2020-09-30 by The Michigan Daily

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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

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Professors and students at Ross revisit efforts to improve diversity

Business School deals with criticism over shortcomings in DEI initiatives PARNIA MAZHAR & ANN YU Daily Staff Reporters

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti residents joined U-M students in calling for racial justice on the Diag Saturday morning.

‘I never thought I would be seeing this again’: Protest calls for racial justice

Nonprofit Survivors Speak demands end to police brutality following decision from MI AG Nessel not to file charges againt Washtenaw deputy, Breonna Taylor ruling in KY CALDER LEWIS

Daily Staff Reporter

Ypsilanti resident Audrey Anderson’s voice carried across the University of Michigan Diag Saturday, echoed by about 100 people at a protest against racial injustice organized by the nonprofit Survivors

Speak. “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around,” Anderson sang. “I’m gonna keep on marching, keep on standing, keep on ‘til justice comes.” She told the crowd she’d first heard the song as a little girl when Martin Luther King Jr. led the freedom riders through the Jim Crow South in the 1960s. Anderson noted the

recurring nature of police brutality, comparing the brutality freedom riders were met with decades earlier to the violence protesters faced across the country this past summer. “I never thought I would be seeing this again, and again and again,” Anderson said. Saturday’s “Where Do We Go From Here?” protest came in the

wake of the “wanton endangerment” charge filed against the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s finding that a Washtenaw County Sheriff deputy’s use of force against Sha’Teina Grady El was justified. See PROTEST, Page 3

During sophomore Eve Taylor’s orientation for the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, white students called her hair “unprofessional” for the workplace. Taylor, who is Black, said the white student with straight hair called her own hair more adequate. Taylor was shocked – she had spent a lot of time getting ready for the orientation session. Over the past several months, Black Business students have spoken to The Michigan Daily about a lack of transparency among diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Business School. Black students are underrepresented in Ross, as well as the University as a whole. Complaints about diversity at the University and Ross in particular are not new. Previously, some Business students have said the lack of a race and ethnicity course requirement in Ross played a role in the Business School’s status as a predominately white institution. Business School Dean Scott DeRue said the Business

administration recognizes the improvements it must make in regard to DEI, and it is working hard to achieve those goals. “In no way do we claim that we are perfect or that we have solved all of these challenges and issues,” DeRue said. “But we are deeply committed and unwavering in our commitment to enhancing diversity on campus.” Microaggressions at the Business School Created in June, the Instagram account @blackatmichigan has been a space for Black students, alumni, faculty and staff to share their experiences with race and racism on campus — anonymously or not — while at the University, according to the account. Similar accounts seeking to bring to light discriminatory behaviors have appeared at other universities. While many of the respondents did not share which college they were in at the University in the early posts on the account, out of those who did, the Business School was a recurring subject. Out of the first 25 posts on the Instagram page, nine of them shared Black students’ negative racial experiences within the Business School. See ROSS, Page 3

COVID-19

Concerns abound over accountability of U-M’s surveillance testing, contact tracing plans Community worries measures to limit spread of virus won’t stop outbreaks JASMIN LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

Experts have emphasized the need for widespread testing and contact tracing in order to safely reopen universities. But some at the University of Michigan are concerned about whether contact tracing on campus and surveillance testing efforts will be able to stem outbreaks before they occur. Angela Beck, associate dean in the School of Public Health and faculty adviser of Contact Tracing Corps, worked with the University over the summer to develop a program for contact tracing on campus. The CTC is composed of volunteers who reach out to students who test positive for the virus and notify their close contacts of the University’s quarantine protocol. Contact tracing is vital to preventing the virus from causing an outbreak on campus, Beck said. “I think this program is really helpful to the University’s containment response for COVID-19,” Beck said. “Key to keeping the virus contained and keeping our campus as safe as possible is to identify who is a positive case and who’s been exposed

to a positive case as quickly as they can and isolate them from the rest of the population so that we can really stop that transmission.” The Washtenaw County Health Department has an agreement with the University’s Environment, Health & Safety Department to conduct contact tracing under the jurisdiction of Washtenaw County, a responsibility the health department “deputizes” the University volunteers to undertake, according to Communications and Health Promotions Administrator Susan Ringler-Cerniglia. Danielle Sheen, executive director of EHS said the department is responsible for “case investigation and contact tracing” as part of their legal agreement with WCHD. CTC volunteers, ranging from graduate students to Public Health undergraduates, undergo training modules to learn how to best work with the patients. Beck said the partnership between EHS and the WCHD has been beneficial in working with volunteers. “That legal agreement between EHS and Washtenaw County is partly what makes this possible,” Beck said.

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See TRACING, Page 2

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Whitmer allows movie theaters to reopen, adjusts limits on gatherings

Governor Gretchen Whitment announced new COVID-19 limits and reopening plans October 9.

Governor implements new formula to determine capacity at different locations, emphasizes that coronavirus is still a lasting threat to country and state LEAH GRAHAM

Managing News Editor

Movie theaters and performance venues can reopen Oct. 9 in accordance with public health guidelines, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in a Friday press release. Whitmer also altered limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings, putting a formula in place to determine capacity at different locations. In a statement, Whitmer said

the state’s early steps to combat the virus made it possible to loosen restrictions. “Michigan took some of the most aggressive action against COVID-19 in the country, and as a result, the health of our families and our economy are faring better than our neighbors in other states,” Whitmer said. “As a result, we are now able to reopen movie theaters and performance venues with strict safety measures in place. I know these business owners have made incredible sacrifices

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INDEX

during this crisis to protect our families and frontline workers, and my administration will continue working to help them get back on their feet.” Whitmer signed an executive order to amend the MI Safe Start Plan to allow for the reopening. Whitmer also adjusted the limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings. Under the new rules, rather than being limited to 10 people, nonresidential indoor events now must limit attendance to 20 people per 1,000 square feet or

20% of fixed seating capacity. The size of any indoor event, no matter how large the venue, must not exceed 500 people. Face masks are required at these gatherings. For outdoor events, instead of the previous limit of 100 people, attendance will be capped at 30 people per 1,000 square feet or 30% of fixed seating capacity, with the size of the gathering restricted to 1,000 people.

NEWS.........................2 MIC............................6 OPINION.....................7

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ARTS .........................10 S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

2 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

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ASHA LEWIS/Daily Governor Gretchen Whitmer announces her plan to make Michigan carbon-neutral by 2050 on Wednesday afternoon (Note: This photograph was taken in January 2020).

Gov. Whitmer announces plan to achieve carbon neutrality in MI Executive orders aim to reduce carbon footprint to zero by 2050 while making Michigan into a hub for clean energy jobs, protecting environment

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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer aims to make Michigan completely carbon neutral by the year 2050, her office announced in a press release Wednesday. “The science is clear – climate change is directly impacting our public health, environment, our economy and our families,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This dangerous reality is already causing harm throughout Michigan, with communities of color and low-income Michiganders suffering disproportionately, which is why I’m taking immediate action to protect our state. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to leave them a cleaner, safer and healthier world.” According to Whitmer, the steps outlined in both Executive Directive 2020-10 and Executive Order 2020182 — both of which she signed this morning — will provide protections for Michigan’s environment, economy and public health. She wrote the new MI Healthy Climate Plan will also position Michigan to attract clean energ y jobs. The Council on Climate Solutions will take steps that address diversity and equity while working closely with the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energ y. The Council and EGLE will be working together on emission-

reduction strategies to reduce the greenhouse gas produced in Michigan by 28%. This will be lower than the levels present in Michigan in the 1990s. In a statement, EGLE Director Liesl Clark wrote the executive order will protect the environment in Michigan for future generations. “Michiganders have been on the front lines of environmental protection from the first Earth Day 50 years ago, and we continue to lead with these important steps to safeguard Michiganders and their natural resources,” Clark wrote. Clark said the project will link together plans from cities and towns all over the state that have been implemented to help battle climate emergencies at the local level. “We’re excited to amplify and elevate the work of so many Michigan cities and towns taking vital steps to protect their residents and resources, while sharing in the benefits brought by clean energ y industries,” Clark wrote. Public Policy senior Sabrina Butcher, Citizens Climate Lobby co-president, said she is pleased with the new orders from Whitmer. “I think it’s really cool that part of their goal is to address environmental justice,” Butcher said. “Michigan has a lot of wind energ y potential

especially in the zone to be really cool to see renewable energ y kind of take over Michigan and Michigan’s economy and to kind of come back that way.” Citizens who represent a range of sectors, experiences and expertise relating to achieving carbon neutrality will be able to apply to be on the Council on Climate Solutions. Butcher expressed concerns with the open-ended call to the public to apply to be on the council. “Bringing a lot of different voices together is cool, but I think that’s kind of a dangerous game because if we look at something like the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, we’ve had it for a couple years now and it’s done absolutely nothing,” Butcher said. “I think sometimes commissions like that can be a little more symbolic instead producing actual strategies that get adopted.” The City of Ann Arbor has plans of its own to go completely carbon neutral by 2030. The plan addresses the sectors of energ y, mobility, resource reduction and adaptation and resilience, aiming to transition to renewable energ y sources and design a zerocarbon transportation system throughout the city. Ypsilanti is following Ann Arbor’s lead, drafting a similar plan to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2035.

Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis and concerns about budget shortfalls, Ann Arbor is pushing ahead with its billiondollar initiative. Ann Arbor’s plan will rely on efforts at the University of Michigan to reduce the school’s carbon footprint. The President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality is reviewing options for reaching carbon neutrality, but a timeline for a carbon neutrality initiative has not yet been set. The commission released its second interim report in June and is now beginning work on later phases of research and analysis. In a press release, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., wrote she supported Whitmer’s plan, noting more work must be done at all levels of government to transition to a net-zero emissions economy. “Thanks to Governor Whitmer’s leadership, Michigan takes seriously the effects of climate change on public health, environmental justice and an equitable transition to a more sustainable economy for our communities and workers,” Dingell wrote. “Michigan and the United States will stay at the forefront of innovation and technolog y and leave a healthy planet for generations to come.” Daily Staff Reporter Jenna Siteman can be reached at jsiteman@umich.edu.

they could have told me who I came in contact with … I emailed (CTC) about my concerns and at one point, he just stopped responding to me about that specific issue but responded to me about another issue, so I just kinda felt swept under the rug.” LSA senior Libby Kirk learned she had interacted with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 after the person reached out to her directly. A day later, CTC called her. She quarantined last week. Though the contact tracing program was helpful in her situation, Kirk said it was also imperative for the person who tested positive to inform her so she could get tested right away. “In general, I think what has been more helpful is the person who tested positive contacting us right away,” Kirk said. “Because if I did have it, I wouldn’t have

known for a whole day until they contact traced me, so I think the most helpful thing has been the person contacting me themselves.” Kirk also said one of the program’s f laws is that it relies on student accountability. “I think in some ways it is (working),” Kirk said. “But in other ways, it’s relying on students to be accountable for their actions, which I don’t think we can really count on everybody for that.” Public Health professor Emily Martin, who runs the COVID-19 sampling and tracking program, spoke at the University Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon and shared data from the first wave of results. Martin told The Michigan Daily how multiple negative tests could change within 14 days and, if students are ordered to quarantine, they must do it for the full two

weeks. “You can give me 100 negative tests while you’re in quarantine and you still have to stay in quarantine because you could turn positive at any point during that time frame,” Martin said. “So, unfortunately, there have been some people who have suggested that, ‘What if we use tests earlier in quarantine to try to release people?’ It doesn’t (work like that) … I think that this is still the safest way to do that process.” Thedford said she is currently quarantined at her permanent residence after spending a week at Northwood apartments. Thedford said she was concerned about getting the virus from residents who tested positive after encountering these students outside of her quarantine room.

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TRACING From Page 1 “Not every university has this type of legal agreement with the county, so I think we’re able to help in a way, and provide some students learning experiences in a way that I think other universities probably can’t. So that’s also a reason why moving in this direction seems like a possibility.” Business freshman Audrey Thedford learned she came into contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID-19 after receiving a call from a contact tracer. She said she was confused about why she was sent to quarantine housing and wished her contact tracer had given her more information. “My contact tracer was really nice, but when he first contacted me, I was freaked out,” Thedford said. “I wish

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THEATERS From Page 1 In Ann Arbor, two iconic local cinemas — the State Theatre on South State Street and the Michigan Theater on East Liberty Street — have been closed since the start of the pandemic. Both have offered virtual screenings of films and asked for donations to help keep them in business. The city currently limits indoor gatherings to 10 individuals and caps events at 25 people when in an outdoor setting. City Council passed an ordinance in August putting the restrictions in place amid fears that students returning to the University of Michigan’s campus could trigger an outbreak. Those restrictions align with rules set by Washtenaw County earlier in August. The county’s policy prohibits outdoor gatherings of more than 25 people in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, both of which are college towns. As of Friday, the University’s COVID-19 dashboard, which was recently updated to

TRACING From Page 2 “I couldn’t stand Northwood anymore,” Thedford said. “It’s just crazy there and more kids who test positive are literally right next to you. For my safety, I thought it was best if I just went home cause I have the luxury of living an hour away.” The conditions at the University’s quarantine housing have been the subject of numerous complaints — and a viral Tik Tok — by students sent to isolate there. Residents have voiced concerns about a lack of sanitation, the low quality of the meal delivery service and limited communication between them and the University. In response to the criticism, the University created a new job to oversee students and conditions in quarantine housing. Martin said while the first set of data to come from surveillance testing recorded zero positive tests, she would “love to get as many people signed up as possible” to collect more data from students. Public Health graduate student Peter DeJonge works with Martin in the surveillance testing program. DeJonge also encouraged students to sign up for the program, saying it benefits the community. “I would encourage people to sign up,” DeJonge said. “Everyone will eventually be selected to come in and collect the self swab. We give their results back pretty quickly. It contributes to the overall wellbeing of campus and there’s very little hassle to make an appointment.” Thedford brought up concerns about the newly reinstated football season affecting testing and contact tracing, saying tailgates could negatively impact the progress of the CTC. “If a positive person goes to a tailgate, there’s no point (in contact tracing),” Thedford said. “It’s just not effective because if a kid has COVID, they’re only going to say the five close friends that they know of and everyone else is just going to walk freely. I think contact tracing is going to have a big issue coming up and we’re going to see an influx of

PROTEST From Page 1 In May, protests erupted in Ypsilanti after a video showed the officer repeatedly hitting Grady El in the head. Elected officials, candidates and community members spoke out against racial injustice in education, the criminal justice system and the economy during Saturday’s event. Eli Savit, Democratic candidate for Washtenaw County prosecutor, said the charge for wanton endangerment — but not for Taylor’s murder — proved that “Black lives are devalued.” Bill Amadeo, Grady El’s

include testing at off-campus facilities and better align with data from the county, showed a total positive case count of 288 since Aug. 30, the day before the start of the fall semester. That count includes both students and non-students. On Wednesday, prior to the University’s decision to incorporate off-campus tests that were not self-reported, the dashboard reported 117 positive cases during the same time period. Whitmer noted the state is still in a state of emergency and that the virus is still a persistent threat. “We are not out of the woods yet, and we will continue to monitor the effects of these incremental changes,” Whitmer said. “Right now, the federal government and all 50 states have been under some form of state of emergency. We must stay the course and continue fighting this virus on behalf of our families, frontline workers, and our small businesses.” Managing News Editor Leah Graham can be reached at leahgra@umich.edu.

people entering Northwood. It’s just going to keep getting worse and worse.” While COVID-19 surveillance testing has faced backlash over privacy concerns, Martin said their program is based on influenza surveillance, which is a common program in the state of Michigan. “So we watch what’s going on at doctors’ offices, we watch what’s going on at the hospitals, we watch what people are reporting in the community,” Martin said. “But we also kind of go out and do targeted testing to figure out if influenza is here yet. Is it going? Is it getting higher? And that gives us an extra piece of information to help us tailor how we’re responding (to the virus).” DeJonge said surveillance testing is important among college students because many virus carriers are asymptomatic. “With any communicable disease or something that people can spread from person to person, it’s important for the community to know what’s out there,” DeJonge said. “So the surveillance that we do is important to just recognize how many people are out there, we don’t know about and wouldn’t know about because they never will have symptoms.” Racial disparities persist in the pandemic’s impact, with Black and Hispanic Americans bearing the brunt of the virus. Martin said some marginalized communities have been negatively affected by the medical system and may be unwilling to participate in these surveillance programs. “I think that we need to be mindful of both sides of the people that would feel safer with mandatory testing,” Martin said. “I think we need to acknowledge that there are communities of people that both have reasons that they don’t want to participate in mandatory testing, but then also may have had experiences with the medical system and public health surveillance systems that may make them uncomfortable. With that kind of mandate, I think we need to acknowledge that and also as part of the conversation.” Daily Staff Reporter Jasmin Lee can be reached at itsshlee@ umich.edu.

attorney, told the crowd he is committed to fighting Nessel’s decision in the Grady El case. He said he is also representing many young Black men who are overcharged in Washtenaw County. “They have been victims of the criminal justice system,” Amadeo said. “If we’re going to move forward, this bullshit needs to stop, and it’s only going to stop if we all sit down and talk as a team.” A recent report from the Citizens for Racial Equality in Washtenaw found significant gaps in the treatment of different racial groups in the county’s criminal justice system. The report revealed prosecutors charge people of color more often

ROSS From Page 1 Business graduate student Tunde Osilaja, who is of Nigerian and American descent, wrote in a post on @blackatmichigan that his professor made a derogatory remark about Nigerian people to his 80-person section in September 2018. According to Osilaja’s post, the professor said, “I wouldn’t try to deceive you, I’m not like one of those Nigerians,” a comment that refers to a discriminatory stereotype about Nigerians. “I thought I misunderstood him, but I was shocked when he repeated the same comment later in the lesson,” Osilaja said. DeRue told The Daily the Business administration is aware of this comment and has addressed it with the faculty member. “I’m aware of the matter, and certainly it’s unfortunate and disappointing, very disappointing that happened,” DeRue said. When asked by The Daily what specifically was said to the faculty member regarding the incident, a spokesperson for DeRue said they cannot comment on personnel matters. The professor’s comments are not what hurt Osilaja the most, he said, but rather the response of his classmates. According to Osilaja, the majority of his classmates laughed along with the professor, while only a few of them approached him later to discuss the incident and share their misgivings. DeRue said the administration encourages students and faculty to report any discrimination they may experience. “We take these matters very seriously and are very proactive ... and we do a follow-up on every single instance that is reported and take action as appropriate for that matter,” DeRue said. Many Black Business students said their experiences with discrimination and racism were covert rather than overt, such as microaggressions — remarks or actions that communicate negative or demeaning attitudes toward marginalized groups. Business junior Karla Bell, Black Business Undergraduate Society president, said she has experienced microaggressions when working in small groups in class where a majority of the other students were white. “There have been experiences, especially working within teams, where I would say something and then I’m not heard, and then someone will say a similar thing and then they’ll be listened to,” Bell said. “A lot of times, it’s the lack of people believing that you have the skills that you obviously have because we’re all in the same place.” An underrepresented Black community In the Winter 2020 semester, 3.3 percent of students in the Business School were Black and 50.7 percent of students were white, according to the Office of the Registrar. Business alum Errington Bethel said the Business School’s racial demographics should be proportionate to the country’s. About 14 percent of people in Michigan and 13.4 percent of people in the U.S. are Black. “Michigan needs to look at Black Americans getting accepted into Ross and understand either why they’re not getting in, understand why they’re choosing to go elsewhere, and it’s always a play on, ‘Is it the chicken or the egg?’” Bethel said. “So, do we get more Black students, and then we need more Black professors, or do we get more Black professors and then more Black students come in?” Business Professor Marcus

than they do white people. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told The Michigan Daily before the event on Saturday that she was one of the people who suggested the Grady El case go to Nessel’s office. “We need to have someone who’s going to look at what facts are,” Dingell said. “Sometimes they’re really difficult findings that are made. We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to go forward from here and have a legal process that’s fair, open and transparent (and) treats everyone the same way, and also talk about the problems we still have.” Dingell told the crowd she was frustrated by the lack of progress on racial issues in the U.S., a

Collins said there are not enough students of color attending the Business School or the University. However, he said these demographics are a result of a systemic issue larger than the University. “I think as higher education becomes more financially out of reach for socially and economically deprived communities, marginalized communities, you’re going to see lack of representation,” Collins said. “It’s a major issue, and I think that it doesn’t fall at any one school’s feet.” DeRue said one reason behind the low number of students of color at the Business school is Proposal 2, which was approved by Michigan voters in 2006 and prohibits colleges in Michigan from taking race into account in the admissions process. But it is not clear if the demographics within the Business School have changed since the proposal. In the winter semester of 2005, prior to the approval of the proposal, Black students comprised 3.8 percent of Business students, nearly the same as the 3.3 percent of Black students in the Business school today. DeRue said the Business School has been working hard to increase diversity within the student body. Programs like Michigan Ross Enriching Academics in Collaboration with High Schools (MReach) help high school students who are interested in business prepare for the college applications process and explore the business world. And this summer, DeRue announced new diversity initiatives at the Business School through a $6 million dollar gift from Stephen M. Ross and Jeff Blau. The new Blau Initiative for Diversity in Real Estate and Infrastructure is designed to offer high school students from underrepresented backgrounds internships and learning experiences in real estate and investing. The new Related Scholars Fund will provide scholarships to support students from diverse backgrounds who are underrepresented in business leadership. Students like Donald Lindsay, an MBA student and co-president of the Black Business Students Association, have also called on the administration to hire more Black faculty members. “If I see another Black person or Black faculty in the program, I feel a little bit more comfortable than if I didn’t, because I’m thinking, ‘Man, if I need to talk to somebody, I’d probably talk to that person,’” Lindsay said. “That’s something that’s undervalued.” There were eight Black or African American faculty members and 141 white faculty members in the Business School as of November 2019, according to the University’s Office of Public Affairs. Bell said in her experience, most Black faculty members are concentrated in the marketing track at the Business School. “There are literally no Black faculty around,” Bell said. “ … If you’re not a marketing student or if you’re not interested in anything with the marketing focus, you can go through four years of Ross without having a Black professor, easily.” DeRue said he recognizes there is much work to be done regarding increasing faculty of color within the Business School. “If you look at all the accredited business schools in the country, we’re slightly above average,” DeRue said. “That’s not good enough.” DeRue said the Business School wants to prioritize DEI in faculty hiring, especially with doctoral students. This year, the Business School’s doctoral program was awarded a Rackham Faculty Allies

failing exposed this summer amid a series of high-profile police killings. She criticized President Donald Trump’s leadership during the unrest. “We have a problem of injustice in America,” Dingell said. “But what we need is a leader who’s not afraid to have uncomfortable conversations, not a leader who’s gonna put kerosene on a fire and divide this country with fear and hatred.” Rev. Joe Summers, pastor at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, pointed to the general wealth of University students, many of whom he said come from households making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, as evidence of the disparities in the

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 3 Diversity grant to support its diversity initiative. Disappointment with the Business School’s namesake Black students in the Business School said they were disappointed that the school is named after Stephen Ross, a Michigan alum and founder and chairman of Related Companies, because of Ross’s political affiliations. In August 2019, Ross held a fundraiser for Donald Trump which raised $12 million. The move upset some students, who demanded the Business School be renamed. The backlash highlighted anger over racism stemming from the president’s office, such as Trump’s response to violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in which he blamed “both sides” for the conflict. Naja Edwards, a Business School alum and former MBA Council President, said that her fellow Business students were angry after hearing the news of Ross’s fundraiser. “In my opinion, there was a lot of pushback from MBA students,” Edwards said. “They know the deal. Donald Trump is a polarizing figure.” Lindsay said he is “painfully aware” the school is named after one of the largest Trump campaign supporters. “The fact that he’s a Republican is probably neither here nor there,” Lindsay said. “But (he is) someone who’s actively supported someone who represents a lot of what’s wrong in this country.” DeRue said he appreciates Ross’s support and that he has been of great value to the Business School, specifically through programs like the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, which works to empower and educate the sports community to end racial discrimination. “Stephen Ross has been a true champion of higher education,” DeRue said. “He’s been a true champion of fighting for social injustice and inequality … and we are very grateful to Stephen and all of his support.” Concerns regarding the transparency in DEI efforts Many Black students have said there is a lack of transparency and accountability within the Business School administration’s DEI efforts. DeRue’s statement after the police killing of George Floyd sparked criticism from some students who took issue with the wording he used. “Like so many of you, I have watched in horror the recent events in Minneapolis where George Floyd died while in the custody of police officers,” DeRue wrote. “Mr. Floyd’s senseless and tragic death has motivated days of protests across our country, and I want to recognize the pain, fear, anger, and hopelessness that many are experiencing, especially those in our Black and African American community.” According to Business junior Bolaji Gaba, BBUS vice president of corporate relations, some Black students said they were angered by the timing and content of DeRue’s statement. They specifically took issue with DeRue referring to Floyd’s murder as a “senseless and tragic death,” instead of acknowledging that white police officers killed Floyd. DeRue later apologized for his choice of words through a followup email and town hall. DeRue said he did not intend in any way to discount the killing of Floyd, and hearing feedback from Business students was a moment of growth for him. “I took full ownership of the choice of words, in terms of describing the killing of George Floyd as his death,” DeRue said. “I was truly heartbroken that my choice of words caused the pain

that it did to our students. Also, it was a learning moment for me, and so I really appreciated the feedback that our students gave in terms of that word choice.” Later that week, the Business School held a DEI Virtual Town Hall discussing the school’s approach to racial justice, where DeRue publicly apologized for his statement. There were 420 Business School faculty, staff and students in attendance, according to Bridget Vis, Business School public relations specialist. Edwards said Business graduate students were initially disheartened by the DeRue’s first statement, which did not include a specific plan on how the school would reduce racial discrimination. “That created this whole sentiment amongst the MBA students where everybody was just like, ‘There needs to be more here. People need to be held accountable, there needs to be concrete action, there needs to be an action plan,’” Edwards said. After talking with the BBSA and other members of the Business School, DeRue released a second statement on June 10 that included a 14-step action plan to promote and improve DEI initiatives. DeRue listed steps to improve diversity within teaching and learning practices, leadership teams and human resources policies. The Black Business students The Daily spoke with had mixed feelings about the second statement. Some were hopeful that this plan would reduce racism and discrimination while others remained skeptical. Collins said while he did appreciate having a specific action plan, he empathized with students’ frustration. “The frustration that students feel in regards to like, ‘Is this lip service, is this real, will this happen?’ is a completely fair, understandable and arguably, the right frustration that should be felt,” Collins said. “I feel it too, and I think that is the right frustration to have, and until there are receipts of actually realizing those promises, they should be frustrated, absolutely.” Taylor said she thinks the Business administration is making a genuine effort to improve its DEI initiatives, but she said she would not have this same view if she did not have close ties with the administration through programs like BBUS. “If I didn’t have those relationships and actually hear from their mouth that they were trying to do stuff, on a regular day, even walking through the Winter Garden, I wouldn’t be able to tell a thing,” Taylor said. DeRue recognized that students might not be aware of the administration’s DEI initiatives. “To any student who feels disconnected from our efforts or that we’re not engaging, we want to engage, and I would encourage those students to either reach out to me directly, reach out to our team, engage in the workshops and the events that we are holding so that we can work together to accomplish our shared goals,” DeRue said. Bethel said he hopes the Business School continues to focus on combatting racial discrimination. “I definitely think continuing to keep the conversation going is important, but I think what’s more important is following up and actions and not letting something distract us from what we’re trying to achieve,” Bethel said. Daily Staff Reporters Parnia Mazhar and Ann Yu can be reached at parniam@umich.edu and anncyu@umich.edu.

community. He said the nation’s education system gives the wealthiest families access to high schools that send students to elite universities. Meanwhile, collegeaged Black men are more likely to go to prison than graduate college in Michigan, he said. “And it costs almost as much to send someone to prison as it costs to send them to a place like the University of Michigan,” Summers said. Art & Design sophomore Emma Peterson said she came to protest the lack of indictment in the Taylor case. She said she was inspired by Summers’s call to action. “Since we’re privileged enough to have the opportunities that this university gives us, our obligation

is to give back to our communities,” Peterson said. Other speakers included Nick Roumel, candidate for Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge, and Krystal DuPree, candidate for Ann Arbor Public School board. After the speeches, the crowd filed out of the Diag to chant and march through downtown Ann Arbor. Aside from some of the organizers, the protesters were almost all white. For Michigan State University sophomore Savannah Fort, the racial makeup was nothing new.

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News

4 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Local politicians hit with backlash over proposed Gelman Plume settlement Deal to resolve longrunning controversy over pollution in Ann Arbor’s groundwater draws criticism at forum HANNAH MACKAY Daily Staff Reporter

DOMINICK SOKOTOFF/Daily U-M added COVID-19 tests administered outside of University Health Services to its total case number for the U.

Off-campus COVID-19 testing results included on University dashboard Total number of positive cases at U-M since the start of the fall semester more than doubles following change CLAIRE HAO & JOHN GRIEVE

Daily Nrws Editor & Daily Staff Reporter

The University of Michigan added outside testing counts to its COVID-19 dashboard on Thursday, more than doubling the total number of positive cases at the University since the start of the fall semester. The total positive case count since Aug. 30, the day before the start of the school year, was 257 as of Thursday evening. On Wednesday afternoon, before the University started including off-campus tests that weren’t self-reported, the dashboard reported 117 positive cases in the same time period. The University posted an update on its Campus Blueprint website to explain the new data. “University officials have seen a significant increase in positive cases this week with the majority of the increase the result of students being tested at off-campus facilities,” the update reads. “U-M launched its enhanced COVID-19 dashboard today to reflect new datasets, including outside testing from the county. This additional data caused a jump in cases.” Most of these new cases are from students living in offcampus, congregate housing, according to the update. In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen said “it’s up to the county health department to officially identify off-campus clusters.” The University’s dashboard previously reported only outside testing data that had been selfreported to the University. The University is now reporting testing data connected to the University that are performed at off-campus testing sites, provided by the Washtenaw County Health Department. Before Thursday’s update, most of the positive cases identified on the dashboard were through University testing channels, such as University Health Service for students and Occupational Health Services for faculty and staff. Now, positive cases identified through outside testing make up more than half of all positive cases identified in the last two weeks. Susan Ringler-Cerniglia, communications and health promotion administrator of Washtenaw County Health Department, told The Daily the change in the dashboard does not reflect a change in the relationship between the University and the WCHD. In other words, all the cases now reported on the dashboard,

while adding to the confirmed number of University-specific cases, were previously known to both parties. “Do I think that (the dashboard update) changes represent cases that were unknown to either the county or the University? No, I don’t,” Ringler-Cerniglia said. “Is it better reflecting the scope of cases that are connected to the University? Yes, probably.” According to RinglerCerniglia, the Washtenaw County Health Department is made aware of all positive cases in the county, whether they are tested on campus or off campus. After case investigation and contact tracing, the department has a legal agreement to report to the University all cases that are confirmed to be connected to campus. Ringler-Cerniglia also said the health department helps the University conduct its own contact tracing. “When the students were just returning, the University didn’t have enough contact tracers and case investigators up and hired and ready to go,” RinglerCerniglia said. “So, we, as the health department, took over some of that initially, and then it shifted back. Now it sounds like there’s a little bit of an increase of cases that we’re helping out again.” To determine if a positive case is linked to the University, the health department checks to see if the case is linked to an on-campus or near-campus address. Case investigators also flag tests conducted in the county that are linked to an out-of-state address, as RinglerCerniglia said those are likely students using their permanent address instead of their campus address. Business freshman Nathan Lewis said he turned to an offcampus testing center to get a rapid test after he was exposed to the virus. “(This urgent care) had a rapid test and I wanted a rapid test because I was exposed to the virus last week,” Lewis said. “I didn’t want to semiquarantine in my dorm and I didn’t want to not know exactly if I had it or not.” Lewis said he was not planning on reporting his negative result to the University. “I’m not going to report my result because, to be honest, I don’t know where to report it,” Lewis said. Ringler-Cerniglia said the health department is seeing an increase in students going to off-campus facilities for rapid testing. Because these tests are not to the same standard as the regular PCR tests, the health department reports rapid testing positive results as

“probable cases.” While a rapid positive test result is trustworthy, RinglerCerniglia said rapid tests have higher rates of false negatives. Though she understands that students may find same-day test results appealing, she’s worried students may put too much stock in a rapid negative test result. “What’s happening with this influx of cases — lately, it looks like there’s a number of them that were tested using rapid antigen testing at some of the local urgent cares,” Ringler-Cerniglia said. “... Let’s say they’re using this to justify going to a gathering. So I go and get my rapid test, and I go to a party. We’d be highly concerned that that could be a false negative.” The availability of rapid testing for athletes is a major reason the Big Ten decided to reinstate the football season this fall. Each school in the league plans on testing players every day starting on or before Sept. 30. Ringler-Cerniglia said the county receives only the number of positive cases, not the number of tests that are completed in total. So, the county does not know what proportion of tests being conducted are rapid result testing. For the same reason, Broekhuizen said the University’s dashboard only reports positivity rates for on-campus testing, which last week was at 1.3 percent. “Since only positive test results are required to be reported to the county/state, we do not know the total number of off-campus tests administered,” Broekhuizen said. “Without that number, we are not able to calculate the positivity rate.” Residence hall data was also updated Thursday. As of Sept. 19, the dashboard reports 64 total cases discovered in the residence halls, with 36 of these cases discovered in the preceding week. As of Friday morning, 25 cases have been confirmed in residence halls since Sept. 19. All students who tested positive and all known contacts in residence halls have been moved to quarantine and isolation, the update said. Last week, the University announced that 19 positive cases were discovered in South Quad, the first official cluster of COVID-19 in University residence halls. The University tested 221 South Quad students after discovering the cluster, and all results came back negative, according to the University.

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About 50 people and public officials attended a virtual public hearing with the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, Ann Arbor City Council, Scio Township Board of Trustees and the Huron Watershed Council regarding the Gelman Plume Litigation Settlement on Thursday evening. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., moderated the hearing. The Gelman Plume is the spread of the chemical 1,4-dioxane into soil and groundwater in northwest Ann Arbor, polluting residents’ water sources. Gelman Sciences used the probable carcinogen 1,4-dioxane to manufacture microporous filters from 1966 to 1986 and did not dispose of their waste water properly. Unchecked use allowed the contaminant to spread into a large underground plume. In August, city officials proposed an agreement on a potential plan to clean up the Gelman Plume, which has been met with criticism from Ann Arbor residents. Thursday’s meeting aimed to inform the public about this settlement agreement and address presubmitted questions. Attorney Fred Dindoffer of Ann Arbor’s legal team explained that most of the new amendments fall within a document called the Consent Judgement and the stipulated order. Some key changes and additions include an expansion of the prohibition zone for pollution, a new exposure limit and increased pumping and treatment of polluted water. Additionally, the new proposed agreement prohibits all city governments from requesting cleanup by the Environmental Protection Agency, and states Gelman Sciences is not liable for the contamination. “By entering into this Consent Judgment, Defendant does not admit any of the allegations of the Complaint, does not admit any fault or liability under any statutory or common law, and does not waive any rights, claims, or defenses with respect to any person,” the document reads. Dindoffer clarified why the Consent Judgment doesn’t explicitly hold Gelman at fault. “This CJ doesn’t require Gelman to admit that it’s liable or at fault,” Dindoffer said. “That’s a standard provision that’s put into virtually every consent judgement that we ever would see, the purpose is that if there’s ever a dispute about the CJ in the future and if there’s a breaking down of relations, Gelman can bring evidence in and force an opponent to prove that it’s actually at fault.” Ann Arbor resident James D’Amour who is a member of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane expressed his concern with the inability to work with the EPA if the Consent Judgment is accepted. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal fees and it appears that the proposed fourth consent judgement does not bring us any closer to cleaning up the plume, in fact it gives Danaher the ability

to walk away from the mess,” Demoore said. “If this is accepted local governments waive the right to petition USEPA for complete cleanup, so we have the prospects of a larger exclusive zone with possibly less cleanup than before.” Dr. Larry Lemke, who said he has researched 1,4-dioxane for over 20 years, gave a presentation on the proposed contamination clean up plan. “We know that there are multiple plumes, migrating in multiple directions at multiple depths, so this is truly a three dimensional problem,” Lemke said. “The proposed fourth amended CJ includes a number of additional monitoring wells in key positions... Are these wells going to completely delineate dioxane to 7.2 parts per billion everywhere? No, it’s not even close. Are these wells placed in sensible places however? Yes.” The proposed Consent Judgement will have Gelman treat polluted groundwater and discharge it back into First Sister Lake at a rate of 200 gallons per minute. When asked about

is a relatively new and experimental plan and Lemke clarified it should be considered a trial. “This is an emerging technology so we should treat this as a pilot project and learn from it,” Lemke said. “The idea is that the dioxane moves with the groundwater to the tree roots and there it’s either transformed by bacteria in the roots into something that the tree can use, or it enters as dioxane that’s dissolved in the water, then it f lows through the tree’s water transport system and eventually gets transpired to the atmosphere through the leaves.” Ann Arbor resident Jacqueline Courteau explained her hesitancy to support this particular plan without more concrete evidence. “I’m wondering why there are no performance standards or metrics to assess how the phytoremediation is performing,” Courteau said. “I work with trees. I love trees, but I don’t think that just planting trees and hoping they’ll work is adequate.” Lemke answered questions pre-submitted by members of the public about possible dioxane contamination of Barton Pond, Ann Arbor’s main drinking water source. “The risk of 1,4-dioxane moving up there is small, but the potential consequences are large and we can’t rule it out with complete certainty,” Lemke said. “If dioxane got into the subsurface north of M-14, west of Wines Elementary School, it could have a potential f low path down to Barton Pond.” Members of the public were able to address the officials in an open forum, all of whom unanimously expressed their disapproval of the proposed clean up plan and urged them to not accept it. Ann Arbor and Scio Township resident Dan Bicknell was very vocal in his assurances that the proposed cleanup plan would do nothing to stop the dioxane pollution and strongly encouraged a rejection of it. “The proposed fourth amendment consent judgement is a continuation of the current CJ pollution remedy which will not stop the dioxane plume from expanding towards the Ann Arbor Township wells, Scio Township wells, Barton Hill village wells or Barton Pond,” Bicknell said. “The shallow plume will continue to travel through the city unabated.” Congresswoman Dingell ended the meeting by urging everybody involved to stay transparent and communicate openly to clean up the plume. “I would urge those who are participating that the more information they can make transparent the better it is, because people who don’t know what’s not being made public don’t understand why it’s not being made public and it contributes to people’s lack of confidence,” Dingell said. “Dissent and pitting people against each other is what we’ve seen happen at a national level for four years, let’s not let it happen in Washtenaw County, let’s get this cleaned up.” Daily Staff Reporter Hannah Mackay can be reached at mackayh@umich. edu.

We know that there are multiple plumes, migrating in multiple directions at multiple depths, so this is truly a three dimensional problem.

alternatives to this solution, Lemke explained there will always be many options available and none will be perfect. “Other potential solutions might include a pipeline back to the Gelman treatment site, they might include reinjection of that water back down into the aquifer after its been treated, it might be piping it to somewhere else, another option is using the city’s sanctuary sewer,” Lemke said. “Every environmental solution has a trade off, there is an upside and a downside to every single one of those.” Ann Arbor resident Alexander Weinstein, who lives on Second Sister Lake and whose well would be directly affected by the new settlement, urged the public officials present to reject the proposal because of the pollution it would bring to his home and community. “The document gives the polluter permission to dump carcinogens of dioxane and bromate directly into the sister lake through the Park Lake well as one of its methods for disposing of the cleanup,” Weinstein said. “Most importantly there is a viable alternative, a pipeline could be run to the Gelman treatment site, it would be a cost but a completely reasonable one.” Lemke continued to explain phytoremediation, which is the practice of removing 1,4-dioxane from the ground using trees and is part of the amended Consent Judgement. This

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News

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 5

Conjoined twins undergo surgery at medical center Team of doctors at Michigan Medicine successfully separates two children MICHAL RUPRECHT Daily Staff Reporter

FILE PHOTO/Daily The University of MIchigan’s recreational sports buildings reopened Monday, following a plan announced by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

After months of disuse, recreational sports facilities reopen on Monday

U-M facilities resume operations on Sept. 28 following Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order loosening restrictions on athletics earlier in the month LIAT WEINSTEIN & BEN ROSENFELD Daily News Editors

After being closed for six months due to the COVID19 pandemic, the University of Michigan Department of Recreational Sports will reopen campus recreation facilities this coming Monday, Sept. 28. The reopening comes after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Sept. 3 that gyms across the state would be allowed to resume business as part of the state’s reopening plan. “A number of changes have been made to ensure the safety and cleanliness of the recreation spaces,” a

University Record release reads. “Students and Recreational Sports members will be required to make reservations to work out and to swim, face coverings will be required while working out, and facilities will be operating at decreased capacities and hours to allow for increased cleaning during the day.” According to the announcement, other changes include plexiglass barriers at the front desks, increased disposable wipe and hand sanitizer locations, increased staffing for cleaning, gym equipment distanced at least 10 feet apart, personal protective equipment and required health screenings for all Rec Sports employees. Despite the facilities reopening, certain services

will remain closed off to students, including use of all courts including basketball, racquetball, badminton, volleyball and squash, as well as indoor rentals and recreational programming. The announcement also made note of a new Rec Sports application that will “allow for contactless entry to the facilities, make facility and pool reservations, find building hours and more.” The app is currently available for download in the Apple App Store for iPhone and the Google Play Store. Director of Recreational Sports Mike Widen said that although the gyms will look and work different than they did before, he’s excited for them to open back up. “After being closed for over

six months, we are excited to be able to reopen the Recreational Sports facilities and serve the health and wellbeing needs of our students and our members,” Widen said. “The experience will look a little different than it did previously. But we believe we’ve established a number of new protocols that will keep our guests and our employees safe. We’ve started by reducing capacities at each facility and requiring each guest to make a reservation for their workout on our new U-M Recreational Sports app. These steps will help us limit the total number of people in each facility.” Daily News Editors Ben Rosenfeld and Liat Weinstein can be reached at bbrosenf@ umich.edu and weinsl@umich. edu.

Minutes into her ultrasound appointment in February of 2019, Alyson Irwin, who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time, and her husband Phil Irwin saw the technician turn off the screen and leave the room to get their physician. “We knew something was going on right away,” Alyson said. “We had to sit there and wait and try to figure out what was going on. It felt pretty tense.” The physician arrived and broke the news to the Irwins. “They were pretty blunt about it and told us, ‘You’re pregnant with conjoined twins. I’m really, really sorry, but you’re going to have to decide what you’re going to do,’” Alyson said. “We felt pretty devastated. It’s just not something you would expect at all.” One day later, the couple met with Dr. George Mychaliska, professor of pediatric surgery and obstetrics and gynecology. Mychaliska imaged the twins and counseled the couple through the process. Last month, the twins underwent the first known separation surgery at Michigan Medicine and in the state of Michigan. “I counseled them back in the day when their babies were still fetuses,” Mychaliska said. “At that time, we had sophisticated imaging, including ultrasound, fetal MRI and fetal echo, which gave us a lot of anatomical information and we were hopeful a separation surgery would be possible.” Alyson and Phil continued to see Mychaliska and his team throughout the pregnancy. The twins, Sarabeth and Amelia, were born on June 11, 2019. Born prematurely, the twins spent three months in the neonatal intensive care unit. “It was kind of surreal,”

Alyson said. “We knew the birth would take a while, and I would be stuck away from the girls for a while. But I was eventually able to hold the girls after a couple of hours, and it was very surreal to hold them.” Sarabeth and Amelia were born conjoined from their chest to belly. Mychaliska noted both girls had separate hearts, lungs and gastrointestinal tracts, making them good candidates for separation surgery. Though their livers were fused together, he said the team knew they could separate the organ. While the Irwins adjusted to a new life, they also began working with their care team to plan for the separation surgery. “We were always on the same page. Given the specifics of conjoined twins, it’s just not very positive-looking,” Phil said. “If the girls were to make it and have any chance at all, it would be if they were separated. That was both of our mindsets from the beginning. We wanted to give them a life where they could live their best life independently from each other.” Mychaliska led the surgical team, which consisted of more than two dozen specialists. “I think it’s really an example of the importance of collaboration, because there’s no single physician who has the expertise in all of these areas,” Mychaliska said. “We all put our heads together and innovated solutions, and if we weren’t able to work as a team, we wouldn’t have been able to do this. I’m convinced of that.” Mychaliska emphasized that the Irwin twins are extremely rare. He said about one in 100,000 to 200,000 pregnancies involve conjoined twins. Mychaliska said many conjoined twins aren’t able to survive.

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Students and faculty work to adapt to hybrid courses

‘It’s definitely a disjointed community’: Transition to digital learning requires flexibility, patience amid pandemic CELENE PHILIP Daily Staff Reporter

With 22 percent of LSA classes being taught in the hybrid or in-person format, the disconnect between students in the classroom and students on Zoom coupled with the technological learning curve has proved challenging for hybrid courses. LSA sophomore Michelle Ascrizzi is enrolled in a hybrid Honors first-year writing course, which provides students the option to attend lectures either in person or online, with discussions taking place entirely online. Despite living in an apartment in Ann Arbor, Ascrizzi has opted to “Zoom” into lecture every Tuesday and Thursday morning. “For now I’ve just been attending entirely online, my reason being I traveled to get here so with staying in a hotel and moving in and everything, I wanted to lie low for the first two weeks to make sure I didn’t have any symptoms that I could pass on to anyone,” Ascrizzi said. “Also with everything going on, I felt really nervous, personally, about going to an in-person class right now so I decided I’d rather go online and see how the first two weeks of classes went.” In-person students don’t use microphones in Ascrizzi’s class, which has created a lapse in communication between virtual students and in-person students. “The hardest thing is that for classes that are really discussion-based, you can’t

hear what the people in the classroom are saying usually, and that can be helped by if the professor repeats back what they said,” Ascrizzi said. “I feel engaged when people on Zoom are talking but then when people in the room are talking, it’s more difficult to follow the discussion.” In an email to The Daily, Faith Sparr, communication and media lecturer at the University of Michigan, said she was advised to pass a handheld microphone from student to student in order to allow students on Zoom to hear those attending class in person. “I declined that solution and luckily my room is now equipped with an overhead mic system, but I know of one other hybrid lecturer that is still using the handheld mic as a solution,” Sparr wrote. “I attended several training sessions to get ready for the term that were technologybased, not health protocolbased. Health protocol was never really emphasized to me as an in-person/hybrid lecturer and I am still surprised by that.” LSA lecturer Anne Manuel is currently teaching Political Science 495 in a similar hybrid format as Ascrizzi’s class. Manuel said she prepared for the class by playing around with the technology she’d been using before classes began. “First, I did a training with a couple other instructors that took about an hour and then I was able to get into the room, Angell G115, to practice on my own,” Manuel said. “It’s one of those things where it’s both

the time to learn the software and the repetition required to adapt.” Along with navigating technology, Manuel believes equally dividing attention between virtual and in-person students is another new challenge. “When you’re in a room where you have some students in the room and some students at home, it’s interesting to attend to the people in the room and attend to the people on Zoom,” Manuel said. “The other tricky thing about teaching now is that there’s a part of your brain that is running the technology and a part of your brain that’s thinking of the content while making sure (I) attend to both groups of students so it can be hard to keep everything going.” LSA instructors may be able to switch to a fully remote format if the hybrid format becomes too challenging, according to Manuel. “In political science in LSA, my understanding is that we have a lot of control over whether we’re teaching hybrid and remote and we have the option to switch to remote teaching if needed, as long as we notify our department,” Manuel said. Manuel thinks one way to possibly ease the disconnect in hybrid classes could be cameras offering a different view of the classroom and students. “Right now, there’s just a camera in the room that goes from the back of the room to the front towards the stage, so another thing you could

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Students attend their Zoom class from the Diag during the first week of the semester.

have is a camera going in the other direction pointed on the students so that people on Zoom can see the students in the room and when they’re talking,” Manuel said. Business lecturer Amy Angell is teaching two sections of the course Marketing 313, both in the hybrid format. Each classroom she uses has certain limitations on the number of students allowed — a little more than one-third of her students must attend through Zoom — however, she offers flexibility for those who usually attend in-person. Angell has experience with teaching hybrid courses and is comfortable teaching in this format this semester, noting

great cooperation between the University and students in following safety measures. “I’ve taught hybrid before at a different institution so I knew right away it was going to be challenging as it is oftentimes double the work,” she said. “I will say that there have been great efforts with training and enhancing the classrooms with microphones and a large monitor to see our remote students and there’s been great communication by Ross and (the University) so I’m never fearful about getting COVID or anything like that.” According to Angell, the biggest challenge for her is creating relationships with her students and letting go of

aspects of her usual teaching style. “(It can get) hot to teach in a mask and it’s confining to not be able to move around the classroom like I usually do to create that personability with my students,” Angell said. “It’s hard maintaining equity between my hybrid and remote students and it’s hard for me to get to know my hybrid students because when they come in person they’re wearing a mask but when they’re online they’re not wearing a mask ... it’s definitely a disjointed community.”

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Michigan In Color

6 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Television’s role in the Prison Industrial Complex CAMILLE MOORE MiC Blogger

Americans have a large appetite for television shows about police, violent crime investigations, dramatic court hearings and life in prison. It seems like there are endless options of shows about these topics because the demand is so high. I am not exempt from this; personally, some of my favorites were Criminal Minds, Brooklyn 99 and Mindhunter. But this past summer amid protests against police brutality, I began to grapple with the harm that has been caused by the massive wave of crime television since the 1980s, despite my love for them. With any piece of media you consume, one of the most important things you must remember is that what you are seeing is not reality. Shows such as Law & Order, CSI, and Chicago P.D. are written from a perspective that is not an accurate representation of the criminal justice system in the United States. These shows depict a world of police saviors, fighting crime and chaos, saving us from criminals that would otherwise disrupt our properly functioning society. All they want to do is put away violent people and make the world a better place. But this is a lie. Most police shows are dishonest about the amount of corruption and brutality that officers bring into communities. They normalize a system that is inherently racist and violent, with origins as slave patrols and current ties to white supremacist organizations. The ‘good cops’ who save the day at the end of every episode are not who

most Black Americans see when we are stopped by the police. Those were not the cops that killed Breonna Taylor, George Floyd or Aiyana Stanley Jones. The indoctrinating images of superhero police departments make it easier for Americans to call violent cops ‘bad’ apples, but in reality, police departments in the United States kill civilians at much higher rates than other wealthy countries such as Canada and Australia. Not only do these television shows inaccurately depict the police, they also perpetuate harmful myths about people of color in marginalized neighborhoods. Entertainment media often overrepresents violent crime and Black and Brown suspects, compared to white-collar crime and White suspects. These narratives gloss over the effects of white supremacy and lack of access as a result of institutionalized and systemic racism and capitalism that have legitimized these communities as “crimeridden.” Beyond perceptions of policing within communities of color, the media’s portrayals of the prison industrial complex, and the workers within it, contribute to the widespread acceptance of mass incarceration and police brutality in the U.S. For example, in nearly every episode of the fifteen season television series, Criminal Minds, FBI agents who specialize in highlevel crimes committed by serial criminals are presented with a case that they need to solve. The episode structure is usually the same: the team arrives at the scene, and soon another crime is committed by the same person so they feel the pressure to find the suspect before someone else

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police don’t do what most people think they do. The average police officer only makes one felony arrest in a year. Most of their time is spent responding to noncriminal issues. The media portrayals of communities full of violence and cops running to the rescue and directly restoring the peace have contributed to the support of harsher policing on the streets and more prisons in urban areas when there isn’t any need. In fact, these shows fail to display the consequential harm that police bring into Black communities such as extreme violence, family separation, mental and physical abuse, school to prison pipelines and so on. I’m not saying everyone has to stop watching any television show or film that features police or detectives because that would be essentially impossible. But I implore you to understand the vast differences between what is depicted on the screen versus the reality of the PIC and what Black Americans experience daily. Remember that media industries are capitalizing on and reinforcing a system that has been harming the image and lives of Black and Brown people for decades. As someone who believes in the abolition of the PIC as a whole, I know how powerful a tool imagination is. We must be able to reimagine a world in which police and prisons do not exist because they are not needed. We could create a world where community members care for each other and police budgets are redistributed into social programs. We have to understand the realities within our own communities instead of relying on crime television to tell us about our own communities.

Release Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2020

is harmed. This indicates that if the FBI weren’t working around the clock to find them, more crime occurs. Viewers watching continue to believe that they need more police officers and federal agents in their town to keep them safe, even though the crimes depicted in the media are significantly less severe than the survival crimes committed in said neighborhoods — such as food theft as a survival tactic, which the system causes by keeping civilians from these resources in the first place. In addition to the desire to have more policing, we begin to accept police brutality as part of the job to ensure the safety of others. In one episode of Criminal Minds, an unarmed man who is suspected of sexual assault is shot and killed by an agent after he is released from questioning. The agent lies and says she killed him in self-defense. We are left to empathize with the FBI agent because his murder is better than the possibility of him committing another crime. We have to deconstruct this way of thinking. Why is execution the only way we can keep communities safe? We must also recognize that no matter how law enforcement feels about individuals they interact with, they should not have the power to be the judge, jury and executioner. If they can justify violence against that man, they can do the same against anyone. In addition to media affecting society’s attitudes about how police officers should treat citizens, they also impact why we think we need police officers in the first place. In her New York Times article, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police,” Mariame Kaba reminds us that the

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ACROSS 1 Contentious marketing clash 6 Firmly fixed 10 “Capisce?” response 14 Hang loosely 15 Lunch box treat 16 Work at a keyboard 17 Cliff dwelling 18 Caboose 19 Kuwaiti ruler 20 *Founding Father who inherited a malthouse 22 Packs down 24 Many corp. logos 25 *“War and Peace” author 28 Student’s second try 31 Went undercover 32 Poem of homage 33 Kitchen enticement 34 Demean 36 Litter sound 37 *“Hee Haw” cohost 40 Backboard attachment 43 Snaky formations 44 Type of pool or wave 48 Make a move 49 QB’s miss, maybe 50 Former Spanish currency 51 *Outlaw associate of Cole Younger 55 Wondering word 56 Extremely small 57 Give up, or what you might do before the starts of the answers to starred clues 60 Class of merchandise 61 Day for Caesar to beware 63 Track specialist 64 Mathematician Turing 65 “Great shot!” 66 Serving holder 67 “SNL” segment 68 Fresh talk 69 Embroidered, say

DOWN 1 To the stars, in mottos 2 One with aspirations 3 Becomes fond of 4 Capital of Samoa 5 Wetland plant 6 Gift recipient’s surprised query 7 Playground comeback 8 __ of Tranquility: lunar plain 9 Fabled slowpoke 10 Tabloid twosomes 11 Chills or fever 12 Single show 13 Poetic contraction 21 Pilot’s datum: Abbr. 23 Pasta preference 26 Warming periods 27 Source of pliable wood 29 Diplomatic HQ 30 Relatively risqué 34 Muscular dog 34Japanese Only unanimous 35 Big tin exporter Baseball Hall of of S.A.

38 Brings together 39 Female in the fam 40 Indian friend of Sheldon and Leonard 41 Low-fat frozen dessert 42 Pentateuch peak: Abbr. 45 Mammal’s digit that doesn’t touch the ground

46 Wheaties box adorner 47 Like lasagna, say 50 “Gangnam Style” performer 52 Manhunt pickup 53 There are 60,000 of them in a min. 54 Simplifies 58 Rules on plays 59 Cairo’s river 60 Vegas opener 62 Lunes or martes

ANSWER ANSWER TO TO PREVIOUS PREVIOUS PUZZLE: PUZZLE:

09/30/20 09/24/20

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“I should stop speaking my mind when it comes to pastries”

09/30/20

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COVID as a freshman: My life is worth more than my money SYEDA MAHA MiC Columnist

As a first-year living on campus during a widespread pandemic, my concerns about daily life at the Univeringly continue to increase. The administration does not seem to be taking the struggles of students into consideration, evident from the increase in our tuition, prevalence of lab fees and blatant lack of student testing. When I sit at home, watching my asynchronous recorded lectures, I can’t help but wonder whether attending this school right now is worth the thousands of dollars I am paying. And when I receive an email that announces the reintroduction of the Big Ten football season, I definitely begin to consider whether getting my degree is worth risking my life. In complete candidness, it is very hard to arg ue that any class should be in-person. You can attempt to justif y it by pointing out students are undergoing reg ular testing, though they truly aren’t, but consider my situation: I am a freshman living in an apartment complex on campus. There is no requirement to test me or anyone else in the building who also has in-person classes. One week ago, I called the COVID hotline offered by the University to report a party that could literally be heard three f loors above me. After explaining that nobody is close enough to do anything, I was referred to building security, who referred me to the Ann Arbor Police Department, who said the only option available was to file a noise complaint. It is a frustratingly ignorant assumption to think that socially starved teenagers in one apartment complex will choose to remain socially distant. And the resources that have been offered to tackle gatherings which disregard COVID-19 g uidelines have been of no use. It is more abhorrent that the university has prioritized profit over the health and safety of its students. Quite frankly, even education is not a valid reason to group college students together during a pandemic — health and safety must obviously be the number one priority. Testing students for COVID, one of my only hopes for a semblance of safety on campus, has been abysmal. From early Aug ust to Aug. 20, there were a total of 1,306 tests administered: a number which seems ridiculously low, and not nearly large enough to actually determine how many students are walking around campus infected. With nearly 30,000 students, only around 4-5 percent were tested in the beginning of Aug ust; a rate that clearly shows where the University’s priority lies. Now the University has promised to increase testing up to 6,000 a week by the end of September. This is an effort I appreciate,

but it’s not enough. Where is the logic in pairing new safety efforts with reopening the Big Ten football season? Granted, football players will all undergo testing, and players that test positive for COVID will be forced to sit out of the game for a minimum of 21 days. But has the University not learned that reintroducing popular entertainment is cause for more reckless get-togethers among college students? Aside from the seemingly contradictory policies, it is hard for me to wrap my head around the concept of paying more money to be in a place where my health is not a priority. The $50 fee required from each student, which was used to create the masks and kits, made me wonder why the university had not utilized its other forms of income and endowments which could have provided these essentials for life on campus. Instead, they rely on students, who may be facing the most difficult time in their lives. And if cost must be added, could the nonessential fees at least be taken away? For instance, Bio 173, an introductory biolog y lab class, requires students to pay $45 for laboratory supplies. However, if I am not going to be in a lab, where is my money going, if not toward my own learning? Paying extra only to have been followed by canceled classes for a week seems ludicrous. While I sincerely appreciate the efforts of the Graduate Employees Organization in terms of fighting for a safer environment for both students and staff, I wish the administration was capable enough of controlling the situation at hand so it didn’t have to reach a point where education had to have been disrupted. The reaction to efforts calling for the right to work remotely, vigorous plans for testing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 was met with a lawsuit, an action that screams louder than words. South Quad currently has 13 positive cases of COVID-19, and cases are confirmed in most other dorms: Bursley, Couzens, West Quad, North Quad and so on. Nonetheless, college proceeds to go on inperson and this shows me that my money is valued more than I am. As a freshman who spent the entire senior year of high school looking forward to attending the university, this is deplorable. If the proper protocol was enacted when the numbers were low perhaps the number of positive cases wouldn’t have gotten to this state. With the University creating more opportunities for students to get together, I wouldn’t be surprised if we lived tip-toeing on ice next year as well. At this point, I wouldn’t consider the University to be either leaders nor best, a reality all students are going to have to face if proper, serious precautions are not installed immediately.

“As a freshman who spent the entire senior year of high school looking forward to attending the university, this is deplorable.”

Michigan In Color

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 7

The global Soliela: fashion as a revolution interconnectivity of the patriarchy NOOR MOUGHNI MiC Columnist

Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.

AAKASH RAY MiC Columnist

7500 miles from our native Ann Arbor campus lies the Pakistani city of Karachi, a metropolis renowned for its linguistic, ethnic and religious diversity. Just 750 miles from Karachi exists Lahore, the next largest Pakistani city notable for its social liberalism, high level of educational quality and literary works. Despite these positive qualities, for years, sexual assault has not recieved the enforcement nor the attention it requires in these Pakistani cities –– until now. On Friday, Sept. 4, a 5-yearold girl named Marwah was kidnapped from a local shop, sexually assaulted, hit on the head and then set alight, ultimately left in a heap of garbage found two days later. In a similarly unfortunate incident, this past Wednesday, Sept. 9, a woman, roughly in her 30s, was dragged from her vehicle which was stopped on the highway, held at gunpoint, attacked, robbed and sexually assaulted multiple times in front of her two young children. The two separate incidents have sparked immense protesting across Pakistan, focusing attention on the conspicuous, toxic rape culture and years of government inaction. In the wake of these recent sexual assaults, the Lahore police chief, Muhammad Umar Sheikh, added fuel to the fire across the greater community ––asking why the woman had not checked whether she had enough gas before embarking on her journey and why she had been traveling so late at night without an adult male accompanying her. While already enraged, Pakistanis now rage, utilizing Sheikh’s words as an example of what is widely considered charac-

ARIES

Look after your emotional needs with some self-indulgence. Your favorite treats will help mitigate the visceral onslaught of the Aries Full Moon, which might otherwise find you struggling to comprehend your place in the world.

teristic of Pakistani officials’ negligence toward sexual assault and a deeply embedded masculinity within Pakistani culture. The protests in Pakistan along with the allegations leveled by the Twitter account “Assaulters at UMich” this past summer prompt the question –– what is the link between masculinity and rape culture across two seemingly unconnected parts of the globe? Rape culture is perpetuated immensely by gender norms which men and women continue to validate, from objectifying women to viewing them as sexual objects, all justified through phrases like “boys will be boys” in both municipal areas. However, more subtle microaggressions, like victimblaming such as in the recent cases in Pakistan, are at most to blame for minimizing the real impacts of sexual assault. Devalidating the survivor’s story in spite of overwhelming evidence instead of condemning the actions of the perpetrator has become commonplace. This must be reversed in order to begin addressing the notion of justice for survivors. While it is very important to acknowledge and address sexual assault against male survivors, the onus is primarily on men, who most directly wield the benefits of the patriarchy and thus have most contributed to rape culture, to confront their own values, beliefs and behaviors, and address those of other men, particularly when it comes to sexual attitudes. University policies must focus on educating men as the primary method to reducing trends of sexual assault on campuses. When we analyze events internationally, we must be willing to use the same lens to understand, acknowledge and rectify similar patterns

The Arab diaspora is one of the most widespread diasporas in the world — there are 20 million Arab immigrants living in nearly every corner of the globe. With such a large immigrant population, the Middle East/North Africa region has proportionally more citizens in its diaspora than most regions. Regardless of the distance between people of Arab descent, they face a common struggle: the struggle to retain their cultural identity and preserve their heritage while living among non-Arabs. This struggle is especially prevalent in the lives of Australian siblings Rahma (17) and Adam (20) Elatrebi Soliman and their close friend who is practically family, Aisha Sellami (19). This Australian trio has created the clothing brand, Soliela, which serves to unite all members of the Arab diaspora and preserve the culture so many struggle to keep alive. Rahma and Adam are both of Egyptian descent and Aisha is of both Egyptian and Algerian descent. As the children of Arab immigrants living in a Western country, Rahma, Adam and Aisha have experienced the identity struggle many in the Arab diaspora face first hand. I recently sat down (virtually) with creatives Aisha and Rahma to discuss the origins of their innovative clothing brand, their accomplishments with Soliela thus far and future goals they have for the brand. Here’s what they had to say about Soliela: The Unconventional Start to Soliela Aisha, Adam and Rahma have been interested in fashion and, more broadly, art for their entire lives. Rahma recalls her and Aisha growing up constantly going to op shops (the Australian equivalent of thrift stores) where they were inspired by the generations of designs that existed in one setting. Through the op shops, Rahma says they were exposed to so much fashion, and they began to appreciate everyone’s unique style. Rahma expands on this saying, “Going to these op shops every-

PISCES

YOUR WEEKLY

Venus fires up your passion zone now, but that means jealousy is also a factor. Try to give your sweetheart the same level of freedom you demand from them. There are issues of trust here, but better communication, aided by Venus, will help.

GEMENI

CAPRICORN

Socially, there could be disappointments this week, and you may feel particularly angry with a friend. With Venus arriving in your family zone, it’s a good idea to back away from social events for a few days to regain your bearings at home.

If you’re looking for love, look widely – there are hints of a foreign connection here with Venus moving into your travel zone. Meanwhile, the Full Moon illuminates a difficult family situation – where there’s a will to resolve it, there’s a way.

CANCER

SAGITTARIUS

A crisis at work puts you on the spot, but you’ll feel surprisingly confident in the limelight once you’re forced into it. Venus gives you extra charm and persuasive power, so you should find it relatively easy to lead from the front.

LEO

Venus arrives in your love zone, bringing sweet romance, gentle togetherness and a lot of companionship. The Full Moon is all about whether or not you have lived up to your values, but it seems that you have – so get set for a week of bliss.

AQUARIUS

TAURUS

Venus’ arrival in your dating zone is fantastic news if you’re looking for love. However, the Full Moon warns against pretending to be something you’re not. Go for honesty and frankness. Be yourself, because you have so much to offer.

Venus arrives in your money zone, which can lead to extravagant spending, especially since you’re fond of a touch of luxury at all times. Be careful with your budget, though, because going into debt now could be painful later.

day of my life, you get exposed to so much, and you’re able to appreciate what a grandma’s wearing and also what a homeless person is wearing.” The non-mainstream styles that inspired Rahma and Aisha in their childhood are reflected in the uniqueness and objective beauty of their clothing designs. In addition to their exposure to art since youth, Rahma and Adam had wanted to make a brand for ages. In particular, through their visits to Egypt, they became obsessed with Egyptian fashion and the highly regarded Egyptian cotton. Notably, Rahma and Adam were shocked to find that there was barely any Egyptian cotton in Egypt. This ironic scarcity of Egyptian cotton lingered in the back of their minds and would soon reappear with the creation of their brand as they focused mainly on using Egyptian cotton for their pieces. As for the actual creation of the brand, it was sparked by an unexpected event in which Rahma and Adam had to combine their creative forces in order to sustain themselves while their mother was visiting Egypt. The story goes as such: Around four years ago Rahma and Adam’s mother went on a trip to Egypt and left them with enough money for the duration of her stay. When their mother’s trip was unfortunately extended due to the death of a family member in Egypt, Rahma and Adam ran out of money but did not want to stress their mother out anymore than she already was. Instead, they innovatively designed a T-shirt with the name “Soliela” on it (which previously was Adam’s instagram handle) and sold it to people in their school. This idea was a great hit as they profted around $2,000 from pre-orders alone. Due to the shocking success of their shirts, Rahma and Adam decided to turn their idea to an actual business, and thus, Soliela was born. The Theme of Duality As mentioned before, Soliela served to represent the dual essence of being of Arab descent and living in a non-Arab country. This representation is primarily present in the derivation of the brand name. The first part of the brand name, “Soli,”

is derived from the English spelling of Rahma and Adam’s last name, Soliman. The second half of the name “ela” is derived from the Egyptian street slang for the word boy, “‫( ”الي‬pronounced, yela). The second half of the name also doubles as a reference to the other part of Rahma and Adam’s last name, Elatrebi. With these English and Arabic elements combined, the name of this brand is a perfect reflection of the purpose of Soliela as well as who the brand primarily caters to: Arabs living

Palestinian farmers became a symbol of the Palestinian resistance movement. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to @ olivekids, an Australian registered foundation that seeks to facilitate financial support, educational and medical assistance to Palestinian children.” The scarf was a major success for Soliela, as it sold out in less than an hour with customers from all over the world. Below

Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram

outside of the Middle East and North Africa. The above photo is a design made by Aisha that references the duality of the brand name and purpose. This graphic includes different ways the brand can be written — fully in English as shown at the top, fully in Arabic as shown at the bottom of the graphic and a mix of the two as shown in the middle. The middle format is the main logo used for the brand. Intended Audience While it is clear that the main audience of the brand is members of the Arab diaspora, Aisha explains that it is not exclusively a brand for people of Arab descent. She expands on their audience with two categories: a primary audience and a secondary audience. The primary audience of their brand is Arabs — they are the people who the brand is for and about. Aisha says the ideal person wearing the brand is “that Arab kid living in France who eats couscous at home and wears those coats and, I don’t know, steals cars at night and is stuck in between and is stuck growing up and that is who we want wearing the clothes. For that comfort on their journey.” Additionally, the secondary audience would be non-Arab people who enjoy the designs of the brand. For the secondary audience, the brand would become a way to change the narrative that Arabs are lucky to be in a Western country and that their home countries are rubbish. They want to change that narrative and display the beauty of the culture. The Intersection of Fashion and Politics Similar to the unification of the Arab diaspora and the dual essence of the brand, Soliela frequently embodies the intersection of politics and fashion. They have released various pieces dedicated to certain political issues, figures and causes. Most recently, Soliela dropped a winter scarf with the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh pattern. All proceeds from this scarf were donated to the Olive Kids foundation. On an Instagram post about this piece, Soliela wrote, “Due to what has been going on in Palestine for the past 72 years and the Annexation of Palestine that will be taking place on the 1st of July 2020, we have decided to drop a winter scarf, with the Keffiyeh pattern. This traditional pattern worn by

is a photo from their campaign for the Keffiyeh designed scarf: In addition to using fashion to assist Arab countries suffering at the hands of Western forces, such as in the case of Palestine, Soliela also creates clothing to help alleviate issues between Arab countries. Most recently, Soliela released a graphic on their Instagram that depicts an animated soccer ball in the northern region of Africa. This graphic resembles the love of soccer throughout the Middle East and North Africa which is one thing that unites the North African countries Algeria and Egypt. Soliela creative Aisha intentionally incorporated soccer into this design to reflect and encourage the unification of MENA countries. She condemns division and conflict between any Arab countries and chooses to embrace the similarities of the Arab world.

Photo Courtesy of @Soliela, Instagram

The graphic for this cause is shown below: The Future of Soliela With all Rahma, Adam and Aisha have accomplished so far with their brand, they are still only in the early stages. Rahma hopes that after she graduates high school she will have more time and can put more effort into the brand, which will allow them to start releasing more consistent, larger clothing lines. In addition, Soliela creators hope to expand their brand beyond clothing and explore the world of design further. Aside from the above mentioned goals, they have no specific vision for the future other than to have the brand be a constant reflection of their ideas and creative growth. Rahma, Adam and Aisha hope that along the way, the reinforcement of Arab culture through Soliela will normalize Arabs loving their culture and reverse the stereotypes and misrepresentations that have been enforced throughout the Western world. Ultimately, in the words of Adam, they hope “Soliela will trigger the next Islamic Golden Age,” one in which Arab culture

Venus moves into your career zone this week, helping you get ahead with the consent and approval of others. The Full Moon shines from your risk zone, however, so you’ll need to curb your impulsive edge a little. Step back from the brink

VIRGO Venus’ arrival in Virgo boosts your confidence no end and puts you in a great position for dating, job interviews, or any situation where you need to shine. It’s an intensely emotional Full Moon for some, but keep looking on the positive side.

LIBRA The Full Moon shines from your love zone, so there could be a drama in your closest relationship. Relinquish the need to win; instead, try to remember that you’re both on the same side. Venus encourages you to spend plenty of time alone together.

SCORPIO Friendships are in the spotlight as Venus changes signs, and you can expect to find a great deal in common with new people this week. However, the Full Moon energies eat into your free time, so be prepared to be patient and flexible.

Read your weekly horoscopes from astrology.tv

Pictured above is a shot from a recent Soliela campaign in which two friends of Soliela creators react to getting hit by a slipper, or shibshib in Egyptian dialect. Photo Courtesy of @soliela on instagram

Opinion

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Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 8

SIERRA ÉLISE HANSEN | COLUMN

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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

FROM THE DAILY

The dangers of social media, even in the age of fact checking

n June 23, Twitter censored President Donald Trump’s tweets by attaching warning labels on tweets, including one about protesters in Portland and another tweet which said, “There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!” This move comes after Twitter flagged two of Trump’s tweets on May 27 for violating their misinformation policies. Twitter and Facebook began censoring posts or notifying viewers if they spread egregiously false information, particularly pertaining to voting procedures for the upcoming 2020 general election.

hough it is good that social media sites, particularly Twitter, are finally working to prevent the rampant spread of misinformation on their platforms, this alone is not enough. These fact-checking provisions are limited in scope, and thus do not absolve social media users of responsibility for verifying that content they consume or amplify is factually accurate, especially when it relates to topics as paramount as the upcoming election. First, it is important for social media users to understand the limited reach of Twitter and Facebook’s new social media factchecking policies, both in terms of the types of posts they cover and the impact they have on online discourse. Even Twitter, the most proactive social media network with regard to misinformation, only flags and censors a small portion of false political claims, specifically ones that violate its “civic integrity policy.” This policy only covers tweets which are aimed at “manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes,” and does not extend to general political falsehoods. This is why only a small subsection of Trump’s lies, including his assertion that mail-in voting is inherently fraudulent, are flagged, while the vast majority, such as his oft-repeated claim that the U.S. only has the most COVID19 cases in the world because of the nation’s widespread testing, remain on Twitter unimpeded. In practical terms, this means that the vast majority of false or misleading tweets go unflagged, severely limiting the impact that Twitter’s fact-checking procedures have on Trump. Considering that, the onus is still largely on Twitter users to think critically, and they cannot rely on Twitter’s narrow fact-checking policies to do that for them. It is important to consider how much of an impact Twitter’s factchecking policies actually have on online political discourse. With regard to Trump in particular, Twitter’s efforts to call out his

political falsehoods have only a marginal impact — at best — on the national political conversation, for several reasons. First, even on tweets that Twitter flagged as false and provided fact-checking for, Trump still received a large number of reactions, indicating that his opinions were still widely shared and publicized. For instance, his tweet declaring that mail-in voting could not be “anything less than substantially fraudulent” has more than 35,000 retweets and 125,000 likes as of Sept. 27. In tandem with that, factchecking Trump’s blatant falsehoods do little to actually regulate the political climate. People who do not support Trump already know that many of his claims are false, while his supporters are exceedingly unlikely to change their views based on factchecking, especially provided by a site that Trump claims is biased against Republicans. Ultimately, while Twitter’s fact-checking policies help improve political discourse and call out falsehoods in theory, their impact on the president’s social media presence is effectively null. While Twitter’s approach to Trump has been widely discussed, less-publicized causes and groups can still easily manipulate Twitter users, providing a reminder that the responsibility for verifying information found on the site still resides with the users themselves. The Black Lives Matter Foundation in Santa Clarita, Calif., supports bridging the silos between the local community and the police. However, the foundation’s misnomer led people to believe it was associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, which was founded to end violence against Black communities. As a result, many looking to financially aid the social justice movement donated, or almost donated, to the Santa Clarita foundation: According to Buzzfeed News, Apple, Google and Microsoft almost donated a combined $4 million to the foundation in the wake of George Floyd’s murder before realizing that they almost donated

to a foundation that encourages communities’ relationship with the police — which directly contradicts the Black Lives Matter movement’s call to defund the police. This case highlights how while misinformation is a problem, an unwillingness to fact check or research claims contributes to how people uncritically take information at face value. Major corporations, like Apple, have the resources to look into the foundations they associate with. However, their failure to do research before nearly making a multimilliondollar donation suggests that failing to investigate or verify things sourced from Twitter is common not only among social media users but the populace at large. Major social media platforms indicate their focus is primarily on aiding the spread of factual information, as demonstrated through mission statements and corporate social responsibility initiatives. For example, in 2018, Twitter supported Reporters Without Borders and celebrated World Press Freedom Day with multilingual hashtags and global events. Events like this demonstrate Twitter’s focus on press freedom, an admirable initiative which occasionally is misconstrued as open dialogue without a focus on fact-checking and ensuring truthfulness. To emphasize that, on June 2, Twitter stated that its “focus is on providing context, not fact-checking,” a reminder that the website is first and foremost a conversational outlet. While Facebook has a third-party fact-checking program founded in 2016, Twitter’s approach to handling misinformation shows that it is largely up to social media users to validate claims they see online. While this can come in many forms, such as cross-checking facts with those of other sources and seeking the opinion of reputable publications and journalists, recognizing dangerous misinformation ploys on social media is essential in ethical and productive news and information consumption.

When avoiding the truth is part of your University’s business model

or a recent Detroit Metro Times article, reporter Lee DeVito asked Rick Fitzgerald, the University of Michigan spokesman, about an op-ed written by an anonymous U-M staff member. Fitzgerald’s response, which regarded an alleged conflict of interest with Regent Ron Weiser (R), came close to engaging the point that such conflicts of interest aren’t anything new. Fitzgerald, presumably unintentionally, focuses on what the University prioritizes: serving private wealth and preserving its reputation. The anonymous staffer writes that this is additionally symptomatic of nationwide “deterioration and rot,” which they believe descended upon us only in the past four years. However, there is significant evidence that this distinctly American cultural rot at an ostensibly “progressive” public University isn’t new, with institutional cowardice running rampant alongside it. What then, might you ask, is the true culprit? The business model the University uses is not unique from the traditional college and university model. It is a patently corporate business model that discourages accountability from top to bottom. This dependence on private wealth actively privileges the interests of its wealthy donors over the wellbeing of its students, vulnerable faculty, graduate student employees, adjuncts and other members of the community, with the University’s endowment driving these decisions. In service of its brand, the University prioritizes burying the smoking gun of imminent harm. Such political theater is ignited when one of its administrators, a powerful member of its athletic department or a tenured faculty member, is implicated in wrongdoing. The necessity of preserving the University’s lifestyle brand is the real reason we’ve only recently learned of the decades of preventable sexual misconduct and manipulation by former University Provost Martin Philbert. The logic is obvious when one looks more closely at the scandal: If a university is known to allow its tenured faculty members to sexually assault students with impunity, how does that affect its reputation? If it is known to use Title IX investigations as legal cover to protect itself from liability, how might that affect a parent’s decision to send their child to school there? There is a term for this: institutional complicity. University leadership is protected from legal liability in most cases by qualified immunity laws and misbehaving faculty reported to OIE are protected by employment laws meant to safeguard their right to privacy. In otherwords,ifOIEhadhypothetically investigated Philbert at various points, it is incredibly unlikely they would have done anything to stop him. Smart criminals, unfortunately, don’t leave trails aside from their victims, and OIE has no incentive to look into those cases properly. OIE’s staff are paid by the University, and acknowledging a sexual predator’s presence, past or present, doesn’t serve the institution. When reached for comment, Fitzgerald said he doesn’t believe these claims about the University’s transparency are accurate, citing the fact that “the University publishes annual reports on sexual misconduct matters that allow anyone to follow a case through to conclusion.” In the years following the advent of the #MeToo movement, the entire University community was deceived into believing they were not capable of such crises. That’s not because a crisis didn’t exist, but because the University does what administrative offices have always done when faced with what the anonymous University staff member calls “unprofitable inevitabilities”: They gaslight individuals already victimized by the scandal, and then suppress the truth until they can no longer do so. That is, when the trail of harms becomes extensive and undeniable. With that in mind, the sexual misconduct cases of Philbert and former University physician Dr. Robert Anderson have much in common. Both men were exalted and protected by the institution even after their predatory behavior was brought to the attention of administrators. Both hid their malicious targeting of victims under the veneer of professionalism and preyed on their victims’ ambitions while exploiting a culture of silence. Knowing this, it is important to

acknowledge that under institutional layers of negligence there were other bad actors who enabled predatory behavior. The truth was, as they say, hidden in plain sight — by administrators with ample reasons for doing so. Philbert accuser Emily Renda told The Daily that “President Schlissel 100% lied to the Michigan Daily when he told you that he first learned of any allegations against Philbert in January of this year.” Indeed, evidence uncovered during the WilmerHale investigation indicates Schlissel should have known — a survey he was charged with reviewing in advance of Philbert being appointed Provost described him as a “notorious sexual predator.” Additionally, another individual abused by Anderson, Tad DeLuca, reported his abuse to former University wrestling coach Bill Johannesen in 1975 — over 40 years ago. Not only was he disbelieved despite how Anderson’s serial abuse was an open secret, but he was kicked off the wrestling team. Anderson was allowed to continue his sexual abuse unabated. At Anderson’s funeral in 2008, football coach Lloyd Carr called him “a tremendous asset in this community.” When the University was made aware of the extent of the allegations, rather than opening an internal investigation, it passed them on to the University of Michigan Police Department and the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor quietly dismissed the charges, because Anderson was deceased and the statute of limitations had passed. There is also the case of David Daniels, a disgraced opera singer and former School of Music, Theatre & Dance Professor. Daniels was fired one year after he and his husband were charged with sexually assaulting fellow singer and former SMTD graduate student Andrew Lipian. But in his civil suit against the University, Lipian alleges the University had known about his allegations for years and failed to act. Even in comments made by representatives for Daniels and the University after several other accusers came forward, the specter of a ruined reputation overshadows the importance of learning from institutional mistakes and ensuring the well-being of alleged victims. It is important to note the University has other options. For example, it can allow Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to completely investigate any allegations. Knowing this, the University has refused to suspend attorney-client privilege or to commit to complete transparency, shutting down those possibilities in favor of taking measures to control the narrative. Case workers for the University of Michigan’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center could direct survivors to OSCR’s much less formal Adaptable Conflict Resolution process rather than an OIE investigation in the case of reported sexual misconduct. In choosing the ACR route, survivors (or “complainants”) forego the possibility of sanctions or a guilty finding for the offender (or “respondent”). This is part of a defense strategy meant to protect the University and avoid liability traps, due to how imposing sanctions or punishment of any kind on the respondent (including a finding of policy violation) opens the University up to litigation. As a result, even in cases where a Title IX investigation results in a guilty finding, it behooves the University to impose sanctions on the offending party that can be considered inappropriately light. With the current Title IX process being what it is, encouraging a survivor to endure a long and emotionally taxing investigation, with inadequate professional support provided by the school, might be thought of as an endangerment of the survivor’s well-being. While case managers at SAPAC are licensed professionals, the on-staff advocates often charged with supporting survivors through traumatic processes are trained interns, not licensed therapists nor trained legal professionals. With regards to the allegation that the University’s Title IX Office is in place to protect the reputation of the University and not the members of its protected classes nor the members of its community, Fitzgerald replied, “That’s not accurate. The safety of our community is our highest priority.” Fitzgerald additionally stated

that “SAPAC advocates and all staff are trained in the empowerment philosophy approach, which has at its foundation the belief that survivors are the ones who know what they need best, and SAPAC advocates are available to help them understand all of their options and not make decisions for them. This is affirmed on the SAPAC website.” In the case of Claire*, a former SMTD student, the student she accused of sexual assault was found guilty after a lengthy investigation by OIE. However, once OIE concluded its investigation, responsibility for imposing sanctions or “punishment” was then passed to OSCR because the respondent in her case was another student. Other than the OSCR sanctioning board’s recommendation that the respondent seek counseling — noting they had taken into consideration his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and suggested he disclose the finding appropriately in the future — the board’s only required sanctions were a monthly “educational project focused on building awareness” that could be “satisfied in a variety of formats, including outside professional providers,” in addition to a short reflection essay he was given six months to write. Claire says a permanent, no-contact directive OSCR gave the respondent was never enforced. Instead, she was forced to see him in class every day for her final two years in SMTD. Now enrolled in graduate school at another institution, she disclosed that she experienced panic attacks as a result of nearly constant exposure to her assailant after the investigation concluded. She added that she found SAPAC’s resources to be unhelpful. In a letter containing the sanctions sent from OSCR to the respondent dated May 5, 2017, and copied to Claire, the sanctioning board wrote, “You are to write an essay of 1,200-1,500 words (size 12, Times New Roman font, standard margins) discussing your experience. Please reflect on the situation and how this experience has affected your personal, social and academic experience since the time of the incident.” While the letter from OSCR goes on to say the essay can’t be used to justify the respondent’s actions, I’m unsure what’s more concerning: how a school’s punishment for a finding of responsibility for sexual assault can be so light, to the point of amounting to no real punishment at all or that the University imposes such light punishment while proclaiming they want to prevent sexual misconduct from occurring. When potential offenders know they won’t be appropriately punished for their crimes even if they are found guilty — particularly faculty offenders who know very well how much the system is already stacked in their favor — why wouldn’t they exploit an opportunity? Despite all this, Claire could not sue the school due to how OIE’s investigation had run down the clock, on the window during which victims can file for their right to sue: 180 days from the date of the trigger incident. Meanwhile, Counseling and Psychological Services continues to have long wait times and currently has one on-staff counselor specializing in the treatment of sexual assault and trauma, Danielle Zohrob, Psy.D. Rather than enacting change, the administration continues to speak publicly over those they’ve harmed. With that said, the University community needs to talk about exploitation marketed as empowerment. Given the OIE’s process for adjudicating sexual misconduct — one that Philbert himself actively defended — and the administration’s initial decision to hire a defense firm that has listed among its clients the notorious sexual predators Jeffrey Epstein and Roman Polanski (a decision only changed later, after it met swift public backlash), it seems the University is good at cover ups. It is to the point that while rights for complainants in Title IX processes are being gutted, the University administration has placed a spin on this gutting reminiscent of a “right-to-work” advertisement campaign. *Name has been changed to protect

survivor’s anonymity.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Sierra Élise Hansen can be reached at hsierra@umich.edu.

9 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Opinion

JESS D’AGOSTINO | COLUMN

Now, we must all find a way to be notorious

t 87 years old, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lost her battle to cancer. As I type the word “battle,” it could not feel more appropriate, as Ginsburg truly was a warrior who fought far beyond the physical obstacles of cancer. We must now all find this warrior within us, for R.B.G. and everything she represented. I personally plan to wear an invisible collar, bun and glasses as my sword, shield and compass for the rest of my life. For millions of people across the world, Ginsburg’s death provoked many tears, anxieties and a collective call to action. The moment my phone vibrated and I read the headline: “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87,” I was overwhelmed with emotion. First and foremost, I felt a deep sadness. As for many women, R.B.G. has been a lifelong role model for me. As a Jewish woman myself, Ginsburg has shown me how to shatter the glass ceiling I’ve been reminded of far too many times. Separate from any political ideology, Ginsburg should be remembered as a trailblazing force of nature. Whether you are politically aligned with R.B.G. or not holds no relevance; she was and is a true embodiment of what the Supreme Court should be, representative of the trust and passion we all yearn to see from our government officials. Ginsburg fought for and represented equality. Candid about the challenges she faced, Ginsburg provides encouragement to women everywhere: “I struck out on three grounds — I was Jewish, a woman and a mother.” Nonetheless, her accomplishments extend beyond the word limits of my column. To detail 87 years of her dedication, determination and dissent on

one page would be impossible in trying to fully encapsulate the unbelievable contribution she has made to our country. Having said that, a few highlights should still be recognized. Ginsburg was a Jewish woman from Brooklyn, N.Y. Beyond graduating first in her mostly-male Columbia Law School class, she was the second female law professor at Rutgers University, a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project, the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court, the first Supreme Court justice to officiate a same-sex marriage and a champion of equality for all: women, Black Americans, the Jewish community, the LGBTQ+ community, working mothers and, genuinely, so many more. Though I would argue that we would have never been ready for Ginsburg to leave us, it goes without saying that her passing comes at a scary time in history. As the pandemic continues on and the election looms closer, I couldn’t help but wonder just a few moments after the tears had stopped: What does this mean for the United States? Depending on your perspective, the world is either upside down or just starting to turn right side up. Regardless, it is essential that the memory, legacy and work of Ginsburg is not undone by her replacement on the Supreme Court. Before her death, Justice Ginsburg relayed her final demand to her granddaughter, Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” On Sept. 22, just four days after R.B.G’s passing, President Donald Trump said he will announce his nomination

for the Supreme Court Justice on Saturday, Sept. 26. It goes without saying that this announcement has incited a lot of backlash; like seemingly everything in this day and age, there has been a divisive split between those who believe the president should nominate a lame-duck replacement in what could be the final months of his presidency and those who do not. When a woman who did so much for our country and asked for nothing in return has a final wish, you obey that wish. Think past the politics of a judicial majority — dig down to the most human, empathetic part of yourself. The justice that replaces Ginsburg must be one equipped to carry her torch. R.B.G. is indisputably one-ofa-kind and nobody will ever be as “notorious.” However, this replacement should be similar to Ginsburg in more ways than just her gender. Feeling hopeless and helpless is natural in the wake of this monumental loss. I encourage every woman to do the following, no matter who you’re voting for this November. Think of Ginsburg as you sign your own mortgage or open your own bank account. Feel her with you every day you work as a woman, and even more so if you are pregnant or a mother. Support local women running for elections. Volunteer in mentorship programs for young girls, or get involved in your community through whatever avenue you are passionate about. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be gone, but it is now our responsibility to continue the ferocious, unrelenting spirit of the Notorious R.B.G.

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ZOE ZHANG | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT ZOEZHANG@UMICH.EDU

EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST

Future stimulus efforts must be more narrowly targeted

Jess D’Agostino can be reached at jessdag@umich.edu.

SAM FOGEL | COLUMNIST

A slightly more holistic look at R.B.G.

’m sure you’ve all heard by now, but the long-seated Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. She passed away on Sept. 18 and immediately reinvigorated a partisan conf lict that’s been brewing for the past four years. Her body hadn’t even been cold, and people were already in an uproar about what the proceeding replacement would look like. Sentiments over former President Barack Obama’s appointee, Justice Merrick Garland, come to mind as the Republicans seek to fill the vacancy in the weeks before the election. I don’t really want to talk about that, though. I never expected Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to actually have any decency and follow through with his dissent, anyway. Politics is a game, after all, and the rest is just for show. I want to talk about what RBG means to many people. Her inf luence in American politics cannot be understated — a champion of women’s rights. I won’t try and take that away from her. But there are many instances where RBG has ruled in a fashion many would say to be, well, problematic. Her history isn’t clean. I’m not trying to urinate on the fresh grave of such a prolific figure. She’s not Margaret Thatcher, after all. I take contention with the unquestioning faith in the most iconic figures of the American left. Being unable to criticize such consequential figures is something I take contention with. Let’s take a holistic look at Ginsburg, her legacy and what it all means to me and many other people. I’ll start with the good. It’s irrefutable she’s had a positive impact on women’s rights in this country. Ginsburg was one of nine women at Harvard Law when she enrolled in 1956, later transferring to Columbia to graduate in 1959. She was undoubtedly a trailblazer in this right and helped paved the way for many other women to follow suit. Soon after, RBG volunteered with the American Civil Liberties Union and co-founded the Women’s Rights Project which started her career as a champion of gender equality right out of the gate. The Women’s Rights Project went on to challenge

bias in government, including things like treatment of men and women in the military and unequal treatment in state jurisdictions. On the bench in the Supreme Court, she ruled in favor of the rights of disabled Americans, arguing for the rights of two neurodivergent women that had been trapped in a psychiatric ward without their consent. Even in the dissenting opinion, RBG made her perspectives known and her stance clear. In 2007, the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. reiterated the rights of corporations to pay their workers unequal wages in equal positions. RBG wrote the dissent, reading on the bench (an uncommon practice) about her objections to the ruling and her aversion to the obvious sexism within it. “In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination,” Ginsberg said in her dissenting opinion. Ginsburg’s fight for equal rights cannot be understated. But with such a long and expansive career, there is always going to be some bad. RBG has had some speed bumps, and it would be foolish to completely ignore them. Many critics that actually have something to say, rather than vapid political squabbles, mention her record on things like criminal justice and tribal law. Her record has been less than consistent when it comes to the rights of felons. In Overton v. Bazezza (2003), she ruled in favor of a decision that upheld a Michigan prison’s right to bar visitation to those with instances of substance abuse. In Porter v. Nussle, she authored the majority opinion which determined “No action shall be brought with respect to prison conditions … until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted” before trying to file for abuse in court. Doesn’t help much when the prison system is already labyrinthian and notoriously terrible in terms of prisoner rights and guard accountability. Another point of contention that many people like myself have with her is her controversial rulings regarding

treaty rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples. City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005) is a sore thumb that sticks out in this regard. The Oneida Nation repurchased lands privately that were once part of their reservation and claimed sovereignty over the land following the purchase. RBG wrote the majority opinion that dismissed their claims. In addition to that, there’s United States v. Navajo Nation, (2003) where RBG struck down a whopping $600 million compensation following a breach of contract against the Navajo Nation. Don’t think I’m trying to play to the whim of the people who drag Ginsburg down for the hell of it, for political gain. I appreciate and understand the strides she’s made for gender equality across the board. However, I have objections to idolatry: RBG has been glorified as someone worthy of unequivocal praise and not worth examining further. I don’t think that’s helpful. I don’t think the answer to the conniving and slimy politicians that seek to engage in hypocrisy with an appointment so soon after Ginsburg’s death is to deify her. A problem I have with the American left is their eagerness to ignore their own f laws. In order to be stronger, and to accept nothing but what’s right, we need to be able to acknowledge the f laws in our most lauded figures. Ginsburg had her faults, and as people who strive for a better world we need to be able to recognize that and work toward something better, for something more satisfactory. I’m tired of this banal level of acceptance from our rulers in this country. Women achieving success is always cool, but the “#girlboss” attitude of ignoring injustice in favor of symbolic victory is nearly just as harmful as f lat out ignoring our problems. Ginsburg did so much good, but she was by no means the end of what we should ask from justices. Never accept anything less than justice. It’s in the position’s title, right? Sam Fogel can be reached at samfogel@umich.edu.

Design courtesy of Mehana Tummala

he COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique and unprecedented challenge for economies across the globe as world leaders balance safeguarding public health with protecting workers and industries. Here in the United States, as we continue to respond to the ongoing threat posed by the coronavirus, our nation has suffered staggering economic losses. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy shrank at an alarming annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020 alone, setting a record for the steepest drop in history. While the coronavirus crisis has had widespread impacts on the entire U.S. economy, it has had an especially destructive impact on workers and jobs. Since COVID-19 first prompted economic shutdowns in March, tens of millions of U.S. workers have sought unemployment aid for the first time. At the beginning of September, the U.S. Labor Department reported that almost 900,000 workers filed initial claims for unemployment benefits in one week alone. On the other hand, though the unemployment rate has recovered somewhat since it hit nearly 15% in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent August jobs report signals that millions of workers still find themselves struggling due to the pandemic’s impact. As a result of this staggering economic carnage, Congress and the federal government have implemented a number of expansionary measures that aim to prop up our damaged economy. Once businesses were forced to close as states shut down in March, Congress worked quickly to deliver aid to struggling Americans. In late March, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act into law after Congress passed it with bipartisan support.

The unprecedented CARES Act — which cost the federal government more than $2 trillion in total — served as a multi-pronged approach to help those affected by the pandemic. Soon after this act was signed into law, each American citizen with income less than $75,000 (or $150,000 for those filing jointly) received a generous $1,200 stimulus check along with an additional $500 for each child under 17 years old in the household. Meanwhile, the CARES Act led to the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program, a beneficial effort that provided small businesses financial support to help them survive this crisis. Finally, in addition to stimulus checks and support for small businesses as part of the CARES Act, the federal government also provided enhanced unemployment benefits of $600 per week, which unemployed American citizens received in addition to state aid. The CARES Act was truly a remarkable effort that quickly distributed benefits across the nation in a time of distress and severe economic instability. But in retrospect, the Act was far from perfect. Though the CARES Act was successful in many ways, our lawmakers designed this legislation more broadly in order to distribute this crucial economic aid as quickly as possible. The broad targeting of this stimulus plan led to obvious waste and inefficiency. In terms of the stimulus checks, our federal government distributed benefits to all Americans under a certain level of income, even if some of these people never lost their jobs. Meanwhile, it is highly evident that the PPP was misused and taken advantage of by a large number of businesses, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that “the program’s $521 billion in loans ... went to well-heeled and politically connected firms across the economy, including law offices, charities, restaurant chains and

wealth managers.” At the time the original CARES Act was passed in March, it seemed hard to imagine that further stimulus efforts might be necessary. Six months later, however, while our government has already spent trillions of dollars and helped millions of Americans, the coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of letting up anytime soon, with our country’s top health experts warning that the COVID-19 crisis is far from over. The ongoing threat posed by the pandemic has therefore reignited debates over further stimulus efforts, though the negotiations in Congress have appeared to stall for the time being. It’s painfully obvious at this point that the coronavirus will continue to threaten the American economy until an effective therapeutic or vaccine is made available to the public. Until then, it is incumbent on our lawmakers and government officials to implement further stimulus measures that fight the economic impacts of COVID-19. However, while future stimulus bills are necessary, we must learn from the shortcomings of the CARES Act and make new stimulus money more narrowly targeted to those affected most. Unlike in March, we have the tools today to better understand who is most impacted by COVID-19 and the time to actually implement a strategy that is more narrowly targeted. A more narrow strategy to uplift struggling Americans would not only be a more efficient plan but would be a smarter plan. Instead of wastefully trying to distribute benefits to every American, as was the case with the CARES Act, narrow targeting of stimulus benefits would enable us to focus on those who need help most.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu.

Opinion

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ILANA MERMELSTEIN | COLUMNIST

The separation of church and state, or lack thereof

he United States prides itself on maintaining a strict separation of church and state, denouncing the entanglement of religion and government and permitting citizens to practice any religion of their choice. However, aside from the occasional court decision prohibiting prayer in a public school, evidence suggests this “strict separation” is more of a hanging sheet: a barrier, but not one that fully prevents mingling between sides. Though civics classes may have informed you otherwise, the line between government and religious involvement is often blurred. The historical use of religious beliefs to ridicule candidates for government office, as well as the strong correlation between religious beliefs and voter behavior in the U.S.,, make it hard to believe church and state are truly separate. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison originated the concept of a separation of church and state in the government of the United States. In his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, Jefferson called religion a “matter which lies solely between Man & his God,” adding that there should be a “wall of separation between Church & State” in the U.S. government. The establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution serves as the manifestation of this idea. By including it among the first additions to the Constitution, Jefferson and Madison indicated the importance of the separation of church and state in the U.S. government, yet it seems not to be upheld in the modern day. After Theodore Roosevelt opted not to run for another term as president, the Republicans nominated William Howard

HARLEEN KAUR | OP-ED

Taft as the party’s candidate for the position in 1908. Democrats began attacking Taft, citing his religious beliefs as evidence against his ability to serve as President, despite the supposed governmental separation of church and state. Taft identified as a Catholic and a Unitarian, which ruffled the feathers of many Protestants, who felt these beliefs meant Taft did not recognize Christ’s divinity and would act with hostility toward Protestants in the country. In spite of these criticisms, Taft won the election, with remarks from Roosevelt. He deemed it outrageous “even to agitate such a question as a man’s religious convictions for the purpose of influencing a political election,” warning Americans of the dangers of allowing religion to influence the government. Did Americans heed his warning, though? No — the religious views of candidates continued to serve as evidence for or against their abilities to lead. Al Smith, presidential candidate in the 1928 election, received criticism during his campaign from William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette at the time, who labeled Smith as a threat to “the whole Puritan civilization which (had) built a sturdy, orderly nation” in accordance with his Catholicism. In the 2008 and 2012 Republican primaries, the candidates “who most explicitly appealed to religious voters” were preferred by Republicans who reported the most frequent attendance at religious services, and there was a direct relationship between the likelihood of supporting these candidates and the frequency of attendance at religious services. Even now, approximately half

of Americans claim that the possession of strong religious beliefs is a factor of reasonable importance when considering political candidates. The integration of church and state will not be put on pause for the 2020 presidential election. Despite most Americans viewing President Donald Trump as the least religious of the 2016 presidential candidates, the majority of white Protestants, who make up a sizable portion of the American population, now express support for his presidency and reelection. Trump has made a considerable effort to appeal to the Protestant population throughout his term, notably taking a photo with a Bible in front of St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. this June to publicize his supposed commitment to Christianity. Trump continued to vocalize his newfound dedication to Christianity by diminishing the religious beliefs of presidential candidate Joe Biden. “He’s against God,” Trump declared, adding that Biden’s presidency would allow for “no religion” and would “hurt God.” Biden is openly Catholic, like past political leaders William Taft and Al Smith, so these remarks bear a striking resemblance to those made by past critics of such leaders. Trump capitalizes on the historical prejudice toward Catholics in the U.S. in order to obtain and maintain the support of Protestants, who make up a large proportion of American voters. He takes religion, what Jefferson called a “matter which lies solely between Man & his God,” and exploits it for political gain.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Ilana Mermelstein can be reached at imerm@umich.edu.

SPIROS KASS | COLUMNIST

Science over silence: Why we can’t “just watch”

any University of Michigan students and Michigan residents are quick to criticize our state’s climate — bitter cold winters, short summers and even shorter springs and autumns make it hard to enjoy the parts of the year we appreciate most. Though the cold is easy to complain about, Michiganders, or Midwesterners broadly, should consider themselves blessed. Blessed because we often do not have to experience firsthand the catastrophic effects of natural disasters fueled by our changing climate. Californians, however, cannot share the same level of safety. Over the past month, California, along with Oregon and Washington, has been facing an unprecedented burst of wildfires across the state. On Sept. 27 alone, the state was battling 25 major wildfires at once, calling for 17,000 firefighters on the front lines to help diminish the spread and magnitude of the blaze. The history of California wildfires foreshadows a frightening trend. From 2001 to 2010, there was a total of 7.03 million acres of land burned by fires. From 2010 to 2020, the number increased to 10.8 million acres. In 2020 alone, however, there have been 3.2 million acres of land burned by over 7,900 fires. The area of land burned in one year equates to almost 1/3 of the total land burned in the last decade, leaving behind ashes and ruins that sum to roughly the same area as the state of Connecticut. Though September marks the beginning of fall and cooler temperatures, scientists predict that these fires will persist through October. The numbers continue to rise. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to remain silent in response to the fires. Other than President Donald Trump’s issuance of a major disaster declaration on Aug. 22 in response

to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request, Trump has not shown any support for combatting this continuing disaster. Instead, he has shown ignorance and an appalling lack of leadership during a roundtable with federal, state and local officials of California. Wade Crowfoot, secretary of California Natural Resources Agency, pleaded Trump to “recognize the changing climate and what it means to (California’s) forests” and to “actually work together with that science.” We would like to imagine that our president would address this concern with respect and cooperation. But Trump’s response conveyed the exact opposite. “Ok, it’ll start getting cooler,” Trump scoffed. “You just watch.” But will it? Noah Diffenbaugh, climate scientist at Stanford University, completely denied this claim in his response to the statement, noting that “we have very clear evidence that California is warming. There is no scientific evidence that California is on the cusp of a longterm cooling trend.” Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of California residents. Twenty-six people are dead. More than 6,400 structures were destroyed. And what does our nation’s leader decide is an appropriate response to a state official’s cry for help? To tell him to “just watch.” This is not the first time our president has utterly neglected the science behind climate change, and we as morally-conscious citizens need to make sure that this will be the last of it. Election Day is less than two months away, and we must elect a leader who will prioritize our health and safety, the generations to come and the world as we know it. Trump does not just deny climate change. He fuels it. Over the past few years of his term, Trump has made

many executive orders that roll back regulations aimed to limit pollution and protect the environment. To name a few, he loosened offshore drilling safety rules that were implemented after the disastrous BP oil explosion in 2010; in April 2019, he signed two executive pipeline orders, one of which gives him the authority to “issue, deny or amend” permits for pipelines that cross international borders; one month earlier, he approved drilling for the controversial Keystone pipeline; he appointed Andrew Wheeler as the EPA administrator in February 2019, a former coal lobbyist who has undone Obama-era regulations on coal power plant emissions since taking the position. The list goes on. Clearly, for Trump, the economic success of energy corporations is a higher priority than protecting the natural resources that these companies exploit. Despite his track record of rolling back regulations aimed to limit environmental damage caused by corporate drilling and pollution, he attempts to disguise this developing disaster by convincing the public that the United States is excelling in air and water purity — he made a remark in the past year that “we have the cleanest air in the world, in the United States, and it’s gotten better since I’m president.” This claim has been proven false. Trump also said that proper forest management, specifically a “rake” of forest floors to remove dry debris, would make the fires on the West Coast completely cease. This statement, as well, was also proven false.

Read more at MichiganDaily. Spiros Kass can be reached at spikass@umich.edu.

The University’s tools will not dismantle the University

“

If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed.” — Paulo Freire Today, for the first time, I picked up my favorite, well-worn navy Michigan shirt, took one look at it, and put it back on the shelf. It’s one of those shirts that’s a favorite because it’s simple — across the chest, it has “Michigan” written in maize block letters that are starting to crack from so many washes, and there’s a hole slowly spreading along the seam in the right armpit. I still remember when it had its original rough texture, as most of the standard Meijer shirts do. I wore it proudly on my high school graduation day at my high school, honored to show off the new place I’d be calling home. My four years in Ann Arbor taught me more about myself than I could have expected. While formal education challenged me in the classroom, my real learning came through student organizations and student activism. I remember bearing witness to the Coalition for Tuition Equality, protests spring of my sophomore year. I watched undocumented students and those fighting in solidarity protesting at

the Michigan Union intersection until eight were arrested for obstructing traffic. That fall, shortly after tuition equality was passed by the University’s Board of Regents, the Black Student Union demanded a reckoning with the implicit and explicit ways the University continued to protect anti-Black behavior on campus. Covering the posting wall with black chalkboard paper overnight until #BBUM (Being Black at the University of Michigan) turned into a viral Twitter campaign. Two years later, we witnessed the Islamophobia and xenophobia present in many divisions of the University as the Center for Campus Involvement planned, and then canceled, and then rescheduled a screening of American Sniper for UMix, despite the reports that the film’s release had fueled a rise in violence against Muslims across the U.S. Even then, President Schlissel’s response was underwhelming; he asked us to acknowledge and value “underlying values (that) are at odds” while “work(ing) through them to achieve a balance that will allow us to grow as individuals and as an institution of higher learning.”

As an exhausted senior one month away from graduation, I had already learned from countless meetings with the University administration that promises were often empty, and meetings were simply for the appearance of good faith. Still, below the resentment that had grown like a hard skin over my pre-college 18-year-old self’s pride, there was still an underlying feeling of love for and faith in the University community, not the administration, to find our path forward as we worked through the burdens of pursuing higher education in a country that refuses to acknowledge its longstanding structural investment in anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy and anti-indigeneity. I share this recent legacy of student protest and resistance to oppressive University administration policy to remind us that this struggle is not new nor is it over. While the GEO3550’s strike has officially ended after Schlissel’s pursuit of legal action against graduate student employees, University staff carry on the original demands. Preserving the legacy of

EVAN DEMPSEY | COLUMNIST

Vroom, zoom, doom

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 10

f I asked you what are cars for, there are a few answers I might expect you to give me. Cars expand our horizons by letting us travel farther. They save time by letting us travel faster. Or, maybe you would simply say that we need cars: We need them to get to our places of work, to get to the store and buy food, to visit our families — in short, to live our lives.

Design courtesy of Caitlin Martens

If cars really are such a fundamental component of our daily lives, perhaps it is better to ask why we need them so badly in the first place. Because, despite their ubiquity in American society, cars inf lict too much misery, death and destruction on us and our world to justify any of those benefits.

The easiest way to examine the toll the automobile has taken on humanity is by looking at the staggering number of people killed by vehicles. Over the last few decades, the number of accidents per year in the United States has held remarkably steady, and although the actual number of deaths has declined slightly, it remains concerningly high. In 2018, the U.S. Department

collective action at the University will be crucial in giving us, broader University community members, a deeper understanding of the extent of the administration’s violation(s). Without true consciousness, we cannot have true struggle. As a former member of University residential staff and a current graduate student employee at another public university, I am no stranger to the ways the University system takes advantage of our labor, our livelihood and our vulnerable reliance on them. What is more surprising this time is the brazen disregard for human life and respect of the right to protest and demand a better community, of which the students and workers are an integral part. Through all of this, Schlissel and the rest of the administration are making their personal and political stance quite clear: profits over people. Thankfully the people have it the right way around and are putting their humanity and needs for safety and security first. To my fellow graduate students and other staff members who participated in strikes: Thank you for your endless labor and sacrifice

on behalf of our community. While the University system blames the worker strike for the disarray and precarity of the students’ conditions, we know this is a regular tactic of the oppressor and will continue to stand with you until all demands are met with a mindset of abundance over scarcity. To my fellow alumni: Now having reaped the benefits of the social capital that the Michigan credential provides, it is our responsibility to leverage this power and access to force the administration to treat this situation with more care, seriousness and a deeper investment in student and staff well-being. I implore those of you who make regular donations to the University to withhold your donations until all demands are met, and ensure that you are clear to the University this is why you are no longer donating. To the University administration: You claim to bleed maize and blue, to love this University and its people. But we’ve seen your negligence when our own people have been bleeding in the streets and your opportunistic emails when the emotions have boiled over enough that they must

be acknowledged. When Black students fought for desegregation in the 1960s, white University administrators appointed Black administrators to filter out students’ justice-based demands that would actually force the University to live up to its public mission. The students and staff know that the Cube only spins because of our labor and continued investment in the same institution that betrays our humanity. Your indecision and apathy masked as thoughtfulness or bureaucratic processes will no longer fool us; we will come together as loudly as we do on game day to make our voices heard. Today, for the first time, I picked up my favorite shirt and felt … embarrassed. Ashamed, I tuck my diploma away on a dusty shelf and, as I continue to reap the benefits of this credential and use it to create the University of Michigan we imagine, I wait and watch for the day it feels worth displaying again.

of Transportation reported 36,650 total fatalities in 33,654 fatal vehicle accidents. In the 24 years from 1994 to 2018, a total of 973,698 Americans died in car crashes. These statistics are indisputably horrifying, but what might not seem as obvious is that cars themselves aren’t actually at fault. After all, cars are operated by people and people are prone to error. Car accident deaths can be mitigated by improving safety features and traffic laws — and in fact, much of the decline in deaths shown in the Department of Transportation statistics can likely be attributed to these improvements. No matter how much seatbelt or airbag technology improves, these features can only attempt to offset the inherent danger of letting millions of people zip around in two-ton missiles as a matter of daily routine. A future in which vehicle safety features prevent even close to 100% of deaths is a long way off. Even if the threat of accidents were somehow entirely eliminated — maybe through self-driving technology — cars present other dangers to humanity and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates transportation accounted for 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, and 82% of those emissions were made by cars and trucks. Though it’s

much harder to precisely assess the damage these emissions have caused, both to people’s respiratory health and the environment, this damage is indisputable. In a world where fatal pile ups on the highway are reported on the nightly news with the same accepting nonchalance as the day’s weather, car crashes are old news. Besides, isn’t it a simple enough thing to let advances in safety technology and renewable energy take their course and solve these problems in their own time? Maybe so. But if it were possible to drastically reduce or even eliminate our reliance on cars, these problems would never have to be solved, because they wouldn’t exist. And it is possible to do just that. It certainly wouldn’t be easy, but dispensing the need for mass ownership and use of automobiles via radical urban redesign would recondition all of the problems I have already mentioned, as well as several that cannot be solved simply by making cars better. For example, in an interview with WSP, Kit Chiu, an Advanced Mobility Systems Planner, stated, “If we want to turn the current increase in active transport usage into sustained change, planners, and all those who bring about change within cities, will need to consider how to continue to make active transport and micromobility options workable under these conditions, not just for the most

experienced users but for all who want to use them. This requires thinking about the design of the actual infrastructure, the design of the surrounding environment, the planning of amenities—including rest stops, lighting, and bike-fixing stations—and the way we operate and maintain our infrastructure, such as winter snow removal.” The infrastructural necessities essential for overhauling dependency on personal vehicles are not quick fixes but rather demand decades of progress in hopes of addressing the problems caused by this dependency. To phase out cars, all travel destinations that cannot be reached through some combination of public transportation (trains, buses, airplanes, etc.) or foot travel should also be redesigned or reconfigured. Places that are remote, single-use developments or destinations that wouldn’t exist in the first place without cars to provide access to them could not exist in a carless society. Even more, getting rid of them would be beneficial in multiple facets, as strip malls tend to be displeasing to the eye and suburbs are at best ecologically burdensome and spatially inefficient.

Harleen Kaur is a 2015 alum of the University of Michigan and a Bonderman fellow and can be reached at harleen@umich.edu.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Evan Dempsey can be reached at evangd@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Arts

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 11

DAILY APIA COLUMN

FILM REVIEW

Hyphenated: APIA second-gen movie night Ah, to be Asian and secondgeneration American. What a wonderful and vexing experience. This week on Hyphenated, we take a closer look at three movies on Netflix and how they normalize “second generation” APIA experiences. To clarify, second generation or “second gen” refers to Americans born within the bounds of these United States to immigrant, “first gen” parents. But what does it mean to be “second generation”? What does that experience look and sound like? Many try to distill the elusive second-gen experience but fall short in their imagination. Some media hyperfixate and problematize being APIA without recognizing that APIA lives sprawl luxuriously beyond the constructed confines of race and culture. While there is some truth to these popularized narratives — children chafing against strict immigrant parents — that experience does not exist in a race-culture-causal vacuum. Second gen APIA individuals are APIA every moment of their lives, not just when they fit a stereotype. To escape narrow second generation narratives, grab some popcorn and enjoy one (or more!) of the films listed below. Because it is nearing Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok), Hyphenated will dole out Chuseok food recs to accompany each movie.

laugh during this aggressively ’80s movie but “Seoul Searching” had me wheezing towards the middle. Very few things are funnier than watching an overly militant Korean American teenager try to pick a fight with North Korean soldiers at the DMZ. But like the Breakfast Club, “Seoul Searching” is fundamentally about the second gen experience overlayed with the stress of being a teenager. Each student desperately wants to present themselves in a certain way. They use clothes and big hair to explore their boundaries and their conception of who they are, papermache-ing outer shells informed by their home country trends and lived experiences. In visually differentiating characters by cultural trends, “Seoul Searching” pokes fun at culture shock, dramatizing the ways assimilation and immigration have individually transformed the teenagers’ lives. With a consciousness for anti-Japanese racism, childhood abuse and adoption, “Seoul Searching” explores more complex issues. The fumbling, uncertain teenagers reach a mature understanding by the end of the movie. Yes, the actions and opinions of all people are influenced by their upbringing, but that lived experience does not make them and their actions justified. “Seoul Searching” succeeded brilliantly in documenting how much of a confusing wilderness identity, sexuality and globalism can be.

“Seoul Searching” by director-producer Benson Lee (2016) Accompanying this movie is a traditional food eaten on Chuseok: jeon, basically panfried anything. A popular jeon, relatively easy to make, is daegu jeun (cod, battered and panfried!). You can also add my personal favorite hobak jeun (pan fried battered squash) to your plate. “Seoul Searching” builds off of John Huges’ 1985 “The Breakfast Club,” creating a similar, aggressively ’80s movie about the teenage struggle. In one epic summer, a disparate group of teenagers from all reaches of the globe come together under one roof for a culture program run by the Korean Government. What results is a breathtakingly hilarious summer camp experience. I was not expecting to

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” directed by Susan Johnson (2018) Accompanying this movie is a healthy helping of Bindae-tteok. This isn’t a typical Korean practice but on Chuseok, my family always eats Bindae-tteok stacked with a thick slice of Jeolpyeon (a kind of tteok, rice cake) and kimchi. The movie adaption of Jenny Han’s book invigorated my tired old bones when I first watched it. I related to how tangential Lara Jean’s race was treated. Her central conflict was not cultural but rather a sweet and romantic fake-dating snafu. But upon re-watching the film for this column, I became more appreciative of the subtle ways the film included race. The main character Lara Jean’s race was never at the forefront of the book’s plot but I always appreciated the author’s

ELIZABETH YOON Daily Arts Columnist

‘The Devil All the Time’ feels behind the times

NETFLIX

KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer

In the United States there has long been a strange fascination with stories of the American backwoods — gritty tales of brazen crime, graphic murder, religious fanaticism and twisted mentalities. They fixate on the post-war rural South and glorify the violence that erupts among the backwoods folk. And there’s never a person of color in sight. This is the vein of “The Devil All the Time,” a stark tale of rural Ohio and West Virginia in the 1950s and ‘60s. It’s a big story, with lots of people to keep track of — characters who connect in unexpected ways and storylines that swing around to fill in gaps. There are enough familiar faces in its vast ensemble cast to keep it relevant, but in the end, the biggest detriment to “Devil” is that it didn’t need to be made. “Devil” is built around an amalgamation of caricatures. The disturbed veteran, the pious virgin, the self-important priest, the psycho killer, the corrupt sheriff — they’re all built on simple characteristics that drive home exactly what kind of story it is, and where you’ve seen it before. All of the characters are forced toward extremes — murderer or victim, religious fanatic or indifferent bystander. The timeline jumps around haphazardly to keep up with the individual plots (which are too complicated to explain in a few sentences, so I won’t try), and the opening exposition is long and complex because

every backtrack incorporates seemingly peripheral characters into the body of the story. The film’s standout performances are its biggest names: Robert Pattinson (“The Lighthouse”) as Preacher Preston Teagardin, Bill Skarsgård (“It”) as Willard Russell and Tom Holland (“Spider-Man: Far From Home”) as Arvin Russell. Pattinson’s performance is fascinatingly exaggerated, but effective: Every word out of his mouth sounds almost like a comedic impression of a slimy Southern preacher rather than a realization of one, resulting in a character who is easy to despise. And Skarsgård’s compelling portrayal of a troubled war veteran gives us the beginnings of Arvin’s relationship with violence — a tradition of thoughtful, aggressive vengeance that is passed on from father to son. Though it takes 45 minutes of time jumps and exposition before our first glimpse of Holland, the wait is worth it — not only because of how Holland pulls off a denim jacket, but also due to the skill he uses to approach the character. He is perfectly expressionless; you can tell exactly how much he cares for his step-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen, “Little Women”) or hates the bullies that torment her without much change in his facial expression. His quiet pain is present after every tragedy, perfectly balanced in a film where almost every other character feels out of control. A scene in which Arvin confronts Preacher Teagardin is a

reminder of what happens when talented actors work together: The quiet intensity from Holland and selfish ignorance from Pattinson combine to create a masterful tension. “The Devil All the Time” has all of the traits of a backwoods story. The women are essentially disposable beyond emotional significance, killed off one by one. Every character’s moral compass is a shade of grey, where the ethics of pointblank murder depend on the character. Because actions don’t actually speak louder than words, scenes are overlaid with omniscient narration in a strong Southern drawl — done by Donald Ray Pollack, the author of the book on which the film is based — to give you a small amount of insight. And there’s a disturbing on-screen killing about every five minutes. This film is a marathon. It’s nearly 140 minutes long, deeply captivating at times but brutally slow at others. The film is classified as a psychological thriller, but it’s not too thrilling, and the only thing psychological about it is the twisted psyches of the killers. Though it’s visually captivating, the plot doesn’t feel much like a plot, and so the ending doesn’t feel much like an ending. All throughout “The Devil All the Time,” violence begets violence; yet even as the layers of dark and disturbing fuse towards something towards a conclusion, it’s difficult to figure out what you were supposed to learn that you didn’t already know. Daily Arts Writer Kari Anderson can be reached at kariand@umich.edu.

small details that signaled that Lara Jean wasn’t wholly white despite her predominantly white school and white father. She and her family, in remembrance of her deceased Korean American mother, maintain some Korean holiday traditions. Despite not knowing the language, Lara Jean ate some Korean food and drank special probiotic drinks like Yacult, unfound in most local supermarkets. If “Seoul Searching” dove deep into untangling the knot of personal and cultural hangups, “To All the Boys I’ve loved Before” successfully captured the normal levity of being second generation for many second gen students. “The Half of It” directed and written by Alice Wu (2020) Accompanying this movie is japchae, stir-fried glass noodles mixed with thinly sliced vegetables mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil. While not my favorite Korean dish, this is a staple of Korean cuisine. I saw “The Half of It” for the first time only last week but it has been very well received by critics of The Michigan Daily (please check out both the Daily Arts and The Statement sections for a more comprehensive review). Ellie Chu, the protagonist of “The Half of It” is a quiet girl, neither out of the closet nor free with her personality. At home, she cares for her father. His limited English language skills make her his proxy. She pays their electric bills because the call center people reportedly cannot understand him through his accent. Her role as translator is a familiar situation for many second gen individuals. Similarly to “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” “The Half of It” doesn’t fixate its plot on APIA immigrant struggles. But also like “To All the Boys,”the film still alienates and references race. For Ellie, racism plays a big part in her narrative about alienation. She feels frustrated people cannot look past her father’s accent. In school, she gets jokes about her last name, Ellie “chu chu.” Unlike Lara Jean of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” Ellie is friendless, largely excluded from the social fabric of her small town. That begins to change as Ellie gets involved in a classically Cyrano de Bergerac plot to help a hapless guy woo the prettiest girl in school.

Read more online at

michigandaily.com

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW

Pianist Matthew Bengston in (livestreamed) concert ELLEN SIROWER Daily Arts Writer

Live-streamed solo recitals are nothing new in the era of COVID-19, but most have typically taken place in living rooms and smaller venues. Last Sunday night on Sept. 20, however, Music, Theatre & Dance professor Matthew Bengtson’s live-streamed concert was an unusual exception. The assistant professor of music and piano literature performed “Great Solo Piano Works from my Lifetime” to an empty Stamps Auditorium — an appropriately grand space for the programmed music. Bengtson started off the recital with a few opening remarks, the most salient point being that all the programmed music was written after World War II, with the most recent piece written in 2003. However, he said, the concert was not a “new music” concert. In many classical conservatory settings, any music written after World War II usually counts as “new music,” from degree auditions to jury requirements. Bengtson, a fervent early and contemporary music enthusiast, disagrees

with this concept — “new music,” he argued, is music that is happening now. Music that was written as far back as fifty years ago is no longer new. The

The piece as a whole was one highly representative of Schoenfeld’s music, which is known to incorporate sound blends of classical, folk and popular genres

concert highlighted some wellknown and some more obscure solo piano pieces by George Walker, Henri Dutilleux and

Lukas Foss and Music, Theatre & Dance composition professor Paul Schoenfeld. The first piece was Schoenfeld’s 1997 “Peccadilloes,” which consisted of six movements, many of which were greatly inf luenced by J.S. Bach. The contrapuntal harmonies in the first, third and fifth movements especially suggested characteristics from Bach’s fugues and toccatas. The piece as a whole was one highly representative of Schoenfeld’s music, which is known to incorporate sound blends of classical, folk and popular genres. While the sound quality over the livestream was less than ideal, Bengtson’s intelligent attention to melodic subject lines and color interpretation shone through. The second piece, George Walker’s 2003 “Fifth Piano Sonata,” was a highly substantive one that Bengtson played with great power and control. Before beginning, Bengtson described the piece as a sonata that should be recognized among the greats as one with profound “rhythmic muscle and nothing for special effect.” He compared the piece to the sonatas of Brahms

and Beethoven. The sonata was chordally dense and rife with dissonances, yet very lyrical with an unforgettably haunting opening and main theme. The whole piece was surprisingly very short – a total of only five and a half minutes, which effectively added to its tempestuous drama. The final two pieces, Dutilleux’s Three Preludes for Piano (1973-88) and Lukas Foss’s 1981 “Solo” were the most tonally distinct, utilizing atonal and 12-tone compositional techniques. The Dutilleux was transcendent — the piece emphasized the piano’s resonance to create formal continuity within the second prelude and used the full range of the keys. The Foss was, as

Bengtson described, “very humorous,” with an intriguing style hybrid of minimalist

The piece very clearly had several voices that seemed to “talk” all at once and 12-tone approaches. The piece very clearly had several voices that seemed to “talk” all at once. The very beginning began with a single voice that

came across as possibly telling a joke to the audience but was abruptly interrupted, which happened successively until more and more voices were introduced, breaking into a final wild frenzy. The concert was a refreshing start to the new academic year for the music school, especially the piano department, given Bengtson’s creative repertoire choices and meticulous execution. The presentation, too, was a welcome concert vision that will hopefully be carried out further in the months to come. Daily Arts Writer Ellen Sirower can be reached at esirower@umich.edu

Arts

12 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Controversial ‘Cuties’ isn’t what Ted Cruz thinks it is ROSS LONDON Daily Arts Writer

The backlash is bipartisan: both Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard have called “Cuties” child porn. Following the release of the film’s trailer and (an illconceived) poster, daily Netflix cancellations surged 5x, and a Change.org petition has over 750,000 signatures calling for “the investigation of the parents, staff, director and especially Netflix.” Oh, and the #CancelNetflix hashtag was born. What’s strange is that the film community’s reaction was overwhelmingly positive when “Cuties” debuted at Sundance in January. So, what went wrong? Richard Brody of the New Yorker states, “I doubt that the scandal-mongers have actually seen ‘Cuties,’ but some elements of the film that weren’t presented in the advertising would surely prove irritating to them: it’s the story of a girl’s outrage at, and defiance of, a patriarchal order.” For starters, this film, as a social critique, is impossible to summarize in 94 seconds (the length of the trailer, which is consequently the 44th most disliked video on YouTube), which means it is even more futile to attempt to convey the thesis in a single image. Even so, there were less offensive possibilities for the movie poster. Just as you don’t understand Yorgos Lanthimos’s “The Lobster” from a poster or trailer, to presume to understand “Cuties” from its trailer is unfair. Even a review you read in The Michigan Daily can’t tell the whole story. But I will try to cut

through the noise and elucidate the social implications of this important film. “Cuties” is a story about modern girlhood in the age of Instagram, TikTok and “WAP.” The film also navigates the challenges faced by immigrants to adapt to a new culture without losing their roots. It follows 11-year-old Ami (Faitha Youssouf) as she desperately tries to find independence from her religious family through friendship and community. Ami’s first friends are four classmates who are practicing to compete in a dance competition. Before Ami ingratiates herself, these four girls bully her for her understated outfits. Herself unable to dance, Ami is unable to curry favor as a troupe-mate, and finds that she must dress like her new friends to be accepted. This means baring skin, which makes Ami uncomfortable: She hides her midriff with a hoodie when older boys leer at the girls. Ultimately, she chooses to sacrifice her own comfort for the sake of popularity. Ami’s family is beyond uncomfortable with midriffs and tight skirts. Devoutly religious, Ami’s mother and aunt make it very clear that they think Ami is dressing (in their words) like a “whore.” The disapproval of her family only fuels Ami’s drive for independence and her desire to learn how to dance like her friends. Previously only the troupe’s filmographer, when the friend group ousts one of their dancers only days before the competition try-outs, Ami volunteers to step in. She’s been practicing and “studying,” and even adds to the routine by teaching her new

friends how to twerk. Wait – isn’t Ami 11? And her friends too? This is why Ted Cruz is mad. There is a lot of twerking in this film. There are very tight outfits. And the camera doesn’t hide any of it. This fact makes “Cuties” very challenging to watch at times. Director Maïmouna Doucouré (“Maman(s)”) acknowledges the discomforting nature of certain scenes, but retorts by saying, “if one really listens to 11-year-old girls, their lives are uncomfortable.” Ted Cruz’s anger and my discomfort come from two places. First, there is the very sound belief that young girls should not be sexualized in this way. And Doucouré herself agrees. Her film does not romanticize, but rather documents, lived reality. Having interviewed over a hundred Parisian preteens, Doucouré reports that “they saw that the sexier a woman is on Instagram or TikTok, the more likes she gets. They tried to imitate that sexuality in the belief that it would make them more popular.” But neither this film, nor my review of it, is a condemnation of social media. Ted Cruz wouldn’t say it is, either. I believe, and this is the second source of discomfort, that this film critically illuminates the fetishization, objectification and sexualization of women’s bodies at any age. If Doucouré argues that Ami twerks for popularity because she saw it online — well, the problem is not that Ami saw it, or that Ami wants to be popular. The problem is how our patriarchal society evaluates women based on sexual desirability. The discomfort I felt while

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watching this film was due to the inappropriateness of young girls behaving sexually. That dissonance is legitimate, but when I tried to investigate further what I was feeling, I had to ask myself: Why should wearing a tight skirt equate to “behaving sexually?” Our society has firmly linked a woman’s body with her sexuality, and subsequently with her worth as a person. That is the problem. If a woman of any age wishes to wear certain clothing, it is not for society to conflate her outfit with her sexual availability, just as two shirtless men playing catch in the street are no more sexual objects than they would be if they were fully clothed. But I can’t close without clearly identifying and addressing the cause of mass outrage: the very real, not suggested or euphemized, sexualization of 11-year-old characters (played by 14-year-old girls). There are plenty of examples of when the on-screen depiction of something socially grotesque conveys a powerful message about its

depravity. Some directors like to push the envelope (Gaspar Noe’s “Irréverisble” comes to mind). But this film walks a very fine line, and seems not to know that sometimes it is best to describe, rather than depict, certain depravities. Doucouré defends her directorial choices by assuring viewers that “a trained counselor was present on set” and that “the project was even approved by the French government’s child protection authorities.” But, that’s akin to saying a veterinarian was present on the set of “Ben Hur.” Harm done is harm done, even if the “actors in the film had already seen these types of dances and more.” Many scenes are quite exploitative, and there is really no excuse for that. Monica Hesse of the Washington Post wrote, “Healthy adults won’t see the characters as sex objects; they’ll see them as children and they’ll see the dancing as disturbing.” I would reflect on this statement by saying the reason “healthy” adults will be disturbed is because the children are portrayed as sex

objects. And that is not okay. In short, Ted Cruz missed Doucouré’s message. But when it comes to the images on screen, Cruz’s criticism has merit. “Cuties” illuminates real issues in our society. Foremost, that young girls have internalized an association between selfworth and sexuality. Moreover, this association is founded on the patriarchy’s devaluation of women and fetishization of women’s bodies. These issues must be addressed and resolved. But the way to criticize the sexual objectification of young girls is not to take part in that exploitation. I fear that this film may pave the way for other directors to test what is acceptable in the realm of criticism-through-exhibition. For those who want to read more about this film, I highly recommend the Washington Post op-ed written by Doucouré, from which I pulled some of the above quotes. Daily Arts Writer Ross London can be reached at rhorg@umich. edu.

Novel-in-verse ‘Punching’ takes on the carceral state LILLIAN PEARCE Daily Arts Writer

Award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five joined forces to write their newly released novel-in-verse “Punching the Air.” In 1989, Yusef Salaam was one of the five boys wrongfully convicted in the “Central Park Jogger” case, which forced them to spend between seven and 13 years in jail until they were exonerated in 2002. Since being released, the five have received a multimillion dollar settlement from the city of New York, and their story has been documented in the 2012 film “The Central Park Five” and the 2019 Netflix documentary series “When They See Us.” Zoboi writes that the wrongful conviction of the Exonerated Five awakened her and many others, “to the injustices of their country and of the world.” Having met Salaam two years after he was released from prison, Zoboi was a college reporter anxious to investigate the case and share Salaam’s story. Now, nearly 20 years after their first encounter, Zoboi brings Salaam’s perspective to light once more. In the novel, the fictional Amal Shahid is a 16-year-old Black Muslim poet and artist who is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Amal’s story begins in the courtroom, where he awaits

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his verdict. Though Amal’s story is inspired by Salaam’s, it is not an exact replica: “We decided that we had to make Amal a 2020 version of 1989 Yusef, and that is a boy who is incredibly self-aware,” Zoboi shared in an August interview with NPR. Infused with Salaam’s wisdom, perspective and even some of the poetry he wrote while incarcerated, Amal’s truth comes to life on the page. Amal’s life dramatically changes after one intense night when he is accused of assaulting a white boy. When he is found guilty, he is sent to a juvenile detention facility. An echo of Salaam, Amal is simply a boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time; all the while, Amal is continuously referred to as “the defendant” and portrayed as a fully-grown man rather than the young boy he is. We follow Amal as he flashes between the past and present, wondering what his future will bring. His shifting emotional states are notably interwoven with recurrent motifs like stones, dust and butterflies, striking accompaniments to the verse that establishes an intimate and emotional connection between the reader and Amal. Throughout the novel, Amal transparently expresses his experiences in jail, which mostly confine him to his cell — four small corners. Alone, Amal is trapped in his own mind with his explosive thoughts. To escape and to express

his anger and pain, Amal looks to art and poetry as outlets. When able, he attends poetry workshops (rewards for good behavior) and draws with broken crayons in his free time — “I didn’t know that / I could hold this little / bit of freedom in my hands.” In addition to artistry bridging Amal and Salaam, Amal too has the support of his visiting family and friends, who bring him letters and books. They do not let Amal forget who he is as he battles in a setting designed to drain him of everything. Through the use of verse, Zoboi illuminates the power of art and words that saves Amal from the sinking despair and rage that nearly swallow him whole, while detailing the unjust systems that have placed Amal in this position in the first place. This chiefly includes the judicial and prison systems in America that disproportionately fail and oppress Black people. One motif Zoboi and Salaam use is blind justice, invoking Lady Justice to give voice to this truth: “because where I come from / jail or death / were the two options she handed to us / because where he comes from / the American Dream / was the one option she handed to them.” This sentiment is reiterated by the imbalanced structure of the verse, calling to mind the tipping scales Lady Justice holds.

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The racial and gendered barriers in country music

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KATIE BEEKMAN Daily Arts Writer

Last week, Mickey Guyton made history as the first Black woman to perform solo at the Academy of Country Music Awards. She sang to an empty Grand Ole Opry house where lights lined the pews instead of people. The audience watching from home was largely unfamiliar with Guyton or her music — her debut “Better Than You Left Me” peaked at #34 on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart in 2015, her highest-charting single to date. Nonetheless, Guyton made the most of the moment. Her performance of “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” unflinchingly addressed why it’s taken so long to break the doublelayered race and gender barrier in country music. “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” is one of six songs on Guyton’s latest EP Bridges, and it pulls no punches. The piano ballad is a stark contrast to the sparkly girl-power anthems that are typically enlisted to address inequality. Instead, Guyton zeroes in on these anthems’ aftermath, asserting that the belief that “dreams” and “hard work” will be enough just isn’t the truth. The topics she touches on include racism and homophobia and reflect the same harsh reality. But Guyton doesn’t stop there — the majority of Bridges addresses social justice issues. Her current single, “Heaven Down Here” was written after Guyton watched the

video of George Floyd’s murder. “Black Like Me,” which has gained some traction on TikTok, was written long before this summer’s protests, but hadn’t had much of a chance of being released. It challenges what so many country songs take for granted: Americans’ freedom. “If you think we live in the land of the free you should try to be Black like me,” Guyton contends on the piano-driven track. Even Guyton’s lighthearted songs are meant to flip the script. The playfully woozy “Rosé” finds Guyton unabashedly singing the praises of her drink of choice — something that’s old hat for the men of country music but far less common in songs by women. “Salt” is a twist on Carrie Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova.” This time the girl in the “look-at-me dress” is the “snake” and the star of the slide-guitar-laden Wild West show she’s been written into. Despite these playful asides, Bridges is overwhelmingly a call to action. Contrary to many country artists’ responses to the social justice movement, the title track asserts that “We’re gonna need more than prayers and wishes.” In its own way, Apple Music has attempted to rise to these challenges Guyton points to in the industry. The streaming platform launched the “Apple Music Country” radio station this August — simultaneously recognizing that “radio is part of the fabric of country music culture” and that the way people listen to music is changing.

The station boasts five daily on-air hosts, including a show by Black country singer-songwriter Tiera. It’s also home to shows curated by a diverse array of artists. BRELAND, Willie Jones and Rissi Palmer have all been tapped to contribute. While terrestrial radio has embraced the sounds and stylings of hip hop for years (hello Sam Hunt), it’s only been considered “country” if the “inspiration” shows up in music by white people (hello “Old Town Road” controversy). “Apple Music Country” is a step toward changing that. By acknowledging country music’s increasing diversity and reaffirming Black artists’ place in the genre, Apple Music is providing opportunities for Black artists to gain a foothold. Again and again, the country music industry at large has shirked this same responsibility. While plenty of listeners hadn’t heard from Guyton’s perspective before “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” on the ACMs, industry insiders have. In fact, when Guyton debuted the song in February to an auditorium full of radio executives, she got a standing ovation. But nothing changed — the song wasn’t picked up by enough radio stations to start charting. Guyton has been signed to Capitol Nashville since 2011 and was nominated for an ACM in 2016, but she still hasn’t been able to release a full-length album.

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 13

Ann Arbor comedians find creative ways to perform MAXWELL BARNES Daily Arts Columnist

Movie theaters: Closed. Music festivals: Canceled. Broadway: Dark. Comedy clubs: Still figuring it out. Well, at least the comedians are. Over the past few months, live performance venues across the world have taken a back seat in the interest of public health. In the state of Michigan, there have been virtually no changes in hopes of reopening local entertainment hotspots. Since Governor Whitmer’s first executive order of the pandemic, Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase, Ann Arbor’s premier comedy establishment, has had its doors locked. Its website, practically untouched since midMarch, serves as an eerie reminder of how abruptly American life changed. Atop the site’s masthead, an ironically cruel business slogan: “Laughter is the best medicine … come get the cure!” With the largest source for stand-up in Ann Arbor closed for live shows, many local comedians have found themselves in a bewildering months-long limbo. Andrew Yang, a master of ceremonies for the showcase, lives in Milford, and has been doing stand-up in Ann Arbor for close to five years. “[The showcase] is doing Facebook live shows,” Yang said in

an interview with The Michigan Daily. “There’s no audience. It’s just the comics that are there on stage and then they broadcast it on Facebook.” Typically, the showcase hosts a traditional open mic every Wednesday night, but now, comedians like Yang are searching for creative ways to pivot their comedy in the COVID-19 era. “I know the comics are trying to adapt. A lot of us are trying to put on outdoor shows. There’s some venues that are open, where comics have to wear masks — there’s others that are unregulated, but those are shows I wouldn’t have done in the first place,” Yang said. “Basically with being indoors and performing, I’d feel unsafe.” Yang’s concerns regarding the overall safety of live performances appear to be a common sentiment shared throughout Ann Arbor’s comedy collective. As a community, the Ann Arbor comedy scene reflects some of the best that the Midwest has to offer. As a hub, Ann Arbor comedians come from all over — with large shares from Detroit, Toledo and Chicago. However, comedy venues around the country are traditionally dark, claustrophobic and makeshift. Comedian Demetri Martin once joked that “the best rooms for comedy are the rooms that would be the worst in a fire.” A mixture of traveling comedians sharing cramped spaces and

unsanitized microphones would easily signal some COVID red flags. So understandably, some comics have backed off from the spotlight. “Some people have been quitting,” said Jacob Barr, a senior at Eastern Michigan and regular performer for the showcase. “For people at my level, it’s like an internship where I make some money doing it, but not enough to only do comedy. But the real issue is for the people right above me who are on the cusp on being able to do comedy as a career. I’ve had multiple who just started getting their bodies into the water, and then the pandemic hits and they have to go back to their day job.” Typically, a comedy club will split a fraction of the money from tickets sold at the door with performers, and other income is supplemented by selling food and beverage. With no live crowds, or even significantly reduced crowds, that income dramatically lessens. Barr confesses, “It’s been really discouraging for a lot of comedians I know to not be able to do what they love.” The Ann Arbor comedy showcase has made no public statements about when they plan to fully reopen, or to reopen in a limited capacity. However, ongoing conversations suggest that Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase plans to reopen their doors as soon as possible. “The showcase can sit three-

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hundred people,” Barr says, “They’re remodeling the front lobby, so they clearly have plans to stay open.” The showcase relocated to its present location at 212 S. Fourth Ave in 2014, and had already been under significant exterior renovations for the past year. Brady Keene, a junior at Wayne State University and recurring comic for the showcase, told The Daily he had thoughts about the possibility for outdoor performances before winter weather sets in. “I also thought about doing a Zoom show, and donating the proceeds to charity.” The challenge of outdoor and Zoom-related performances, many comedians admit, is the degree to which intimacy and volume can translate jokes effectively to their audience. In particular, TV critics have

highlighted late-night comedy shows’ challenges to fully resonate their jokes with the absence of a live audience. But in an era when health rightfully takes precedence over humor, Keene is hopeful this will only be a bump in the road. “Especially in comedy,” Keene said, “any tragic thing that happens, over time, turns funny. I have a stand-up bit about the Salem witch trials. Was it funny back then? Absolutely not. But now? You can turn it into something hilarious. So I’m very excited to hear all the takes about the ignorant people once we get back to regular work.” As comics from all ranges of experience clamor to return to clubs, comedians like Andrew Yang and Jacob Barr are already working to put on an outdoor show at Bløm Meadworks while maintaining Washtenaw County

safety guidelines. “We’re already sold out for this Friday, and we’re expecting about 25 people outside,” Yang said. “All the comics will be really rusty, and it will take a while for people to feel comfortable.” While the pandemic will have certainly made it harder to workshop jokes and create a solid stand-up routine, the love for the craft still exists for many Michigan comics. “I would love to do terrible open mics and bomb constantly if it meant I could do comedy the same as before,” Barr said. For many Ann Arbor comics, they can’t wait to return to “the best club in Michigan.” Andrew Yang and Logan Barr currently perform at the Bløm Comedy Night in Ann Arbor. Daily Arts Writer Maxwell Barnes can be reached at mxwell@umich.edu.

I found my own answer to John Cusack’s question NINA MOLINA Daily Arts Writer

In the opening scene of the 2000 film “High Fidelity,” John Cusack’s Rob Gordon says in a close-up shot to the camera, “What came first, the music or the misery?” He elaborates on this rhetorical: “Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?” I watched “High Fidelity” in the front row of a darkened basement classroom at my previous college, allowing myself to be swept away by the movie’s wit and charm. I witnessed hilarious music snobs and friends of Rob, Barry and Dick capture the experience of browsing record stores on Saturdays. While the movie sat stored in my filing cabinet of art inspiration, the movie’s opening lines recently jumped back to the front of my consciousness. Studying in my childhood bedroom brought me back to who I used to be and how depression became a part of my daily routine, an extra baggage to haul along, something I was unprepared to carry with me. I reentered a middle and high school frame of mind. I made a Spotify playlist of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Weezer. I began reading “Wuthering Heights,” an infamously polarizing Victorian novel of two people driven apart by passion and misunderstanding that results in tragedy and loss.

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The classic had been glaring at me from its lofty perch on my bookshelf since high school. And, as any English major knows, there’s an acute guilt when it comes to not having read a classic. So, with Rob Gordon’s question in mind, I gave in to my misery and embraced the emo. As someone with depression, I’ve been told to listen to uplifting music and read inspiring self-help books or memoirs. I’ve been told to watch movies with hopeful endings. I’ve been told to drink chamomile tea before bed. I’ve been told to conjure happier thoughts. And yet, none of these antidotes have cured me. Heading to Goodwill this weekend, my friends and I listened to music and I brought up the question of which came first: the music or the misery? The consensus from this collection of pandemic-weary, (some) mentally ill Gen Z students was that misery arrived first. Then, came the tendency to consume more morose art. I found my experiences matched this conclusion: We acquire art that understands, or even matches, our current emotional turmoil. Sometimes these supposedly uplifting books or movies do help. While I read Brené Brown’s “Daring Greatly” and can attest to its powerful mindshift changes and advice, I can’t quote Brené Brown. But, I know the lyrics to The Smiths and Car Seat Headrest songs that made me feel less alone. Maybe Brown’s words helped for a few weeks after reading the book, but those lyrics seized my soul and shook me into a realization that others have felt this way and still found a

way to forge something beautiful out of it. In another scene from “High Fidelity,” Rob tells his friend that he’s arranging his records not chronologically or alphabetically, but autobiographically. I’ve found similar experiences with my own misery period of music and books. Emily Dickinson’s collected poems whispered aloud in my childhood bedroom, a gift from my brother for my eighteenth birthday. Her sweeping existential queries in light of observing a frog croak cradled me during a particularly debilitating bout of depression — a general inability to find reason to brush my teeth, clean the dishes or feel the sun on my skin again. Car Seat Headrest’s 2016 Teens of Denial was my soundtrack for riding the bus on a weary afternoon after class, watching the light filter in through the fingerprint-smudged windows freshman year of college. In 2018, “Catcher in the Rye’s” Holden Caulfield accompanied me on a break from school during a challenging winter. I walked with Catherine and Heathcliff through the rainy moors and muddy paths when the pandemic brought me home from Michigan. However typical, it’s no wonder young adults gravitate towards the somber. Especially during a pandemic where particular life events or experiences have been snatched away, we wallow. Even before this unprecedented global health crisis, Gen Z has wrestled with declining rates of mental health.

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‘Antebellum’ is searing, gutsy American horror

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ANDREW WARRICK Daily Arts Writer

Like all great horror movies, “Antebellum” is barely fiction. In modern classics like “Get Out,” “The Babadook” and “Antebellum,” the fantasy comes not when the monsters show their ugly faces, but when they are vanquished. Even at its most outlandish, the terror in “Antebellum” is not only plausible, but already happening. More than that — it is woven into the fabric of American society itself. “Antebellum” dives headfirst into the roiling open wound of American slavery and shows how, while its horrors may never be defeated, they still must be fought, tooth and nail. The film follows two characters played by Janelle Monáe (“Moonlight”), modern-day author and activist Veronica Henley, as well as Eden, a woman enslaved on a pre-Civil War plantation. In the film’s searing narrative, these two lives are revealed to be shockingly intertwined. With a powerhouse performance by Monáe, a visual brilliance that comes along once in a blood-red moon and twists to make you leap from their seat and clutch your hair, “Antebellum” is the best horror film of 2020. It’s also one of its most important movies, period. Without spoiling one of the most bone-shattering twists in horror since “The Sixth Sense,” the film draws colorful, shuddering cords between the hell of antebellum slavery and the modern era. It

does so with a realistic, inquisitive and unflinching eye to befit the topics that it grapples with. Simultaneously, it’s absolutely chilling. Who knew that a movie which utters “intersectionality” could take your breath away? Why, though, has “Antebellum” been so panned? Wouldn’t a “great” horror movie have more than a 29% on the Tomatometer? It deserves far better, but the cinematic establishment never takes horror easily. One critic called it too pedantic, more interested in making a “Big Point” than trying for any artistic merit. Another lamented that the film “is not subtle about what it is saying and what it is doing.” These have been common talking points for horror-bashers throughout cinematic history. When “The Exorcist” shows a girl sexually assaulting her own mother, it is being too “indelicate” for the cinematic establishment, too obvious in its symbolism and too embarrassingly proletariat in its smarmy subject matter. When “Antebellum” has Janelle Monáe, one of the most iconic and lauded Black icons of the modern era, face off against a Confederate general, it is deemed too “simple ... lazily reminding us of the cruelty of America’s past.” Is “Alien”’s invocation of violent misogyny “pedantic”? Are the brutal treatises of mental illness in “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” “pedantic”? What about the exploration of hysteria in “Invasion of The Body Snatchers” and “Night of The Living Dead”? “Gojira” isn’t shy about symbolizing nuclear trauma. Look into that giant

lizard’s ravaged face and call him “pedantic.” I dare you. Maybe horror has always been “pedantic.” Maybe it has always made stomach-churning, bloodsoaked “big points.” Maybe it has always depicted the inexplicable with little qualms to expose the real social wounds that lurk behind the rubber suits and plastic teeth. Yet by doing so, horror forces viewers to grapple with the ungrappleable in a medium without limits. The sheer creativity of great horror can unpack taboo topics before the mainstream even deigns to turn its head. No other movie could pierce the cyclonic political climate of 2020 like “Antebellum” and offer such a sweeping, necessary catharsis. “Antebellum” drips with cinematic talent. Its use of color is incredible, contrasting oversaturated reds, yellows and greens with the grime and sulfuric gaslight of the antebellum era to show how an ancient, systemic horror lurks behind the saccharine flash of modern life. It also builds to a revenge-fueled climax that rivals the genre’s best. Sigoruney Weaver’s (“Alien”) Ellen Ripley has a modern sister in Monáe’s Veronica Henley. It’s past time horror was taken seriously, because, in recent memory, has the world ever been so horrible? Racist terror haunts the headlines every single day. Movies must hit it head on, and why should horror movies be excluded? Genre shouldn’t determine a film’s value — quality should. Daily Arts Writer Andrew Warrick can be reached at warricka@umich.edu.

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan: a geography I

n his article for Geographical Review, geographer Blake Gumprecht posits the American college town as “a place apart, a unique type of urban community shaped by the sometimes conflicting forces of youth, intellect and idealism that have been a critical but underappreciated part of American life.” I have a hard time agreeing with the second part; the image of a youthful, crafty, idealistic American is practically a stereotype in my book. As for the idea that college towns present a unique set of questions to the geographically-minded person, that is something I can get behind. It should be no surprise that Gumprecht talks about Ann Arbor in his article. He writes about the leafy neighborhoods, the proliferation of bookstores all within walking distance of each other and the effort to launch a “research park” just outside the city in the early 1960s. Since arriving here from my home of Washington, D.C., it has been a privilege to learn about the geography of Ann Arbor throughout my years at the University of Michigan. I have always enjoyed exploring the town on long walks from Central Campus to far-flung locations like the Eberwhite Nature Area, Bandemer Park and even the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. One day, however, as I was walking across East Huron Street toward the Diag, it occurred to me that I was crossing a border. Of course, there were no signs or immigration officials to stamp my passport as I left the off-campus world and stepped back on University property. It was a crossing I had made many times before, but this time I thought about it geographically. According to the National Geographic Society, geography is “the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments.” In other words, geography is more than just people fiddling around with maps; it is a way of seeing the world that emphasizes how the spaces where we live shape us, and how we, in turn, shape them. This article, then, is one student’s attempt to think about Ann Arbor geographically. To me this is a fascinating subject, but also a serious one. Growing up in Washington, D.C., I formed ties with both the people and the land that will last for my entire life. The physical spaces of the city — the streets on which I walked to school, the parks where I played as a child and the buildings that kept me warm — are always with me, even when I am not there. he first issue is to demarcate the boundaries of the University’s Central Campus. State Street, from the Ford School all the way to the corner of the Diag, forms the western border. Many landmarks populate this busy thoroughfare, including the Law School, Angell Hall and the newly-renovated Michigan Union. On the eastern border, the University has respected the border of South Forest but pressed as far as possible into the northeast corridor with its dormitories and health system. The Mary Markley Residence Hall, for example, is on the doorstep of the Nichols Arboretum, whereas the hospital enjoys sprawling views of the Huron River. The northern and southern borders, however, are a different case. To the north, East Huron Street provides a substantial buffer between town and gown. The majority of cool bars and restaurants are further down, so it is not a place frequented by undergraduates, and further west, the architecture devolves into an unsettling mix of lavish high-rise apartments and austere industrial buildings. Hill Street, however, has quite a different feel from its northern counterpart. It is closer to popular study spots such as the Ross School of Business and the Law Quad. In the evenings — even, unfortunately, in the middle of a pandemic — Hill Street comes alive with throngs of people going to and from the bars on South University Avenue and the many fraternity houses.

BY ALEXANDER SATOLA, STATEMENT CORRESPONDENT

mer professor of literature in the English department at the University, this was the definition we agreed upon as a starting point for the discussion. In 1995, Beauchamp published an article in The American Scholar titled “Dissing the Middle Class: The View from Burns Park.” Beauchamp first moved to Ann Arbor in 1965 as an undergraduate and has lived in various locations around the city. In the article, Beauchamp examines the psychology of his neighbors in the predominantly middle-class, family-oriented neighborhood of Burns Park. He explores the tension and guilt that avowed liberals like him held for the “crass materialism of their bourgeois existence,” even as they continued to reap the material benefits of middle class life. Beauchamp writes in his article, “the truest statement that ever heard about my estimable neighborhood was uttered by a colleague in the English Department: ‘Ah yes, Burns Park — where they vote left and live right.’” I followed up with Beauchamp, who still lives in the COURTESY OF STEPHEN S. CLARK LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARY neighborhood, to ask a few questions about the view from the Burns Now, there are lots of examples of Uni- there’s museums and venues for music and versity buildings that fall outside of this neat shopping, and all that. But then there’s like Park in 2020. The area is still home to many faculty and administration, and though geographical abstraction. To make things residents right next door.” more concrete, imagine our campus as a pipThere are a lot of undergraduates who Burns Park does not lend itself to a catchy ing hot Reuben sandwich from Zingerman’s live in the area, but Kerrytown is also a popu- demonym, Beauchamp said that residents Delicatessen, where the two slices of rye lar neighborhood for graduate students and still exhibit a self-identification with the bread represent East Huron and Hill streets; young professionals. I talked with Tasha neighborhood itself. “Burns Park very much has a kind of selfyes, there are little pieces of sauerkraut and Thong, a third-year PhD candidate at the corned beef that fall off the sides, but right in School of Public Health and Chelsea Rich- identification,” Beauchamp said. “But about other places, I really couldn’t speak. I think between those two slices is where the action ards, who works for Michigan Medicine. happens. Thong had lived on Geddes Avenue on the all of them have names in the real estate busipeaking of Zingerman’s, I will now east side of campus while completing her ness. They’ll have a house identifying what shift my focus to one of the most Master’s degree at the University (though part of town it’s in by a particular name, but I well-known northern neighbor- she was clear that she much preferred Ker- don’t know how much those things translate hoods in Ann Arbor: Kerrytown. rytown, saying, “I have lived in other places into real consciousness for people who live The boundaries of Kerrytown were con- in Ann Arbor and this is definitely my favor- in those areas.” I think this is a major difference between sistent across practically every map I con- ite by far.”) sulted and every person I asked: Depot Richards, on the other hand, said she local residents and college students who Street to the north, South Division Street to had recently moved to Ann Arbor. Her fa- live south of Hill Street. The focal point of the east, East Huron Street to the south and vorite part about Kerrytown was having the Burns Park neighborhood is the sprawlSouth Main to the west. access to the various natural surroundings. ing park and elementary school of the same When looking at historical maps of Ann “I love that you can walk to the river name. “The one thing in Burns Park, of Arbor, I was surprised to find that the area and there’s a nature trail that goes along course, is the elementary school,” Beausurrounding modern-day Kerrytown was it where you can easily get on the Border- champ explained. “Very highly rated, so for a long time the densest part of town. One to-Border trailhead to bike,” Richards ex- parents with young children will move into surveyor’s map from 1854 clearly shows that plained. In fact, if you look at a map of Ann Burns Park because that’s where they want most of the occupied lots at the time were Arbor, there is a much larger concentration them to go to school.” Thus, it is easy to see why local parents located on the western side of the town be- of greenery on the northern edges, close to tween Second and Fifth streets. Off to the the Huron River, when compared to South and children would self-identify with the neighborhood, whereas college students east sits a lonely square titled “Michigan Campus. State University” (University of Michigan liWhen I asked them about their percep- might not. The children spend a majority of brarians assure us that this was an error on tions of the south side of campus, they re- their youth playing in the park and going to the part of the surveyor). ferred to its inhabitants as “the younger school, and the parents bond over their chilThough a casual observer may not notice crowd.” And I think for the most part, they dren’s experiences. For these reasons, the it, there are pieces of history hiding in plain are correct. Though as I will soon explain, park draws in the local crowd much more sight all over Kerrytown. To explore this his- the southern side of campus also exhibits easily than the college crowd. For college students, the feeling is mutual. tory, I talked on the phone with Grace Sin- diversity of ages, albeit of a much more I spoke with Jacob Feuerborn, a recent gradgleton, a managing partner of Zingerman’s, pronounced range. who informed me of just one such piece of f you ask the average undergradu- uate of the Ross School of Business who lived local lore. ate what lies below Hill Street, they on Greenwood Avenue, a mere five blocks “The Kerrytown district is interesting. would probably talk about the pre- from Burns Park Elementary School. FeuerWhere the deli is is actually where the origi- dominantly student-populated streets of born loved his experience living on Greennal plaque for the city was located,” Single- Church, Greenwood, Oakland, etc. These wood, but was unfamiliar with the name of ton said. “When Ann Arbor became a city, pockets of student life are scrunched up Burns Park. “Oh, which one is Burns Park? Is that the Kerrytown is kind of where the downtown in the corner underneath State and Hill was. (Zingerman’s) was one of the first build- streets, though they border a much more one by Jack’s Hardware?” Feuerborn asked ings, so it’s all historic.” established neighborhood called Burns (that’s Forsythe Park). After a quick Google search, he said he had actually seen the park In addition to the historic value of the Park. neighborhood, Kerrytown is also known for I did not talk about the borders of Ker- before. “Ah, now I can see which one is Burns its diverse cultural and artistic offerings. In a rytown because all the available maps I contypical non-pandemic year, there are numer- sulted and the residents I talked to offered Park,” Feuerborn said. “It’s interesting that ous festivals, including the Kerrytown Book- the same streets. Burns Park, on the other it’s considered the same neighborhood. I would say there’s a big spectrum, where fest, the Ann Arbor African American Down- hand, is a bit of a mystery. town Festival and Edgefest, which is hosted My belief is that Google Maps’s outline of down there it very much feels like a normal at the Kerrytown Concert House. Thankfully, Burns Park is just plain wrong. For some rea- suburb, whereas Greenwood, Oakland and the weekly gathering of the Ann Arbor Farm- son, it includes areas east of Washtenaw Av- streets like that feel a lot crazier. A lot more ers Market has only been partially disrupted enue inside its boundaries of the neighbor- college.” In fact, the existence of student neighborby pandemic conditions. People can still hood, including a section much further east shop for fresh produce and interact with the which is completely cut off from the rest. hoods in the middle of the neighborhood growers, though social distancing guidelines Even the Diag is a part of Burns Park accord- has seemingly fragmented Burns Park into two separate Burns Parks: Lower Burns Park necessarily limit the scope of these interac- ing to the Google folks out in Silicon Valley. tions. In our interview, Singleton expressed The most inclusive definition of Burns and North Burns Park. These are much more her admiration for this mix of activities. Park that still retains a semblance of accu- fiercely family-oriented areas; what some “There’s little pockets of residential inter- racy has Hill Street as a northern border, might call the real Burns Park. spersed with all these shops, and I just think Washtenaw Avenue as an eastern border, it makes it a really unique, diverse area,” East Stadium Boulevard as a southern border Read more at Singleton said. “There are also still a lot of and State Street as a western border. When I MichiganDaily.com shops where people live above them. And interviewed Dr. Gorman Beauchamp, a for-

statement

15 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Two Tributes: On RBG and her legacy This dual column was written in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing in September.

FOLLOWING IN HER FOOTSTEPS MARISA WRIGHT, STATEMENT DEPUTY EDITOR

ate in the evening of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 18, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away from complications related to pancreatic cancer. Upon hearing the news of her passing, it is understandable why so many responded with punditry on the upcoming battle over her replacement on the Supreme Court of the United States and its intersection with the upcoming election on Nov. 3. Recognizing the possibility that Trump could appoint a nominee to tip the balance of the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority, Ginsburg said just days before her death, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Of course, some have criticized her for years about refusing to step down while President Barack Obama, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate, could appoint her successor before the 2014 midterm elections. Nodding toward the increasingly partisan nature of Senate confirmation votes since her own 96-3 confirmation in 1993, she often responded with the argument: “anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided.” To carry out her final wish, there is so much of all us can do — donating to Senate candidates in swing states, making sure our friends have requested their absentee ballots or phone banking for the Biden-Harris campaign to turn out the vote, to name a few. Here, though, I want to take a moment to appreciate the legacy of her life, work and jurisprudence. Ginsburg was a trailblazer, especially so for women, but also for men — many of the cases she argued involved male clients who claimed damages as a result of laws written based on traditional gender roles. In Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975), Ginsburg successfully argued on behalf of her male client who had been denied Social Security benefits because he was a man and the law only provided benefits for widows who were the sole caregiver of their child. As a professor and founder of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project, Ginsburg helped establish the first case law that extended the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause to protect women from discrimination on the basis of sex in Reed v. Reed (1971). Indicative of her place in a long line of women who fought for women’s legal rights, she credited Dorothy Kenyon and Pauli Murray as co-authors of the case’s brief in acknowledgment of the work they had done in laying the foundation for legal protections for women. Ginsburg’s unique approach of expanding legal rights for women by taking on laws that also hurt men didn’t end there. Disagreeing with many feminists at the time, she took issue with the legal basis of the rule established in Roe v. Wade (1973). Instead of basing abortion rights on the right to privacy as included in the Tenth Amendment’s penumbras, Ginsburg believed the case should have been argued on the basis she helped establish in Reed. Specifically, she argued that laws criminalizing abortion violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause because they discriminated on the basis of sex, meaning they should be subjected to a strict scrutiny review by the Court. Under this heightened and more stringent review, she believed, laws banning abortion would almost certainly be struck down. Throughout her career and her work as the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg helped establish legal rights for women that seem basic now but were quite revolutionary in the late 20th century. Women today owe the following rights in part to her work: the right to sign a mortgage without a male co-signer, the right to open a bank account without a male co-signer, the right to pursue redress if employers discrimi-

nate on the basis of sex, be employed without being discriminated against based on gender and the right to be employed while pregnant and caring for children. Her work paved the way for these fundamental rights, but it was the way she lived her life that paved the way for generations of female lawyers, judges and justices beyond her. Her jurisprudence became so influential that she was nicknamed the “Notorious RBG” by NYU Law student Shana Knizhnik for her powerful dissent in Shelby County v. Holder (2013) after pointing out the absurdity of Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion. As the nickname was popularized and plastered on tote bags and mugs, the memeification of Ginsburg took on a life of its own. Kate McKinnon even portrayed her on “Saturday Night Live” but after seeing the video, Indie Wire reported that Ginsburg found “the comedian ‘marvelously funny, even if the impression resembles her ‘not one bit.’” In fact, many, including her longtime friend and law professor Jeffrey Rosen, at first find her “austere” and mistake her silence for “inaccessibility.” Her warmth and care for others, however, is evident in the way she thought about the law. She saw her work as building toward a more “embracive” Constitution, one that eagerly welcomes previously marginalized groups — women, people of color, queer people, etc. — in order to fulfill the promise made by the Framers of the Constitution in 1787. For a woman to set out to fundamentally change the role of the Constitution to protect vulnerable people as she did in the 1970s was quite literally revolutionary. She believed so deeply in this mission that even her personal life became dedicated to working toward her vision of justice; her famously-egalitarian relationship with her husband, Marty Ginsburg, was aptly summed up as one in which “(Marty) did the cooking and she did the writing and he picked up the kids from school and she did the writing. And, you know, he went to the meetings when the kids were bad and she did the writing.” In my own life, Ginsburg has served as a guiding light throughout my decision to pursue law school. Applying to law school, which I have been doing for the last six months, is a notoriously difficult and exhausting process. Studying for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) alone is a huge undertaking. I’ve often turned to rewatching “RBG,” the documentary of her life or “On the Basis of Sex,” a biopic of her early sex discrimination work. I referred to reading my favorite passages of “In My Own Words,” a book-length compilation of her speeches and writings, for inspiration to continue on. For all of us, Ginsburg’s death is a painful reminder of how much work there is left to be done. Women have not yet experienced gender equality in the U.S., and progress toward that end is likely to be dismantled by a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court if Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell succeed in stealing another seat on the bench without regard to the outcome of the election in November. With a case about the Affordable Care Act scheduled for arguments a week after the election and Republicans gunning to overturn Roe v. Wade outright, along with other cases that guarantee civil and voting rights, the need for feminist lawyers is perhaps more exigent than ever, and alongside all of the women before me, I plan to follow in her footsteps. Her life and legacy mean I have the opportunity to pursue an independent life and career in the law, working to advocate for women and other marginalized people. Her work is the foundation every feminist lawyer should strive to build upon, and even in death, Ginsburg continues to be a trailblazer: On Sept. 25, she became the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol in our nation’s history. May her memory be a revolution.

CRY NOW, RALLY TOMORROW ANDIE HOROWITZ, STATEMENT DEPUTY EDITOR

here’s nothing more disorienting than waking up from a dream that feels like real life. As my eyes opened from figurative to literal darkness, sweat dripping down my chest, I counted heartbeats to calm my rapid breathing. In for six, out for four. I grabbed my sheets in my left hand, my stuffed animal (one of ten) in my right in an unsuccessful attempt to ground myself in reality. Nothing was working — the nightmare I just endured felt all too real. It was sometime in the distant future, the world filled with gray colors and dreary undertones. I was dressed in a strangely familiar red cloak — one that I had seen before, but couldn’t exactly remember where from. I raised my eyes from focusing on myself and turned to the society around me. I saw women dressed in this piercing red cloak everywhere in a uniform manner. Suddenly, it hit me. I had seen this off-putting environment before: it was the dystopian framework of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” As the world around me morphed into one by defined extreme fascism and a lack of autonomy, I felt my stomach drop. The gutwrenching feeling triggered my consciousness and pulled me back into the familiar setting of my room. Under normal circumstances, I could’ve easily dismissed this dream as a distorted fluke of my wildest imagination and carried on with my night. This wasn’t a normal night. It was hours after the passing of the revered Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My nightmare was a projection of my anxiety from Sen. Mitch McConnell’s insensitive, opportunistic response to replace her seat just a few short hours after her death was announced. It not only scared but deeply disheartened me that we, the collective, let the fate of the U.S. fall on the shoulders of an 87-year-old woman — a giant not only fighting her country’s political battles but her own medical obstacles as well. She deserved better than the reaction of horrified citizens plagued with crippling fear. She deserved to be celebrated and honored for everything she had done for us. And in order to mitigate my personal anxiety, whether it be manifested in a dream or in everyday thoughts, I am attempting to channel my sorrow in a more productive way — one more fitting of the beautiful life she lived. Here’s to you, RBG. BG set the path for my life since I first learned of who she was. I was introduced to her in my eighthgrade history class when learning about the Supreme Court. Though her story wasn’t told in its entirety, she was described as the second female-appointed Supreme Court justice in the history of the U.S. — a trailblazer and champion for women’s rights. I was fascinated by her with just that description. As I independently researched after school that day, I learned more about her upbringing and career. She was a Jewish woman from Brooklyn — a background that mirrored my own, as a Jewish girl from New Jersey — con-

stantly challenged by male peers who did not want her to succeed. Yet she succeeded anyway, and she did it impeccably. She was one of only nine women in her year at Harvard Law School, and successfully maintained the position as first in her class. Despite this incredibly impressive standing, she was denied from 12 law firms following her graduation. She persevered and trusted her intellect, working as first a clerk for a law firm, then a professor and eventually, became the creator of the ACLU Women’s Project. During her time at the ACLU, RBG fought for gender equality in now considered landmark Supreme Court cases such as Frontiero v. Richardson, in which a precedent was established to hold gender to higher scrutiny than the rational basis standard. She also argued for gender equality in Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, in which she used an instance of gender discrimination against a man to help further establish precedents for future cases. RBG continued dismantling once normalized discriminatory gender practices throughout her career, arguing cases with an unparalleled eloquence, and landing her a seat on the Supreme Court with a 96-3 confirmation vote. She is the reason I can independently manage and spend my earnings without male consent. She is the reason I can independently seek and own housing without male consent. She is the reason I cannot be denied employment based on gender. She is the reason I cannot be fired for being pregnant or having a child. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the direct and sole catalyst for so much progress this country has made. The more I learned, the more I was inspired to follow in her footsteps. She became the voice in my head; somewhat of a guardian angel guiding me in what academic steps to take and career decisions to make. I became focused on studying government and political science, with hopes of going to law school — I geared my entire undergraduate college application toward that goal. I joined a pre-law organization because of her. I plastered pictures and RBG paraphernalia all over my room — like my Ginsburg socks, a calendar, a mug, three separate posters, a pillow and a desk plate that read “Do all the things with the confidence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting.” I saw every movie or TV feature about her. I couldn’t believe it when I found out she passed away. It breaks my heart thinking about it. And while I mourn, I find strength in knowing that she never gave up. She worked tirelessly, without complaining, until her final moments. RBG knew what she believed in; she had a strong moral compass, and it was her dying wish to protect that. So, now I ask myself, what more can I do to follow in her footsteps? How can I fight for positive change in the world? Thirty minutes after I woke up from my far-too-real nightmare, I lay staring at the ceiling, tearful in RBG’s honor — for her life, for her legacy, for all she left behind for us to pick up. With this in mind, I remember how much there still needs to be done. I remember her spirit of perseverance, and how she continued to hold her head high against all odds. And while the odds appear intimidating, that’s all the more reason to continue pushing forward: Continue signing petitions, writing letters to government officials, calling local and national representatives, registering people to vote, studying law, protesting in the streets for what is right. If anything, we must do it for her. Taking a deep breath, I let one more tear roll down my face. I closed my eyes, slowly falling back to sleep, seeking solace in the fact that while I may cry now, I will rally tomorrow.

statement

A lesson from past pandemics

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 16

BY WILLA HART, STATEMENT COLUMNIST

ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE WIEBE

ast week, in one of my history classes, Sickness and Health Since 1492, I was assigned the reading “The Cholera Years” by Charles E. Rosenberg. The book is a dense, nearly 300-page account of the United States cholera epidemics of the 1800s; the syllabus had us reading all but one chapter. I flipped through the pages of endless paragraphs and resigned myself to a Saturday unfortunately spent. Then I started reading the book. Within the first 30 pages, I found myself unexpectedly sucked in by Rosenberg’s description of a cholera-stricken New York. “By the end of the first week in July (in 1832),” Rosenberg writes, a few days after the city’s first cholera cases were confirmed, “almost everyone who could afford to had left the city. Farm houses and country homes within a thirty-mile radius were completely filled ... Visitors to the city were struck by the deathly silence of the streets, unaccustomedly clean.” I read this paragraph, then read it again. I felt as though I was reading an account of New York during the COVID-19 outbreak. Vividly, I was reminded of the photos that had circulated the internet in the early days of COVID-19 in March 2020, images of a Times Square gone quiet and empty of tourists. The similarities didn’t stop there. Throughout the rest of his book, Rosenberg proceeded to outline the terror New Yorkers faced with cholera, their new obsession with cleanliness and how cholera disproportionately affected poor populations. His descriptions felt strangely prescient to me, the commentary almost uncomfortably familiar. For all our differences and scientific evolutions, the cholera outbreak in the 1830s had many outwardly similar social effects to the pandemic we face today. hen I decided to declare a Minor in Science, Technology and Society with a concentration in medicine, I didn’t think it would ever be particularly useful for me. It was an interesting field of study, I thought, and offered an excuse to take classes across a range of disciplines; that was enough to convince me to sign up. As a Philosophy major, I’d already thrown practicality to the window. What’s five more indulgent humanities courses before I graduate? When COVID-19 hit, I was taking one of those indulgent classes: AIDS and Other Health Crises. It didn’t take long for me to realize, after I returned home, that my education had already uniquely prepared me to un-

derstand and discuss COVID-19. Not to say I was an expert, only that I alone among my family had previously learned about the concepts that news anchors were now discussing on TV, and so I was most easily able to explain them. I talked my dad through “flattening the curve” and explained to my mom the difference between quarantine and isolation. I told my sister about the basics of making flu vaccines. It felt like a stroke of luck, then, that I had chosen the minor I did. Even if everything else was going wrong, I thought, at least I was getting some use out of my education. It’s only over the past few weeks that I’ve realized just how valuable my education really is. I’m taking the bulk of the classes for my minor this semester, and the more I read about the history of medicine, the more I realize that everything we’re experiencing now, as both individuals and as a society, has been experienced by others before. In other words, we are not alone in history. It’s a notion I find incredibly comforting, even if it’s one not necessarily often spoken about. We usually prefer to frame the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of novelty — just think about how often you’ve heard the term “unprecedented” in the last six months. And in some ways, COVID-19 definitely is unprecedented: It’s a “novel” virus and the first serious global pandemic in decades. Still, novelty, for me, has become exhausting. As French philosopher Albert Camus writes in his novel “The Plague,” which chronicles a breakout of bubonic plague in an Algerian city, “Considering the abnormal conditions (the townsfolk) were up against, the very word ‘novelty’ had lost all its meaning.” When I read this sentence last weekend as part of my weekly school readings, it hit me unexpectedly hard. I’m tired of being told what a unique position we’re in as a society. I’m tired of being told how crazy this all is. It’s not comforting anymore, if it ever was. I want things to be normal again. I want to not be afraid that these “unprecedented” times are going to turn out to be the apocalypse — because, as the world continues to crumble around us, it feels more and more likely that that’s exactly where we’re headed. In one of my classes last week, as we were waiting for the last few students to join the Zoom call, my professor started talking about COVID-19 and the socalled “college experience.” “People worry right now that they’re not getting

their college experience,” he said, “But this is the most real college experience you could possibly have.” The last student joined the Zoom, then, and my professor moved on to discussing our readings, so I never got to hear his explanation for exactly what he meant by that. But I’ve been thinking about it for the past few days, and though I still don’t know precisely what he was getting at, I have my own interpretation of what he meant. The college experience, as it’s sold to us, is largely artificial. It’s consumptive, revolving around frat parties and football games, expensive dorm rooms and late-night study sessions. But that’s just one depiction of the college experience. There’s another side of things which is perhaps less openly discussed, but which I believe is much more fundamental to one’s college years: the experience of becoming an adult. Growing up is weird. It’s weird the first time you have to pay your own utility bills. It’s weird the first time you realize how expensive nice toilet paper is. It’s weird the first time you compare savings accounts to see which will get you a higher yield on your investment. And it’s weird the first time you face a national or global crisis. There’s something for every generation. For millennials, it was 9/11 and the Great Recession; for us, it’s COVID-19. I wish it wasn’t. I wish this wasn’t happening, that people across the world weren’t dying from a disease that good leadership and social distancing should be able to limit, if not prevent. But this is happening, and people are dying, and we have to face the gravity of that. It doesn’t matter how many people, historically or today, have experienced pandemics before: This pandemic is still painful. We can’t change or ignore that, and we shouldn’t try to. But at a time when the world feels uniquely unstable, it can also be reassuring to know that everything we’re experiencing, as individuals and a society, has been experienced by others before. Two hundred years before I was born, people were feeling and experiencing the same things I am right now, in a place not too far from here. Societies changed, cities slowed, friends and families were separated. And yet, eventually, they came back together again. The world survived. Knowing that doesn’t soften the tragedy we’re currently experiencing, but it does reassure me that, whatever this is, it probably isn’t the apocalypse.

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 17

Will Tschetter’s unconventional road to Michigan JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer

Will Tschetter leads a simple life. He lives on his family farm in the rural outskirts of Stewartville, Minn., a community of roughly 6,000 people. He doesn’t have social media. Basketball is his passion, but farm work comes first; he once instructed Juwan Howard to call him back so he could finish hauling the day’s load of rocks. Perhaps it’s fitting then that a mid-summer visit to an empty campus convinced Tschetter to commit to Michigan. “To be able to see the city of Ann Arbor and get the vibe of the campus in general was super cool,” Tschetter said. “It was weird, but also kind of like a normal visit.” This past March, the COVID-19 pandemic tilted the world of college basketball recruiting along its axis. The NCAA enacted a recruiting dead period on April 1, which has since been extended through December. In-person recruiting and official on-campus visits, the usual staples of a player’s recruitment, are forbidden. So Tschetter forged his own visit, making the nine-hour drive to Ann Arbor alongside his mom over Fourth of July weekend. Campus was barren, devoid of student life. They viewed buildings from the outside only. Howard and associate head coach Phil Martelli chimed in as de facto tour guides via FaceTime. Absent were the bells and whistles, like front-row seats at the Big House or a serenade at Crisler Center. But none of that mattered to Tschetter. He was sold, letting Howard know of his decision that Sunday night before announcing publicly the following day. Choosing Michigan marked the culmination of a whirlwind

recruitment for Tschetter, one that saw him ascend from the depths of the unknown to the top of highmajor programs’ wishlists. Yet Tschetter’s rise comes as no surprise to those who have witnessed his talent firsthand. “You’d walk into an open gym and you’d watch him, all the tools, all the intangibles were there,” Brad Vaught, an assistant coach at Stewartville High School said. “I’ve coached DI power forwards and I felt like Will was a high-major kid.” Vaught joined Stewartville’s staff last fall. At his prior gig — an assistant coaching position at Marshall High School in Rochester, Minn. — Vaught coached Matthew Hurt, a 6-foot-9 power forward who started 22 games last year as a freshman for Duke. Instantly, Vaught believed Hurt and Tschetter were comparable. The recruiting front, though, remained quiet. Tschetter held offers from South Dakota, Northern Iowa, Division II Augustana College and North Dakota State, his parents’ alma mater. Any high-major interest was muted. “I remember watching him play and thinking, ‘Hey, wait a minute, why doesn’t he have more offers?’ ” Vaught said. “That was my thought — Where is everybody?” Last season, Tschetter shined. As a high school junior, he led the state of Minnesota in scoring, averaging 33.6 points per game to go along with 10.8 rebounds. Interest ticked up a bit — he added offers from Colorado State and LoyolaChicago — but not significantly. Programs were perhaps suspect of the competition level in Minnesota Class AA basketball and AAU tournaments that weren’t shoesponsored. Tschetter and his parents compiled a highlight tape. Vaught surfed recruiting websites and

Ybarra, Osman leading through difficult time

PHOTO COURTESY OF KASEY MORLOCK

Class of 2021 prospect Will Tschetter committed to Michigan after a self-guided visit over the summer.

contacted every Division I program whose information he could find, sending over the film via email. Willie Vang, Tschetter’s AAU coach on the Minnesota Heat, compiled all the information on a spreadsheet: who they contacted, who responded and who Tschetter had interest in. The proactive approach paid dividends. In April, Tschetter’s recruitment exploded. “Watching his skill on tape, go figure, schools started calling,” Adam Girtman, Tschetter’s head coach at Stewartville, said. “With the AAU season being shut down, schools started asking for tape and more tape. It just kind of snowballed.” Offers poured in from midmajors throughout April. On May 27, Arkansas became the first power-five program to extend an offer. Three Big Ten schools — Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota

— did the same on June 1. Virginia Tech, Iowa and Cincinnati followed suit soon after. Tschetter’s individual ranking soared as well, as he cracked the top 150 in 247Sports’ composite rankings for 2021 prospects. “All of a sudden, everyone started to say, ‘Oh wow, this kid’s 6-8, shoots 45 percent from three, is strong as an ox,’ ” Vaught said. “When everybody started to see it, then it didn’t take much for people to want him to be a part of things. “If you have the ability and the skillset, somebody’s gonna find you.” This was all occurring, of course, amid the backdrop of the pandemic. Competition was shelved, high school seasons and AAU circuits truncated. There would be no more games for Tschetter to prove his worth, or for coaches to evaluate his talent in person.

Recruiting too was flipped upside down, the industry moving entirely online almost overnight. Schools would have to find a way to sell themselves through a computer screen. Zoom calls quickly inundated Tschetter’s schedule: chats with coaches, film sessions, virtual campus tours. Out of all the schools in his pursuit, Tschetter says Michigan was “most consistent” in reaching out. Martelli led the charge, connecting with Tschetter on a daily basis. The rest of the staff — Howard, Saddi Washington and Howard Eisley — checked in weekly. “One of the things that separated Michigan was they did an unbelievable job of being organized,” Vang said. “With some of these schools they’ll just call and offer, and it’s kind of a brief phone call and you might

Harrison Brown’s journey from Queensland to Michigan

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Led by Osman and Ybarra, Michigan has stayed motivated through the pandemic.

JIMMY HEFTER For The Daily

Leaders need to be able to adapt to whatever situation comes about, no matter how grave or difficult. The Michigan men’s soccer team’s season is currently suspended, with a possible start date in the spring. For its players, the potential cancellation or further postponement of a season feels like a rock in their stomachs. But Wolverine captains Umar Farouk Osman and Marc Ybarra have a different narrative for themselves and the team. Michigan and other athletic programs across the country are facing an extraordinarily difficult situation. Yet, led by Osman and Ybarra, the Wolverines have persevered and stayed motivated through these peculiar times. During the offseason, even prior to their return to campus, Osman and Ybarra made a concerted effort to set an example that would trickle down to the younger players. “Before we started preseason, we had Zoom sessions every week to help with mental preparation,” Osman said. “The coaches gave us videos so that we were all on the same page and that we all understand the philosophy of the team so we have the same mindset.” For Ybarra, the difficulty

of not playing during this unprecedented time is amplified by the fact that all of the players on the team were physically and mentally preparing for the team’s season over the summer. In August, it was extremely tough to hear that the season was postponed. Ybarra said the team is now preparing for a season in the spring, hopefully, with the NCAA Tournament moved from April 30 to May 17, 2021. For the Wolverines, leadership is of the utmost importance. “We are trying to create a driven culture, and it comes from the captains on the team, so we try our best to make sure the freshman feel comfortable,” Osman said. “We are all on the same mindset that we are here to work hard every single day, challenging ourselves and holding each other accountable in practice.” According to Ybarra, there is a certain culture on the team to which the freshman are easily assimilating. “A lot of it is internal. We haven’t had explicit conversations with these players. They just came in excited and ready to go and a lot of them are playing really well,” Ybarra said. “The freshmen have been doing a really good job being smart, being safe. It’s definitely a different time to acclimate to the university, but I think the fact that we’ve had regular training is hopeful to give them a routine.”

not even hear from them for quite a while. Michigan had multiple conversations that were really long, really detailed.” “The coaching staff and the culture that they’ve built really stood out,” Tschetter said. “They were really genuine throughout the process, super trustworthy.” Tschetter’s commitment is a testament to Howard’s holistic recruiting style. With Tschetter, Michigan’s pitch extended beyond basketball, encompassing everything from a “Michigan college experience” to academics — a particularly important aspect for Tschetter, an honors student who holds a 3.99 GPA. “The neat thing about Juwan is he really kind of has the big picture in mind,” Vaught said. “He didn’t just see him as a player, but as a person.” In terms of a basketball fit, Tschetter is what Vang calls “the definition of what basketball’s about now.” At 6-foot-8, 230 pounds, he punishes opponents inside and out, equipped with an array of post moves and a deadeye 3-point stroke. He runs a 4.6 40-yard dash and was recruited to play tight end by Minnesota and Michigan State under Mark Dantonio. Girtman describes him as a mismatch for anyone on the floor. And even with the twists and turns of an unorthodox recruitment, he wound up where he belongs. “You can’t argue that (the pandemic) hurt Will’s recruitment,” Girtman said. “The only thing I think it did was delay those big schools offering. Those were inevitable. They were coming anyway, it just took a little longer.” “Being able to take official visits and that stuff, I think it definitely would’ve been different,” Tschetter said of his decision. “But I feel totally comfortable with my choice.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Senior Harrison Brown earned his offer from Michigan tennis coach Adam Steinberg in February 2017, following a string of strong performances.

MADELINE STONE-WHEATLEY For The Daily

When he was about 10 years old, Michigan senior Harrison Brown began playing at a tennis center called Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. For two years he stayed there, training three hours in the evening — two hours of tennis and one hour of fitness. From there, he made the move to the national academy in Brisbane where he trained for another two years, from ages 12 to 14. In around late July to early August in his final year in Australia, he received an email from Andrew Stubbs, a coach from Montverde Academy in the Orlando area, offering him a full scholarship to play there. Brown didn’t know what to expect when he decided to make the move to the United States right before his fifteenth birthday. “I had no idea when the school year was in America,” Brown said. “I’ve only ever known Australia, you start school in January, finish in December.” He knew going to Montverde was the right move for him because he wanted to go to college, but still, he weighed the pros and cons before making a decision. The major downside for him

was that at 14 years-old he would be moving away from home and his family for the first time. At the same time, he also saw this as an advantage because it helped him become more independent. “I was happy with that,” Brown said. “I felt like I didn’t need to stay at home or be held back, I guess, from a better potential in the U.S.” Montverde also offered him a full scholarship, something he didn’t have in Brisbane, with tougher competition and more opportunities to play international tennis tournaments in the U.S. “I feel like at that time when I was 14, I was ranked I think in like the top 10 or 15 in Australia for my age,” Brown said. “Then when I moved to the U.S I was like top 100 basically.” But Brown’s time at Montverde didn’t last long. One day in April of his sophomore year, he was called to a meeting. The tennis part of the academy was shutting down and replaced by a school team.

“We never got told exactly why but we had our speculations and everything,” Brown said. This left Brown with a dilemma. They gave the students at the academy one of three options: stay at the school at Montverde Academy and practice with the school team (which was a dramatic drop in level), go back to Australia or make the move to Hilton Head Island, S.C. to attend Smith Sterns Tennis Academy and complete their schooling there. Wanting to continue his journey in the U.S., Brown chose to make the move to Hilton Head to train at Smith Sterns. He thought it would also be best for college recruiting. Once there, Brown found the experience was much different than it was in Orlando. “When when I went to Smith Sterns Tennis Academy, it was in a small neighborhood, things were very close together, the beach only took two minutes or three minutes to walk to, it was sort of like

I had a bit of a breakthrough in November or December of my senior year.

an island life,” Brown said. “It was basically tennis, school, sleep, like that. It was very disciplined and you didn’t really have as much of a choice of social things to do.” During the time Brown was at Smith Sterns, his play improved significantly, and at the end of his junior year he started to talk to college coaches and began the recruiting process. He was driven both academically and in tennis, and decided he wanted to go to a college that was in the top 25 for both. He began talking to Michigan coach Adam Steinberg, and the assistant coach at the time, Sean Maymi, and throughout the summer of his junior year and start of his senior year, the coaches came to some of Brown’s tournaments to watch him compete. “I played well and we stayed in contact and they kept watching me for all my results,” Brown said. “Then I had a bit of a breakthrough in November or December of my senior year.” In February of 2017, he got an offer from the Wolverines. He talked to his coaches, and unanimously they encouraged him to accept the offer and attend Michigan. “I gotta go here,” Brown said. “Hearing that from every coach is pretty special.”

Sports

18 — Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

For Michigan baseball’s top recruits, difference makes no difference ETHAN PATRICK For The Daily

Jaylen Jones and Tyler Fullman are two supremely talented student athletes from Georgia and Chicago, respectively. They both have athletic accolades under their belts, and they both have their sights set on professional ball. Jones and Fullman are two Black pitchers who will join Michigan’s baseball team next year. They will find themselves under the tutelage of coach Erik Bakich, who has gained national attention in recent years for his insistence on having a racially diverse roster in a sport that is known — especially at the college level — to be overwhelmingly white. They’ll be joining a team that has had recent success. The last uninterrupted college baseball season saw the Wolverines come a mere game away from a national championship, a feat the Michigan baseball program hadn’t achieved in over half a century. Jones, a left-hander who boasts a fastball that reaches the mid-90s, is no stranger to the mentality Bakich has been trying to avoid — that Black college baseball players come across as abnormal, requiring further scrutiny in the scouting process. “A white player, they can go out there one time, dominate, and then they’ll get the offer, but (college coaches) want to see me multiple times because they want to make sure, ‘If I’m gonna spend money for a Black player to come here, he’s gotta perform more than once,’ ” Jones said. “I’ve had some SEC schools that haven’t really been known for recruiting Black players. And (Bakich) didn’t care about that. I performed, he liked it, he gave me a scholarship and I took it.”

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich strives to recruit student-athletes from diverse backgrounds and from areas that are often overlooked in college baseball.

Jones also echoed a point that Bakich made two years ago in a Washington Post interview: Baseball can be an expensive game for youth baseball players in America, as showcases and travel costs mount quickly for high-level players. This can prove to be a frustrating obstacle, particularly for minority players with innercity roots that struggle to get exposure. “Sometimes Black players can’t afford to go play baseball … and Bakich stresses that he wants to give everybody the same opportunity,” Jones said. “It don’t matter your race or whatever, it’s not political for him, it’s just, ‘We want to get the best type of players.’ ” Fullman, a righty with velocity just as impressive as Jones’s, has been playing baseball since he was four. In recent years, that time has been spent playing with White Sox ACE, a program designed to help inner-city baseball players in Chicago avoid just this problem, giving many players a chance to

face high-level competition and gain exposure that otherwise would be difficult or impossible to obtain. True to form, Bakich has developed inroads with the ACE program, as Fullman will join redshirt sophomore catcher Jordon Rogers as the second player from the program on the team next fall. Dillon Head, a 2023 outfielder from ACE, is committed as well. As a teammate, color makes no difference to Fullman. He’s focused. “I treat everybody like family, man,” Fullman said. “I care about the team, (and) I care about winning. I want to be a leader.” But as an individual, the hard-throwing righty knows the weight that comes with representing a woefully underrepresented group in the sport he’s been passionate about for nearly his whole life. “As an African American, sometimes I think, like, ‘Man, like I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m not even supposed to

Cameron Amine ready to follow in family’s footsteps at Michigan

be playing this sport right now, ’cause it really isn’t meant for me and this game don’t really love nobody.’ I’ve had those thoughts,” Fullman said. “But you know, I just kept going and I still worked on my game and it really got me where I’m at right now.” Work he did, and now, beginning his senior year of high school, Fullman has his sights set on Michigan and beyond. A future in the MLB is the ultimate goal, and Fullman’s work ethic and determination make him more than capable of realizing it, but his mentality outside the game makes him prepared for success no matter where his baseball career eventually takes him. “I want to major in sports management,” Fullman said. “I want to own my own sports complex and become an entrepreneur one day, and I want to be a good student (at Michigan), man.” As they prepare to take the mound at Ray Fisher Stadium, Fullman and Jones are

following in the footsteps of several successful Black players who have already created their legacies — or are creating them still — in the Michigan baseball program. Jones shares Fullman’s major league aspirations, and he’s found sources of advice and wisdom in junior pitcher Isaiah Page — himself an outspoken voice against racial injustice during the past year — and Jordan Nwogu, a decorated Michigan outfielder who just signed with the Chicago Cubs as a thirdround draft pick. The two players showed Jones around during his visit to Michigan in the fall of 2019, and Nwogu’s successful ascent to the next level has been a powerful source of inspiration. “I look up to Nwogu because he’s a heck of a ballplayer, and now he’s gotten drafted,” Jones said. “You try to follow in those footsteps because it’s another Black player that has the opportunity to play professional ball, and that’s my dream as well. I contact him about little

How international field hockey players dealt with the pandemic

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Joining his father, uncle, cousins and brother, Cameron Amine will start for the Michigan wrestling team this year.

JACOB KERNIS For The Daily

Cameron Amine is Michigan wrestling royalty. His father, uncle, two cousins and brother all went through the program, and their family produces toptier collegiate athletes — All Americans and NCAA finalists among them. As the newest Amine to join the team, Cameron expects a dominant year coming off his redshirt season. Entering his freshman year a season ago, it was understood Amine was going to redshirt. While he wanted to jump right into the line of fire, he recognized he needed to get stronger and smarter before competing. “I thought I was ready for the college level,”Amine said. “But once I first came in it was like ‘I got to adapt to the style.’ ” During his first year as a Wolverine waiting for an opportunity, Amine never stopped training. Every practice he brought a great intensity with the hope of

more action next year. In the four tournaments he was allowed while retaining his redshirt, he went an impressive 15-5. “(Cameron) is a silent worker, really consistent and brings an incredible effort and intensity to all his workouts and training,” Michigan coach Sean Bormet said. “It (was) apparent during his freshman year.” Now as a redshirt freshman, Amine is ready to take on a more vocal and active role within the team. He’s been extremely competitive since he was a young kid with his brother and cousins, and now he’s ready to show it against tougher opponents. He wants to display to his teammates — and the rest of the conference — all of the work he put in during the offseason. “I’m the young buck on this team, but I’m here and I’m going to challenge (my teammates),” Amine said. In addition to his work his freshman year, Amine spent all of the quarantine and summer working out. Between wrestling on the mats in his basement and

working out in his relative’s garage gym, he feels his game has improved dramatically since last season. “(I think) I’m a little under the radar so I want to come out swinging,” Amine said. He always was at the top of the wrestling ladder in high school — winning three state championships for Detroit Catholic Central High School — and believes he’ll get back there. Additionally, Amine constantly puts immense expectations on himself. He wants to dominate. And he wants to win an NCAA Championship. “One of the great things about him is he loves to compete,” Bormet said. “He loves competing against the toughest guys in the country and with great composure.” Bormet shares Amine’s sentiments, thinking he and the team can achieve great accomplishments this season. Amine, like everyone else, is at the mercy of COVID-19, so his season is in limbo. If and when it starts, he plans on achieving one thing: dominance.

stuff and ask him things… (and) I know I can ask him ’cause he’s been through everything at Michigan, and he’s had a ton of success.” Above all else, the two budding stars in Michigan’s future rotation eagerly await their collegiate futures, because to them, Michigan isn’t simply a place to play baseball. It’s a town, a university and a team that’s eagerly awaiting them, too. “I went up for an official visit, and right then and there I knew. I knew it was the place for me. Everything I could’ve wanted in a school — they had it,” Jones said. “I felt comfortable there.” Fullman expressed a similar sentiment, adding that the proximity of Michigan to his hometown makes it all the more special that he was given an opportunity to play in Ann Arbor. “It’s the greatest school around, really, to me,” Fullman said. “That’s how I feel. Michigan’s a great, awesome school. It’s a school that makes me feel like I’m home.” In Jones and Fullman, Bakich’s squad is getting two players who possess the qualities any successful program looks for. They are skilled, determined and selfless, and while they both have had unique experiences as Black players in a sport that often fails when it comes to diversity, their focus lies squarely on the task ahead. Fans will cheer, batters will be sent trudging back to the dugout, and Jones and Fullman will be on the mound, representing the university that they hope will propel them to much greater heights in the coming years. “It’s really a blessing,” Fullman said. “It’s always been a dream for me to get accepted to this school.”

COURTESY OF MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Nina Apoola and Anna Spieker had to rapidly return home after in-person classes were cancelled in March.

PAUL NASR For The Daily

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, all Michigan students were advised to leave campus. For international students — including sophomore midfielder Nina Apoola of the Michigan field hockey team — being sent home entailed more than a few hours in the car. “I had to pack everything in my dorm room and book a flight back to England within two days,” Apoola said. With the virus spreading, the world reacting and borders closing, Apoola and junior goalkeeper Anna Spieker had to act fast to return to their home countries of England and Germany, respectively. Spieker enjoyed the opportunity to bond with family in Germany — but after a while at home, the stircraziness sets in for everyone. “It was probably the longest I’ve ever gone without field hockey,” Apoola said. Although they were luckily able to get home — with borders fully closing mere days after arrival — and happy to slow

down and spend time with loved ones, little by little things started to open up. After the University announced its fall reopening plans, and with a possible season looming, both Spieker and Apoola knew it was time to get back. But returning to the United States wasn’t without its complications. For Spieker, a dual-citizen, it was more about attention to detail. After double- and triple-checking the German Embassy’s web page, she was able to return to Ann Arbor in a relatively smooth — but still stressful — fashion. Apoola, on the other hand, does not have a U.S. passport, and with England still deep in lockdown, she had a few more hoops to jump through. With the requirement of a twoweek quarantine, Apoola and her German teammate — sophomore midfielder and forward Sarah Pyrtek — hatched a plan to get back to the U.S. Because travelers from England were barred from entering the U.S., they travelled to Aruba and fulfilled their twoweek quarantine there. About halfway into the Aruban quarantine, the rules changed, and it turned out

Pyrtek and Apoola did not have to go to Aruba at all. However, they were glad to have played it safe as they had a deep desire to return to the team, and nothing was going to stop them. After arriving in early July, the situation continued to evolve. With no Big Ten foes to take on this fall, the team is taking part in highly competitive practices as they look to improve in preparation for the upcoming season, whenever it may be. “It’s a difficult task,” Spieker said. “We’re taking it day by day.” Added Apoola: “We have to make every one of these days count.” After traversing halfway around the globe and back during this pandemic, and seeing so much along the way, Spieker and Apoola are finding even more enjoyment in being with their teammates on campus, and they’re taking nothing for granted. They’ve had to clear added hurdles to arrive from abroad, yet they continue to bring a clear-eyed approach to it all. “There’s so many people in far worse situations,” Apoola said. “We’re grateful to even be able to play.”

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 19

This football season won’t be normal. Enjoy it anyway.

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily

A shortened, conference-only Michigan football season beginning at the end of October may seem strange on the surface, but as far as 2020 goes, it is about as close as you could get to normalcy.

n Wednesday afternoon, when offensive coordinator Josh Gattis spoke with local reporters on a Zoom call, the second question he faced was about how his offense would improve in year two. The third was about managing expectations. The THEO fourth was MACKIE about junior quarterback Joe Milton. The fifth was about the offensive line. In other words, it was normal. Well, it was on Zoom. And it was in September, four

weeks after the season was scheduled to start. But if you closed your calendar and pretended you were in Schembechler Hall, it felt as close to normal as 2020 is capable of providing. And after the last six months, that’s a beautiful thing. Take it from Gattis, who said, “Obviously there’s a lot of excitement around the building.” Receiver Giles Jackson agreed that excitement was the first emotion anyone felt when football returned. Or, as linebacker Josh Ross put it, “It’s just a blessing we get to play this fall.” I’m not here to tell you that fans have to feel the same way. This season won’t be entirely normal even if the Big

Ten gets through nine games without problems. College football, more than any other sport, is based on tradition and the energy that a game day brings to a community. None of that will be the same in 2020. Fans will still miss tailgating and making the weekly pilgrimage to Michigan Stadium. They’ll miss being a part of the biggest crowd watching a football game anywhere in America today and belting out Mr. Brightside at the end of the third quarter. But if you don’t think it’ll be fun, look at this past Saturday. At noon, you were flipping between a pair of ranked matchups before No. 3 Oklahoma blew a 28-7 lead to Kansas State. A few hours later, Texas recovered an onside

Undersized and overlooked, Ronnie Bell set to anchor young receiver corps

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Junior wide receiver Ronnie Bell is taking on a leadership role within the Wolverines’ offense.

ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Writer

Ronnie Bell had been exiled from campus amid the pandemic. Gyms were closed. So were local football fields. But the junior wide receiver had to find a way to train. So on his second day home, his dad came up with the ultimate workout. That’s how Bell ended up pushing a Chevy Tahoe around his neighborhood, racing his 16-year-old twin brothers who pushed a Lexus about half the size. Bell’s story has been repeated ad nauseam. Originally committed to play basketball at Missouri State, Bell received a late offer from Michigan in 2017 and stepped into a starting role his sophomore year. Once an afterthought on a unit that included Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and Tarik Black, Bell finished the 2019 season with a teambest 758 receiving yards. Peoples-Jones and Black are gone now. Collins likely is, too, with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh saying on a WTKA appearance Monday that he hasn’t submitted a waiver request. Bell is the most experienced receiver left. Still, he’s a bit under the radar. During a Zoom media session Thursday, Bell spent roughly the first half of the

call answering questions about teammates before he was asked about himself. But Bell knows he’s the anchor of this unit, and when the season starts Oct. 24, it will be his turn to step into the spotlight. “I realized it more, especially with all those guys gone now, I’m lowkey kinda old,” Bell said. “And for all the younger guys, every day in practice I just wanna show them the effort it takes, whether that’s when you get the ball or not or you’re out there blocking on the edge, I just wanna show all the guys the intensity that we gotta play with.” Bell’s best quality as a player is his ability to get open and evade contact, but he’s struggled with drops — never more apparent than last year, when he let the potential game-tying touchdown at Penn State slip through his fingers. That’s something Bell’s been working on in practice, putting more emphasis on taking care of the ball. He’s worked on his strength, thanks to the Tahoe. And especially, he’s worked on his speed. When Bell watches film, he sees himself making plays and is hungry to make more. He practices hard, setting the standard for everyone around him. He’s prepared to move outside the slot more and play any position if that’s what the team needs. “Just being able to have a guy

that’s played a ton of football, he understands things, and Ronnie’s motivated,” offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said Wednesday. “Even though a lot of people view a success for Ronnie last year, Ronnie believed, and he knows that last year, it was just scratching the surface. There were opportunities to be even better, so now it’s about how he can take his game from one year and develop it the next year and make it even better.” Undersized for a receiver at just six feet tall, Bell knows that what he lacks in height, he must make up for in skill. As the leader of a receiver room that also includes 5-foot-9 Giles Jackson and 5-foot-10 Mike Sainristil, Bell knows the intensity they’ll have to bring with the “tall guys” gone. Bell was never supposed to be the guy leading the receivers his junior year. He’s not Collins and he acknowledges as much. But he’s starting to find his footing as a leader, and now, on the precipice of stepping into the spotlight, he may just be the right guy for the job. “He has a tremendous work ethic, I’d say,” Jackson said on Sept. 17. “He definitely brings all the juice to the receiver room. He’s super fun to be around, I’d say he’s the jokester of the group by far. He’s super fun to be around. He always brings energy to practice, he brings us with him.”

kick to come back from 15 down with three minutes left. The defending champs, LSU, lost to unranked Mississippi State. Speaking of Mississippi State, K.J. Costello threw for 623 yards. In other words, it was awesome. More importantly, it felt as close to normal as anyone could hope for. In a handful of hours, the College Football Playoff picture was upended, new Heisman favorites emerged and the talking points were endless. For a few hours, fans in the SEC, Big 12 and ACC didn’t have to think about the pandemic or being stuck at home for the seventh month in a row. They got to watch football and savor a fall Saturday as it was meant to be. The Big Ten isn’t quite

there yet. While those conferences have all faced pandemic-related problems in their returns to play, the Big Ten opted to prioritize player safety, postponing the season until it could mandate daily COVID-19 testing. That means Michigan and its conference foes still have to wait a few weeks for their turn at a football Saturday. But when Oct. 24 arrives, it also means they’ll be more likely to finish the season and avoid pandemic talking points. There will be fewer questions about quarantines and more about offensive schemes. Josh Gattis will be able to say more things like, “(Joe Milton) has every throw in the bag plus the extra club that you don’t need to carry all

the time” and less like, “On some of these platforms, the film can become a little bit choppy based on your internet strength,” which was a real problem Michigan had to deal with when he last spoke with media in May. So when you start to roll your eyes at coach speak or unnecessary Twitter controversies, remember what that felt like. Remember how close we were to not having a season at all. And then savor what we have, even if it’s only 2020’s version of normal.

Mackie can be reached at tmackie@umich.edu or on Twitter @theo_mackie.

‘Lights out’ Joe Milton impressing in Michigan camp

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Joe Milton and Ronnie Bell both returned to Ann Arbor in April, allowing Michigan’s presumptive starting quarterback and his top wideout to train together all summer.

ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Ronnie Bell got back to Ann Arbor in April, when the place was still a ghost town — students at home, school all online, the rims off all the basketball nets and everyone under quarantine. Joe Milton was one of Bell’s only teammates also in the area at the time. So naturally, they found places to work, Milton throwing to Bell in preparation of a season neither could know the status of. It would be two more months before the Michigan football team was allowed back into its building, and three months after that before the Big Ten announced that there would, in fact, be a season to play. On the same day as that announcement, it was reported that quarterback Dylan McCaffrey would opt out and transfer and receiver Nico Collins had signed with an NFL agent. That means Milton, in all likelihood, will be the quarterback and Bell his top target. “This is the best I’ve ever seen Joe,” Bell said Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters. “Joe got here a semester before me, but I’ve been around Joe just as much as anybody and he’s just lights out right now.” Out of the gamesmanship that governs college football even in 2020, Michigan hasn’t yet named a starting quarterback for Oct. 24, and offensive coordinator

Josh Gattis said Wednesday that it won’t name any starters at all. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Cade McNamara has gotten requisite praise. The job, though, is Milton’s in status if not yet in name. “Joe’s got special talent,” Gattis said. “He’s a quarterback that’s blessed with a tremendous skill-set, obviously with an arm and accuracy. He has every throw in the bag plus the extra club that you don’t need to carry all the time.” Milton’s arm has been the stuff of folktales since he arrived in Ann Arbor in January 2018. Gattis said Wednesday that Milton has reached 70 yards about three times with pinpoint accuracy. As far as declarations of arm strength go, it’s one of the more conservative estimates Milton has received since arriving at Michigan. As far as accuracy, it’s notable. “That was one of the things we have talked about as far as taking RPMs off, knowing how to give a catchable ball,” Gattis said. “Accuracy as far as ball placement was never an issue, sometimes the issue had been in the past was whether or not those receivers could catch it that fast. He’s done a really good job in improving in that, but still maintaining his power in his arm.” Milton’s success or failure will not be based on talent. It will come down to fundamentals

— pocket presence, reading a defense and accuracy — all three of which Gattis gave him glowing reviews on. It’s hard to parse exactly what that means in non-game situations when padded practice won’t even start for another week. Certainly it’s encouraging. So were all the proclamations of Speed in Space that marked the beginning of 2019. In reality, it took Michigan six weeks to look comfortable in Gattis’s offense, by which time it had already lost twice. And yet, it’s impossible to discount words like this from Gattis: “Every day out there, he makes some type of wow play. Those wow plays are not just wow plays in college football, they’d be wow plays on Sundays.” When the Wolverines lost Shea Patterson, their flawed but firmly entrenched starter for the last two years, Gattis said it was a little scary to stare down the unknown. A quarterback competition between Milton and McCaffrey would have dominated the spring and likely fall camp. Instead, Michigan is holding its first padded practice three weeks before kickoff and Milton is the presumed starter. Gattis is perfectly happy with that. “We feel great about Joe and we feel great about Cade,” he said. “Either one of those guys can go out and lead our team and our offense.”

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