours.” James Johnson, an organizer for IBEW Local 252, emphasized the need for strong leadership in the Oval Office. “I want a leader who will fight for me and will fight for all of us,” Johnson said. “I want a leader with a concrete path to give us certainty — security — instead of bullying and lying. But in order to get that leader, we all need to go vote. Michigan’s gonna get to decide the next President of the United States, but only if we go vote.” LSA sophomore Andrew Schaeffler, the founder and president of Students For Biden, expressed his gratitude to Emhoff paying a visit to Ann Arbor. “I am so happy that the future first first gentleman Doug Emhoff came to Ann Arbor, and myself and our club are so happy to see the emphasis put on Michigan by the Biden campaign,” Schaeffler said. “At all of these events, including this one, the Biden campaign has made clear that on all issues impacting Michiganders — the choice is clear this November on which candidate is better for Michiganders.” Nick Schuler, LSA sophomore and spokesperson for U-M College Republicans, said that the Biden campaign’s efforts will prove ineffective and Trump will win reelection. “The Democrats can campaign all they all want,” Schuler said. “But the great people of Michigan will deliver the state for Trump because he brought back jobs and fixed our economy.”
Emhoff told The Daily in an interview Sunday that the campaign is taking Michigan seriously this election, citing visits from himself, Harris and Biden to the state. “I’m here and we are doing everything we can to get the word out that we have a plan to tackle multiple crises that are affecting our country,” Emhoff said. “(Biden and Harris) are going to bring us together, people are sick and tired of all the division and hatred that’s coming out of this administration. They want leadership, they want competence, they want unity and some compassion, and Joe and Kamala really bring that.” Emhoff also said he has seen a lot of misinformation this election cycle from conservatives, specifically to discourage voting. He said the best way to combat this is to do exactly what he says Republicans don’t want people to do: vote. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of tactics that the other side is using to try to discourage people from voting and make it sound like it’s something that’s hard,” Emhoff said. “That’s just totally not true — it couldn’t be easier, and the only way that we’re going to be able to push back on that narrative is to vote and to win and win big. And that’s what we plan to do.” Emhoff said he believes a lot of college students have figured out exactly how elected officials and their decisions directly impact their lives. “They’re excited because I think they now realize that it does matter, their vote does matter because when they don’t vote, they don’t have voice and when they don’t have a voice, things are happening to them that they don’t like and they want to change,” Emhoff said. Emhoff emphasized the importance of everyone exercising their right to vote this year, especially in swing states like Michigan. “No matter what, people need to vote,” Emhoff said. “It’s their right, and it’s been a hard fought right. Take the time and exercise your right, just go out and vote. Your vote is your voice.” Daily Staff Reporters Julia Forrest and Sarah Payne can be reached at juforres@umich.edu and paynesm@ umich.edu.
JULIAN BARNARD For The Daily
The Trump campaign held a “Trump Pride” event this Thursday in Ann Arbor to appeal to LGBTQ+ voters, with around 30 attendees. Most attendees wore face masks for the duration of the event, but speakers took them off while they were on the podium. Former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, current Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations, headlined the event. Grenell became the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ+ government official in American history, and the only openly LGBTQ+ person to have ever served in the cabinet. In the 2016 election, only 14% of LGBTQ+ voters reported to have voted for Trump, a stark comparison to the 78% who reported backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Trump administration has upheld policies that undermine LGBTQ+ rights, including banning transgender people from the military, attempting to remove nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in health care and rolling back other nondiscrimination policies. The event was opened by Adam Schmidt, former U.S. national team figure skater and an LGBTQ+ Trump supporter. Schmidt said the Democratic party is a party of exclusion. “They are the party of exclusion; they are cancel culture; they are the opposite of inclusivity, all right. We are the party of inclusivity,” Schmidt said. Several attendees at the event highlighted their economic interests as one of their principal reasons for supporting President Trump. One attendee described how he was excited for the event, specifically for the chance to interact with other individuals who identify as
News
4 — Wednesday, November, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan Marching Band adapts to virtual semester
Members learn new techniques through asynchronous modules BROOKE VAN HORNE For The Daily
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily Students line up outside of the University of Michigan Museum of Art to cast their votes Tuesday afternoon.
College Dems host event on eve of election night U.S. Reps Dingell, Tlaib provide last push for voter turnout EMILY BLUMBERG For The Daily
Within the first 30 seconds of Monday night’s Zoom meeting, members of the University of Michigan’s chapter of the College Democrats began discussing possible presidential election results. With anxiety regarding Tuesday’s election and the additional stress of mail-in ballot counting delaying results, the student group struggled to stay calm. LSA senior Carolyn Chen stated frankly: “I am recklessly optimistic. I am ready to be hurt again.” Chen said she was proud of the University’s high early voting turnout, emphasizing the effectiveness of the satellite voting location at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-18, spoke at the Zoom rally. Showing excitement about tomorrow’s election, Irwin also emphasized what rights are at stake. “I’m riding with Biden,”
Irwin said. “We all know what’s at stake. The world’s burning, we’re facing climate change and have no national strategy. We’re lagging behind on education and labor rights. The rights of women in this country are tremendously under pressure.” Irwin reminded attendees of the importance of getting in any last votes, saying voter turnout has never felt more important due to the polarization of Tuesday’s election. “We need to squeeze out those late voters, those maybe voters, and let them know why it matters,” Irwin said. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, D-Mich., spoke after Irwin, reiterating the necessity of voting and inspiring young voters to prepare for a generational change. “Young voters are a decisive factor in this electorate,” Gilchrist said. “We need to take advantage of this generational opportunity.” Next to speak was U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who was unafraid of hiding her own
election anxiety. “I’m scared shitless,” Dingell said. “I was really scared four years ago, I thought Hillary Clinton was going to lose, nobody believed me.” Dingell told participants to expect hazardous rhetoric to come from Trump this week. “Donald Trump’s going to be shoveling fake news tomorrow, and we need to shovel it back up his blank. I won’t say it, but you know what I’m saying,” Dingell said. Dingell then introduced her fellow representative, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., whom Dingell referred to as her “sister.” “She really is my sister,” Dingell said. “You don’t want to screw with the two of us.” Tlaib shared the other speakers’ concerns and emphasized her desire to see the end of the Trump administration.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
This semester hasn’t looked the same for any organization on campus, and the Michigan Marching Band is no exception. For the first time since its founding in 1896, the band has pursued a fully virtual format. Despite these challenges, band members have been fostering friendships, learning new skills and staying safe. After months of planning this summer, the band staff chose to adopt a module style of learning. Students enrolled in ENS 348 just like normal times, but instead of practicing at Elbel Field Monday through Friday from 4:45-6:15 p.m., the band members are learning completely asynchronously. The two-week modules are themed so that the musicians are able to hone their skills and learn techniques they wouldn’t normally be able to. “No one was expecting this to be a substitute for an in-person season, but I speak for many people when I say that we’ve gotten things out of it that we couldn’t normally get from a busy band schedule,” said LSA junior Kaitlyn Colyer, the leader of the piccolo section. LSA junior Shelby Ostrewich, an alto saxophone player, said she likes how module-style learning has allowed the band to learn different skills. “My favorite so far has been the flag for non-flags since it gave me an excuse to be more active and get off my laptop,” Ostrewich said. “It helped me have a whole new appreciation for our color guard.” During traditional years, the band’s rehearsal schedule is planned down to the minute. This year, the pandemic made that impossible, Band Director John Pasquale said. “It’s completely different in every possible way,” Pasquale said. “Quite literally 100% of (the program) had to be examined, and then changed.” The staff has worked to keep the performers engaged.
“We obviously care about their safety first and foremost, that is paramount,” Pasquale said. “Then, their experience is a very close second.” Not only have the modules given the students an opportunity to see behind the scenes, they have also helped integrate freshmen with their fellow band members through collaboration, according to LSA freshman Alina Stinson, an alto saxophone player. “The group work aspects of these classes have introduced me to so many different people,” Stinson said. Of the nearly 400 performers who were accepted to be a part of the Michigan Marching Band this season, more than 250 students have enrolled in the optional virtual model while the others opted out. Anyone in the MMB this season will not have to reaudition next year. Auditions for the subsequent academic year are held during the summer each year. Pasquale said he was “floored” by the number of students who chose to audition despite uncertainty about what the upcoming season would look like. “All things considered, it was a very positive audition cycle,” Pasquale said. The MMB plans to release two completely virtual shows this semester. The first one, scheduled for early November, is titled “Hail to the Everyday Heroes” and will be a tribute to the frontline workers in the pandemic. “The resiliency of the students I am so proud of and inspired by every day, by the spirit of the Michigan family and community that is seen by the students and faculty, staff, alumni and supporters,” Pasquale said. “How people are coming together — it’s only a testament to the strength of the Michigan community.” The second show that will be released around the Michigan vs. Ohio State game in December and will be completely designed, arranged and written by students.
In an ordinary season, the section student leaders are charged with teaching first and cultivating community second. This year, community comes first given that organic connections are difficult to foster virtually. From section “Among Us” games over Zoom to remote watch parties for game days and virtual quiet study sessions, the band members are trying to stay connected in any way possible. Stinson, who opted to live at home in Michigan with her family this semester, said that she has made many close friends — freshmen and upperclassmen alike — through events organized by the alto section. “I’ve been amazed by the sense of community within the band, even in a virtual form,” Stinson said. “I feel just as included as if I were on campus.” However, building a sense of community in the absence of in-person practices is without a doubt challenging. LSA junior Will Padbury said it’s helped immensely that he lives with fellow members of his section. “We experience virtual band together, reminisce about previous seasons, and help each other stay focused and optimistic for next year,” Padbury said. Colyer said section leaders have always been responsible for welcoming new members. However, the nuanced challenges this semester have made it important to ensure new members know they have a friend without being overbearing. “We’ve also had to strike a balance between letting people know we’re here and we’re actively interested in their participation in the band, but also respecting that people are overwhelmed with the amount of time they’re spending online,” Colyer said. Daily News Contributor Brooke Van Horne can be reached at brookevh@umich. edu.
Should the ‘U’ have in-person classes this winter?
Students weigh in on impending decision from the University regarding courses, reflect on challenges of hybrid fall plan CALDER LEWIS Daily Staff Reporter
Should we do this again? University of Michigan students and administrators are asking that exact question about the current hybrid semester ahead of the upcoming decision on whether to bring students back to campus in the winter semester. Unlike the decision on the fall semester, which was announced in June during a state and nationwide lull in COVID-19 cases, the pandemic is headed in the wrong direction. The United States just registered its greatest single-day case increase — nearly 100,000 cases in a 24-hour period — and Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Washington Post recently that the country “could not be positioned more poorly” going into the winter. Despite the challenges of the fall hybrid semester — clusters in residence halls, strikes across campus in September and the two-week stay-in-place order — transmission outside of young people’s social gatherings remains low, according to University officials, and hospitalizations and deaths have not risen with cases. According to University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald, the University is looking at several factors for the winter semester decision. “Among the considerations: health, safety and wellbeing of our community; lessons learned from the fall term related to teaching and learning; survey results from faculty, students and staff; and feedback from many different advisory groups on campus,
students, faculty and staff,” Fitzgerald wrote in an email. Fitzgerald added that COVID-19 testing “will be part of the plans.” Students’ views on the hybrid semester are mixed. Six students interviewed by The Daily said they were in favor of attempting a hybrid semester again, two were opposed and one was indifferent. They expressed the wide range of sentiments across the student body as the community weighs the value of health and normalcy in a pandemic-marred college experience. About 80% of undergraduate classes were held virtually at the start of the year, and with the recent order, only 10% maintain any in-person instruction. Some students rely on in-person classes for their major, like pre-med LSA sophomore Sophie Boock, who has labs that can’t be taken virtually. “To be able to still go in once every three weeks and have that hands-on experience has been great,” Boock said. LSA senior Jacob Katzman also relies on in-person labs and said he wouldn’t be in Ann Arbor next semester if it was entirely virtual. “If I can’t get into the lab, I can’t do my thesis, so it would definitely set me back if we weren’t allowed to come in,” Katzman said. “I’m very grateful we’re allowed to come in this semester.” Others found in-person classes less essential, like Kyra Freeman, a Public Health graduate student, who opted into virtual classes after the first few weeks for convenience. LSA freshman Jenny Nam lives in East Quad Residence Hall and said she became more
hesitant to attend in-person classes when cases in her residence hall started rising. “I was definitely a lot more nervous being in my dorm because we started getting a lot of emails about how we were getting a new COVID case like every day, so then I was like, ‘Oh, so many people are stuck in one dorm building, it could spread really fast,’” Nam said. As of Oct. 26, residence halls have recorded 472 cases since the beginning of the semester, and many resident advisors have voiced concerns over health and safety. LSA junior Shivang Chandna said his off-campus apartment is a sunk cost, but he’d wait and watch public health metrics before deciding to move back for the winter. “If they do go a hundred percent remote and things are okay here, I definitely want to be back, because I love the city — I love everything about it — but if cases keep going up and it’s a hundred percent online, I’d rather be back home,” Chandna said. U-M administration has cited the high proportion of students with off-campus leases as justification for the hybrid fall semester. With a link to the physical campus, administrators argued, students would be more likely to follow public health guidelines. Most students The Daily spoke with said they would be back in Ann Arbor regardless of next semester’s format, including LSA sophomore Sam Pinkus. The time difference between Michigan and her California home would put her
synchronous 8 a.m. class at 5 a.m. “Already looking into remote learning for the week after Thanksgiving is a little daunting,” Pinkus said. “There’s definitely like an academic feeling (on campus) still, so I think it’s easier to get things done here than at home.” LSA senior Eliot Giannoni said he’ll be back in Ann Arbor regardless to “finish off the college experience.” However, he said connecting with people has been harder this year. “I can only imagine for freshmen just coming on campus for the first time and not really knowing anyone, that’s got to be difficult,” Giannoni said. “Academically, it’s been hard as well to connect with your peers on a group assignment.” But engineering sophomore Mohammed Kashan said he thinks the winter semester should be entirely virtual for the safety of students and others close to campus. “It would be safer because to be honest, with people that are as young as undergrads, and even grad students, it’s hard to understand what this virus is doing,” Kashan said. Most students who favored another hybrid semester said the University needs to make changes for the winter. Some noted the lack of communication, like Chandna, who said he has seen “disorganization” with the recent case escalation and stay-in-place order. “I mean, literally three or four weeks ago they were like, ‘Do in-person events up to 25 people’ and this and that,” Chandna said.
“And then fast forward to now, we’re under lockdown, cases are going up and I don’t think this is going to improve.” Pinkus said it’s also been hard for her to keep up with the University’s changing public health guidance. “We just get a new email every day with new rules and regulations regarding COVID and what we’re allowed to do and what we’re not allowed to do,” Pinkus said. “Obviously the world is changing every day and the school’s trying to keep up with that, but just having more clear communication with students (would be helpful).” Othera said the University needed a more robust testing plan to bring students back next semester. University President Mark Schlissel has repeatedly defended the initial plan that did not test off-campus students who were asymptomatic upon their arrival to Ann Arbor. A community sampling testing program now tests over 3,000 community members per week, but the program didn’t reach 1,000 weekly tests until a month into the semester. Outside of the surveillance testing programs, if students have a COVID-19 scare and want immediate testing, they have to have symptoms or be a close contact of a positive case. Nam noted that many go off-campus to get tested, leading to a lag in reporting cases. “I know people have had experiences where they’ve had a lot of trouble trying to get tested for COVID,” Nam said. “I feel like if they made it a lot easier and made
it a lot more accessible, that would be a lot better, but it would also expose the fact that they’re getting a lot of COVID cases, so they probably don’t want to do that.” Chandna said he couldn’t say yet what the University should do because it depends entirely on its testing capacity. “If they are equipped enough to handle another semester hybrid with random testing, more rapid testing, then of course hybrid — otherwise, 100% online is the way to go,” Chandana said. Overall, Nam said, COVID-19 is going to be a part of the winter semester no matter what, so the state of campus will depend on whether people follow public health guidelines. “Obviously we’re not going to get the experience that we were supposed to get if COVID was not a thing, but I think that rather than depending on the University as a whole to just take care of things, like everything, it would be nice for the entire community to also work towards being more careful and following safety guidelines,” Nam said. Boock said even with all of the turmoil of the last few months, the fall semester is better than it would’ve been if students weren’t allowed back on campus. “I always think there’s room for more improvement, but I think we can take this and keep going,” Boock said. “We love it here — we came back for a reason.” Daily Staff Reporter Calder Lewis can be reached at calderll@ umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan In Color
Emily can be in Paris, but Eman cannot Disclaimer: Islamophobia is a phrase that doesn’t truly embody antiMuslim rhetoric and actions. The word, literally meaning a fear of Islam, legitimizes fear of Muslims, as if we are a people to fear or operate like regular and logical horrors of spiders and heights. I do not condone nor do I use that phrase in my daily life as I attempt to distance myself from the misleading caricature of a term. In its place, I will use the phrase anti-Muslim and urge you to do the same as your refer to anti-Muslim bigotry.
EMAN NAGA MiC Columnist
The ideal vacation, Paris, remains a special place for many aching for a life of romance, buttery croissants and artful architecture. The French language seen as poetry, the streets of France idealized and the air romanticized as everyone hopes to become entranced by Paris and France’s overall allure. Emily in Paris is the embodiment of that glamorization as Netflix’s carefree dramatic comedy stars Lily Collins as an American who has difficulty assimilating to French society. Having not studied the language prior to her arrival, her misunderstandings of the language are running jokes as she flaunts her Parisian influenced style and discovers France. A sucker for guilty pleasures like this show, I eagerly binged all the episodes in two days. As I finished the show, I couldn’t help but think about how my experience in Paris could never look like Emily’s. Like Emily, my mouth waters just thinking about French pastries — chocolate croissants in particular — and decadent meals cooked with rich meats and fancy, unpronounceable glazes. Roaming the cobblestone streets in wanderlust, purchasing groceries from an aesthetically pleasing French market and finally utilizing the French language I worked so hard to acquire were daydreams that kept me sane throughout stringent French courses. However, France has made it illegal for people like me to see these dreams through, unlike Emily, with their current ban on hijab.
Attempting to stay true to an ideal of secularism, the country has made it illegal for Jews to dress in yamakas, Christians to wear cross necklaces, Sikhs to cover in dastars and Muslim women, like myself, to drape our hair in hijabs. Though the ban prohibits all religious apparel, the ban is rooted in the mainstream misconception that Muslim women who dress in hijabs are oppressed, that the hijab is an oppressive tool and that France, a republic built on liberty, equality and fraternity, cannot condone the oppression of women. Seemingly a contradiction as founding womens’ ideals on their clothing and reducing women to their appearance is oppressive and sexist in and of itself, the country does not care for promoting unity as their goal is to villify Islam to the French public. Due to the hijab being a physical embodiment of Islam and Europe’s overwhelming belief that Muslims are behind all of their political and social pitfalls, it is evident that this ban is motivated by anti-Muslim convictions. Anti-Muslim rheotric is the mainstream in France, as demonizing and disrespecting Islam is a social norm. Charlie Hebdo, a popular French satirical magazine, is no stranger to this phenomenon as its existence is a ruthless reminder of fervent French anti-Muslim bigotry. Known for angering Muslims worldwide because of its purposefully intolerant depiction of our last Messenger, its content is heavily baked in this notion that Muslims are either stupefying fools or threatening terrorists. Just scrolling through its website makes me regret the years of French schooling I endured; the organization takes every possible opportunity to profit
off of common anti-Muslim speech. Its top five most popular articles listed on its website, as I write this article, are centered on crude and derogatory jokes of Muslim figures and Muslim culture, even attacking Arabic; the language of the Quran and coincidentally the language that gave the French its numerals, as horsetalk. Sports is not a cultural medium immune from antiMuslim bigotry. Despite a majority of France’s soccer players coming from Africa and the Arab world and identifying as Muslim, its players are categorized as French when they win and Arabs or Africans when they lose. Zidane, arguably the most successful French soccer player, is of Algerian and Muslim descent and even his prestige could not save him from France’s rampant anti-Muslim bigotry. If a man that has delivered the French a world cup and multiple championships continues to be the at the end of anti-Muslim rhetoric, is there any Muslim that can be immune from French sponsered anti-Muslim hatred? As the country continues to capitalize on anti-Muslim sentiments, France and some of its inhabitants remain keen on harming their Muslim neighbors in a country that just so happens to hold the most Muslims in the Western world. The culmination of brewing anti-Muslim beliefs and a disenfranchised Muslim population, France has been the setting for a petrifying exemplification of the domino effect. About two weeks ago, a teacher who chose to depict offensive Charlie Hebdo comics was beheaded by a terrorist. In response to the terror attack, President Macron, a man who identifies as politically centerist, stated that Islam was a religion “in crisis all over the world” and a threat to the West. I find it important to note that this was a man that claimed he wanted to save Lebanon following the disastrous earthquake and finds Muslim countries very appealing to his country’s dangerous and exploitive infatuation with globalism. Angered by the
anti-Muslim comments made by Macron, Muslim majority country leaders like Imran Khan of Pakistan and Erdogan of Turkey called for a boycott of French products. Following the horrific incident, another terror attack occured when two Algerian women donned in headscarves were beaten and stabbed by two French women ironically near the symbol of France, the Eiffel tower. The women were harassed and called “Dirty Arabs,” a result of widespread anti Arab sentiments in the nation. In a horrifying retaliation to French enabled antiMuslim sentiments, a man identifying as Muslim stabbed three people at Notre Dame, all of whom died due to his cruelty. This led to an anti-Muslim man attempting to set a mosque ablaze as he poured gasoline onto its walls, arson he fortunately was not able to fully complete, but an assault on the religion nonetheless. All of these terror attacks stem from a festering anti-Muslim governance and culture. Prejudice, like Muslim and French blood, spills into the streets of France as rhetoric is spewed and legislation is drafted to antagonize the second most followed religion in the world and those who follow it. As France continues to play victim, I can’t help but think about the countries France attacked over the past few centuries and its continued obsession with Islam and the Muslim veil. Having colonized countries like Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, it seems ironic that the French government claims that Islam is a “terror” when France has terrorized Muslim majority nations. To list all the cruelties committed by France to Muslim majority nations is virtually impossible, cementing that France is the true opressor. Despite its beautiful appearance, its core is ugly, operating on the premise that Emily can be in Paris, but Eman cannot.
Eman can be reached at: enaga@umich.edu.
Photo via Unsplash
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 5
The evident ‘I’ in pandemic ELIYA IMTIAZ MiC Columnist
Thank God, I thought, as the aromatic plate made its way closer and closer to my table. I tore off the mask I’d been wearing since entering the dimly lit restaurant, noting the lip gloss imprint on the inside. Yup, that’s going in the trash once I get home. The double-masked waitress placed our dishes in the middle of the table as my friends and I whipped out our cameras for the classic brunch Snapchat. As I navigated my phone, a notification popped up: “1,500 new cases of COVID-19 today, the third consecutive day of rising cases in the state of Michigan.” I stared at it until the notification disappeared from my screen, then looked around me. One couple 10 feet away, another a little closer — man, why couldn’t they seat us outside? The pandemic made dispersed and speedy features in our discussion — the “when’s that vaccine coming,” the go-to “this is all so crazy”, the slightly bitter “at colleges they’re completely business as usual.” Just like the weather, COVID19 has become the automatic default for any awkward silences — “the nasal swab barely hurt” joining “it’s cold outside” in the reservoir of small talk go-tos. As America sees little to no veritable progress in stifling the virus, those of us privileged enough to do so have mentally conquered COVID-19: all by the process of externalization. To an extent, this process definitely makes sense — our local, state and federal government make or break community responses to the virus, with implementations (or lack thereof ) of various regulations and mandates. However, at the same time, the actions of an individual quite literally initiate a domino effect. We all know COVID-19 spreads like wildfire, with no definitive rhyme or reason — arguably every single time we go outside, there is a risk. Yet still, we’ve created parameters for our own peace of mind: outside or bust, gatherings of 25 or less (because the virus makes a U-turn once there’s no 26th), and intermittent hand sanitizing. These measures are valuable, and without them we would definitely have less public safety than we do now, but this middle-ground approach has left us to dwell in an indefinite sort of purgatory with no visible end in sight. While New Zealand and Taiwan are essentially ‘back to normal,’ we look to them with envy without realizing the stringent measures they mandated to get to that place. For some, mask wearing is viewed as a form of groupthink, another way the government is trying to demand conformity. As such, mesh net masks have popped up to stick it to the man (yeah!) and let onlookers know that you may have been duped, but they haven’t. If beating the pandemic is striving for a light at the end of a tunnel, we’re currently navigating the same tunnel instead with random,
small flickers of a candle, the extinguishing of which brings us all the way back to the tunnel’s entrance. Was this just the luck of the draw for Americans? Is it just the vastness of our country that made the pandemic more widespread here? As a nation consistently purported as the ‘best in the world,’ our response to COVID was anything but. And interestingly enough, that may have to do with the ego we all carry as Americans- individualism at all costs. According to a recent study published by the Social Science Research Network, higher rates of local individualism reduced adherence to state lockdown orders by 41 percent and pandemicbased fundraising by 48 percent. Interestingly, areas of the country that have higher historical exposure to frontier conditions have empirically been proven to partake less in mask-use, social distancing and trust of science. This mindset is ingrained as an American value from our earliest lessons in elementary school and clearly display long-term implications: On one end, individualism encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, but on the other, it stifles any sense of social responsibility and collective action, characteristics needed in a pandemic-stricken country. As such, here we are today — amid the indefinite slug of COVID purgatory. Ironically enough, many students have been forced to think collectively in light of universities’ individualistic approaches. I’ve heard stories of some having to exaggerate symptoms just to get tested, others renting AirBNBs so they can quarantine from their roommates, and many like myself, opting to stay home this semester to — among other things — avoid getting roped into an unused lease. When everything in our country seemingly operates like a business, the aforementioned mindset has permeated into a lot of our institutions, putting individual (oftentimes profitbased) interests over serving communities. As we head towards what may very well be the second spike of COVID-19, I propose a reframing of the Great American Individualism: Instead of considering it as the pursuit of singular enjoyment at all costs, we pursue our singular safety in the face of an unending pandemic. To this end, be self-interested enough to say no if you’re not comfortable attending an event, eating indoors or even entering maskless settings simply and only because you’re protecting yourself from the virus’s reach. When our government, our schools, and even ourselves may not immediately perceive those as primary concerns, consideration of the virus must be ingrained in our individual mindsets: we — myself and my homegirls at brunch included — need to confront the cognitive dissonance of dissociating our responsibility in the fight against the coronavirus when quite literally we are potential vectors.
Jon Tyson via Unsplash
Michigan In Color
6 — Wednesday, November 4, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The manipulation of a Black woman’s passion MARIA PATTON MiC Columnist
When you look at this image, what do you see? Do you see the large animal-like figure that is front and center? The uncivilized behavior portrayed by the figure? What about the small innocent-like characters in the back? The presence of all these factors makes this image the definition of the destruction that arises from the presence of any implicit bias held in society, and in particular, the Angry Black woman stereotype. This cartoon was created to portray a tennis match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in 2018. When Williams expressed frustration with calls made throughout the sets, and questioned the umpire’s intentions and authority, the umpire made calls that resulted in Serena’s defeat. This perpetuated Williams’ frustrations, causing passionate responses to the injustices. This resulted in the media characterizing her as an Angry Black woman. This stereotype unfairly classifies Black Women’s emotions and opinions as unrealistic and unprofessional in order to deem us unqualified to occupy powerful positions and spaces. This image is a perfect example of how dangerous this stereotype is. The artist makes Williams the center of attention by making her take up the most space, and making her so apparently different from the characters in the background. Her enlarged head, mouth and body suspended above the smashed racket work to exaggerate the anger she expressed, through
an apparent temper tantrum. The two other characters are small in comparison to Williams, with features that represent innocence and purity, to establish her as an animal. The artist makes Williams’ emotions seem irrational, and labels her as an Angry Black woman, something powerful Black women are constantly reduced to. The emotion she expressed during the match was no different than that of other professional tennis players, including the famed Roger Federer. So why was she punished with the creation of such a dehumanizing and false image? Seeing Kamala Harris, a Black woman, make history by running for one of the highest occupations in the United States is empowering to see as a Black woman, but also extremely nerve wracking. As I watched the Vice Presidential debate a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but shake with nerves the whole time. Knowing how the passion Black women express can be redefined by others as aggression, I was scared to see how the media would respond to her demeanor. Throughout the debate, I was constantly refreshing my Twitter timeline to see how people were reacting to every word that came out of her mouth. I was scared that one slip of the tongue would cause her to be labeled as an Angry Black woman, and create a loss of respect from everyone, simply for speaking her mind. Joe Biden showed an abundance of emotion in calling Donald Trump a clown a few weeks before in his own debate. His
outburst was commended, and even seen as comical. Aside from the immature behavior he showcased in the same debate, Donald Trump’s carelessness and negligence during his presidency have put millions of Americans in grave danger. Trump and Biden were able to get away with acts of unprofessionalism, but I knew from my experience of watching other Black women like
supporting her husband President Barack Obama’s campaign, she also suffered the cruel consequences of the stereotype. In her documentary Becoming, released this past May, she described how the vulnerability, passion and love she expressed for America on the campaign trail was depicted by the media as anger, and devalued the abundant success she had in her life. Much like
At seven years old, I vaguely remember watching the news and hearing this narrative be constructed of her. They turned my idol into a monster. Everything negative the media said about her was hurtful to hear, being my first introduction to the Angry Black woman persona in real time. Serena Williams and Michelle Obama, that the critics would not be as forgiving of any degree of emotion communicated by Kamala Harris. Now, some may say Serena’s emotions during that tennis match did get a little out of control, and that she deserved the label. But the problem is not how much or what kind of emotion a Black woman expresses, the problem is our emotion will always be exploited and used to twist the narrative of our character. When Michelle Obama was on the campaign trail in 2008,
the one of Serena Williams, a caricature was drawn in an attempt to portray her as an enemy of the very people she loved. In the image below, the artist enlarged Obama’s head and bulked up her muscles, giving her an unrealistic and manly appearance. Her eyebrows were tweaked to appeal to an evil facade. The words “Bully Pulpit” on the podium described the meaning of her speeches as expressions of rage. The image embraced everything the media said about her. The artist transformed her into an Angry
Black woman. Michelle Obama admitted feeling hurt by the false ways the media has portrayed her. The backlash inf luenced her to change her approach to one that was robotic and scripted in order to be taken seriously as the future First Lady of the United States. At seven years old, I vaguely remember watching the news and hearing this narrative be constructed of her. They turned my idol into a monster. Everything negative the media said about her was hurtful to hear, being my first introduction to the Angry Black woman persona in real time. It hurt even more because I saw myself in her. Every time they picked her apart, I felt like they were picking me apart as well. I started to become weary of how I acted in public spaces in order to avoid being falsely stereotyped, because when you start seeing parts of yourself being told they don’t belong, you start to believe it. Kamala Harris is pursuing a dream the Black community has had for a long time. The rarity of her situation should be celebrated. In addition to the praise we give her, it is important to note that Kamala Harris is a politician and corruption is inevitable. In her career as an Attorney, she has already done some pretty controversial things. Harris faced scrutiny over her claims of working to decrease the racism in the criminal justice system. Many have argued that these statements are hypocritical with her failure to investigate
shootings involving police officers and implement reform bills that would help decrease police brutality. It is important to hold politicians accountable for the decisions they make, but while we are condemning her harmful actions toward minority communities, we need to recognize the implicit biases that may inf luence how we perceive her actions. She is the first Black woman in American history to be a vice presidential nominee for a major party, so she will be held to an extremely high standard. Because of this, when we criticize her decisions we need to make sure that the criticisms don’t diminish her worth based on the stereotypes held of Black women. While we acknowledge her accomplishments, we must also address her faults appropriately. Ref lecting on Michelle Obama and Serena Williams’ experiences I can’t help but wonder how much of herself Kamala Harris is concealing in order to avoid the creation of another Angry Black Woman caricature. I worry that young Black girls today will be driven to change themselves in order to appeal to the masses because of the false narrative the media may use to portray her. Despite the implicit biases that I know will be held against her, seeing her in that high space gives me hope that there will be positive change in the systemic racism this country embraces. I hope little Black girls are able to look up to Kamala Harris the same way that I looked up to Michelle Obama.
A full circle of corruption MAYA KADOUH MiC Columnist
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Release Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
EASY
ACROSS 3 Go back on a 1 “... where the sun promise / Came peeping 4 Org. in the in at __”: Thomas biodrama Hood “Hidden Figures” 5 Willie Mays, twice 5 WY winter hrs. 8 Bowler’s test 6 Compete 13 Carpet calculation 7 Pre-Rose Bowl 14 China setting tradition 15 Soccer star Rossi 8 Many an “SNL” 16 *Old bowling alley skit employee 9 Two-time U.S. 18 Cry of dismay Open winner 19 Country singer Stewart Womack 10 Illicit rendezvous 20 Even things site 22 Part of ESL: Abbr. 11 La Corse, par 23 *Pass prevention exemple strategy 12 Play (with) 28 Editor’s change 14 53 for I, e.g. of heart 17 Split __: New 30 “I agree!” Zealand band 31 It’s north of Afr. 21 Court sport 32 Not very exciting 24 Astro’s finish? 35 Seasickness 25 Harris of country symptom 26 Take to court 38 Cautionary workplace axiom 27 Stat for Justin Verlander ... or a hint to 29 Spicy cuisine the starts of 33 Time and again, the answers to to Yeats starred clues 34 Driver’s license 40 Elk © sudokusolver.com. For personal use only. datum 42 Pre-discount 36 Poetic verb prices 43 Not well 44 Dollop sudokusnydictation.com Generate and solve Sudoku,puzzle Superby Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com! 46 Pacino’s voice, at times 50 *Bad homes for critics? 55 Golf standard 56 Deal with 57 Capitol feature 59 Like four Sandy Koufax games 61 *One-on-one golf competition 64 It’s good in Chile 65 Agree with 66 Shoppe modifier 67 Shakespearean forest 68 2000s TV forensic technician, to pals 69 Fly high
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53 Danish shoe brand 54 NFL defensive end Ndamukong __ 58 Med. plan options 59 Home to Kings: Abbr. 60 “__ Gang” 62 Versatile card 63 “Much appreciated,” in texts
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10/21/20
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DOWN 1 Breakfast condiment sources 2 Get one’s bearings
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10/21/20
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WHISPER “I’m just tired of this pandemic stuff”
“I think I’maddicted to technoblade :/”
On Oct. 13, 2019, over 100 wildfires broke out in Lebanon, setting the scene for the insufferable year ahead. Over the course of the last year, Lebanon has experienced an economic crisis, a global pandemic and an explosion at their largest port, all while citizens are revolting against their corrupt government. Though the wildfires have been contained, Lebanon has been up in f lames for the past year, growing more disastrous by the day. On Oct. 17, 2019, the Lebanese thawra (revolution) began. The unfolding of an economic crisis caused the corrupt, sectarian government to announce additional tax measures, triggering Lebanese citizens to protest for their social and economic rights. The goal of the protests extended beyond opposition to the additional tax measures; the Lebanese were protesting a fundamentally corrupt and f lawed government, who for years have denied them basic aid and services. They were protesting government officials who failed to provide them with stable electricity and wastemanagement services, adequate public education and health services, food security and a functioning economy. In the midst of their failures, those government officials have made millions of dollars (some even billions) for themselves. To end the cycle of corruption, the people of Lebanon called for all government officials to resign. Prime minister Saad Hariri was the only government official to resign, causing no substantial change for the Lebanese. Equally guilty politicians, Nabih Berri and Michel Aoun, stayed in power. As the revolution continued, Lebanon’s economic system continued to weaken. Lebanon, the third most indebted country, with a debt to GDP ratio of 152%, and with over 75% of its population living below the poverty line, inevitably was about to face their worst economic
crisis. Lebanon’s broken economic system can be traced back to their heavy reliance on imports and the pegging of the Lebanese currency to the US dollar. Massive increase in prices of staples, the crashing of the Lebanese currency, high unemployment and limits on bank withdrawals characterize the effects of Lebanon’s economic crisis on their people. As a consequence of the economic crisis, the middle class disappeared and issues of food and home security were at an all-time high. Then COVID-19 hit, exacerbating Lebanon’s condition and further revealing the government’s unwillingness to aid their people. On Aug. 4, a fire at the largest port in Beirut triggered an explosion, resulting in over 200 people dead, 6000 injured and at least 300,000 displaced. The explosion further weakened health resources and destroyed valuable infrastructure, leaving the Lebanese people to deal with a pandemic, an economic crisis and reconstruction efforts with little to no resources or government aid. Carelessness and disorganization of the Lebanese government directly caused the third largest explosion in history. Angry protests broke out, demanding the government would be held accountable for their actions. The outcome of the protests in August was similar to the outcome of the protests in October: Hassan Diab, prime minister, resigned, but it brought no change for the people suffering. Almost one year after his resignation, Saad Hariri was reinstated as Lebanon’s prime minister. His reinstatement is a clear representation of the direction of Lebanon. The purpose of the thawra was to dismantle the system in place, completely controlled by the corruption and greediness of the Lebanese government and propelled by foreign interests. Saad Hariri represents everything the people revolted against. As long as people like him are the key players in Lebanese politics, Lebanon will remain stuck in a circle of corruption.
Opinion
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Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 7
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JESS D’AGOSTINO | COLUMN
Mixed emotions: balancing safety and sanity
T
he Washtenaw County Health Department’s stay-in-place order announcement was met with a mixture of emotions. Some were hardly surprised, with the rising COVID-19 cases and the nature of the week ahead being both the first Michigan football game day at home and Halloween. However, even without a stay-in-place order or a global pandemic, this is a stressful time of year. It is because of these additional stressors, that the stayin-place order made me particularly concerned for what it would mean for the well-being and mindfulness of those affected; now more than ever, we must learn how to adapt and celebrate in unorthodox ways. Though it may seem vague at first, I would argue that within ambiguity lies the true message of this piece: There is no need for specificity. Celebration for me likely feels very different from a celebration for you. The increasingly intolerable stress has been undeniably augmented by the details of the stay-in-place order. From the very beginning of the school year, it was already clear that college freshmen were missing out on major parts of the college experience my friends, peers and I feel so lucky to have had. Beyond the handlings and mishandlings of the pandemic by the University of Michigan administration, the unique spirit of the Leaders and Best has been missing since I returned to campus.
ARIES
If you can keep calm in the face of provocation, Aries, his can be an exceptional week for your career. Teamwork shows you in a good light, so don’t neglect your colleagues. It’s not always about going it alone or being top dog.
TAURUS
Dip your toe into exciting waters by being prepared to try something new. From exotic travel to adrenaline sports or intriguing affairs, you’re willing to take a risk now if something stirs your soul. Beyond your comfort zone, Taurus, life takes off.
Imagine adding midterms, the obstacles of remote learning and the constant fear that every time you leave your room you have a decent chance of exposing yourself to COVID-19 on top of an already lackluster foundation for the school year. Now consider the turbulent and emotionally draining political climate; it all builds upon each other and proves to be a fierce foe for even the strongest or stablest of psyches. As someone living in a onebedroom apartment, the stay-inplace order immediately terrified me. I had just submitted my last midterm and looked to my calendar for my weekly plans as a muchneeded detox. While everyone operates differently, it is proven that having something to look forward to — whether you write it down somewhere or add it to your calendar or whatnot — is an excellent way to provide yourself with necessary rewards and incentives, especially in times of duress. However, the stay-in-place order essentially canceled all of my plans, despite already being within COVID-19 guidelines. It would be ignorant for me to attempt to discuss the pandemic’s effect on the University without confronting the irrefutably irresponsible actions of some students on campus. The case numbers do not lie and a stayin-place order, while frustrating and potentially psychologically harmful, is at least supported by both qualitative and quantitative data.
So what do we do? It grows tiresome to continue telling others and ourselves to “look at the bright side,” when all we want to do is sing “Mr. Brightside.” I want game day to be a sea of maize and blue; I want 110,000 people in a stadium. I want the reverberation of a professor’s voice in Angell Hall, the white noise of a Blue Bus temporarily overpowering the hustle and bustle of students walking to class, even the sticky floors of a frat basement with the stench of cheap cleaning supplies and the incomparable sounds we took for granted in the pre-COVID-19 world. While this may read like a stream of consciousness instead of a concrete opinion, I think that is ultimately the best I can do to show you how I truly feel. It’s okay to feel uncertain and not perfectly cohesive in your perspective given the situation. I feel my morality more than ever before like the literal manifestations of Freud’s id and superego perched upon my shoulders. Despite having already had COVID-19 and now having antibodies, should I lock myself away in my one-bedroom apartment? How do we weigh the benefits and burdens of a stay-inplace order that in itself holds so many confusing contradictions?
Read more at MichiganDaily.com Jess D’Agostino can be reached at jessdag@umich.edu.
YOUR WEEKLY
LEO An easing of financial pressures does a lot of good for your anxiety and mental health, Leo. However, it’s important now that you take control of your own emotions. Don’t leave yourself vulnerable, mentally, to fluctuating external circumstances.
I
f there was any doubt before the pandemic that the term “st udentathlete” was oxy moronic, there isn’t any longer. My inbox in the week leading up to the Michigan football game against Minnesota included both g uidelines from the Universit y of Michigan about how to follow the Washtenaw Count y emergency order and emails from the Michigan Athletic Department reminding me about game day. The email on Oct. 20 from Universit y President Mark Schlissel announcing the stay-in-place order didn’t mention the term “essential workers,” but the exception for Universit y ’s
This is a healing week for a close relationship, Pisces, which will benefit from as much fun and laughter as possible. Socialize as a couple if you can, because you’ll love seeing each other in a new light. Mix and mingle, enjoy good company, and shine.
AQUARIUS
WHISPER
Messages from your dreams become easier to recall and interpret this week. Spend some time with a dream journal if you can – there is a lot if insight here which could change your life, Aquarius. Don’t dismiss what you can’t quite understand.
“I've made my peace with college, it is what it is.”
CAPRICORN You have the gift of the gab this week, Capricorn, so you’re able to put your opinions quite forcefully without coming across as insensitive or dogmatic. Turn this to your advantage if you want to get someone to agree to a new idea.
“Meat book.”
CANCER In this romantic week, communication between you and your sweetheart is almost telepathic. You can make an unbeatable team now, Cancer, as your shared goals and dreams are coming to fruition. If you’re single, look out for someone who shocks you.
Call them what they are: “Student-athletes” are essential workers
PICES
GEMINI Allow yourself to listen to your inner instincts. Your intuition is strong, and your mind is able to recognize things that your conscious may actively choose to ignore. In doing so, you will be able to choose the path that is best for you.
JESSIE MITCHELL | COLUMN
SAGITTARIUS
“in love with my best friend in love love love but I have to let it go.”
VIRGO Your superpower this week is your creativity, Virgo. You have a strong feel for lateral thinking and innovative ideas, or creations will get you noticed. Don’t feel that you have to do things the way they’ve always been done. Dare to be different.
LIBRA Loving support from your family means a great deal to you this week and you’ll feel blessed by those closest to you. If someone confides in you, Libra, it’s vital that you keep their confidence. Don’t turn this into an issue of trust.
Recognition at work is long overdue but welcome, nonetheless. This week, Sagittarius, stretch your ambitions by looking for new challenges. Not necessarily a new job, but new responsibilities within your existing role. You’re more than capable.
SCORPIO Your words have a lot of power and presence this week, and once the Sun arrives in your own sign, Scorpio, your magnetism and charisma are off the scale. All of this means that people are taking notice of you – so you’d better have something meaningful to say.
Read your weekly horoscopes from astrology.tv
athletes (nearly all of whom are underg raduates) made it clear that is what the Universit y has deemed them. The term “st udentathlete” was invented by the National Colleg iate Athletic Association to avoid labor laws. In 1955, a Fort Lewis A&M football player named Ray Dennison suf fered a fatal injur y during a game. When his widow f iled for workers’ compensation benef its for Dennison, a scholarship athlete, then NCA A executive director Walter Byers concocted a legal strateg y to ensure college athletes would not be seen as employees in the eyes of the law. The term “st udent-athlete” was born, invoking amateurism as a way to avoid both pay ment and liabilit y, and it st uck. A nd Ray Dennison’s wife lost her lawsuit. In 1984, Byers came out against the system that he had helped create, accusing the NCA A of exploiting the athletes under the g uise of amateurism. He stated that campus athletic prog rams had adopted a “neoplantation mentalit y ” where “the coach owns the athlete’s feet, the college owns the athlete’s body, and the athlete’s mind is supposed to comprehend a rule book that I challenge (the NCA A’s chief of enforcement) Dave Berst … to explain in rational terms to you inside of eight hours.” A recent NCA A policy change to allow athletes to prof it of f of their name, image and likeness is the f irst major step toward acknowledg ing that college athletes are not exactly amateurs, but that money would come from a third part y, not the NCA A. Schlissel has tried to keep up the pretense that the school’s athletes are, in-fact, st udents f irst. In May, he stated that there would not be football unless there were in-person classes. He is just barely able to keep that promise, even as underg raduates are under a stay-in-place order, by allowing “all classes that are substantially enhanced by in-person instruction” to continue in-person. According to an email from Universit y spokesman R ick Fitzgerald, about 10% of underg raduate classes still have some in-person components. Given on-campus residents can ret urn home and receive prorated room and board, in-person classwork is clearly not a major concern for most. Schlissel contends varsit y athletics pose lit tle risk of
transmit ting COV ID-19. Daily testing certainly helps mitigate the spread, but it ’s worth noting that the week of Oct. 17, the athletic department reported 26 cases. Not exactly nothing. Yes, college athletes get daily testing while reg ular underg raduate st udents more or less had to prove to Universit y Health Ser vice that someone who tested positive coughed in their mouth. To me, that ’s not the issue. Frontline workers should get frequent testing; they ’re put ting their bodies on the line af ter all. The issue is that we continue to pretend that college athletes are just like reg ular underg raduates, just in bet ter shape and with honed athletic talents. They aren’t. They are essential workers to the Universit y, as evidenced by their exception to the count y health department ’s order. But if we call them what they are, the jig is up. It ’s one thing to admit that the g rocer y store and its workers are essential. It ’s quite another to say that a football game, executed by unpaid athletes who earn their schools millions in exchange for a deg ree worth much less, is an essential ser vice in the midst of a global health crisis. It certainly would ma ke tailgating, even from home, less appealing if we reframed the game as watching essential workers risk debilitating, even lifethreatening illness (in addition to the risk of injur y they ta ke ever y game) for the purpose of entertainment and the Universit y ’s bot tom line. Some 36 years af ter Byers called for an end to the system he created, major news outlets largely continue to keep up the charade that college athletes are st udents f irst. The Daily Tar Heel, the Universit y of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s st udent newspaper, f inally had enough this year, announcing that they would no longer refer to college athletes as “st udent-athletes.” They will use “college athletes” or simply “athletes” or “st udents,” depending on the sit uation. These days, allow me to suggest “essential workers.” Is a change in terminolog y a solution to the blatant exploitation of college athletes for prof it? No. But saying the quiet part out loud is a start. Jessie Mitchell can be reached at jessiemi@umich.edu.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
RILEY DEHR | COLUMN
W
The bomb in your backyard
hen I went to Traverse City, Mich., this past March to visit my grandparents, I was amazed by the beauty of Old Mission Peninsula. The green and orange leaves of the apple and cherry orchards line a landscape of rolling hills that provided me with a 360-degree view of Grand Traverse Bay. Rustic, red farmhouses and 19th century cottages made the landscape even more idyllic. The Old Mission Lighthouse that sits at the tip of the peninsula gave me a view of Lake Michigan that stretched over the horizon. Few places, outside of national parks, have such awe-inspiring vistas. Dotting the yards of the homes lying on the lakefront, a bright green yard-sign managed to draw my attention away from the sweeping sight. The sign called for an end to the Line 5 oil pipeline, which transports crude oil through Michigan and into Canada: a topic I had heard about enough in my classes to have formed a knowledgeable opinion. Run by Enbridge Inc., this pipeline has already leaked up to a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. The section of the pipeline that worries the citizens of the Grand Traverse Bay area is located on the floor of Lake Michigan as it snakes its way across the straits of Mackinac. Due to repeated damage from anchoring vessels in recent years and the risk of a disastrous oil spill, there has been a push to shut down the pipeline. This reached a fever pitch soon after my trip, when Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a motion to shut down the pipeline, continuing a yearslong battle between Michigan and Enbridge. This challenge is just another example of the widespread pushback that often confronts oil pipelines and the risks that come with them. Opposition against pipelines has taken various forms, with northern Michiganders being able to express their will using political influence. Tribal nations standing against the Dakota Access Pipeline have faced physical violence in their fight against pollution. Police even shot protestors with water cannons to induce hypothermia
on freezing nights. People do not want rivers of oil running through their communities, despite pipelines actually being the safest method of oil transportation, because no matter which form oil is moved in, it will always threaten our environment and our communities. Even so, the worrisome effects of pipelines pale in comparison to the deadly consequences of their railway alternative. In 1951, deep under the plains of North Dakota, over 18 billion barrels’ worth of crude oil was discovered. Unable to extract it due to technology limitations, these Bakken shale oil fields sat dormant for the remainder of the century. In 2008, however, a new method of drilling, hydraulic fracking, allowed the once inaccessible oil to be extracted with relative ease. This sparked the “North Dakota Oil Boom” which made North Dakota the second largest oil producer in the United States by 2015. Oil companies decided to use the nation’s railways to transport the immense amount of crude oil being extracted to coastal refineries — in 2008, there were 9,500 rail cars moving crude oil, and by 2014 there were over 400,000. DOT-11 tanker cars, many developed to transport corn syrup, were often loaded full of thousands of gallons of highly f lammable crude oil and shipped through American cities. With such a rapid acceleration in the usage of this new means of oil transportation, little oversight was applied to the dubious practice. Overall, derailments of these tankers have caused over 3,272 evacuations, spilled almost 2.8 million gallons of oil and cost an estimated $45 million in damages and cleanup. Oil train derailments, however, can have even more deadly consequences, as it is not only a risky way to transport the material, but also utilizes trains which are not designed for products this f lammable. When a tanker is breached, massive fire spouts erupt that burn for days and often ignite the other tanks around them in a fiery chain reaction.
The explosive potential of this concoction of natural gas and oil parallels even the most brutal weapons of war. On a late summer night in 2013, 72 DOT-11 tank cars filled with Bakken shale oil derailed in the center of the city of LacMegantic, Canada, exhibiting this destructive potential. A crowded bar was pulverized instantly by the blast as 27 tank cars ran off the tracks at around 60 miles per hour, killing 47 people. The city was consumed by this inferno for days as firefighters waited helplessly for the oil to finish burning. The loss of 100,000 liters of oil into local rivers also left a toxic aftermath that is still confronting the town to this day. While this pushed Canada’s government to pass regulations regulating DOT-11 tank cars, these cars are still allowed to travel throughout the U.S. with no extra safety precautions until 2023. The black tanker cars that stream into many major American cities on a daily basis, from Chicago to Omaha, Neb., are disasters waiting to happen. Oil transportation providing a wide variety of unsavory and deadly consequences is yet another reason that our dependency on fossil fuels must be curbed. When I made my way into downtown Ann Arbor after my trip to Old Mission Peninsula, I saw a line of black oil tankers sitting on the railroad tracks near the Big House. I wondered, if the people of Ann Arbor knew about the potential infernos being shipped through town, would they too have yard signs calling for their banning? With each tanker capable of causing massive explosions in any of the cities they roll through, some of America’s most densely populated cities are at risk of a fiery, industrial disaster. While railroad companies and Republican legislators may be fine with hoping for the best until 2023, with the string of bad luck this new decade has already wrought, that’s not a bet I would like to take.
Riley Dehr can be reached at rdehr@umich.edu.
ALEXANDER NOBEL | COLUMN
A
Last line of defense
s we have seen out west and on the Gulf Coast, the effects of climate change are already impacting our everyday lives. As forest fires, hurricanes and other climaterelated disasters become more frequent, the likelihood of the government being able to help local communities decreases exponentially. We have already seen governments fail to protect their citizens during major hurricanes and in major health crises throughout the COVID19 pandemic. When a crisis occurs and governments are nowhere to be found, it is up to each community to organize itself in order to survive. Climate change makes it more likely that a disaster will strike in your area, but a strong community can withstand any crisis. In late October of 2012, walking around my neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn in New York City felt surreal. Stores and houses were boarded up. Fallen trees lay across streets and on electrical wires. There was a boat in the middle of a road. Soaked books and clothes littered the sidewalks. Hurricane Sandy had devastated the area, killing 48 and causing more than $70 billion in damages, and the small neighborhood of Red Hook in South Brooklyn was one of the hardest hit. With its long coastline on New York Harbor and its low elevation, much of the neighborhood was flooded. Red Hook residents were left with nothing, particularly those living in public housing, who were left without heat for the winter. Both city and state governments were slow to aid those who needed it most, leaving communities to fend for themselves. Following the breakup of Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement against growing income inequality, participants reconvened for a new mission. A group, Occupy Sandy, set up distribution hubs to allocate food
and equipment and organized teams to clear debris and clean out neighbors’ basements. In a time of chaos and uncertainty, it was the strength of the community that brought the residents out of the crisis — without any help from the government. This same sense of community self-sufficiency was seen in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Scott Crow, an anarchist organizer from Texas, went to New Orleans to look for his friend, whom he hadn’t heard from since the storm hit. He was dumbfounded by the lack of aid from the local, state and federal governments. Last year on a podcast, Crow said that he “saw the inefficiency of capitalism or governments in general, but (he) also saw the inefficiency of corporations to do anything about this,” leaving people with no choice but to fend for themselves. This prompted Crow, along with his friend and former Black Panther, Robert King, and a small group of locals to begin organizing to provide neighbors with food, health care, shelter and community defense. The community organizing expanded — and turned into something quite different than the usual post-disaster intervention. Crow said that his group wanted to “not just [try] to provide charity and support for people in that way that everyone does because everyone could see that there was a disaster … we wanted to use it as a pivoting point to rebuild neighborhoods block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood. Not in our image but in the image of what the people want.” The organization became known as the Common Ground Collective and adopted the inspiring slogan “solidarity not charity” in an attempt to emphasize its nonhierarchical, community-led structure. When New Orleans citizens needed
their government most, it was nowhere to be found — it was rather the community, catalyzed by Crow and his group, that uplifted those who most needed help in the middle of a disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of more than 220,000 Americans while devastating the economy and leaving millions jobless, once again putting pressure on community organizing. In our backyard in Michigan, local organizers in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti launched Washtenaw County Mutual Aid. Beginning in March, this group grew to more than 4,000 members helping with food distribution, rent payments and running errands for those who are immunocompromised. The mutual aid network complemented existing aid organizations and structures, bringing them together and making it easier for those who were struggling to find help. While Washtenaw County Mutual Aid no longer exists, there are still ways to help others in our community. As hundreds of students test positive for COVID-19, myself included, the question of mutual aid is no longer abstract or some historical curiosity. This is something that we should do for each other right now. If you’re sick, take care of yourself, but if you’re healthy take care of your community while still following the stay-inplace order guidelines. Offer to run to the grocery store and leave food on a friend’s porch. People are feeling isolated and scared, so check in on your friends and offer them support. In short, be there for each other. We must follow the experts and trust science, but we must also organize and strengthen our communities because, in the end, nobody is coming to save us. Alexander Nobel can be reached at anobel@umich.edu.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 8
JENNA SCHEEN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT JSCHEEN@UMICH.EDU
SOFIA TERENZIO | OP-ED
Who is really to blame for the outbreak?
A
fter the stay-in-place order went into effect Oct. 20, the University of Michigan made the New York Times. The “Leaders and Best” had contributed to a full-on outbreak of COVID19 in Washtenaw County, and the undergraduate students were potentially to blame. University President Mark Schlissel tried last week to completely absolve himself and the rest of the University administration of blame for the outbreak. I’m not surprised by the University’s unwillingness to admit responsibility for their failed reopening plans. According to them, it’s neither the lack of testing and contact tracing nor the lack of enforcement of the arbitrary rules that they have created. It’s our — the undergraduates’ — fault, the same students who will end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a university that doesn’t care. When the Graduate Employees’ Organization went on strike because the University refused to meet any of its demands, it was the students who suffered, graduate and undergraduate alike, when our classes were canceled. Once again, this stay-in-place order hurts the undergrads academically as our few remaining in-person classes have been moved entirely online.
While undergrads acknowledge that we hold a lot of the responsibility for spreading the virus, it was the University that put us into an environment where we could not thrive or make the right decisions. Speaking anecdotally, I’ve suffered Zoom fatigue from weeks’ worth of virtual classes, constant stress over looming assignments and a frequent loss of focus after staring at my computer for hours. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’ve made risky decisions to hang out with friends because I needed the social interaction to sustain my mental health. The University has exempted student-athletes from the stayin-place order because of their low percentage of positive cases. This is obviously because studentathletes are routinely tested asymptomatically. It is clear where the priorities of this administration lie — in the students that they can profit off of. If they can test our athletes, they can test the rest of our students. Other universities of similar capacity, like the University of Illinois, have tested their students twice weekly since the start of school. If one can diagnose and monitor cases before they have a chance to infect others, the magnitude of
ZOE ZHANG | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT ZOEZHANG@UMICH.EDU
community spread will be lower, as we have seen in student-athletes here at the University. As the best research institution in the country, it is embarrassing, to say the least, that only a small fraction of the student body has had access to asymptomatic testing. I love my school because of my supportive Graduate Student Instructors and amazing professors, and it’s whereI’ve met some of my very best friends. We are not the ones failing the University — the administration, specifically Schlissel, has failed us. We grew up in the wake of 9/11, the rise of school shootings and now, we are living through a pandemic. Standing up to this University’s administration isn’t going to intimidate us. It’s time to be vocal. Tell your professors how you feel. Contact Provost Susan M. Collins expressing your concern. We are past due for real, lasting change from the top down. Schlissel needs to go before his lack of leadership and incompetence drag us down with him. Sofia Terenzio is a sophomore in the College of Literature, Science & the Arts and can be reached at terenzio@umich.edu.
Opinion
9 — Wednesday, November 4, 2020
KAREEM RIFAI | COLUMN
T
Free Kylie Moore-Gilbert
hought to be the only non-Iranian dualnational currently imprisoned by the Iranian government, Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been Iranian custody since 2019. Moore-Gilbert, a BritishAustralian citizen, was a lecturer in Islamic studies at Melbourne University, where she specialized in politics, authoritarianism and popular movements in the Arab Gulf region. She was detained while traveling in Iran under accusations of espionage without any public disclosure of evidence for her alleged crimes. The Australian government described her detention as baseless and politically-motivated, which goes along with human rights advocates accusing Iran of routinely arresting innocent foreign nationals and holding them hostage for political purposes. Multiple reports of mistreatment and abuse surfaced during the first two years of Moore-Gilbert’s 10-year sentence at Iran’s Evin Prison. Moore-Gilbert was beaten by prison guards after forming a prison choir as an act of resistance to her detention. Sources also stated that MooreGilbert received treatment for injuries on her arms, along with severe bruising across her entire body. The husband of recently-freed Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe alleged that Moore-Gilbert was held in solitary confinement “at a level of abuse that’s beyond egregious.” While held in Evin, MooreGilbert was offered her release on the condition that she would work as a spy for the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Letters reveal that Moore-Gilbert furiously denied the offer, writing, “I am not a
spy. I have never been a spy and I have no interest to work for a spying organization in any country. When I leave Iran, I want to be a free woman and live a free life, not under the shadow of extortion and threats.” In July 2020, Moore-Gilbert’s situation became even more dire as she was transferred to Iran’s notorious Qarchak Prison for women, which the U.S. State Department describes as an institution responsible for extrajudicial killings and torture. Human rights groups have detailed the prison’s deplorable conditions including overflows of raw sewage, inedible food and undrinkable water. Additionally, as Iran maintains its status as one of the most COVID-19-stricken nations in the world, sources have claimed that Qarchak regularly has disease outbreaks. Moore-Gilbert reportedly was at one point extremely physically ill, with a fellow prisoner saying, “after one meal she became sick. Kylie was terrified of the officers… she left me in tears and anxious. In a publicized recording, an exasperated Kylie can be heard saying, “I can’t eat anything. I feel so very hopeless… I am so depressed.” News of political hostagetaking has become a familiar occurrence in the West in recent years, especially in America. Most recently, Americans were subject to the dramatic and tragic story of Otto Warmbier. In January of 2016, Warmbier was detained by North Korean officials for allegedly stealing a poster in his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea and was subsequently sentenced to 15 years of physical labor. Images and videos of distraught and pale Warmbier, accompanied by public outcry, brought the Trump
administration’s attention to the case, eventually ending with Warmbier’s release on humanitarian grounds. Horrifically, Warmbier was released in a comatose state and subsequently died. Officials claimed that he had suffered from a case of botulism despite extensive evidence that he was a subject of beatings or torture. Warmbier’s father, Fred Warmbier, said in a declaration to a U.S. federal court, “it is unbelievable to me that North Korea would send Otto home as a vegetable, with scars on his body and crooked teeth.” As with Warmbier’s case, Moore-Gilbert’s detention is completely baseless. Authoritarian regimes like those of North Korea and Iran continue to use the lives of innocent freeworld citizens as pawns for political gain, often torturing their victims psychologically and physically, and in Warmbier’s case, signing their death sentence. As Australia’s relationship with Iran becomes more strained, especially due to Australia’s troop commitment to the U.S. coalition in Iraq, the Australian government’s quiet diplomatic approach to securing Moore-Gilbert’s freedom has resoundingly failed. Moore-Gilbert’s case is of particular concern as her imprisonment represents an increasingly hostile environment for researchers and academics with focuses on authoritarianism. The world must hear her plea for help, “I am entirely alone in Iran. I have no friends or family here and in addition to all the pain I have endured here, I feel like I am abandoned and forgotten.” Kareem Rifai can be reached at krifai@umich.edu.
LIZZY PEPPERCORN | COLUMN
W
Facing the social media dilemma
hile I tried to ignore the reality for as long as possible, I recently forced myself to face my addiction: social media. For many years I have been a user of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, VSCO and now TikTok. It never felt as though I used these applications more than any of my peers. I would try to not be on my phone when around friends. The only exceptions were when I wanted to upload a Snapchat selfie or some event occurred that required me to instantly look at my phone so my Instagram or Snapchat stories would be in better view. My life didn’t seem to revolve around social media posts, except for when casually hanging out with friends would turn into hour-long photo-taking sessions for Instagram. These would be followed by an hour-long session of staring at our phones editing, posting and checking to see if people had commented on the new shirts we were so excited about wearing, or if our bodies fit a certain beauty standard or if we looked like we were “thriving.” From where I stood, I couldn’t pinpoint a way social media was making my life worse. My grades were good. I had plenty of friends and healthy relationships. It seemed that the anxieties over feeling left out, body image issues, validation from peers and whether or not his “Snap score” increased while he still hadn’t responded for hours were normal stresses that all my friends experienced. Whenever I pondered if my social media use was bad for my mental health, I concluded that not having it would be worse because I might lose my connections with longdistance friendships, relate less to friends and family that were experiencing the same things online and lose my platform where I was able to prove that I was “living my best life” to almost 2,000 people, most of which I would probably never see or speak to. Then I went public. On Instagram, there is a feature where you can make your public account a “business account” and get access to how many people are viewing your account, saving your pictures, direct-messaging your pictures and more. While I have usually considered myself a generally
down-to-earth person, I found myself impulsively checking these statistics whenever I would post. The rabbit hole would only deepen as I would find myself checking who had liked certain things, viewed different stories or more importantly, who hadn’t. Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice president of growth at Facebook, says in his interview in the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” that social media apps are designed to “psychologically figure out how to manipulate you as fast as possible, and then give you back that dopamine hit,” regardless of if we realize we are falling into the trap or not. The validation of a like, comment, tag or direct message may entice you to constantly check the app in search of those dopamine hits. Around two weeks ago, I realized that I was no longer living for myself. I felt pressure to exercise and look fit so that people wouldn’t comment on my weight. I wanted to have my social media feeds be full of pictures with friends and smiles to ensure my followers that my social life is thriving. It felt good when 50 people would take the time to comment on my pictures about how amazing I was. I thought that Instagram was helping me build my self-confidence by allowing me to show off my life and feel proud. While posts do achieve this self-confidence boost to an extent, I started to question why receiving this validation in person from the people I see and am currently friends with isn’t enough. How is a like from my elementary school crush or my middle school ex-best friend impacting me? All that should matter is how I feel about myself. Why am I letting the actions and opinions of anyone but myself impact my emotions and selfesteem? In an attempt to decide what I wanted to do going forward with my social media accounts, I deleted the Instagram app for a week. The number of times I went onto my phone and subconsciously looked for the app shocked me. I didn’t think I checked the app that many times a day. While it felt freeing to be Instagram-free for a week, I didn’t feel truly free knowing that my account was still out there for strangers to view and judge.
Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist at Google and co-founder for the Centre for Humane Technologies, explains in his “The Social Dilemma” interview, “Social media starts to dig deeper and deeper down into the brain stem and take over kids’ sense of self-worth and identity.” While I told myself I was using Instagram to express myself and feel confident, it began to feel like my account was an entirely separate identity I had to maintain. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, social circles have shrunk. Many individuals are only spending time with their closest friends and not meeting many new people. People are now solely making their judgments and impressions off of social media and pictures. I realized people aren’t meeting me and getting to know me right now — they are only judging from a feed of pictures and cheesy captions on a small phone screen. The ability of others to form judgements of me from my posts and not their actual interactions with me bothered me. So, I deleted my account entirely and started over. My new account has around 100 followers, made entirely of people I respect, know and can call friends. While I still find myself checking the app throughout the day, there is no longer a rabbit hole to fall into. While challenging, I cut out any followers that may impact my emotions or mental health. It is tempting to give in to the validation and attention search that social media is programmed to make you crave. What is scary about the social media dilemma is that we do not usually realize how deeply it impacts us. Social media is not considered a serious addiction that needs to be addressed, since everyone is suffering from the same addiction. However, the harm it causes to mental health, relationships and self-identity are real and substantial. I urge all users of social media to take a break, reflect on how your life is controlled or impacted by social media and take steps to acknowledge the social media dilemma and break free from its grip on society. Lizzy Peppercorn can be reached at epepperc@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
CHRISTINA KIM | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT CKIMC@UMICH.EDU
NYLA BOORAS | COLUMN
Weight loss won’t protect you from COVID
W
eight Stigma Awareness Week happened recently, and its call for everyone, not just those in larger bodies, to understand why weight stigma is important moved me to use this platform to portray the issue. And what better example of how weight stigma has hurt those in larger bodies than its infiltration into the COVID-19 risk factors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asserted that people categorized as “obese” by body mass index standards are at increased risk of falling ill from COVID-19. But a look beyond the coveted CDC-label and into the research shows that these are preliminary findings at best and, on the whole, based on weak evidence. When organizations like the CDC and media outlets boast that higherweight individuals are specifically in danger of contracting COVID-19, they only point to three preliminary reports released since April that cite high BMI as a risk factor. The first report overstates the percentage of “obese” patients by failing to also state that the percentage of individuals in this category in the United States is comparable, and could thus be a proportionate representation. The second report found that those with a BMI above 35 were more likely to be put on a ventilator, and the third report was a preliminary finding that those with a BMI over 30 have a higher risk of hospitalization and intensive-care admission if they’re less than 60 years old. Weight didn’t appear important for those above 60. Yet all of these are flawed in that they don’t control for social determinants of health, such as race, socioeconomic status and quality of care. These determinants are born out of structural racism and weight stigma is their sibling. The social determinants of health are a branch of the many systems of oppressions with us today, all of which are rooted in slavery, discrimination and racism. The system of oppression that is most at play in this particular case pertaining to COVID-19 is the health care system that disproportionately neglects the Black community and people of color, not necessarily because those working in it are explicitly racist, but because they exist under structurally racist systems. For a better understanding of these determinants, it’s worth examining the redlining policies that concentrated Black people into communities with limited access to quality health care, not to mention foods with highly nutritious profiles. Policies like these paved the way for health disparities, and by virtue of doing this covertly, they’ve also left room to allocate individual blame.
Thus, “poor lifestyle choices” cannot be blamed for health disparities, like those in COVID-19 where Black individuals have had the highest rates of complications and death from the virus. Evoking an individual-focused argument does great harm by dismissing and excusing the racist structure that has fostered it. Weight stigma feeds on this dismissal and excusal, and stigma towards larger-bodied individuals becomes an accepted social norm. Doctors’ failure to provide adequate care and instead assert that an individual’s weight is the root of their problem, and proceed to prescribe weight loss, is a great example of this stigma in a medical setting. In everyday society, stigma takes many forms, from outright telling someone to lose weight because you think you care about them to sneering at a largerbodied individual at the gym. Nonetheless, a new study of more than ten thousand individuals with the virus found that high BMI was not a risk factor for hospitalization, ventilation or mortality. I learned of this study through a great podcast, Food Psych, that discussed weight stigma and its disproportionate effect on the Black community and people of color, where the social determinants of health I mentioned earlier are the main predictors of future health outcomes. Contrary to what some are led to believe by sources highlighting the disproportionate rates of illness and death by the virus in the Black community, the virus does not discriminate. The health care system, on the other hand, most definitely does, and that’s why we have such stark disparities in the demographics of those who contract the virus. It has nothing to do with race, because the color of your skin does not make you inherently more susceptible to the virus, yet it has everything to do with race, in that minority communities have been severely limited in their access to quality care. And because the prevalence of higher BMIs in minority communities is wellestablished, it’s easy for our society — medical professionals included — to resort to weight stigma and place blame for a systematic problem on individuals. Patrilie Hernandez, an Early Childhood Nutrition & Health Specialist and the founder of Embody Lib, was the guest on Food Psych that beautifully articulated how individual responsibility is skewed. “I’m not trying to say that our individual choices do not matter,” she started. “They do. And when it comes to lifestyle, sure they matter, but they only really start to matter when it comes to our health, when we’re free from the restraints
of all these systems that create the health disparities.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. At this point in time, we can’t say definitely that a higher body weight is the reason an individual becomes infected or further falls very ill with the virus when there are so many other factors in place. If my POLSCI 300 class has taught me anything, it’s that substantive conclusions cannot be made when other confounding variables aren’t accounted for. And here, the confounding variables that are the various social determinants of health are complex and not accounted for in these studies. Moreover, the studies we do have on weight stigma right now continue to suggest that the stigma itself does the most harm. Still, let’s say we were to believe that a higher body weight in itself put someone at a heightened risk for COVID-19. What can be done as a result? We know for a fact that diets don’t work, with most of the lost weight being regained within five years and sometimes even more weight gain than what was originally lost. So you can’t tell people to just lose weight because that implies intentionally restricting food, and that is a diet. So, what’s the next step? Unless the goal is weight cycling, which is known to be harmful, a restrictive diet is not the answer. In the end, the answer is still then to adopt healthy behaviors, regardless of current weight and without weight loss goals. But that’s on an individual level. You can’t run before you learn how to walk. The overarching, multifaceted problem is still weight stigma, the harm it brings to people in larger bodies by limiting their access to high-quality health care — and its parent, systematic racism born out of centuries of racism. I’m not stating definitively that a higher weight doesn’t increase your risk of contracting and falling ill to COVID-19. It very well could. But the outright claims that it does — that an “obese” BMI increases your risk — is unsubstantiated right now. And again, if it does, that puts individuals in larger bodies between a rock and a hard place because it is also true that intentional weight loss efforts are a fruitless endeavor most of the time. In fact, weight cycling or weight gain past the individual’s initial starting weight are likely going to be the longterm results. Finally, all this focus on weight as a risk factor, and weight loss to correct for it, allows weight stigma to continue to fly under the radar, and the social determinants of health continue to be reproduced the longer we continue to neglect its racist roots. Nyla Booras can be reached at nbooras@umich.edu.
MADELYN VERVAECKE | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT MIVERVAE@UMICH.EDU
10 — Wednesday, November 4 , 2020
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THE B-SIDE: COMFORT
THE B-SIDE: COMFORT
The reasons that we’re The B-Side: still watching television Closing the Penguin Cafe ANYA SOLLER Daily Arts Writer
They put TVs in hospital rooms. You don’t think twice about it while you’re there, probably because you’re distracted by whatever reason you’re there in the first place. The wall-mounted, boxy television set perches in the corner of a bare room reeking of antiseptic and bodily fluid. Sometimes it’s tuned into a generic game show with a host that tries his best to mimic a more charismatic person. Or it plays the kind of daytime soap opera that exists only to be background noise to drown out the silence between the beeps of heart rate monitors and IV drips. It sits, and it watches. It sees you hunched over in a plastic chair with just enough padding to prevent complaints. It sees you hunched over and fighting back tears and the bone-aching heaves that come with desperation and grief. It sees you propped up on pillows with a needle in your arm and stickers on your chest that leave a gooey residue that won’t go away after three showers. It sees you dazedly lifting up your arm for the nurse to take your vital signs in the middle of the night. It sees a doctor point at a chart of a pain scale from zero to ten with little cartoon faces beneath the numbers because they know you’re hurting and demand you tell them just how much. There is a TV above you, and the sound is off. You don’t always need to hear it to know it’s there. It will always be there, no matter how many familiar faces and complete strangers come and go. In fact, it’s one of the few pieces of hospital furniture that doesn’t come with wheels for trips up and down the wide, cavernous elevators. Of all the things to bolt into the wall of a room no one wants to be in, they chose a TV. They put TVs in hospital rooms because they know you need it.
If movies represent the spectacle of show business, the magnitude of blockbusters, the insane celebrity of its stars, TV represents all things small. A miniature version of the silver screen, television arrived in homes and quickly replaced the radio as the hearth of the house. Furniture was arranged around a grainy black and white screen and stayed there indefinitely. Instead of intimate fireside chats with President Roosevelt, Americans of the early 1950s tuned in to reassuring domestic sitcoms like “Mary Kay and Johnny” and “I Love Lucy.” As a formal update of the radio, the TV had to prove itself valuable in the lives of consumers. Rather than opt for the theatrics of cinema, television burrowed its way into the daily routine of the country and offered a constant stream of content into the home. News broadcasts, comedy and variety shows and talent competitions gave television a broad range for appealing to every member of the family. And at the time, there was nothing more important than protecting the American nuclear family. The TV forced itself into the home until it became a fixture so permanent, no one could consider it anything but essential. The attachment that the American public felt to the television laid the foundation for an entire media industry built upon an unspoken trust between the consumer and the consumed. The images on the TV screen reflected the desires of the people who watched it. Light entertainment about everyday American life has remained a constant since the days of “I Love Lucy,” partially because the post-war “return to normalcy” period never really ended. In the 1960s, audiences could flip between the civil rights movement to “The Andy Griffith Show” to the newest casualties of Vietnam. With more access to information, more viewers demanded to see who they were,
who they wanted to be and how their country fit into the same rabbit-eared box that a family like theirs could. The smaller scale of the TV widened the scope of what audiences saw as belonging to them. The television gave the people ownership of an entire medium. It was built for them, targeted at them, so fundamentally connected to their lives that it created a new, more intimate relationship with viewers. That intimacy has only strengthened over time. Despite its many technological competitors for America’s attention, the television still remains the center of our homes. The couches still face the screen, whether it’s playing Netflix or cable. The advent of streaming services has only increased its presence in pop culture because now nearly every program is available somewhere for you to rewatch over and over again. Unlike movies, TV shows have hours of content to feed its audience; you don’t have to stop watching. It doesn’t have to end. It will always be there, sitting patiently on its stand in the center of your living room, waiting for you to come home. You lift the remote to your TV and see the nurse call button just below the volume adjuster. There’s nothing on, but there’s always something on, so you start scrolling through the channels. You flip to “SpongeBob SquarePants” and laugh at a stupid starfish who lives under a rock. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen, or at least it feels that way right now. You flip to “The Office” and realize you’d still rather be here than at work where your boss makes Michael Scott look like a genius. You flip to “M.A.S.H.” because you want to remember what it was like when you were a child and could look up to brave doctors with good hearts and half as much paperwork as the ones making their rounds to your room.
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
VIVIAN ISTOMIN Daily Arts Writer
The only people I’ve shown the Penguin Cafe Orchestra to are Diana and Stephen. Both had vastly different reactions. Stephen has really taken to it. I’m sure that Diana’s forgotten about it by now. I didn’t expect Stephen to become so preoccupied with their final studio album, Union Cafe. I only played one song for him out of its countless instrumentals, but in just 10 days I’ll be teaching him how to play “Silver Star of Bologna” on piano. I know he’s right. There’s just something about their music that also leaves me so at ease. Currents of musical pacification are what decorated my midteenage years, after all. * * * It’s nice to call back to that time. Specifically the early mornings Diana drove me to school down her chosen dirt roads, trading traffic on the paved route for an evermorphing collection of potholes that thumped under our tires. A slow hollow wind always pierced our ears — something you only ever hear in a passenger seat. Maybe sounding from the tires. Probably from the speed. On top of that was whatever I was making us listen to on our way. Sometimes my face would grow hot with embarrassment if it was something particularly intense. A song by Animal Collective. A music video played off of YouTube, added sound effects still intact. She always had a limit to what she would let me play. A quick press of a button would skip the song or turn the volume down to negligible levels. She’d make a facetious remark as she continued to stare out at
the back of a car in front of us. This was a quiet ritual. We were both half-asleep. Even though she had run that morning. Even though she’d already had two cups of coffee. I had my eyes closed in the darker months. There wasn’t much to look at, with a stray streetlamp or harsh headlight blinding us from behind. I wanted to grasp a couple last
I would look out the window and just sort of dream, imagining myself following those power lines all the way, wherever they’d guide me moments of rest before the day really began. The early autumn months were different, though. Rays from the rising sun would pierce through a deep, multicolored foliage. They shined through the thick fog that lamely hovered over the soccer fields, on the huge grass paths beneath electrical lines that cut through a small patch of forest. I would look out the window and just sort of dream, imagining myself following those power lines all the way, wherever they’d guide me. A classic adolescent fantasy.
THE B-SIDE: COMFORT
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The Penguin Cafe Orchestra has always been an instrumental band. Their melodies give me peace. They give Stephen peace. Diana never skipped their music. “Cutting Branches For a Temporary Structure” always played unabated. We’d sit in silence. Like Stephen and I do now. I know she had work on her mind, what was important for that day, where she needed to be. But it was a found harmonium, a solitary piano that those thoughts rested on. No sleep aides in emptying a mind. Formless. Thoughtless. “Penguin Cafe Single” carried me in my daydreams of escaping into nature. It’s like being a child, lifted to bed by large arms after falling asleep on the downstairs couch. Thoughtless. It’s nice to pass it on. Or maybe just the new memories attaching to a band that’s like a forgotten friend. Maybe he’ll play “Vega” at his wedding. Maybe when I see her at the park again I’ll ask her if she remembers “Perpetuum Mobile”. All the sounds made by a band that ended by the hand of tragedy stay with me, tracing small slivered visions of my midyouth. It’s easier to remember now than ever. I’m penning a story. It’s personal and vulnerable and slightly obtuse. All the good makings. There’s so much safety in the past. A seemingly concrete set of events. On the page. Trapped in ink. When a distant past melds with the present, however, that’s when the future loses its fearsomeness. My indecipherable journal entry is floating now. I wrote it all by myself. Please don’t land. Daily Arts Writer Vivian Istomin can be reached at vivaust@umich.edu.
THE B-SIDE: COMFORT
Dancing in the moonlight Finding comfort in the with strangers on campus strangeness of ‘Coraline’
movie, out of the darkness appears MADELEINEVIRGINIAGANNON a jogger. A shirtless jogger. A very Daily Arts Writer fit, good-looking, shirtless jogger. A very fit, very good-looking, It is comforting to think that shirtless and male jogger who, despite everything that has against all reason and logic, stopped changed, the twilight hours of my breathlessly to ask: “What dance is that? Do you college career arrive just as my first taste of adulthood started three know how to do this?” Followed by his awkward mime of a completely years ago: with a dance. Full-of-myself, eager and unintelligible dance move. Seized by the reckless daring incredibly naive, the person I was in the fall of 2018 seems like a stranger only abs and fairytale moonlight in some aspects. By the time the can bring about, I boldly told him, move-in flurry of activity had boiled “Just dance it with me, then I’ll down to a familiar routine, the fall know.” That’s right — I danced with chill had already set in. At the time, only seventeen, I felt untethered. the cute, shirtless jogger, under Adrift and far from home, I didn’t the moonlight, at midnight, with know how to anchor myself back the Michigan “M” as my witness. to the Earth. I was an adult — but at Then he thanked me, and jogged off into the dark. I never did meet that the same time, not really. Suffice to say, college jogger again — Jogger-boy, if you’re independence didn’t meld with my out there, call me. Freshman year, you could say, teenage reality until months after my official “arrival.” I always like started with a bit of a bang, toasted to say that college really started one by a dance. Junior year, unfortunately, has Wednesday evening in October. It was freezing, but then again, had a distinct lack of attractive Michigan always is. It was freezing, joggers (let alone men) to break up dark and nearing midnight, but the monotony of quarantine. You we didn’t care. No, buoyed by the can’t have it all, I guess. Junior year euphoria of a night spent swing does, however, have one redeeming dancing in the warm, heated quality: dancing. When the walls of August ballrooms of the Michigan League, the cold was more than tolerable. lockdown began to close in, I would My friend and I leaned against each rescue myself by dancing; When other, drunk on shared happiness. the paranoia of the pandemic set Hours spent twirling and whirling in, or the fear of America’s political the night away left us on unsteady future overwhelmed my mind, feet. It was the happiest I had felt in I danced; And when my anxiety loomed overhead with sleepless a long time. We danced our way home, too. nights, itchy skin, grinding teeth Triple-stepping our way down and tight pain coiled in my chest, I the Ingalls Mall avenue; spinning knew what would save me. So, if you happened across a around street lamps in imitation of “Singing in the Rain”; dancing the strange girl dancing by herself Charleston on the pavement, on the on campus, consider the mystery grass, on the stone benches of the solved. Like clockwork, when the Diag and down the steps of Hatcher sun began to set, I set out to work. Library. In the way only a freshman Some nights, I would stake out a or graduating senior can, we even spot by the UMMA; Others would dared to dance teasingly around the find me by the diag, or in the hidden block “M.” Now, my blood runs cold corners and pathways sequestered around campus. Sometimes it was just thinking about it. Then, like a gratuitous Hallmark visibility that I needed –– to affirm
to myself that I could still be seen, heard, witnessed by someone. Occasionally, it was simply me, myself and the ‘20s crooning of Fats Waller. You might wonder why dancing is so grounding for me. The simple answer is that dance, like other artforms, is driven by expression — The hops, skips, spins and dips of swing act as a conduit to channel out the tension, anger and fear that builds up. The longer answer is memory. My grandfather, a University alum from the ‘50s, once swing danced on this very campus. When I dance on these same streets, there is an undeniable connection and sense of relief: The knowledge that someone else has been here before, experienced what I have experienced and somehow continued on buoys me from pessimism and doubt. Swing dancing, too, is special in itself. From the ‘20s Big Band of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman to the ‘50s crooners of Sinatra and Dean Martin, swing is old fashioned, like me. It’s an act of indulgence in everything vintage, from the songs, to the clothes and even the dance-moves. More than that, swing is fun. Some of the steps have odd names (like “shin splints” or the “Charleston”), the acrobatic moves can feel circus-like and the musicians can be just as humorous as any comedian. It’s showbiz, baby. Swing dancing, for me, is comfort. Even if I do look like a crazed cat-lady or ghost of Christmas past dancing around campus at night. I think, however, that during unprecedented times like these, we could all use some time to let loose, to go out dancing. Before I close the final chapter of my Michigan years, I’d like to be able to end the story with “and everybody was dancing in the moonlight.” Daily Arts Writer Madeleine Virginia Gannon can be reached at mvmg@umich.edu.
TATE LAFRENIER Daily Arts Writer
Usually, when I discuss the movie “Coraline” with other people, vague memories of childhood trauma and unease creep into the conversation, as countless children were given nightmares by this delightfully creepy children’s flick. And for good reason: The premise of a spider-lady threatening to sew buttons into your eyes while pretending to be your mother is deeply unsettling. OK, the plot is actually a bit more complex than that: Eleven-yearold Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and her family move across the country where, in her new home, Coraline discovers an idyllic parallel world occupied by her “Other Mother.” Of course, I’m sure most kids forgot about those small details once the spiderlady came out. But I never had this experience with “Coraline.” “Coraline” has actually been a source of comfort to me in the past. It probably helped that I watched it after the period of my life when I was scared of the dark, but there’s something deeply charming about it that captivated me on my first watch. I remember having a particularly rough day during my freshman year of high school. I was at a point in my life where my mental health was finally starting to stabilize, but for some odd reason, this day I was on the verge of tears. I may have been agonizing over some social interaction, or maybe I was just feeling insecure, but I just couldn’t calm myself down. The night dragged on as I began to realize I needed to distract myself, so I resolved to watch a movie. I’d been meaning to
watch “Coraline” for a while, but until that point, I never had the time or the energy to do so. Naturally, I decided that was as good of a time as ever to finally watch it. As I sat onto my bedroom floor, gently sipping my cup of mint tea, I started streaming the movie on my phone. It was difficult not to immediately be drawn in. In spite of being stressed moments before, I soon
Every scene had personality, and the smallest details added to the overall ambience of the film
got lost in the world that director Henry Sellick built, taking joy in the oddities and wonders of both the “Other” world and the boring “real” world. The stopmotion animation, with richly realized colors and delicately crafted environments, was mesmerizing. The opening shot with neighbor Mr. Bobinski (Ian McShane, “John Wick”) doing handstands on the roof of the washed-out Pink Palace Apartments showed an incredible attention to detail and atmosphere. This becomes even more apparent when the real world is contrasted against the Other world, with vibrant
and bright colors and none of the “boringness” Coraline hates so much. Every scene had personality, and the smallest details added to the overall ambience of the film. However, none of this compared to the charm of the film’s writing and characters. I can’t describe the emotions I felt when I realized that Coraline’s two 80-year-old neighbors, Misses Spink (Jennifer Saunders, “Absolutely Famous”) and Forcible (Dawn French, “French and Saunders”), were retired exotic dancers, with credits such as “King Leer” and “Julius SeesHer” to their names, but this sort of unabashed playfulness pervades the movie. The characters are at times so bizarre, so eccentric, that suppressing a laugh proves really difficult, and I definitely needed a laugh when I first sat down to watch “Coraline.” By the time I had finished the film I felt better. Having finished my second cup of tea, and a bit bleary-eyed, I finally went to bed, but with a feeling of warmth. The movie itself wasn’t inherently heart-warming, but the love and care put into it certainly was. Since that night in freshman year of high school, “Coraline” has always held a warm place in my heart. Now, however, I take comfort in it for a different reason. When I watch it, I think of the people who were in my life back then, and of all the good memories we had. I think of the day after I first watched the film, when a couple of my friends helped ease my anxiety. I think of a warm cup of tea, slowly emptying as my anxieties are gradually pushed away.
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Arts
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 11
Omar Apollo’s new minialbum explores identity NORA LEWIS For The Daily
Did anyone else feel the need to completely reinvent themselves during quarantine? Maybe you were struck with the urge to dye your hair blue, take up skateboarding or even try a hand at baking (during that weird period in April when everyone started making sourdough)? For 23-year-old musician Omar Apollo, the past few months in isolation have meant rewriting an entire album. The Indiana native, now residing in Los Angeles, had high hopes for a full project release and tour in the upcoming year, but, unsurprisingly, the pandemic threw a wrench in these plans. But instead of waiting for the indeterminate return of live musical performances, Apollo decided to scrap much of the material from his forthcoming album and put out a project more fitting of the circumstances. The final product, Apolonio, is a glossy and confident mini-album exploring adolescent struggles in middle America, sexuality and rising stardom. Despite the album’s run time of only 26 minutes, Apolonio manages to cover considerable ground in terms of style. On
tracks like “I’m Amazing” and “Kamikaze,” Apollo plays around with his familiar laid-back pop sound, seen previously on past EPs Friends (2019) and Stereo (2018). “I’m Amazing” instantly pops as an opener thanks to bubbly production from Michael Uzowuru and Blake Slatkin, producers who’ve collectively worked with artists like Frank Ocean, Donald Glover and Gracie
For 23-year-old musician Omar Apollo, the past few months in isolation have meant rewriting an entire album. Abrams. On “Stayback” and “Hey Boy,” Apollo delivers sultry funk and R&B, with a seductive feature from Colombian American songstress Kali Uchis on the latter. Apollo also digs into his Chicano roots on the Spanish corrido track “Dos Uno Nueve (219),” paying homage to the style of narrative ballad popular among traditional
Mexican communities. The song alludes to Apollo’s hometown area code, recounting instances of discrimination faced while growing up in the predominatlywhite suburbs of Hobart, Indiana. As the child of two immigrants from Guadalajara, Apollo has shared in previous interviews the very real struggles of food insecurity and poverty he faced throughout his upbringing. Now, as he sings on “Dos Uno Nueve (219),” “we have plenty to eat.” It’s a tale of redemption, one in which Apollo simultaneously celebrates his roots and lets go of the toxicity of the past. Between honeyed vocals and grooveworthy guitar riffs, Apollo touches on another deeply personal theme: his muchspeculated-about sexuality. Though never declared outright on the project, tracks like “Bi Fren” paint a picture of stifled small town romances and heartbreak. Apollo professes, “I still like him, I still like him / I used to drive around your block without no license,” as if his swirling thoughts and desires chase him around the neighborhood in circles. Apollo tends to keep the subject of his sexuality close to the vest in interviews, but he’s dropped some not-so-subtle hints on previous works like the 2017 track “Beauty Boy.” He sings
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longingly, “I want to say I love him / I want to say I love him / You take all my love / I’m afraid I can’t love no one again.” It seems that since then, Apollo has broken out of his shell of discretion, bringing the topic to the forefront of the “Stayback” music video released in early August. Directed by friend Aidan Cullen, the video follows Apollo as he navigates a bustling night out. Throughout the video, he exchanges furtive glances with a presumed male love interest who’s seated at a table with his girlfriend. The two steal tense glances from across the party, until Apollo finally stumbles defeatedly into an empty motel room to shelter from his rejection. As the music fades away, our mystery man finally appears in the doorway before the credits roll. Beneath the bright visuals and rich bassline, the
“Stayback” video proves Apollo’s yearning remains unabated, even if he’s grown more comfortable expressing his identity to the world. In many ways, Apollo has graduated from his days of DIY bedroom pop. Not only does Apolonio stand as his most genrebending work to date, but it marks a clear transition from energetic ammatuer to increasingly established musician. While Apollo’s previous EPs were devoid of any features, Apolonio pulls the collaborative efforts of artists like Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes, who provides guitar and songwriting on the track “Useless,” and rising Australian singer-songwriter Ruel, who lends his smooth vocals on “Want U Around.” Apollo himself has blossomed vocally since his last project, perfecting the trademark falsetto that gives
his music its irresistible charm à la Prince. Apolonio may be compact in structure, but it’s a testament to artistic growth and experimentation. The album isn’t a complete departure from the glittering pop of Apollo’s past, but it’s certainly his most dynamic project yet. There’s a shift in narrative on Apolonio, and the artist no longer rests on the laurels of charming and catchy tunes. Instead, we see a vulnerable Apollo, who’s managed to both mature musically and maintain the same vibrancy that keeps his fans coming back. Look out for Apollo’s recorded performance and concert documentary from Paisley Park on Oct. 27. Daily Arts Contributor Nora Lewis can be reached at noralew@ umich.edu.
Booker nominee ‘Burnt Sugar’: an untamed debut TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer
The words in Avni Doshi’s “Burnt Sugar” hit you like a bullet. Doshi doesn’t mind that they come with a burden. “It’s easy to unravel when no one is watching,” she writes within ten pages of the novel. It is, I find myself thinking. In fact, it would be so easy to unravel right now. Born in New Jersey to Indian immigrants, Doshi was an art critic and curator before turning to fiction. “Burnt Sugar,” Doshi’s debut novel, has been selected for the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist. The story revolves around an aging mother, Tara, and her middle-aged daughter, Antara, who live in Pune, India. Antara is a struggling artist who can barely take care of herself, but finds herself caring for her mother instead. Each chapter reveals another layer in a tumultuous motherdaughter relationship that is grounded in hate but forced to evolve into something resembling love. The narrative is set in Pune, India, and Doshi’s ties to the country are deeply embedded into the plot — “Burnt Sugar” was published in India as “Girl in White Cotton.” “Burnt Sugar” is a richly layered story that shows us how tangled and performative our lives can be. Despite juggling the responsibilities of being an artist, a wife and a daughter, Antara’s life is filled with expectations that are never fulfilled. “I wonder if, when I’m old and frail and can see the shape of my end in front of me, I will still be waiting for the future to roll in,” she says. Antara’s relationships frame how she views herself — strong and capable some mornings, ashamed and guiltridden on others. I think we all feel this same environmentdriven f luctuation in our personalities, though most days I’m too scared to admit it. The pillar of “Burnt Sugar,” and the core of Antara’s turmoil, is her relationship with her mother. “She named me Antara, intimacy, not because she loved the name
but because she hated herself,” Antara says. Tara escaped to an ashram — spiritual healing retreats in India that are known to occasionally evolve into religious cults — and left ashram leaders to take care of her daughter. 30 years later, Antara is caring for a mother who didn’t do the same for her. “Being together or apart was independent from wanting and happiness,” Antara says. Yet, like many blood ties, Tara and Antara feel a pull toward each other despite a desperate need for escape. Doshi compels us to believe that this wild motherdaughter relationship isn’t
“Burnt Sugar” is a richly layered story that shows us how tangled and performative our lives can be.
as unusual as we think. Ultimately, our closest bloodrelationships form many of our early experiences, and these make us who we are today. Antara was humiliated, body-shamed and ridiculed by her mother as she grew up. “It was a warning not to get too comfortable with myself,” she says. Years later, Antara feels this same discontent when she herself becomes a mother. “I stare at the girl’s little face because I don’t know where to look,” she says in the minutes after giving birth to her daughter. The relationships in “Burnt Sugar” hit too close for comfort, but their truths are addictive. “Burnt Sugar” builds on these character relationships to expose the ugliness of the human condition. Doshi writes of our biases and f laws as if they were key ingredients in our makeup. The most notable examples relate to the Western world’s perception of India. “The British built some lovely buildings,” Antara’s
mother-in-law exclaims on a visit to India from America. Any novice in Indian history knows how dark this statement is in light of India’s occupation by the British. But I think of the tourist crowds surging around the Victoria Memorial this last Christmas, when I went to visit my grandparents in Kolkata (the ex-capital of British India), and realize how true this rings today. Antara fields similar sentiments from her husband, Dilip, who grew up in America. “I asked him not to idealize the polite veneer of his childhood because everyone knows what Americans are really capable of,” Antara says. Doshi uses culture shock as a way to expose aggressions that we are all guilty of committing in viewing another culture. But India is still embraced in the novel and provides a vibrant background for the plot. Doshi writes of India in a colloquial way that makes it hard to fully understand the novel if you’re not familiar with the culture, similar to Meghna Majumdar’s “A Burning” released earlier this summer. Digestive biscuits, balconies of apartments stacked on top of each other, crevices that allow you to see into your neighbors homes, breaking rotis with one hand instead of two. These cultural details make beautiful sense to me as the daughter of Indian immigrants, but they probably won’t ring as clear for others. Thankfully, that doesn’t make “Burnt Sugar” any less enjoyable. Regardless of your cultural background, “Burnt Sugar” will pulse with an addictive and thrilling energy. Every sentence is a treasure to read and brings you one step closer to yourself, even though you didn’t ask for it. This unsettling yet beautiful novel is a strong contender to win the Booker Prize in November — relish it before it stuns the world. Daily Arts Writer Trina Pal can be reached at trpal@ umich.edu.
‘Queen’s Gambit’ on the price you pay to be the best
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SARAH RAHMAN For The Daily
“It’s foolish to run the risk of going mad for vanity’s sake,” says former Kentucky chess champion Harry Beltik (Harry Melling, “The Devil All The Time”) in director Scott Frank’s riveting new drama “The Queen’s Gambit.” This quote hints at the price one pays on the journey to be the best and the dangers of the reckless hyperfixation required of all those worthy of the title “genius.” No one seems more familiar with the costs than Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Witch”), an orphan-turned-childchess-prodigy during the height of the Cold War. In a captivating performance, Anya Taylor-Joy captures the fire of tunnel-visioned protagonist Beth, as her trauma from losing her mother sets her on a cycle of escapism, filled with substance abuse and pouring herself into the only thing she understands: the game of chess. Beth describes the chess board not only as a place that makes sense to her, but as a place she can dominate. With the guidance of the orphanage’s janitor, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp, “The Outsider”), Beth quickly picks up the game, beating everyone in her path. Mr. Shaibel’s support is crucial to Beth’s development as a chess player, and for the first of many times, we see chess and the camaraderie that comes with it supporting Beth, giving her family and community in the face of loss.
Yet amid her victories, we are reminded of her worsening addiction to tranquilizers. Her addiction is momentarily halted when she is adopted by the Wheatleys, a typical, unhappily married 1960s couple, complete with a husband (Patrick Kennedy, “Mrs. Wilson”) that is constantly taking “business trips” and a housewife (Marielle Heller, “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood”) left to cope with her unhappiness through substance abuse. The series does a thorough analysis of the way battling trauma and addiction go hand-in-hand, particularly when it comes to suffering that otherwise goes unnoticed. Mrs. Wheatley’s trauma and subsequent addiction parallels Beth’s, and as time goes on their relationship blossoms into one of mutual understanding and support that truly functions as the backbone of the entire series. While the show has powerful dramatic elements throughout, the relationship between Beth and Mrs. Wheatley is what secures “The Queen’s Gambit” as a must-watch. Their sometimes turbulent, always supportive relationship encapsulates love and family between two imperfect individuals. Beth and Mrs. Wheatley are flawed, and at times they act selfishly and enable each other’s addictions. They have also gone through a lot, yet the show reaffirms time and time again that they are worthy of love and beyond that, that their love is a necessity. Their uniquely liberating relationship allows them to be themselves in
a world where they otherwise felt trapped in their pain. Even in moments where one of them acts flawed in a way the other recognizes, they realize that you can’t force someone to not make mistakes. While they are a mother and daughter relationship, the relationship lacks any semblance of patronizing behavior. They want the best for the other person, but they never assert what they think is best over the other. The building of family and support systems grounds this show as much as it grounds Beth. The series questions what it means to be alone versus supported, and what Beth can learn from both of these states of being. As an orphan, Beth has to build family from the ground up, and this goes beyond her relationship with her adoptive mother. There are so many moments that remind Beth she is never truly alone, even when she is at her most isolated: Mr. Shaibel lends Beth the money for her first chess competition; Beth’s friends check on her during her battle with addiction; Beth’s childhood best friend reminds her that they are family. While chess is the focal point of the series, it is obvious that interlaced between countless suspenseful matches, the true magic of “The Queen’s Gambit” lies within the love surrounding Beth and how it transforms her, and ultimately gives her the strength she needs to save herself. I can’t emphasize this enough: You’ve got to see this show. Daily Arts Writer Sarah Rahman can be reached at srah@ umich.edu.
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Why my mom can’t stop rewatching TV’s ‘Friends’ DYLAN YONO Daily Arts Writer
My mom has watched “Friends” start to finish so many times that everyone in my family has lost count. She’s on an agonizingly slow journey to recovery from a stroke a few years ago that has left her without energy to do very much other than watch TV most days. This year I’m pretty sure I saw her blast through all 10 seasons in a matter of weeks, only to dive into another back-to-back rewatch. We all have that friend that has seen “The Office” 15 times. You know the one — the friend that has hundreds of “Want to read” books on Goodreads, but never fails to spend each summer re-reading “Harry Potter” front to back. Sometimes they’ll even have the audacity to ask for your music recommendations, only for you to catch them listening to Blonde on Spotify for the eighth time that week. I think everyone has that one special show or book that you can’t help but return to over and over. The 21st century is insane because anyone with a cell phone in their pocket has immediate access to millions of books, movies, shows, albums and games at their fingertips. We’re also firehosed with new content to consume on a daily basis — more than is humanly possible for any sane person to keep up with. All that limitless potential for novel artistic consumption and I still dump hundreds of hours into replays year after year. Why do we keep coming back? For some students, rewatching their favorite shows and movies is a way to cope with a busy college lifestyle. “A lot of the appeal of
rewatching the things you know you like is you already know what’s gonna happen,” Engineering junior Jacob Renard explained. “It’s good background noise, and there’s just enough going on that you don’t have to pay full attention to it.” In college, time is a luxury few can afford. Watching something new is a commitment. It demands full attention — but not if you’ve already seen it. Rewatching something you know you already like is actually extremely efficient. It’s a guaranteed source of comfort to pad the stress of constant homework without actually costing any precious time. A comfort rewatch, even in the background, helps you maintain your sanity despite a stressful schedule. It’s pretty straightforward to choose a rewatch for Renard. “I’ve had a long day, I’m just gonna throw something on that I know I like,” he said. “New Girl” is his rejuvenating rewatch of choice. “It’s always funny to me,” he said. “There are jokes that I’ve laughed at every single time.” For any overworked student, it just makes sense. For other students, a rewatch is a little more personal. LSA senior Shihua Lu has rewatched the same 80-episode TV series, dozens upon dozens of times. “I watch it almost every day because I watch it when I’m chatting with my friends, I watch it when I do homework, writing … I was even planning to see a therapist (about it),” she laughed. Lu’s addiction is “My Own Swordsman,” a TV series she described as “a Chinese version of ‘Friends.’” I’d never heard of it before, so I tried to watch an episode I found on YouTube to see for myself. I couldn’t understand a single word, but I quickly felt a sense of inherent
coziness from the vibrant cast of tight-knit characters. There’s definitely an alternate universe where my mom grew up in China and fell in love with “My Own Swordsman” instead of “Friends.” I could immediately see why Lu might feel so attached to the show. But her connection to it goes a little deeper than just a comforting rewatch. “When I was in primary school I was actually bullied by a lot of classmates,” Lu said. “I always wanted to have a very close friendship or relationship with other people. So I guess that’s why I rewatch it over and over again, because I think that’s the kind of relationship (I wanted).” Lu’s words brought me back to my own childhood — I too was bullied in elementary school. I remember wishing I had a close friendship, a yearning that persisted with every passing friendless year. I had my own comfort show for the same reason as Lu: “Toradora,” a romcom anime following a closeknit class of high school friends. I first saw it in middle school, where the absence of friends had me mentally spiraling. Watching the joyous companionship in “Toradora” tapped into one of my greatest vulnerabilities. I so badly wanted to experience those heartfelt friendships with my own classmates. To this day, it’s the only TV show I’ve ever rewatched more than once. After growing attached to “My Own Swordsman,” Lu sought out the kinds of friendships like those depicted in the show. I remember doing the same thing with “Toradora,” flipping through my yearbook and wondering who could be the Kitamura to my Ryuuji. Where quality time is hard to find, rewatching the antics of a tight-knit friend circle can
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grow to feel like a comforting, familiar presence. “I’m the only child of my family, and my parents are busy, and I don’t have my grandparents with me,” Lu explained. “So I kinda watch that TV series as company. I treat them as my family members.” It reminded me of the way my mom always compared our family to “Friends.” Whenever my brother does anything remotely funny, she calls him Joey. When most people think of a “comfort” watch or a “comfort” read, I imagine they might think of shows like “Parks and Recreation” or books like “Harry Potter.” The stereotypical easy-watch comedy or easyread nostalgia trip with cozy characters to grow attached to. Where a rewatch or reread is kind of like a warm hug. Engineering senior Liam Russell’s warm hug is the menacing Batman classic “The Dark Knight.” Not a cheery comedy or classic kid’s book, but one of the most grim superhero movies out there. Still, a cold film can make for a warm sentiment. “I would watch it with my brother almost all the time,” Russell reminisced. “It reminds me of my childhood, sitting in front of the big TV with my brother just watching the
movie.” “The Dark Knight” is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 2000s, but it’s far from being warm or comforting on paper. I watched it when I was a kid too, and all I remember is Harvey Dent’s disfigured face and ruthless killing spree. But our memories are powerful, and “The Dark Knight” is transportive for Russell. Where rewatching “My Own Swordsman” and “Toradora” brought Lu and me to a place we wished to be, “The Dark Knight” brought Russell back to a place he’d been before — the place he fondly remembered watching it, his childhood, sitting in front of the big TV with his brother. Russell’s warm hug in the video game world comes in the form of “Dark Souls,” a gloomy and unforgiving action RPG. Replaying it also brings Russell back to the time he first experienced it. “Dark Souls” is known for its oppressively depressing atmosphere. It follows a cursed undead protagonist on a pilgrimage to discover the fate of their people. Not the warmest or fuzziest story, but it hasn’t stopped Russell from replaying it five or six times now. In fact, the darkness of “Dark Souls” is part
of the draw for him. “Comfort is different for different people,” Russell said. “And for me, comfort is escaping into another world, but not another world where everything’s easy … it isn’t a walk in the park, you still have to work hard, and I sorta like that attitude.” The game is notorious for its extreme difficulty curve. When Russell first played it, he got stuck pretty early on and came close to giving up. True to his philosophy, he worked hard and persevered until he beat it. But what if he never did? What if he gave up and never finished it, and “Dark Souls” never entered his replay rotation? I wonder how close I’ve been to experiencing a work of art that would have become extremely important to me if I’d just given it a chance. Like Russell, some of my favorite movies and video games are so important to me because of the time of life they return me to when I play them. I also have memories of sitting in front of the big TV with my brother, and “Paper Mario” is the video game that brings me back to those times. It’s Read more online at a
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‘Doctor Who’ understands the comfort change brings ANDREW WARRICK Daily Arts Writer
Day by day, the walls are closing in. Or at least they seem to be. Maybe it’s because I spend most of my online classes looking at my room displayed over my shoulder, shrunk down, like me, to a square on the top-left corner of my screen. But that’s not all. My phone swells with news notifications, emails and phone calls about Nov. 3, 2020. The fall semester Zooms forward to its bitter end, hurling assignments down at me like a never-ending air raid. The stresses pile up like towering trash heaps that grow taller and more unstable day by day. The walls are closing in. But I know a way out. In the small strip of purple, star-studded sky visible over the landfill that is 2020, a blue police box f lies across the horizon. The trash piles melt away, along with the dirt beneath my feet. The police box, a time machine called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), shoots towards me. Its doors open. And for 45 minutes, I’m free. *** Through the years, I’ve thought again and again that I’d grown out of “Doctor Who,” only to be yanked back whenever I needed it most. The show isn’t always great, I’ll admit, but there’s always something great about it. Every actor to take on The Doctor, an eternal being called a “Time Lord” who changes their face when their current body perishes (and the previous
actor quits), does something fascinating with the role — The Doctor has lived for thousands of years, and the actors somehow express centuries of joy, trauma and knowledge in every scene, no matter how terribly written. The Doctor, like the show itself, changes on a dime from episode to episode: Sometimes they’re lighthearted, sometimes haunted, sometimes totally alien and sometimes deeply human. Take the first season of the rebooted “Who,” which premiered in 2005. The Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccelston (“The Leftovers”), is introduced when he saves a woman named Rose from living department store mannequins. “I’m The Doctor,” he says. “Run for your life.”
Through the years, I’ve thought again and again that I’d grown out of “Doctor Who,” only to be yanked back whenever I needed it most.
It’s silly, right? The terrible special effects, even for 2005, don’t help much either. Yet, in an episode where the villain is an alien made of living plastic, there’s a moment powerful enough to bring tears to one’s eye. When Rose asks who he is, The Doctor says this: “It’s like when you’re a kid, the first time they tell you
that the world is turning and you just can’t quite believe it ’cause everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it … The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go … That’s who I am.” That’s also the comfort of “Doctor Who”: The show is limitless, untethered from our world and its rules. The Doctor and his companions hurtle through space and time in a reliably unreliable time machine, looking for adventure. “Doctor Who” can be about anything. There are historical stories, horror stories, sci-fi stories, love stories and whatever this is. A given episode of “Doctor Who” can also be of any quality. In Season 5, for example, a deeply sad, Hugo-nominated episode about Vincent Van Gogh is sandwiched between an episode about lizard people living underground and another where the bad guy is a spaceship on autopilot, disguised as the upstairs room in an apartment. When any other popular franchise becomes utter trash, say “Game of Thrones” or “Star Wars,” everyone loses their minds. When “Doctor Who” throws out a dud, there’s always next week. Week by week, total shlock exists side by side with the very best TV has to offer. There’s nothing else like it. Season 4 has an episode where Agatha Christie and The Doctor fight a giant alien wasp, and another, called “Turn Left,” where England
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becomes a fascist regime due to worldwide disaster and undocumented refugees are sent to concentration camps. “England for the English, etcetera,” one character says. “They can’t send us home … (so) they build labor camps.” “Labor camps,” another says, weeping, as the character is shoved into a truck. “That’s what they called them last time … It’s happening again.” Released in 2008, yet somehow predicting the darkest implications of modern far-right nationalism, episodes like “Turn Left” sometimes make it seem like “Doctor Who” really does time travel. Yet there’s no magic to it; the show’s expansiveness allows for any writer to pilot the TARDIS, sometimes producing piercing political commentary, sometimes delightful escapism, sometimes total cheese or, at “Doctor Who”’s most striking, a mix of all three. The Daleks, villains who’ve fought the Doctor since 1963, are the most iconic example. They were radicalized in a neverending war on their planet, and became fascist Daleksupremacists, who believe that every other organism needs to be “exterminated.” As horrific as this ideology is, though, Daleks look like candy-colored pepper shakers, with weapons oddly similar to whisks and
toilet plungers. “Doctor Who” is also unique as, every few seasons, its main character is killed off and replaced. Then, time and time again, after a gut-wrenching death, The Doctor becomes a stranger. Viewers are forced to accept — and embrace — change, even when it means losing someone they love. The Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith (“The Crown”), exemplifies this just before his regeneration: “It all just disappears, doesn’t it? All you are, gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror. Any moment now, he’s coming, the Doctor. I am the Doctor, and I always will be. But times change and so must I … We all change. When you think about it, we’re all different people, all throughout our lives and that’s okay, that’s good, you gotta keep moving so long as you remember all the people that you used to be … I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.” In “Doctor Who,” even at its most terrifying, adventure always triumphs over despair, the bad guys lose and the universe is always saved. Above all, things change. That’s why I’m back to watching “Doctor Who,” yet again, in the fall of 2020.
Even at its worst, the show always has another surprise, or regeneration, up its sleeve. “Doctor Who” is an eternal reminder that there is a whole universe out there — without COVID-19, Donald Trump or Zoom calls, and things always get better. In a time when everything is uncertain and the walls seem to be closing in, it’s a relief to know that the TARDIS still sails through all of time and space. Most comforting are the Christmas episodes, where aliens frequently make the bizarre choice to invade on Christmas night, sometimes even using Christmas-themed tech such as Santa-Androids. The specials sometimes get quite dark (The Doctor has been killed and regenerated three times in Christmas episodes), but are always filled with white snow, English Evergreens glittering with ornaments and colorful presents. Thankfully, as 2020 draws to a close, the Doctor is back in the “Revolution of The Daleks” holiday special. Even if they have chosen to ruin Christmas with another invasion, the genocidal pepper shakers are still better than what we’re dealing with. Daily Arts Writer Andrew Warrick can be reached at warricka@umich.edu.
statement
Conservative activism at the University of Michigan
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 13
BY NEIL SHAH, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT
I
n the fall of 2017, I stood nervously in front of the printers in Hatcher Graduate Library, observing the passersby and waiting for a hundred copies of full-sheet fliers to print out. Amo, Cole and I — the three founding members of the University of Michigan’s first free speech advocacy group, Michigan Open Discourse — had written and designed these fliers for distribution across campus. On them in big, bold, capitalized letters read, “LET SPENCER SPEAK,” in reference to self-described identitarian and white supremacist Richard Spencer. And, underneath this bold request, were bulleted points explaining why we believed that Richard Spencer should be given a platform to speak at the University. One of them read: “Know thy enemy.” Richard Spencer is a racist fraud, but one with influence. We should rationally confront and argue against his ideas in the open, not shield ourselves from them — not to mention that pushing Spencer away only validates the persecution complex of his impressionable followers, driving them deeper into radical and dangerous underground movements. Free expression, regardless of content, is fundamental to the purpose of a university setting, as affirmed by the bipartisan Supreme Court majority in the 1972 Supreme Court case, Healy v. James. Cole and I continued waiting for the fliers to print. We both admitted to each other that we were slightly uncomfortable printing them in a public setting like the library, when they had such a contentious demand plastered across the face of the flier. Neither of us wanted to be associated with the fliers, even though we’d both endorsed their content, which was relatively mild and apolitical. Eventually, though, the hundred fliers were printed, and the three of us went to post them around campus. Even though we were posting them up around 10 o’clock at night, when basically no one was walking around campus, we only managed to post a grand total of nine fliers, mostly out of fear of being spotted and associated with their messaging. We had seen how most students on campus reacted to Spencer’s impending visit. Spencer’s rumored visit to the University’s campus sparked widespread outcry among the student body: Controversially, some individuals posted “It’s okay to be white” fliers at campus buildings, while others started a change.org petition advocating that the University deny Spencer’s request to speak on campus. The Michigan Daily even published a strong editorial disavowing Spencer and his views and decrying the idea that he should be allowed to speak on campus. Amo, Cole, and I believed Spencer should have been allowed to speak, because though his ideas are abhorrent and unintellectual, we felt that he should be confronted and dismantled in
a public setting — like a university, where he would be subject to rigorous questioning from a skeptical audience. And we further wanted to affirm his right to free speech and expression while countering his bigoted arguments. This was the motivation behind the designing of these fliers, and it was our first initiative through our organization Michigan Open Discourse. Expectedly, all the fliers were torn down by the next morning. This is not characteristic of conservative activism, but it is certainly not an uncommon experience to be facing certain barriers. Examples of this include widespread social disapproval, as is the case on the predominantly liberal U-M campus, to promulgating conservative ideas. Often, conservatives are mistreated, unjustly maligned or have to face significant repercussions for simply espousing viewpoints that don’t align with the prevailing liberal orthodoxy. In 2014, U-M student Omar Mahmood wrote a satirical column for The Michigan Review titled “Do the Left Thing” mocking politically correct attitudes among college students. In response, his residence hall room was egged, he received threats from fellow students and he was let go from his columnist position at The Michigan Daily. A liberal activist who wrote a controversial satirical column would not have experienced the same type of pushback from fellow students. There aren’t as many barriers for a left-leaning individual to espouse their viewpoints on college campuses, especially at a University that has more liberal-identifying students. It’s clearly not uncommon to be mistreated or judged for having divergent viewpoints or for taking a relatively radical stance like a conservative one, but it is common to face greater scrutiny in order to enact conservative changes. I spoke with Deion Kathawa, a former U-M student and former editor in chief of the independent, conservative news-
paper on campus, The Michigan Review, to understand his experience as a conservative activist. Beside his extensive set of written clips for The Michigan Review, Kathawa’s most important initiative as a conservative activist was proposing a resolution to the Central Student Government to do the following things: affirm the commitment to freedom of speech outlined in the First Amendment and the University’s student code, commit to “non-obstructionism” with respect to campus events that involve controversial figures, adopt a similar set of free speech guidelines that the University of Chicago adopted and commit to including diversity of viewpoint in the University’s diversity initiatives. “I felt that officials in the University were not specifically committed to protecting the speech of other students at this University, so I decided that I wanted to do something outside of rhetorical advocacy,” Kathawa said. “I opted for something in the official channels. … I went, I proposed it, there was some parliamentary chicanery that pushed it back a couple weeks. Eventually I got to say my piece, people voted for it. It lost pretty handily, 27-3.” It’s telling that Kathawa’s idea, which was simply to affirm the right to freedom of speech in a number of ways and include diversity of viewpoint in the University of Michigan’s diversity codes and hiring processes, was shot down by committee members by such a significant margin. Not that there is necessarily inherent bias within these systems constructed by students against conservative activism, but there are certainly barriers preventing conservatives from achieving activism victories — the students and channels through which they have to operate through are, naturally, more left-leaning. In rare instances, conservatives do achieve activism victories, though these are long processes and require undertaking difficult procedural manipulations. I spoke with Amo, one of my fellow co-
founders of Michigan Open Discourse, to highlight such victories. Amo is not exactly conservative, but he has rightleaning views. Amo served as a plaintiff on the recent Speech First v. Schlissel legislation. This was a court case, filed by Speech First, a free speech advocacy group, who was arguing on behalf of several students who’d been identified by the U-M Bias Response Team as violators of its code of conduct, meaning they had promulgated some type of offensive speech, in the context of harassing and bullying, and were reported for it. “A representative from Speech First reached out to me and Cole and asked us because we were at The Review,” Amo said. “She thought that maybe we would have some expertise … my angle on it was that I had experience with a bad speech climate at Michigan, and I had witnessed conservatives being mistreated. I knew that people didn’t want their real names officially associated with the paper.” Amo mentioned that this feeling extended beyond his work at The Review. “I just felt that in my classes there was a left-wing bias, and I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable voicing my opinions that were divergent,” he said. The Speech First v. Schlissel court case was settled, resulting in a victory for Speech First, and the disbanding of the U-M Bias Response Team (which would later be replaced with the Campus Climate Support). The exact contention in the court case was not over the University’s policy to reprimand individuals for acts of bullying and harassment, but rather over their definitions of these terms that infringed upon protected speech. This court case demonstrates that, even though Speech First won the case, there are systematic barriers in place that create a campus environment that is unfriendly to free speech and conservative ideas. Evidence of this attitude within the University administration includes a U-M-sponsored “Bias Response Team,” which works to create a campus climate harmful to the right to free speech. I also spoke with professor of Afroamerican and African Studies Angela Dillard about conservatives, faculty perceptions of conservatives and activism among conservatives. The crux of our conversation was a sentiment we both agreed with: “I think it’s odd to use the term minority group (to describe conservative students on campus),” Dillard said. “I mean they certainly are numerically, statistically a smaller population of students who self-identify as conservatives on campus than who would self-identify as liberals … (but) it’s a kind of political and ideological claim in and of itself to call conservatives a minority group.” Dillard added that while it may not be appropriate to define conservatives on campus as a “minority group,” she acknowledged the odd positioning these students have within the campus culture.
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14 — Wednesday, November 4, 2020
statement
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
How involution perturbs China’s youth
BY YUEYAO ZHOU, STATEMENT CONTRIBUTOR
G
aoyuan Liu’s suggestion to compare answers was rejected outright after a difficult math exam. “Don’t involute yourself,” her classmates told her. Gaoyuan Liu, an LSA transfer student who then studied at one of the most prestigious universities in China, never felt the ubiquitous presence of the word “involution” in her and her peers’ lives as much as she did that day in the classroom. The term “involution” was popularized by Clifford Geertz, an eminent cultural anthropologist who used it as a description of the agricultural process in which refinements of wet-rice cultivation led to more and more intricate labor use, without creating significant progress in other social sectors such as technology and politics. The use of the word has unexpectedly stepped out of the academic world and gained prominence among young people in China in recent years. In China, this term has been borrowed to describe the phenomenon where the competition for social and economic resources is intensified. With more and more people opting into this game, the standard of “being average” increases dramatically. “The result (of involution) is usually that everyone puts more efforts to meet the raised standard, but due to the fixed amount of available resources, no one in the competition yields better returns,” said one of the most up-voted comments on Zhihu, the “Chinese Quora.” Involution didn’t make its entry to the public consciousness until recent years, though, as Gaoyuan recalled, her past 20 years of life had always been played out under “the involution rules.” “Enrollment rates of magnet elementary, middle and high schools are extremely low,” Liu said. “Before getting into college, I have already been trained to coexist with and succeed in competition.” Drawing a comparison with her 15-year-old sister, who is in eighth grade, Gaoyuan said that there is an obvious intensification in the trend of involution. She said, “They are already learning and taking exams that are originally oriented towards college students … When I was in middle school, I took two extracurricular courses or so every weekend, which is already hectic. Now my sister’s weekend schedules are fully packed by extracurricular activities — unimaginable.” For many young people in China, involution is sometimes an entrenched institution rather than a personal choice. For example, at Gaoyuan’s previous university, it is a written rule that the number of As assigned in every course, including A-s and A+s, should be manipulated to fall within a 30-percent quota. Ting, a student at a first-tier university in China, questioned the meaning of this by-design competitive mechanism. “Higher education should not only be about getting good grades and building up
resumes. A 4.0 GPA isn’t necessarily indicative of great command of knowledge. But I can’t resist. I am afraid of falling behind. I feel trapped,” She said. Biao Xiang, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oxford, referred to this as “a competition with no option of failure or withdrawal” in an interview. Behind this endless cycle of anxiety lies the explosive growth of college degree holders. In China, the gross tertiary enrollment rate rose from 3.1% in 1990 and 7.8% in 2000 to 29.7% in 2013, nearly a tenfold expansion compared to two decades ago. “In the 1980s, the title of college student itself equated the definition of ‘elite.’ Today, higher education becomes another round of elitism sorting,” pointed out by Jingjing Xu in an Sanlian Lifeweek article. “In addition to the scarcity of resources, the monotonic standard of success is an important reason,” said Changyuan Qiu, a junior studying computer science at the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute. This tendency is not endemic to China. Between 2000 and 2014, the number of students in higher education globally more than doubled, rising from 100 million to 207 million, according to a report published by the United Nations Educa-
ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KELLY
tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization together with UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning and UNESCO GEM Report. In the United States, the growth is particularly remarkable. According to the Census Bureau, reported college enrollment has increased elevenfold since 1940, from 1.5 million to 17.9 million. Is U.S. higher education confronted with the same trend of involution? Views on this question run the gamut. Having studied at both the University of Michigan and SJTU, Changyuan thinks that the minimum threshold grading scale commonly adopted by American universities prevents the destructive competition from happening. Under this system, students are evaluated based on their own mastery of the materials, not the comparison with peers. “At U-M, as long as you get a 93+ overall score, you are guaranteed an A,” he said. Fatma Müge Göçek, a professor of sociology and women’s gender studies, attended college from 1975 to 1978 in Istanbul, Turkey, came to the U.S. in 1981 and received her doctorate from Princeton University in 1988. She asserted that signs of involution had been witnessed in both Turkey and the United States in recent decades.
“I think it is definitely involution: the demand for degrees goes up constantly while the supply of degrees can never catch up with it, leading the education pie to be more competitively divided among a larger number of candidates,” Göçek said. She warns that despite facing fierce competition, Generation Y — also known as Millennials — is likely to be the first generation in recent American history that makes substantially less than their parents. “Findings demonstrate that the U.S. economic boom in the past is over — millennials will make 20% less than their parents’ generation, and millennials with a college degree will make about 40% more than their less educated counterparts,” she said. “This result is certainly partially due to involution, but it is also due to global competition: other countries have copied the U.S. economic boom, thereby taking away larger chunks of business from the U.S.” Caught in the middle of overwhelming competition traps and expected returns in the gutter, how should college students navigate education, mental health and their future? The question demands not only addressing the idea of involution, but rethinking how we face it.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
statement
Copy, Paste: Let’s talk anti-sorority sentiment L
egend says a posse of sorority girls today looks like this: designer tennis shoes, various shades of honey-highlighted hair, a cluster of pastel-toned sweatshirts, and the quintessential sweatpants donning their sorority letters. While the American sorority system initially positioned itself as an emblem of tradition and female “excellence” when it originated over a century ago, it has since been held to significant levels of controversy from its historically racist practices to its “nightmarish” hazing rituals. As an effect, the term “sorority girl” has come to connote ideas of superficiality and hurtful exclusivity; the modern-day “sorority girl” character description is one of designer shoes, blonde hair and pricey athletic wear. I wish I could say I haven’t subscribed to the wildly superficial makeup of the “sorority girl stereotype,” and that, as a feminist, I have been able to reject the antigirl sentiment that this stereotype and its reduction of young women into a shopping-list type of description inherently carry. But, last week, just one day after Washtenaw County instated the campus-wide stay-at-home order, I saw a group of four female students convening in the Michigan Union’s Sweetwaters. And almost immediately, I found myself noting their sorority-like characteristics as if I were making some sort of tally: Balenciaga sneakers: two pairs. Lululemon leggings: three wearing them. Patagonia backpacks: four on their backs. I looked at this group of friends and did not register them as four women, or even four students, but, rather, four sorority girls. Observing them based on solely materialistic traits, I made a snap judgement before one of them even said anything about a sorority — which, eventually, one of them did. After about 30 minutes of chatting, they were asked to leave by a Sweetwaters employee because they were infringing upon the social-gathering regulations put in place by the recent executive order. I found myself shaking my head in bitter agreement with the employee, watching them leave the study space with their face masks hung flimsily around their wrists. Serves them right, I thought. They’re the reason why we’re dealing with this stay-at-home order in the first place. I looked down at the bright pink “feminist” sticker emblazoned upon my planner and felt a sense of guilt settle in my stomach. The hypocrisy might as well have slapped me in the face. When did anti-sorority sentiment permeate such a basic level of my subconscious? Moreover, when did berating young women based purely on their social associations become OK? Some might posit that the University of Michigan’s sororities’ uptick in bad press since the beginning of the pandemic has compounded a pre-existing anti-sorority sentiment on campus. Even before fall semester classes began, evidence of large and supposedly Fraternity & Sorority Life-affiliated social gatherings was gaining substantial attention on social media. One picture depicting an outdoor gathering in late August gained over 1,400 likes on Twitter, with commentators quick to associate the culprits with Phi Kappa Psi, a fraternity on the University’s Interfraternity Council, though it’s unclear if
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 15
BY GRACE TUCKER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST from my experience, are not even close to the kind of love and genuine support I’ve received from this community.” As far as how this stereotype manifests itself in academic settings on campus, she noted that, “... sometimes the stereotypes may be that people in Greek life don’t focus on school, but that couldn’t be more of the opposite from what I’ve witnessed. There are so many women excelling in their grades, including lots of women in STEM programs.” This particular sorority member had also seen the notorious “copy, paste” picture that circulated on social media late August. “It is a little sad that this (photo) is being called a ‘sorority outing,’” she wrote. “First of all, there is no way to prove any of these women are involved in Greek Life, ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE and many of the (Instagram) comments are based on the ... Notice any overarching themes? assumption of that. Secondly, if these inThe “copy, paste” punchline, which emdividuals are freshmen, based on the surbodies the idea of sorority girls traveling vey presented in the (Instagram) caption, in identical flocks, is not new. Earlier this they wouldn’t be involved in Greek life year, a picture posted on Barstool Sports’ yet, considering rush events do not start main Instagram of a huddle of female students undergoing the rush process, all until Winter 2021.” Essentially, this image depicts the kind clad in black Canada Goose coats, gained of magic formula — tribe of females, crop over 280,000 likes. tops and Air Force 1s — that immediately The comment section isn’t subtle in its registered in our minds as “sorority girls,” dehumanizing remarks: despite the objective fact that these, pre“Look at all those chickens!” sumably, first-year students wouldn’t “This is how (we) keep track of hens in have even started the rush process yet. public.” Nevertheless, disregarding the actual or The picture quickly circulated on the prospective sorority status of these young “Overheard at umich” Facebook group, women, why does the sorority-girl aswith fellow University students hurling sumption immediately induce biting resimilar insults. One woman delivered the proach? harshest blow: Does the harm exist in the mere label of “...It reminds me of the creation of dog being in a sorority? breeds actually. Get enough that look simKnowing that the sorority system exilar and boom, a new breed of (insert three tends across the United States, I was curiGreek letters).” ous to know how the negative stereotypes First, I acknowledge how the Univerattached to the sorority-girl label manifest sity’s Panhellenic system carries an extenthemselves on other campuses beyond the sive history of problematic, racially and University of Michigan’s. According to sophysically discriminatory rush processes rority members of Panhellenic chapters that lend themselves to constructing the sorority “breed” this Facebook user is within Indiana University, which has a referring to: a homogenous makeup of nearly-equivalent percentage of students involved in Fraternity & Sorority Life to wealth, whiteness and thinness. But I must also acknowledge that in no that of the University of Michigan, the socircumstance should it be socially accept- cial impact of the sorority label can vary able to openly compare young women to based on which sorority you are affiliated dogs. And this is where I’ve seen produc- with. One member, who is quoted anonytive, anti-sorority dialogue surrounding mously and omitted her sorority affiliathe system’s corruption become extremetion due to privacy concerns, wrote in an ly destructive, anti-sorority girl dialogue email interview with The Daily that, on IU — the same analysis that’s digested and Bloomington’s campus, “I have met many manifested later by raging feminists like people (...) who have said that I don’t come me, who can observe a group of perfectly off as a stereotypical sorority girl to them. friendly female students and automatiHowever, when people know of some of cally cast judgement on them for being of my sisters they are quick to say that I am that “type.” such a (chapter name) sorority girl beAssuming that this sector of female stucause of the sweet people they know who dents have been criticized enough for beI am therefore associated with.” ing a part of a system we know is corrupt, This member has also observed the I wanted to hear from some of the memways her sorority affiliation and the asbers themselves. sociated increased level of COVID-19 risk In an email interview with The Daily, have affected the way she’s perceived by a member of one of the University’s Panclassmates. “The only setting in which hellenic sororities who has chosen to keep Greek life has affected my reputation negher identity and sorority affiliation anonatively is in my classes this semester,” she ymous for privacy concerns, expressed wrote. “My classmates were just extremethat she definitely recognizes the sorority ly worried about me spreading the virus stereotype being perpetuated on campus. to them.” “I feel like it is unfair, especially for
the house actually belonged to members of that fraternity. One Twitter user remarked: “SO glad I never had a daughter,” presumably in response to the handful of female students shown in the photo. One can observe that fraternity members have received their share of pandemic-related policing via social media. A post on the popular “Overheard at umich” Facebook group criticized fraternity-affiliated parties being thrown mid-July: “...a bunch of fratboys having yet another party outside and endangering the general public. So excited to start in person classes with these incredible careful and conscientious people!” The Michigan Daily joined the narrative of mid-pandemic fraternity criticism with an article by columnist Elayna Swift discussing the ways in which Theta Chi’s partying habits demonstrated “disappointing displays of entitlement and foolishness” that are “likely a result of Schlissel’s recent announcement to have an in-residence fall semester.” Much of the public criticism surrounding the ways fraternities have (failed to) carry themselves in recent months employs action-based rhetoric: the fraternities’ actions rather than the brothers as individuals are being criticized. And rightfully so. But when it comes to anti-Fraternity & Sorority Life sentiment based purely on individual, external attributes, like style or appearance, sorority girls have received a great deal more attention — which, frankly, represents a stark double standard in the ways we apply Fraternity & Sorority Life stereotypes on campus. If you haven’t heard of the “copy, paste” joke surrounding tribes of sorority girls, then you’ve likely seen the infamous photo from The Daily that motivated it. The picture, which has gained over 2,900 likes on Instagram, shows a group of supposed sorority girls making the honorable pilgrimage toward Welcome Week fraternity parties this August. Even before the pandemic, these parties have garnered a great deal of controversy in their own right for being hotspots of sexual assault and sexual coercion. The comment section under this particular photo reads like a brutal high school group chat: “Greekazoids” “Love the uniform” those who don’t understand or are not in“Lmao they got copy printed” volved in the Panhellenic community,” she “Copy paste” wrote. “Some of the stereotypes, at least
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 16
statement
Dear U-M, give me a break
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KELLY
BY LEAH LESZCZYNSKI, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
H
alf of my 2020 Spring Break was spent on the beach. The other half was spent watching the dizzying news coverage on the COVID-19 outbreak alongside the beginning of Trump’s failure to combat it. Though forever clouded by my grandparents’ fearful rush to return to their secluded Michigan farm for safety with the looming pandemic, I was lucky to have had a week of Florida sun in between an endless Midwestern winter and a busy semester in which I was taking 16 credits — looking back, I was lucky to just have a Spring Break, to have seven consecutive days off from school. This year, few, if any, college students will have the same luxury. During the typical academic year, University students receive a four-day Fall Break. This is not the typical school year, though. This year, seas of maize-clad fans will not pack the Big House and the fall semester began with 78% of undergraduate credits being offered online. Adding to the abnormalities, the recent increase in cases resulted in a stay-in-place order for U-M students was issued by the Washtenaw County Public Health Department. This year has posed unforeseen, unprecedented obstacles for all groups, and students are no exception. While observing the tragic state of our nation, we are fighting for change, and juggling our online education and extracurriculars. However, October passed without the first Fall Break since its creation in 2002 and the University decided to scrap Spring Break during the winter semester in hopes of reducing student travel, and therefore curbing COVID-19 cases on campus. Academic breaks arecrucial to student mental health, focus, productivity and overall well-being. LSA sophomore Brittany Hull shared her perspective on the lack of breaks for students during the 2020-2021 academic year. “This year, a break may be more essential than ever,” Hull said. “Even if it is not for us to go back home, just a break from classes would be beneficial. This is the most stressful year I have ever had as a student. There are a lot of things going on in the world, and we are just expected to bear the weight of that.” LSA senior Larry Jia told The Daily he has used past Spring Breaks to travel to Florida and New York with his friends, but also spent the 2020 Spring Break catching up on work from his apartment on campus. Indeed, there are many ways students spend their Spring Break. It grants time with friends and family, an opportunity to vacation, space to catch up on work, the ability to prepare for upcoming exams and participate in extracurricular activities or volunteer efforts, such as those made possible by the Alternative Spring Break program. Universities cite the spread of COVID-19 from student travel as the main reason to have canceled breaks this academic year. In Michigan, Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, Wayne State University and Grand Valley State University have all eliminated Spring Break, along with schools across the country including Penn State University, Purdue University, The Ohio State University, the University of Florida, the University of Kentucky and the University of Alabama. Instead of a week off in the latter months of winter, schools are either tacking a week onto the end of Winter Break, and/or adding single days off in the middle of the week throughout the winter semester in hopes of preventing students from travelling. As of now, Michigan State plans to give three days off, and Ohio State has added two days off to their academic calendar. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan has not added any days off to the Winter 2021 schedule. Despite these attempts to ease the burden of living through a pandemic and attending college, students are voicing their concerns with the absence of typical breaks.
A stud e n t penned a letter to MSU Presid e n t Stanley requesting that he reve r s e his decision to cancel spring break, reasoning that the current situation is “exhausting far beyond the norm of college difficulty.” Relatedly, a petition demanding a mental health break for Grand Valley students during the Winter 2021 semester has garnered over 4,000 signatures. In the comments, student signees cite mental health concerns, being behind in classes and tanking grades as reasons for GVSU to add a break to next semester’s schedule. In response to the absence of breaks in the winter semester schedule, Central Student Government at the University of Michigan is working on a resolution urging the University to “implement a University-wide break on exams and other high stakes assignments (which [CSG defines] as contributing to 10% or more of a student’s final grade for a course) for one week during the Winter 2021 semester.” The resolution explains that “classes will not be cancelled during this week, but the low stakes nature will engender the mental health benefits of the spring break for both students and teachers while still discouraging travel in light of COVID-19.” Hull told The Daily that the resolution “sounds like a great initiative.” Citing the typical stressors of student life that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, she told The Daily she “appreciates the effort to try and give students a break next semester.” Not all students agree that the resolution will be effective. LSA junior Elizabeth Dickinson told The Daily she would prefer that professors have the ability to create their schedule and spread out high-stakes assignments and exams to best fit the needs of their specific courses and students. While the effectiveness and true benefits of the resolution remain to be seen if it is adopted, it seems that student organizations support the effort: over 100 have signed the resolution. Despite the absence of a Fall and Spring Break, students are embracing the flexibility of online classes to create their own vacations and breaks. I learned from talking to friends and scrolling through Instagram that students have taken trips to Florida and Chicago, visited other college campuses in search of parties and have rented cabins up north to find a temporary reprieve, despite having to bring along laptops to attend class. Jia told The Daily he has observed this trend in his social circles. “One of my friends has spent the past couple months driving across the country,” Jia said. “I do not know how they are managing that with coursework.” The fact that students with online classes are traveling and interacting as they see fit during the pandemic indicates the weakness of the argument that eliminating breaks is an effective way to prevent the spread of coro-
navirus. It is understandable that schools have cancelled week-long breaks to discourage travel, but numerous universities have provided single days off throughout the semester in replacement. In contrast, the Winter 2021 schedule is another failure of the University’s administration to consider the health and well-being of students; the University has refused to grant a single weekday off throughout 14 weeks (a total of 98 days) of classes. Even when originally developing the fall break in 2002, administrators and students acknowledged not all students would use the break with its intended purpose in mind: to study and catch up on work. Still, Fall Break was implemented and is regarded to serve a purpose for the mental health and well-being of students, regardless of how they personally choose to use the two days off. Relatedly, it is aggravating that the University has stripped all students of this break during the semester we arguably need it most. The past few weeks have revealed the University can only control the activity and travel of students so much — regardless of the length or date of a break, students will use the time to spend it how they want, where they want — and that is not a reason to omit all breaks from the Winter 2021 semester, especially since students are already traveling across the country while classes are in session. And regardless of whether the CSG resolution is successful, the consensus among students is that any days off in the middle of the week is preferable none at all. “What about the people that are trying to do the right thing? What about the students that would stay and study, and use the extra time for the right things?” Dickinson asked. “Even if they cannot send us home, there should be a mental break for us,” Hull said. Putting the implications of an entire winter semester without a spring break into perspective, albeit lightly, Jia said, “Having 14 straight weeks of school is kind of terrible.” Regardless of the public health crisis, political tensions, racial reckoning and economic instability of the United States, not to mention how these crises fuel each other, I think a couple days off this semester, and certainly next semester, are in order — we have days off during “normal times.” With no clear idea on when or how the pandemic will end, it is likely the additional stressors of coronavirus will remain a tremendous added stressor for students well into next semester, and the University’s academic calendar should reflect students’ and faculty’s current circumstances. Many students are the most exhausted, stressed and fearful we have ever been in our lives. So, can we get a break?
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 17
With his waiver approved, Chaundee Brown is finally ready to win JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer
Chaundee Brown leaned back in his chair and smiled. Since transferring to Michigan from Wake Forest in May, Brown has been grounded in a perpetual state of limbo. The status of his waiver — which would determine his eligibility for the upcoming season — loomed over his head. On Friday, Brown’s wait ended. He secured the coveted waiver and, along with it, immediate eligibility. As Brown spoke to reporters on a Zoom call Monday afternoon, his words carried a certain ease to them, pointing to the weight that had been lifted off his shoulders. “It was a great feeling,” Brown said. “I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. Just been frustrated cause I’d like to know for a while, cause I didn’t know what position I was in, if I was gonna play this year.” As he embarks on his senior season, and his first in Ann Arbor, Brown is an accomplished college player. He is both battletested, having been a threeyear starter in the notoriously difficult ACC, and dependable — he contributed 12.1 points per game last year, the third-highest mark on the team. He has five career double-doubles and 13 20-point outings to his name. Yet on Brown’s resume, one item proves conspicuously absent: team success. During Brown’s Wake Forest tenure, the Demon Deacons posted a record of 35-58. They never finished higher than 11th in the conference and the NCAA Tournament was all but a pipe dream. When Brown committed to Wake Forest in the fall of 2016, he envisioned his career arc unfolding differently. The No. 38 player in the country, Brown was the school’s highest-ranked commit since 2008. He turned
down the likes of Kansas, Florida and Uconn to transform Wake Forest into a perennial contender and restore winning ways not seen since the days of Chris Paul. He believed in Danny Manning’s burgeoning program, which would go on to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010 in the 2016-17 season. “He wanted to win,” former Wake Forest assistant coach Steve Woodberry said of Brown. “He wanted to come in and do something different and make his mark on the program.” Brown did all he could to turn Wake Forest’s fortunes around, making himself amenable to any role that would help the team. Though a natural wing player, he frequently played power
forward, chiseling his 6-foot-5 frame and giving three inches to battle inside. He diversified his offensive game to shoulder the scoring load, offering an array of post-ups and three-pointers. On defense, he switched one through five. “We kinda moved him all over,” Woodberry said. “He had a willingness to do that, never batted an eye about it,” former Wake Forest associate head coach Rex Walters said. “It was, ‘What do I need to do to give us the best chance to have success?’ A lot of very talented players out there, they’re really not about winning. They’re about them. They’re about, ‘How do I play more, how do I get more shots?’ Chaundee, he wants to win.”
Along the way, not once did Brown complain. Woodberry remembers often seeing Brown alone in the weight room, both before his teammates arrived and after they left. “He never cheated himself,” Woodberry said. “He came in and worked his butt off every day to get better as a player and to help the team get better. That’s just who he is. He wants to be great.” Despite Brown’s best efforts, Wake Forest endured a trio of fruitless seasons. So in April, with one year of eligibility remaining, Brown pondered his future. He initially announced his intention to declare for the NBA Draft, but his name was absent from most mock drafts and, without an NCAA
Tournament appearance, his collegiate career felt incomplete. Transferring was the next best option. On May 19, Brown committed to Michigan over Gonzaga, LSU, Illinois and Iowa State. Michigan’s winning pedigree stood out. He was also swayed in part by former Wolverine Colin Castleton, a fellow Florida native and childhood friend of Brown’s. Castleton, though transferring himself in April, had “nothing bad to say about Michigan.” At long last ruled eligible, there is a sense of finality to Brown’s upcoming senior season. “This is his last shot as a college athlete,” Walters said. “With Chaundee, there’s no real agenda. There were never any
COURTESY OF WAKE FOREST ATHLETICS
Senior wing Chaundee Brown had his waiver granted on Sunday, and will be immediately eligible to play for the Wolverines in 2020.
agendas at Wake Forest except to help us win a ballgame, by any means necessary. … He wants to win badly. He’s willing to sacrifice his body, the effort, the energy, the enthusiasm. He’s willing to give all of that. He just wants to win.” Michigan’s roster is more complete than Wake Forest’s ever was during Brown’s tenure. There are formidable pieces at every position. Brown won’t have to be the player he was at Wake Forest, forced out of his comfort zone or tasked as the lead scorer. He can revert to square one. “I can see myself helping this team this year by playing my game,” Brown, who has seen time at the ‘2’ and the ‘3’ in practice, said. “Coach (Juwan) Howard recruited me because he liked my game, so there’s no need to change it. Just got to be the player I am.” At the end of Friday’s practice, Howard huddled the team at the end of the court, underneath the basket. He informed them that Brown’s waiver had been approved, prompting a raucous celebration — Brown was engulfed in a mosh pit by his teammates who pierced the air with euphoric screams. “It’s really a family here,” Brown said. “Everyone in the locker room gets along, we’re laughing and giggling and stuff like that. I’ve never had a team like this that’s so close and everything.” Brown has also never been on a team so well-equipped to compete. After suffering through three losing seasons at Wake Forest and a five month wait for eligibility, he can hone in on all that matters to him: winning. “My big goal is to win a Big Ten championship (and) national championship,” Brown said. “That’s everyone’s goal. But individual goals, I really put that to the side. I do anything to help the team out right now.”
Pearson may not let Power go to Barnes Arico talks improvements Canada Junior Selection Camp MAX WADLEY
Daily Sports Writer
JACK KINGSLEY Daily Sports Writer
Owen Power’s first game in a Michigan jersey may have to wait a little longer. On Oct. 29, the freshman defenseman was announced as one of the 46 players invited to Canada’s National Junior Team Selection Camp. The camp will run from Nov. 16 through Dec. 13 in Red Deer, Alberta. If Power attends, the first month of his season — which begins the weekend of Nov. 13 — will effectively be wiped out. But there’s no guarantee that Michigan coach Mel Pearson will allow Power to attend. In a normal year, Power would miss very little, if any, of the Wolverines’ season. The camp normally begins in the middle of December and only lasts two weeks, during which no college games are played. But because Canadian junior leagues have delayed their seasons and are not currently playing games, the camp has been extended, overlapping with the college season. If the camp were to start in December, Pearson would likely let Power go — he allowed both former defenseman Quinn Hughes and sophomore defenseman Cam York to do so in their respective freshman years. But the early start complicates his decision. “It’s not the ideal situation,” Pearson said. “I would like to let Owen experience it and go there, but at the same time, I’ve got to look at the overall picture and what’s right for Owen going forward, overall, not just for a two week camp that’s played at Christmas
COURTESY OF THE CHICAGO STEEL
Owen Power may not attend Canada’s selection camp for the junior team.
time, but for his overall growth and development and academic interest.” While on the surface this seems like a hockey decision, academics will play a significant role for Pearson this year, since Power will have to take classes while in a bubble in Alberta. “Even though I think all of his classes are Zoom classes, we just wanted to see what his workload was going to be because he could be gone 51 days,” Pearson said. “If you make that team, you’re gonna be gone 51 days — 51 days in a bubble in Alberta.” While the World Junior Championships provide players with the opportunity to compete against the best players in the world between the ages of 18 and 20, according to Pearson, it’s not always beneficial for players like Power to go. In 2018, Hughes played just over 13 minutes a game at the tournament, fifth among defensemen on the U.S. team, while York served as the seventh defenseman for the
You’re gonna be gone 51 days — 51 days in a bubble.
U.S. last year. “We’ve had a lot of players go and it’s been a tough experience and you’ve got to come back with their confidence rattled a little bit,” Pearson said. “We got to build them back up.” Even though Power would be playing for the Canadian team, he could face a situation similar to what Hughes and York faced. Power is the youngest of the 15 defensemen invited to the camp, and the only one who is yet to be drafted. Six of the defensemen were first round picks in either 2019 or 2020, and as a result, Power could be facing an uphill battle for playing time. All things considered, staying and going both have their own benefits and drawbacks. Whatever decision Pearson makes, it will have considerable ramifications for the start of the Wolverines’ season. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked Power as the second best prospect in the 2021 NHL draft, and he figures to fill a spot as a topfour defenseman for Michigan this season. “I wish I didn’t have to make a tough decision like I’m probably going to have to,” Pearson said. “But he’s here to go to school and play hockey, not just the hockey.”
The Michigan women’s basketball team does not have an official schedule. The team doesn’t know what their season will look like. But they don’t care — they have ninthyear coach Kim Barnes Arico to lead them through the uncertainty. Ignoring outside noise about what the season will look like, Barnes Arico says that the team is working on improving in categories where it fell short last year. The Wolverines shot 32.8% from behind the arc last season but only averaged 4.8 3-point attempts per game. “I think we’ve worked a ton in the offseason on our outside shooting. You know, we weren’t a team that made a ton of threes last year. I think that’s an area where we’re going to improve this season,” Barnes Arico said. “I think we’re going to shoot more of them and I think we’re going to make more of them.” In an abnormal season, it helps that the Wolverines have
a lot of experience returning to the court. Junior forward Naz Hillmon, junior guard Amy Dilk, fifth-year guard Akienreh Johnson, and senior forward Hailey Brown were starters last year and will be playing for Michigan in the upcoming season. The Wolverines also add junior guard Leigha Brown, who received a waiver for immediate eligibility on Sunday, to their roster after she transferred from Nebraska this offseason. Brown led the Huskers in scoring last season, averaging 14.4 points per game while shooting 34.1% from behind the arc and 43.6% on total field goals. With such a formidable stat-line, she should be able help Michigan improve its scoring abilities and could make an immediate impact. On a bench with as much experience as the Wolverines, Barnes Arico said new freshmen may take on more of a learning role, but she didn’t deny the talented young group of freshmen their credit. “I think that makes it even more difficult, being
a freshman coming in and trying to make an immediate impact when you have a ton of experience (already),” Barnes Arico said. “ … I don’t know if any of them will come in and play 30 minutes a game, kind of like Naz was able to do her freshman year, but I think all four of them have an opportunity to be great players in a Michigan uniform.” With solid experience and leadership at the top of the roster and a strong group of underclassmen who are eager to learn, the Wolverines seem positioned to compete for a Big Ten championship. But first, they have to make it through the uncertainty of the preseason. “The new word of the year is f luid. (The upcoming season is) f luid, it’s ever changing,” Barnes Arico said. “You need to be adaptable and you also need to be willing to change and to make adjustments. We might not have wanted this to happen. … Now, how are we going to spin that into a positive and how are we going to make the best of that situation.”
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico says the Wolverines worked on their outside shooting over the offseason.
18 — Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ALLISON ENGKVIST/DAILY
Rocky Lombardi and the Spartans stun No. 13 Michigan DANIEL DASH Daily Sports Editor Merely two months ago, the thought of college football at Michigan Stadium this fall felt like an impossibility. Even less plausible was the thought of the Wolverines losing to Michigan State. But on Saturday, No. 13 Michigan took the field against its in-state rival. The Wolverines probably wish they didn’t. Behind 196 receiving yards from freshman Ricky White, the Spartans (1-1) stunned Michigan, 27-24. After two straight dominant Michigan wins, first-year Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker flipped the rivalry on its head. The Spartans limped into Ann Arbor coming off a double-digit loss to Rutgers — which entered the 2020
season riding a 21-game Big Ten losing streak — and left with Paul Bunyan. Leading up to Saturday, the Wolverines had outscored Michigan State by 53 points in their last four meetings — three of which they won convincingly. Saturday’s shocker was arguably the worst loss of the Harbaugh era, and in his sixth season at the helm of the program, an enormous step backward like this is borderline unjustifiable. From the start, it was clear Saturday wouldn’t be a runaway. A week after averaging over eight yards per play, Michigan (1-1) struggled to move the ball in the first half. The Wolverines’ offensive line consistently struggled to create holes, resulting in a net gain of just 21 yards on the team’s first 10 carries. It didn’t get much better
after that, as the Spartans held Michigan to less than five yards per carry on the game. “They played a little bit more over front defense early,” Harbaugh said. “And they got some tackles for loss. Earlier in the game, we were making plays or they were negative plays. And then their offensive line did a really good job protecting. We didn’t get any sacks or any kind of havoc type of plays defensively.” Zero defensive havoc plays, to be exact. Harbaugh’s defense didn’t produce a single sack or turnover all afternoon despite ample opportunity. After a Michigan State touchdown put Michigan in an early 7-0 hole, the Wolverines found success along the edge. A pair of true freshmen — wide receiver A.J. Henning and running back Blake Corum — found success along
the sideline, with the latter taking a sweep to the pylon for the gametying score. But the game-tying score didn’t hold up for long. Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi stretched the field vertically, drawing a handful of crucial pass interference and holding flags on Michigan cornerbacks Vincent Gray and Gemon Green in the process. And when the defensive backs weren’t flagged, they were a step behind. Lombardi’s two deepest first-half completions — a 30-yard touchdown in the first quarter and a 53-yarder to set up the go-ahead score in the second quarter — exploited man coverage. “They made the downfield throws and catches,” Harbaugh said. “They were able to finish drives just a little bit better than we did. And we would get into a
rhythm offensively, then we’d not be in rhythm. (We) didn’t finish the drives the way we want to, the way we are capable of. And that cost us.” Added sophomore safety Daxton Hill: “We really didn’t expect those (deep passes). The gameplan was really honed in on the run.” It’s one thing to come in with an ill-prepared gameplan. It’s another to stick to it. On Saturday, the Wolverines failed to make any sort of adjustment. Lombardi found White on another 50-yard deep ball on the Spartans’ first play of the second half, which set up a field goal that gave Michigan State a 17-10 lead. Lombardi finished with 323 passing yards and three touchdowns despite completing just 17 passes. When Michigan’s defense needed a fourth-quarter stop, it couldn’t get one. Down 20-17, it
was burned time and time again by White, who consistently exposed a coverage scheme that defensive coordinator Don Brown seemingly refused to change. Even after a personal foul in the red zone, Michigan State needed only two plays to score on first-and-goal from the 18-yard-line. The touchdown gave the Spartans a 27-17 lead with just five minutes left. The deficit proved insurmountable for the Wolverines, who watched Michigan State hoist Paul Bunyan for the third time in its last four trips to Ann Arbor. “The team is gonna own this,” Harbaugh said. “Congratulations to Michigan State, but we’ve got to own the loss and come back and find out where we can improve. … Each person looking at themselves — players, coaches, all of us — and strive to be a lot better.”
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 4, 2020 — 19
Secondary exposed in loss
‘M’ learns not to discount rival
THEO MACKIE
Managing Sports Editor
Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor, beneath a green gaiter that served to maintain his poker face, Mel Tucker wouldn’t reveal whether he intentionally designed a game plan to pepper Michigan’s cornerbacks with targets deep downfield. He didn’t need to. The proof was there for three hours Saturday. It resided outside the visiting locker room, down the white stucco hallway and on the Michigan Stadium field. That’s where Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi — fresh off a three-turnover performance against the Big Ten’s perennial doormat, Rutgers — threw for 323 yards, 196 of them to freshman receiver Ricky White, who saw a 40-fold increase in his career receiving yardage. “We’ve got a bunch of playmakers,” Lombardi said. “You’re gonna have to cover all of them.” On Saturday, Michigan opted for the opposite. White was the primary benefactor, connecting with Lombardi eight times. Junior Jalen Nailor — with his 328 career receiving yards — was another, going for 68 yards. Running back Connor Heyward was there too, only catching two balls, but both for touchdowns. At the end of it, the Wolverines’ cornerbacks could only look up at a scoreboard that read: Michigan State 27, Michigan 24, and wonder how they got there. “Each person, we gotta look at that, every single guy, what they can do and what they can do better,” Harbaugh said when asked about the unit. “And every coach, too.” For Michigan, the performance stood in direct contrast to everything it showed a week ago in Minneapolis. Back then, seven days and a lifetime ago, junior cornerbacks Vincent Gray and Gemon Green held the Big Ten’s reigning receiver of the year, Rashod Bateman, out of the end zone on 101 yards, most of them in garbage time. On the first drive of the game Saturday, it looked like the Wolverines could be in for a repeat. Green, who was lauded all week for his performance as a first-time starter, forced a three-and-out with a well timed pass breakup on the left sideline. That would be the highlight of his game. On the next drive, Green made the mistake he carefully avoided against Minnesota, failing to turn his head in oneon-one coverage against White on a go route down the left sideline. Instead, Green only stared towards White, who streaked past him into the end zone, catching Michigan State’s first touchdown of the game. The Spartans’ next touchdown came from the two-yard line, but it too was sparked by the deep ball. This time, it was Gray getting beat on the right sideline. Fooled by a rudimentary stop-and-go move, he stopped in his tracks at midfield as Nailor ran free under Lombardi’s 53-yard pass. Five plays later, Michigan State was in the end zone. “We really didn’t expect those (deep throws) because the gameplan was to hone in on the run,” sophomore safety Daxton Hill said. “But they threw some shots in there so you just have to adjust.” So at halftime, that’s what Michigan tried to do. Defensive coordinator Don Brown dropped his safeties deeper into coverage, attempting to provide help for his outmatched cornerbacks. Midway through the third quarter, he opted for a personnel change, replacing Gray with sophomore Jalen Perry. “We were making adjustments and they were…” Harbaugh said, letting his voice trail off with the knowledge of what came next. What came next was a second half in which Lombardi threw for 227 yards, including 121 on downfield passes into oneon-one coverage. Perry, for his part, joined the struggles, falling over his own feet on a 31-yard completion to White at the threeyard line that all but sealed the game. The most damning play, though, came a quarter earlier, with Lombardi backed up against his own end zone. Facing a secondand-9 with a heavy rush from Michigan and White lined up against Gray on the right sideline, he dropped back and hurled a pass 40 yards downfield, hoping his freshman could come up with it. There was no double move or playaction. There were no suppositions about what else Michigan State might do. The Spartans were dialing up what had worked all game: Make Michigan’s cornerbacks win a battle. And with the opportunity to shift momentum in the Wolverines’ hands, they couldn’t do it. Gray got beat, senior safety Brad Hawkins couldn’t get over in time and Michigan, for the third time in the Harbaugh era, walked off its own field with a loss to its in-state rivals.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has lost at home to Michigan State three times in his six years as head coach of the Wolverines.
State of Disrepair At rival’s hands, Harbaugh suffers worst loss at Michigan
S
ame. Old. Michigan. Maybe even a little bit worse. A week after the Wolverines defied expectations, went on the road and beat a ranked team and looked like a Big Ten contender, they suffered the worst loss of Jim Harbaugh’s tenure as head coach. One step forward. Two steps back. Everything about Saturday’s loss was avoidable and self-wrought. ETHAN There was no SEARS talent deficit in this game. The Spartans are in transition, in their first year under a new head coach after a season in which they were lucky to make the Pinstripe Bowl. They lost to Rutgers just a week ago. This might well be their only win of the season. That it came in Ann Arbor, against their in-state rivals, in a game where the Wolverines were favored by over 20 points, is a stunning indictment of everything about Jim Harbaugh’s program in year six of his tenure. “Feels unreal, honestly,” junior running back Hassan Haskins said. “I can’t believe it right now. It don’t feel real right now.” The Wolverines gave up 86 penalty yards on Saturday. They gave up 323 yards in the air and five plays of 30 yards or more, as a Michigan State passing attack that has been ridiculed across the state was too much to handle. In the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, they looked too gassed to compete on a 92-yard touchdown drive then proceeded to take five minutes off the clock, dinking and dunking their way to a meaningless touchdown with all the urgency the situation would have required in the blowout this game was supposed to be. Michigan State 27. Michigan 24. It’s rock bottom for the Wolverines under Harbaugh, and it’s time for this fanbase to start reflecting on what it
wants out of this arrangement. “Team is gonna own this,” Harbaugh said. “Congratulations to Michigan State but we gotta own the loss and come back and find out where we can improve. This is a highcharacter team and I believe they’ll do just that. Each person looking at themselves, player, coach, all of us and strive to be a lot better.” After past disappointments against Ohio State, bowl opponents and even Michigan State, it was easy for locals to dismiss the national voices calling for Harbaugh’s removal. Competing with Ohio State every year might not be realistic for this program right now. The Spartans were a bona fide contender when Harbaugh came in. But right now, they’re a bottom-feeder in the midst of a rebuild. Michigan simply cannot lose to them. Harbaugh is the fourth-highest paid coach in college football, according to USA Today’s annual salary disclosure. A $7.78 million salary demands more than butts in the seats, donations and a high graduation rate. Especially, by the way, if Harbaugh is marching on the school president to demand a season. At a bare minimum, it demands taking care of business as a threetouchdown favorite over your in-state rival. Not messing around with the wildcat in the red zone when you have a running quarterback, costing yourself four points and then losing by three. “Close, thought it was a good playcall,” Harbaugh said, “and just needed a little bit more pipe on the throw.” Of course, the quarterback might have been able to make a better throw. Those gimmicks fly when you’re winning. But when you need to pull out a win, getting cute with the wildcat, with two kickers on the field for an onside attempt, with last season’s doomed two-quarterback package, is overthinking at best, desperate at worst. The offense, as Harbaugh said, never found a consistent rhythm.
After a first-quarter touchdown drive in which everything hummed, reminiscent of last week at Minnesota, the Wolverines struggled to put together another drive. “I was thinking too much,” quarterback Joe Milton said. “I was too busy with my feet. It was all on me. O-Line did great.” It’s admirable that Milton would take the blame, and true that there were clear areas in which he needs to improve. But Michigan, up and down the roster, didn’t come ready to play. And for that, the blame lies at the top. Harbaugh is due for an extension after this season — his contract is already past the point where most coaches would have negotiated one. After this, is Michigan supposed to give him a raise? In the midst of a pandemic that’s seen layoffs in the athletic department? Surely not. It’s time to think long and hard about whether this is what the Wolverines want to be. Eight or nine wins every year, sometimes 10. Little chance of beating Ohio State. More disappointing losses than upset wins. And no chance — none — of a Big Ten title. Michigan will likely never be a yearly CFP contender in college football’s current environment. But it’s no longer true to say that no other coach can get the Wolverines to where they are now. Tom Allen nearly has Indiana there with far fewer resources. Kirk Ferentz’s Iowa finished a game better than Michigan last season. And that’s just coaches within the Wolverines’ own conference. Harbaugh deserves plaudits for pulling Michigan out of Brady Hoke’s abyss. Much of the sniping over the last six years has been unwarranted. And maybe it’s all different if a call goes their way in Columbus four years ago. But this is on the verge of stalling out. And if Harbaugh can’t fix it, maybe it’s time to think about giving someone else a chance. Sears can be reached at searseth@ umich.edu, or on Twitter @ethan_sears.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
The Michigan State football team scored an upset win on Saturday, beating Michigan 27-24 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
The leadup to rivalry week couldn’t have gone any more different for the two teams. Jim Harbaugh, as always, answered questions diplomatically. The Spartans weren’t going to turn the ball over seven times against Michigan, he said. His team would be ready. But the questions about the rivalry seemed almost farcical. Michigan State, after all, had just lost to Rutgers, snapping the Scarlet Knights’ 21-game conference losing streak. Mel Tucker, the new kid on the block, needed to show how much this rivalry meant to him. He took a page from Ohio State’s playbook, referring to the Wolverines as “the team down the road.” At the time, it seemed desperate, like a coach trying to prove he cared about the game he was almost certain to lose. For a week, you could talk yourself into believing this rivalry had lost its luster. Yes, it was still a big game, but this felt like two teams in two different places. Michigan, which had won its road opener decisively, and Michigan State, which had just shown how bare Mark Dantonio left the cupboard when he retired in February. But it’s hard to imagine a better introduction to the rivalry for Tucker than this one, because it proved that the thing that makes this rivalry one of the best in college football is still as true as ever: Anything can happen when it’s Michigan and Michigan State. So maybe it shouldn’t have been that shocking when the Spartans were the team doing jumping jacks on the sideline, the team that ran into the tunnel celebrating after a 27-24 win. “We expected it,” Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi said. “I know we were three-touchdown underdogs but everybody on this team knew going into the game that we had a chance and we had a good chance. So that was part of the reason why we played with so much confidence and ended up getting the win.” Most of these games are punctuated by the strangest plays imaginable — botched snaps and monsoons and pregame antics and turnovers. This one felt almost normal by comparison, as normal as any game played without fans due to a pandemic can be. Neither team turned the ball over, the special teams were fine, the weather was a perfectly crisp 45 degrees. The Wolverines can’t put this one on a handful of once-in-a-lifetime plays. They got outplayed on their own turf. Their secondary had no answer for Lombardi’s downfield heaves. They committed too many penalties, got too cute with their goalline wildcat packages and couldn’t find success in their running game. Here, their biggest mistake may have been underestimation. “We wanted to win, bad. Beat them up by a lot,” junior running back Hassan Haskins said. “There wasn’t no” — Haskins emitted a deep sigh — “no lack of confidence or anything. We wanted to get in there and do our job and do it well and just smash them for real. Anything can happen.” When junior quarterback Joe Milton spoke after the game, he blamed himself for the result and noted that the Spartans didn’t do anything he didn’t expect. This, he said, was a simple lack of execution. But when asked what he’d heard about linebacker Antjuan Simmons — a second-year starter and All-Big Ten honorable mention last year — Milton asked, “Who?” When given a description, Milton said that he “wasn’t really worried about him, man. He’s a heck of a player but wasn’t on my radar.” Simmons, of course, had a clapback. “It don’t matter, Pauly B’s back with us, so I don’t know what those guys do over there but we study our opponents, we know who we’re playing against, so I don’t care if I’m on Joe Milton’s radar or not.” Of course, the loss can’t be blamed on just one player. Milton wasn’t nearly as good as he was last week against Minnesota, but the real issue was that the whole team came out flat. The team that won in Minneapolis last week was crisp, prepared and ready to play. Somehow, against the Spartans, it didn’t seem that way. “We had confidence. We knew we had the game, it’s just lack of focus or something,” Haskins said. “I don’t know. We had it, we just, we beat ourselves.”
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SportsMonday Column: We’ll learn a lot about Milton this week
J
oe Milton sat down in front of the camera
and adjusted his hair. He stayed quiet and stared. “They didn’t do anything that we didn’t ETHAN practice,” he said, SEARS answering the first question of an uncomfortable eight minutes. “I was thinking too much. I was too busy with my feet. It was all on me.” There’s some truth there. Milton went 32-of-51 and threw for 300 yards on Saturday with
zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. On paper, it’s about mediocre. Watching the game, it was a bit worse. Milton looked uncomfortable in the pocket; he got sacked just once but struggled to get past his first read. More than once, he tried to force balls into windows that were too tight, seeming to predetermine where he was going before the snap and failing to adjust. And more than that, he was lucky to avoid throwing an interception. The accuracy issues we’ve heard about for a long time showed up, especially on downfield throws, and by the end of the game, Michigan was attempting to run a two-minute drill by checking the ball down. The 27-24 loss to Michigan
State wasn’t all Milton’s fault. He had nothing to do with the penalty yards Michigan’s defense racked up or with Michigan State receiver Ricky White’s 196 yards against an overmatched secondary. He didn’t make the decision to go to the wildcat near the goal-line when the offense was humming. Still, after a strong performance against Minnesota, this will bring expectations for Michigan’s junior quarterback back down to earth. He wasn’t the reason they lost, but that doesn’t mean there was a shortage of issues. “My take of it right now until I rewatch it, we would be in rhythm and we wouldn’t or we wouldn’t be in rhythm and then we’d get it,” Michigan coach Jim
Harbaugh said. “Didn’t finish the drives and be in rhythm throughout the drive like we wanted to.” At least some of the responsibility there falls on the quarterback’s shoulders, since he’s the one leading the offense on the field, and Milton should get credit for bearing that responsibility without hesitation. What matters more now, though, is next week. How Milton plays on the road, coming off a crushing loss against a challenging Indiana defense, could set the tone for the rest of this season. The Wolverines opened as a favorite at Indiana, but the Hoosiers were ranked 10 spots higher in the AP Poll. That’s
the first time Indiana has been ranked higher than Michigan coming into this game since 1988, per Matt Cohen of the Indiana Daily Student. And if the Wolverines want to get anything at all out of this season, it’s a must-win game. For Milton, this is also about keeping his job next year, when five-star recruit J.J. McCarthy comes in and Cade McNamara enters his junior year. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. As for immediate ramifications, Wisconsin, Penn State and Ohio State are all still on the schedule. Indiana is perennially penciled in as an automatic win. But not this year. And a loss would put a .500 record — Michigan’s worst season since Brady Hoke was fired — on
the table. Milton took responsibility and pinpointed where he needs to improve minutes after Saturday’s game. He talked about being more comfortable in the pocket, staying poised, keeping his focus and being too busy with his feet. Asked about Michigan State linebacker Antjuan Simmons, who made 11 tackles and affected the game all day, he said, “Antuan Simmons, who’s that?” It pointed to another problem — a lack of preparation — even if Milton didn’t say it aloud. That’s a laundry list of things to improve on. Whether he can do it in five days will be telling. Sears can be reached at searseth@umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_sears.
Michigan emphasizes bouncing back DANIEL DASH
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Following arguably the worst loss to date of Jim Harbaugh’s six-year tenure, the schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Michigan football team. As Harbaugh and his players addressed the media on Monday, one of the most commonly used phrases was “bounce back.” With teams like Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State still ahead, the 23rd-ranked Wolverines will be forced to do exactly that if it wants to avoid embarrassment. And with a trip to No. 13 Indiana on tap this week, they’ll have to do it sooner than later. “(Bouncing back) is huge,” fifth-year senior Carlo Kemp said. “And it’s definitely the only way in football to move on and erase things that have happened in the past. It’s not basketball or baseball where you’ve got to have a seven game series. You get your one Saturday, you get your one opportunity and your one chance to go out there and play and walk away with a win. Saturday, we didn’t do that, so that’s the only thing that’s kind in the back of your head and on your mind.
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“The only way to erase that is to go out there as hard as you can on this coming Saturday and win. Walk away with a win because now, going into the stretch of games that we have coming up with already one loss, every game is so crucial. The impact it can make on (our) season — win or lose — is huge.” After falling short against a Michigan State team fresh off a loss to lowly Rutgers, bouncing back is easier said than done. The Wolverines’ f laws were exposed in their loss, most notably on the defensive side of the ball. Cornerbacks Vincent Gray and Gemon Green were consistently beat over the top, but even as the Spartans’ game plan became clear, defensive coordinator Don Brown made minimal in-game adjustments. Instead, he relied on a man coverage scheme that surrendered 196 receiving yards to Michigan State freshman Ricky White — the most by a Spartan against Michigan since Plaxico Burress tallied 255 in 1999. “Definitely talk to the young corners,” senior linebacker Josh Ross said. “The main thing I tell them is, it’s tough, we made some mistakes, we
have some tough plays, but at the end of the day, a man is judged by how he faces adversity and tough situations. … We will bounce back strong.” The secondary wasn’t the only unit that struggled. The Wolverines’ defensive line made little impact up front, and by the end of the afternoon, Michigan didn’t have a single sack or turnover in a game it entered as a three-touchdown favorite. The Hoosiers, meanwhile, could prove to be the young season’s tallest task yet. After upsetting Penn State in the season-opener, they cruised to a 16-point win over Rutgers on Saturday. The Wolverines have won 24 straight against Indiana dating back to 1988, but they’ll need more than just history on their side to keep the streak alive. This time, they’ll need a bounce-back effort. “The only thing that’s gonna get the sour taste out of our mouths is winning the next game,” senior tight end Nick Eubanks said. “That’s how we’re gonna approach it and that’s how everyone’s mindset is right now. … Anybody’s allowed to get beat. It’s up to us to fine-tune the details and be able to execute.”
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Safeties coach Bob Shoop is not actively coaching at this time, the team confirmed in a statement Monday morning. “Bob Shoop is not working with the team in an on-field coaching capacity at this time,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “He is performing team-related duties remotely. In consideration of his privacy interests, we will have no further comment.” Aashon Larkins, a defensive analyst, is currently doing on-field work with the safeties, the spokesperson confirmed. “Aashon Larkins is coaching the safeties,” Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh said at his press conference. “And doing a good job. And yeah, we’ve adjusted as best we can.” The reason for Shoop’s absence is unknown. Rivals first reported that Shoop wasn’t working on-field. Asked to elaborate, Harbaugh referred media back to the statement, citing confidentiality. Shoop, a former defensive coordinator at William & Mary, Vanderbilt, Penn State, Tennessee and Mississippi State, was hired in January after Chris Partridge left for Ole Miss. “Getting to know coach Shoop is a great guy, great coach — an even better person,”
senior safety Brad Hawkins said this fall. “He knows a lot of football. He’s been around it, the game, a long time. I’m just happy to learn from a new guy, learn new things from a new person. It’s just something that’s helping me elevate my game. “He’s been around a lot of great safeties. He coached (NFL safety) Adrian Amos. He coached some great guys. I’m happy to be around him and I’m happy to learn from him.” Asked whether Shoop would return to the field this season, Harbaugh didn’t answer. “I would refer you back to the statement and can’t comment on things that are of a private nature,” Harbaugh said.