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50 YEARS OF TITLE IX As Title IX reaches its 50th anniversary, its impact on women’s college athletics can be felt across the nation. The Daily reflects on five decades of progress and the advancements still to come.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXX, No. 82 ©2022 The Michigan Daily
SPORTS................... 2 NEWS...................... 3 ARTS.............. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S TAT E M E N T. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MIC.......................7 OPINION................8
Sports
2 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022
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50 years of Title IX: progress and potential LINDSAY BUDIN
Summer Managing Sports Editor
On June 23, Title IX — a civil rights law forbidding discrimination based on sex — turns 50. And with the half-century that has ensued since the passing of the statute, there is certainly progress to celebrate. Despite that progress, though, glaring disparities still exist. In 1972, at the time of the legislation’s passing, Michigan offered 13 varsity sports — all of which were men’s teams. It was clear: many people didn’t believe women belonged in sports. But in the years since, things have changed. Today, the Wolverines house 27 varsity teams, 14 of which are women’s programs. As society began to prioritize women in athletics, Michigan evolved too. And the increase of women’s participation in sports at the collegiate level is clear across all NCAA institutions. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Title IX 50th anniversary report, 215,486 female athletes competed at the NCAA level in 2020-21. In comparison, only 29,977 females
participated at the college level in 1971-72. The increase is a sign of progress, but with 50 years of Title IX in effect, changes beyond participation numbers have hardly been made. In 2021, at the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, the reality of women’s sports came to the forefront as a video from Oregon forward Sedona Prince displayed the inequality in tournament gyms and went viral. In comparison to the large areas filled with exercise equipment and weights that the men’s basketball players were provided, the women’s tournament offered merely a small room with one rack of dumbbells. As the controversy circulated and people began to speak out about the inequality, important change seemed probable. And while some positive results occurred from this grave inequality in that increased attention, this was only one example of what has hindered female athletes for years. Until 1982 — 72 years after the NCAA was founded and 10 years after Title IX was passed — the NCAA did not sponsor championships for any women’s sports. While progress had been made before Prince’s video, it was clear that the problems were
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not entirely solved. One year after the workout equipment controversy, those improvements were seen in the March Madness tournaments. For the first time in more than 20 years, the women’s tournament began with a First Four round, amounting to 68 teams, that matched the men’s tournament. The changes were also evident at the women’s tournament itself. According to a gender equity review conducted by Kaplan Kecker & Fink in 2021, the NCAA spent $53.2 million dollars on the men’s tournament and just $17.9 million on the women’s in 2019. For this year’s tournament, the budget for both tournaments underwent redistribution and with the monetization improvement, all NCAA Tournament participants — men and women — received the same gifts, had access to hotel lounges and had games officiated by officials paid equally. In the last year, reaching equity between women’s and men’s sports was prioritized, and with it, changes came about. Was it all because the NCAA got called out and enough
Daily Sports Writer
On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex and gender remains illegal by law. However, the United States has made little effort to prevent de facto discrimination in sports from institutions receiving federal funding when it comes to fan attendance and viewership. And those issues exist throughout each and every level of women’s sports. When I was in high school I played on the women’s soccer team. Our team was great. In the four seasons I spent on the team, we reached at least the semifinals of the city playoffs, and in my final year we made it all the way to the finals. But every year we lacked one thing: fans. No one wanted to come see us blowout our opponents 10-0 or beat our rivals in an overtime thriller. No amount of posters, emails, social media posts, or cookie bribes could convince the student body to watch
the girls soccer team dominate the competition. Winning games without anyone in the stands except a few enthusiastic parents was disheartening. When I was little, it didn’t matter — I loved soccer and that was all that mattered to me, it was my favorite hobby. My parents were my cheerleaders and I wasn’t old enough to know what I was missing. And that’s not uncommon for other girls growing up. Most young female athletes don’t know what it feels like to have masses of screaming fans propel them to victory, and even at the professional level, the majority of female athletes don’t know that feeling. In lacking that support, female athletes are missing out on a key pillar of sports: the connection with fans. Part of the joy professional athletes feel in their sports is the exhilaration of the crowd. Hearing fans cheer them on motivates them to play harder and better. It’s a luxury that’s not afforded to female athletes. Often at Michigan, fans must be bribed with free t-shirts and hats
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for the first 100 attendees on top of the already free entry tickets. At the No. 23 women’s tennis teams regular season finale, you were hard pressed to find any fans aside from parents. Even the Wolverines’ women’s basketball team — who made the Elite Eight for the first time in program history – offered all students free attendance to fill the stands and enact real home court advantage in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. If colleges fail to improve viewership for women’s sports – especially at Universities with student bodies riddled with school spirit – it’s no surprise that professional sports face a similar lack of support. Female athletes are paid significantly less — which is often attributed to a lack of viewership and fanbase — than their male counterparts. Christian Pulisic makes more in a single month than the highest paid United States Women’s National Team player, Alex Morgan, makes in a year.
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News
Wednesday, June 22, 2022 — 3
CAMPUS LIFE
Second Juneteenth Annual Symposium opens with Opal Lee and discussions of healing UMich welcomed the start of the Second Annual Juneteenth Symposium on June 15, held in collaboration with the Ann Arbor branch of the NAACP TINA YU
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan recognized the start of the Second Annual Juneteenth Symposium on June 15, a four-day event held in collaboration with the Ann Arbor branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). With “Celebrate, Educate, Inspire” as this year’s theme, the symposium will take place from June 15 to June 18 and will include a series of speeches, panels, workshops and performances to celebrate Black excellence and bring attention to issues that concern the Black community. The majority of the events will be held in a hybrid format with pre-registration required. Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans following the end of the Civil War. Though the Emancipation Proclamation declaring freedom for all enslaved peoples in the rebelling states went into effect in 1863, slavery was not officially ended across the United States until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. In Texas, slavery continued for two years after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, until General Order No. 3 — which is dated June 19, 1865 — informed the state’s enslaved people of their legal freedom. Juneteenth has been celebrated on June 19 across the United States since the 19th century, but it was not until June 17, 2021 that President Joe Biden signed Juneteenth’s status as a federal holiday into law. On the first day of the symposium, activist Opal Lee, also known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” talked about her journey of fighting to make Juneteenth a federal holiday in her opening keynote speech. Since 2016, Lee has led 2.5mile walks in various cities to bring attention to Juneteenth. The walks symbolize the number of years that it took for news of the Emancipation Proclamation to reach Texas in 1865. In September 2016, Lee left
Fort Worth, Texas, and began her 1400-mile trek across the United States, ending on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. She hoped to speak directly with President Barack Obama about making Juneteenth a federal holiday. In 2021, she started a petition for a federally-recognized Juneteenth holiday on Change.org. The petition received support from multiple celebrities, including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Usher. Her years of activism eventually led to a Juneteenth holiday being signed into law in 2021—with Lee in attendance. During her opening keynote speech, Lee talked about the moment she found out that Biden would sign the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. “P. Diddy helped me get 1.5 million signatures to take to Congress,” Lee said. “We took them to Congress and we were ready to take that many more when we got the word to go to the White House, that the president was going to sign the Juneteenth bill into law.” Lee discussed the role of education in freeing people from homelessness and unemployment, as well as providing the freedom to be who they are. “The recognition is for all of us to be free,” Lee said. “We realize that we have a common goal, and that is to dispel the disparages that we have in this country. I’m talking about (how) we need books in the education system to tell the history as it occurred. We can erase history, and so we need to learn about it. We need to be able to be sure (history) doesn’t happen again. Freedom is the thing that I’ll cherish.” Lee said freedom should be valued, celebrated and fought for by everyone. “What we need to know is this is not a Black thing,“ Lee said. “(It) is not a Texas thing. Freedom is for all of us, and none of us are free until we’re all free … So (white people have) got to learn that, hey, this is for you too. And I advocate that we celebrate freedom from the 19th of June to the Fourth of July.”
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Courtesy of Roni Kane
Hundreds of Washtenaw-Wayne County community members “March for Our Lives” in wake of Uvalde school shooting Over 400 Washtenaw-Wayne county community members gathered in the Diag to encourage law makers to take measures to end gun violence RONI KANE
Daily News Editor
Over 400 voices rang out in unison over the Diag Saturday morning with a message for state and U.S. legislators alike: “stop the silence, end gun violence.” Organized by high school students from the Ann Arbor and Plymouth-Canton areas, the Washtenaw-Wayne County March for Our Lives was one of over 450 local marches that happened across the country on June 11. The national call to action was sparked in the wake of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which resulted in the death of 19 students and two teachers — just one of the more than 240 mass shootings so far in 2022. Guns have been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens since 2020. When the March for Our Lives movement was initiated in 2018 following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., it was seen as a testament to the efficacy of student activism. During the movement’s first year, marches all around the U.S. — including the main protest in Washington, D.C. — were organized primarily by middle and high school students. Over 4,000 people attended the first studentlead rally in Ann Arbor alone. The return of the March for Our Lives movement on Saturday was a
result of renewed student activism calling for gun reform. Around six local high school students who are a part of the Washtenaw-Wayne County chapter of March for Our Lives orchestrated Saturday’s protest on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, including Plymouth High School rising senior Kavya Keshavamurthy. Keshavamurthy said she went on a virtual call with leadership from the national March for Our Lives organization and chapter leaders from all over the U.S. shortly after the massacre in Uvalde. It was there, she said, that March for Our Lives announced its intent to once again incite a wave of protests after four years. She and the rest of the WashtenawWayne chapter immediately began organizing the march in Ann Arbor. Keshavamurthy said she hopes Michigan legislators in Lansing and on Capitol Hill will hear the echoes of their chants, will see the faces of the protestors in the media and will be moved to pass bills addressing gun reform and mental health. “The overarching goal of our march is basically to send a message to our legislators,” Keshavamurthy said. “Our politicians can no longer just get away with thoughts and prayers. They need action.” The Washtenaw-Wayne County chapter of March for Our Lives is currently co-lead by two recent Ann Arbor Public Schools graduates:
Rhiannon Hubbard, who graduated this year from Pioneer High School, and Christine Kang, who just graduated from Skyline High School. The pair stood before the crowd to kickoff Saturday’s protest by listing off the numbers 58%, three million and one million: 58% for the majority of Americans who have experienced, or know someone who has experienced, gun violence in their lifetime; three million in regards to the number of American children who witness gun violence on an annual basis; and one million for the number of women alive today who have been shot at by their partner. They warned the crowd to not let these statistics become mere numbers or to accept them as facts, but to fight to decrease the number of lives affected by gun violence. “We have seen so many acts of gun violence that we allow these numbers to remain numbers, but we must never let that happen,” Kang told the crowd. “There are friends, families and communities behind these numbers.” In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Hubbard and Kang highlighted one final statistic, but this time it was a number they felt encouraged by. “I am so grateful and proud of the over 400 people who showed up today to march with us to end gun violence,” Kang said. “I can’t even put into words how powerful this all felt.”
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News
4 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022
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ANN ARBOR
LEO-GLAM demonstrates on the Diag to raise support during ongoing negotiations The LEO-GLAM union at UMich gathered on the Diag on Thursday to rally support during ongoing contract negotiations
SAMANTHA RICH Summer News Editor
Members of the Galleries, Librarians, Archivists and Museums (GLAM) subunit of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization (LEO) at the University of Michigan staged a protest on all three U-M campuses on Thursday afternoon. Approximately 100 LEO-GLAM members gathered on the Diag to rally support for their ongoing contract bargaining process with the University. LEO-GLAM was first recognized as an independent bargaining unit within LEO in August 2021. From there, they sent questionnaires out to their membership to understand what issues to bring to the bargaining table. They have been in negotiations with the University for their first contract since December 2021, during which there have been 24 formal bargaining sessions.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Meredith Kahn, a librarian on the University’s Ann Arbor campus, said a driving force behind the demonstration was not only the prolonged bargaining period, but also the University’s inflexibility on specific proposals. “We have already reached a tentative agreement on most of the contract, and all that’s left on the table are salary and professional development,” Kahn said. “Those are both things that will cost the University money, so that’s why they’re still on the table.” LEO-GLAM sent its initial salary proposal to the University in February of this year and did not receive a response to the proposal for two months. LEO-GLAM’s most recent salary proposal asks for a 41.5% salary increase over the first three years, with 60% of this increase in the first year. To date, the University has offered to raise the minimum salary by
roughly $2,000 to $48,000 with a 2% increase after the first year of the contract, a 2.25% increase in the second year and a 2.5% increase in the third. They have also proposed a minimum of $700 per year per employee for professional development opportunities, including attending academic conferences and pursuing continued education. In an interview with The Daily, Sarah McLusky, lead archivist for reference at the Bentley Historical Library on the University’s Ann Arbor campus, said she believes the lack of initial response on this issue contributed to the slow pace of bargaining. “When it comes to salary, that’s a proposal that they’ve had for a pretty long time and just didn’t do anything with it, at least that we could see,” McLusky said. “It was returned back to the union pretty late in the process, which is part of why we haven’t come to an agreement about that yet.” In her speech on the Diag, Zia
Davidian, an assistant librarian on the University’s Flint campus, said she believes the University’s salary offer is unacceptable, particularly for LEO-GLAM members with financial and familial obligations. “I am fortunate to be able to just make ends meet as a young, healthy, single, childless adult,” Davidian said. “I can’t imagine trying to support
a child or a family on this income — which many of my colleagues actually do. As faculty at one of the most well-respected institutions of higher education in the country, with an endowment of $17 billion, we deserve better.” Summer News Editor Samantha Rich can be reached at sammrich@ umich.edu.
KEITH MELONG/Daily
NEWS
UMich Board of Regents approves $15 minimum wage, tuition increase at June meeting The Board of Regents met Thursday to discuss the 2023 budget, which includes a tuition increase and a $15 minimum wage for all workers
ANNA FIFELSKI & IRENA LI
Summer News Editors Daily News Contributor Camryn Reitzel also contributed to reporting
The University of Michigan Board of Regents met at the Alexander G. Ruthven Building to discuss the budget for the 2023 fiscal year, which includes an increase in tuition and a $15 minimum wage for all workers across campuses. Interim University President Mary Sue Coleman opened the meeting by announcing that Regent Jordan Acker (D) will be succeeded by Regent Paul Brown (D) as the new chair of the Board. Acker will continue to serve on the Board of Regents until his term ends in 2027. Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) shared updates about the Presidential Search Committee and the process of selecting the University’s new president. In February, the University announced the Presidential Search
Committee, led by regents Sarah Hubbard and Denise Ilitch, to find a replacement for former President Mark Schlissel, who was fired in January for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. The committee, which solicited feedback from the campus community through virtual learning sessions and an online survey,
consists of representatives from all three campuses and Michigan Medicine. “We continue to be on track to complete the search for a new president this summer,” Hubbard said. “We’d like to have an announcement sometime soon. The interest is very high. We’re interviewing a diverse pool of candidates.”
JULIANNE YOON/Daily
Following Coleman’s opening remarks, Laurie K. McCauley, University Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, presented the Fiscal Year 2023 General Fund Budget for the Ann Arbor campus. The budget outlined an increase in the minimum wage for students and temporary workers of the University to $15 an hour, up from $9.87 per hour. “This change will assure that all employees, including students and temporary staff, are compensated in a manner consistent with the institutional values, regardless of how many hours they worked at the University,” McCauley said. The budget presentation detailed an increase in tuition for all paying students. For the 2022-23 school year, tuition will increase by 3.9%, amounting to $2,102 per year, for undergraduate out-of-state students and will increase by 3.4%, or $558 per year, for in-state students. The increase in the cost of tuition amounts to over double that of last year’s, with
tuition increasing by 1.8% from the 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 school year. Tuition will not increase for in-state students who receive need-based aid. The budget also includes support for community college students in the humanities who aim to transfer to the Ann Arbor campus through the Bridges Program, renews support for Living Arts Engine — an interdisciplinary learning community on North Campus — and funds increased access to a program called Mental Health First Aid, which equips faculty staff and students with more tools to identify and help students who may be struggling. The U-M Biological Station will also receive infrastructure upgrades. Regent Denise Illitch (D) was the only board member to vote against the proposed budget. Illitch said continuing tuition increases would make a U-M education inaccessible to more students.
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Alex Garland’s ‘Men’ is almost a parody of its genre LAINE BROTHERTON Daily Arts Writer
Given the almost-masterpiece that was “Annihilation” and the stylish excellence of “Ex Machina,” nothing could have prepared me for the disappointment of Alex Garland’s newest psychological horror flick. Not even the insistent warnings from friends about how much it sucked, the underwhelming trailer or the fact that “Men” would be the third film written and directed by Garland that centers on female suffering. Against better judgment, I mustered the willpower to park myself in the empty theater — if not for myself, then for Jessie Buckley (“I’m Thinking of Ending Things”). Buckley stars as Harper, a widow whose husband committed suicide after she asked for a divorce. She escapes to a charming house in the English countryside to process the tragedy and is greeted by the property’s caretaker Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear, “Our Flag Means Death”). Geoffrey, with his massive chompers and repository of corny jokes, seems relatively harmless as he helps Harper settle in for the duration of her solo trip. Geoffrey
asks Harper about her husband, noticing that she hadn’t dropped the “Mrs.” from her name — Harper’s a bit spooked by this, but she later calls her best friend Riley (Gayle Rankin, “The Climb”), who reminds Harper that she is there to heal. Harper makes her way through the surrounding nature and takes note of a seemingly feral naked man, also played by Kinnear, who she suspects is stalking her. She visits the town’s church, decorated with pagan imagery, and eventually makes her way to the pub. At every location, Harper comes across several men, each with Kinnear’s face. In a once-in-a-career acting feat, Kinnear succeeds at distilling a particular kind of evil into each role. All of the men Harper encounters belittle her in their own way: there’s the vicar, who questions why she drove her husband to suicide; the pub-goers, who tease her for her anger over the local feral man’s release; and there’s even a young boy with Kinnear’s likeness pasted over his face, who accosts Harper at the church and demands that she plays hide-and-seek with him.
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Arts
Wednesday, June 22, 2022 — 5
‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ shows how home and change move us all MADDIE AGNE Daily Arts Writer
This review contains spoilers for “Downton Abbey: A New Era.” I watched “Downton Abbey” for the first time during the summer of 2020. It was the summer after my freshman year of college and we had all just been sent home from the University of Michigan due to the COVID19 pandemic. My mom and I were sitting in the basement one night, as we did most nights during those six months of isolation, looking for something to watch when we stumbled across “Downton Abbey.” I had certainly heard of the show, and my mom had friends who had watched it, so we fig ured hey, why not, we’ll give it a try. One episode can’t hurt. At the end of that first episode my mom and I turned to each other, shocked, awed and utterly giddy. “Downton Abbey” was going to take over our lives. From that night onward we watched two or three episodes every night until we finished all six seasons. We watched the first
accompanying film just days after finishing the show. In the first five minutes of the movie there’s an aerial shot of the Abbey itself — Highclere Castle in real life — and my mom and I turned to each other again. Only this time, we were both on the brink of tears. Something similar happened a few weeks ago in the dark of a movie theater. I went home
to see “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” the second film installment in the “Downton Abbey” universe, with my mom. The film fed us yet another wide shot of the Abbey, and my mom and I shared a now-familiar look. We had been expecting this — the tears in our eyes glinting in the light of the movie screen — and we both laughed.
This image is from the official trailer for “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” distributed by Focus Features.
to Tennessee to get my wisdom teeth out but, more importantly,
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What is an electronic music concert without a mosh pit? Flume and Channel Tres helped me find out JOSHUA MEDINTZ Daily Arts Writer
Detroit’s Masonic Temple was popping off on Thursday night. Hoards of young, drunk, bejeweled humans flew past me as I glided through the foyer and into the theater aisles. I tried and failed to sneak into the pit, so I squeezed into one of the few remaining empty seats. Channel Tres was already on stage, alone, jumping around and talk-rapping over his thumping housemusic beats. I was pretty bummed about not being in the pit. I was instead relegated to a cozy theater chair, when all I really wanted to do was mosh and vibe to some bumps, on my feet, surrounded by dancing human beings. And who were my fellow theaterseaters? They were loud, but not singing along — they were just yapping away, chatting with friends as if this was just another club and this was just another guy, showing us some beats he
cooked up in his basement. But Tres is not just another guy. Tres is an artist, pushing the boundaries of both rap and electronic pop by seamlessly merging the two genres with hit songs like “fuego (feat. Tyler, The Creator)” and “Topdown.” He is also the master of the indie-rap feature, completely stealing the show on songs like “Tunnel” by Polo & Pan and “Palms (with Channel Tres)” by Gus Dapperton. He deserved more than the “Chatty Cathy” audience at Masonic Temple. And then came Flume. Flume has been bridging the gap between pop and the techno-sphere for a while now. He’s a seasoned performer, having headlined Coachella, The Governors Ball and most everything in between since his self-titled breakout 2012 album. And with that seasoning should come the DJ spice, right? Lifting arms on the beat, pushing buttons and, wait, what does a DJ do when they perform? Again, I started to feel some doubts
about the whole situation: why was I seated at an electronic music concert when I could just listen to Flume’s songs on Spotify, maybe invite some friends, dance and drink some brews that don’t cost $12?
but again, that was not possible from my cozy seat. It also would have felt a little wrong to push and shove under the Broadway-esque decor of the venue, with stenciled ceilings and velvet curtains. He might have done
Usually Flume solves this potential problem by starting a crazy mosh pit,
better to perform at the Majestic Theater or Saint Andrews Hall, two of
Photo by Bella de Sa
Detroit’s premier performance spaces, each equipped with an ample dance floor and an aptly dingy, club-like vibe. Flume often spices up his shows with a host of surprise guests: Toro y Moi, Vince Staples or, in the case of the Masonic Temple concert, Tres and Tove Lo. Tove Lo came out to perform her single with Flume, “Say It (feat. Tove Lo),” but also took over the female vocals for “Never Be Like You (feat. Kai)” and “Say Nothing (feat. MAY-A.” These were by far the best performances of the set because, well, there was actually a performer on the stage, and not just a dude, bobbing up and down, pushing some damn buttons. But those three songs were not enough to carry the performance, so I decided to improve the vibe with my own devices. In this case, that meant ripping my dab pen like a third grader destroying a juice box at snack time.
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6 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022
STATEMENT
Reading between the lines Each night at 7:45 p.m. (my unwilling and adult-dictated bedtime) my mom would read my favorite book to coax my 4-year-old brain to sleep. Red and blue fish circled my head and matching letters swirled around as she read … “Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head? Did you ever milk this kind of cow? Well, we can do it. We know how. If you never did, you should. These things are fun and fun … ” I never let my mom get through a whole verse of a Dr. Seuss book without interjecting. As she read the words, my little eyes darted back and forth between the lines — scanning for words I knew would eventually connect the verses through rhyme. Sometimes, it sounded like she skipped a word or misspoke a phrase, and I thought it best to take over for the sake of not butchering the great literary work that was “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” A decade later, I learned why I could never sit through my mother’s story times. I struggled to listen due to bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, a degenerative condition in which I lose the ability to hear volumes and frequencies over time. The diagnosis
irregular hearing. I struggled to hear others on Zoom calls and could no longer hear the beep from our home thermometer. Of course, masks made conversations 10 times more difficult due to muffled sounds and no longer being able to lip-read, a hidden talent I unknowingly possessed. Though symptoms likely occurred earlier, the condition was difficult to catch because my speech was unaffected, a common way to detect hearing loss in pediatric patients. I think back to the countless nights spent with my mom reading Dr. Seuss and wonder if she really did skip rhymes. My complaints seemed genuine at the time, but I realize now they were likely rooted in an impairment my young brain couldn’t comprehend. Although my hearing loss isn’t absolute, it is severe enough to affect my function in everyday life. Without my hearing aids, I struggle to follow professors in class and engage in conversations with friends. My brain is set on indefinite overdrive, interpreting visual cues like lip-reading and body language while simultaneously navigating daily obstacles. Despite the obvious negatives, my impairment forced me to admire and understand literature in a way that complimented my experiences with hearing loss. I am drawn to the
manifests differently in each person. While some may not experience progressive loss with the condition, mine will continue to deteriorate indefinitely. In 2020, when the pandemic began, my family and I first noticed my
familiarity of literature because it is the space where I learned how to learn — teaching myself class lectures via textbooks and articles when it was difficult to listen to my teachers in class. Reading is a beautiful and personal activity for me. I value the
REESE MARTIN
Statement Columnist
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raw interaction between the sentences, the page and my mind — no hearing aids necessary. Text is definitive; it’s permanent. Spoken words are easily lost in the air, time, memory and (for me) interpretation of the moment. Writing is a preservation of those thoughts — oftentimes, clearer than when they were first said. In everyday conversation, I am at a disadvantage. But books are my safe space — a dimension where I belong and exist just like everyone else. Yet, while literature may act as my personal utopia, reading and writing can be as exclusive for others as auditory content is for me. *** My family constantly encourages me to pursue my love of writing. They celebrate my every accomplishment and item of work along the way, likely sharing this very article with friends and posting the print copy on the fridge. While I’m beyond grateful for their involvement, my writing unintentionally excludes one of my favorite people, and many more throughout the nation. My youngest brother has struggled with severe dyslexia throughout his childhood. Dyslexia is a learning disorder in which individuals are unable to translate letters and words into speech sounds. Reading and writing are my brother’s greatest challenges, and more often than not, his personal nightmares. It is easy for my brother to feel left out in school when other students discuss books and articles that are too difficult for him to interpret. Because of my interests, he can also feel like an outsider within our household. My family enjoys reading excerpts of my writing before the piece is finished. I like to share my ideas and ask for their opinions while I’m still in the drafting process. Oftentimes, my brother can feel a disconnect between my family and I because he is unable to contribute to my work in this way. But we strive to include him, despite the challenges. When one of my pieces is published, my mother reads the narrative to him and my other family members out loud so they experience it for the first time together. With a simple act of kindness, my brother and I are able to connect, despite our contradicting impairments.
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Anticipating the apocalpyse CONNOR O’LEARY HERRERAS Statement Columnist
The image I associate with a survivalist is that of a hermit — insular, eclectic, convinced that “the end is near” and certain that they are prepared for its arrival. However,
of Noah. In truth, I must credit my introduction to Armageddon to the hearty dose of scripture I was raised with as a Catholic. The book of Revelation is the final book in the Bible, its title derived from the Greek word apokálypsis, meaning “discovery.” There is a divide between Christians who believe the
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when I think of my dad, I don’t see him that way at all. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed hearing him describe the lolling limbs of “The Walking Dead” zombies or the icy blue stare of the “Game of Thrones” white walkers, or whatever other undead threat from the latest book or TV show he was consuming (haha). But despite his long-standing fascination with zombie apocalypses, his store of freeze-dried meals and first aid supplies in the basement always just seemed like normal disaster preparedness. From an early age, I was drilled in knowing what to do in the event of an earthquake, having grown up along the San Andreas fault line: drop onto your hands and knees, cover your head and neck, and hold onto shelter until the shaking stops. The only thing stronger than my reverence for the total collapse of society in zombie apocalypses is my appreciation for the way it is rebuilt. Stories like “World War Z” paint an ultimately hopeful picture of humanity’s ability to take advantage of the fresh start afforded by the apocalypse, learning from the failures of institutions, recognizing their weak spots and improving on them. However, the first time I heard that story was actually the Biblical story
Bible must be read literally and those who interpret it to be allegory. This becomes all the more relevant in the final pages when all of humanity dies. To me, the Biblical Apocalypse is a reminder that the “doomsday,” has a long history of haunting humanity. Moreover, science — and science fiction — have probably provided humanity with just as many doomsday scenarios as religion has: nuclear war, artificial intelligence, biological warfare and climate change, to list a few. Of course, current events have become routine in their madness and unpredictability, which no doubt contributes to the growing social unease that journalist Jasper Hamill describes as “apocalypse anxiety.” I see this unease reflected in media like Spillage Village’s album “Spilligion,” released during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lead single of which is titled “End of Daze.” The entire album — but especially this single — articulates a lot of the anxiety I have observed in my generation over the ominous future that existential threats like climate change present. Climate change is sort of the nonfiction version of a zombie apocalypse for many people I know.
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Michigan in Color
Wednesday, June 22, 2022 — 7
From Freehold to UMich: the role of social class in our physical spaces GUSTAVO SACRAMENTO MiC Columnist
Growing up as a latchkey kid, I’d often squirm my way out of revealing where I lived to others. Instead, I’d lie. I’d tell friends I already had a ride or that it was no big deal for me to walk back home. I’d do or say anything to obfuscate details of where I lived and divert people away from seeing my dilapidated house. The faded blue paint that coated the wooden panels was slowly chipping away, just like my self-esteem. Needless to say, I was petrified at the idea of inviting a friend inside my house. My home was typically organized and clean, but my kitchen housed a small intrusion of cockroaches that refused to be exterminated, despite numerous attempts. Ultimately, I did not want my peers to pity me and think I lived
in a state of squalor. On a similar note, I have memories from my childhood of when my mom, older sister and I would frequently take buses to get around. Although bus fares are cheap, the routes are not optimal in suburban areas given the indirect paths and the large swathes of land that remained untouched. As a result, portions of our trips — whether they be for dentist appointments at remote office spaces or shopping at distant outlet stores — would entail walking along stretches of highway to reach disjointed bus stops. This was especially cumbersome in the scorching heat of the summer sun. Drenched in both sweat and embarrassment, I wondered whether drivers zipping past us were judging us momentarily. I frequently worried that a peer from school would recognize me as they sped past me in their parents’ car.
These anecdotes highlight some of the spaces I’ve occupied in the past. The spaces that each of us
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individually traverse, occupy and have access to are often influenced by a myriad of factors. Through my
A pianist with a secret DAISEY YU
MiC Columnist
One day about nine years ago, I was at after-school daycare — basically the gym where many students stayed if their parents were unable to pick them up right away. We would usually have recess outside and study hall time inside as we waited for our parents to walk through the doors. However, we did something new that day: A “get to know each other” activity where everyone had to write a couple of facts about themselves on a notecard. I remember that I wrote a couple of true, but surprising, facts about myself. I thought that this notecard would remain between me and two or three other students, but unbeknownst to me, that particular day made a huge impact on my life and how I perceived myself forever. After filling out the notecard, I sat in a tiny blue chair in the middle of the gym, chatting with my friends around me. We were waiting to go outside for recess, play on the playground and do what kids usually do. To my surprise, the daycare organizer walked to the front of the room with the notecards in hand. She started reading the cards one by one and asked kids around the room to guess who wrote each card. Sweat ran down my forehead as she grew closer and closer to mine.
writing, I’ve attempted to express and capture some of these differences by sharing personal experiences and
connecting them to broader themes, primarily ones related to social class. One tool that helps illustrate these
differences from a macro point of view is the Opportunity Atlas website (I highly suggest checking it out and tinkering with the filters). These social settings, or milieus, can each be described by the visual aesthetics, physical composition and ephemeral events that occur within a respective space. Contrary to my last name, I am not from the capital of California! Yet, sometimes my personal introductions are followed up by people merrily asking if I’m actually from Sacramento. These lighthearted interactions never cease to amuse others and myself, and I bet these instances will continue to arise in the future. However, a fair number of Wolverines are surprised when I inform them that I’m from New Jersey.
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Fade into you
Then, she read my card: “I have four fingers and three toes.” Even now, thinking back to that time, I felt so embarrassed and shocked that I can’t even remember the emotions running through my body. Audible gasps filled the gym, and I felt my face getting really hot. My friends glanced at me with worry before one of them volunteered my name to move the activity on.
me approached me and went so far as to call me “alien.” At that moment, none of my achievements mattered. The feeling of shame enveloped my body. Luckily, my friends immediately came to my defense. When I entered middle school, I held this memory very close when I interacted with others. I thought a lot about which hand to raise in class, always covering my left hand
I had always been proud of myself for achieving so much — playing instruments, taking art classes, swimming, attending soccer practice, defending my place as the fastest typer in my grade — while essentially living the life of a normal kid. When we were finally let out for recess, a group of girls younger than
with my sleeve. As a result, I became more withdrawn and introverted, contradicting the nickname of the “social butterfly” that I had earned in elementary school. I was too scared to let people see my hand, lest someone call me an alien again.
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ROSHNI MOHAN MiC Columnist
I was 16 years old the first time I really listened to it. It was soft, but in the first 20 seconds, the sharp strumming of the guitar and the piano chords sliced through the jumble of thoughts in my head, soon rendering the song the only thing I could focus on. The first 20 seconds cleared a direct path to every part of my brain, preparing it for the song that would soon become a staple in my life. And for those next four minutes and 55 seconds, nothing mattered but this song. … “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star was released in 1993 as a part of their album, So Tonight That I Might See. It’s an alternative/indie song filled with dream pop undertones. Everything about the song is beautiful, especially its vagueness; it feels as if Hope Sandoval, the band’s lyricist and lead singer, wanted you to create its significance, making it twice as meaningful every time you listen. It’s a song that will always relate to you no matter what stage of life you are at. To many, it’s a love song. It’s the song people add to their Instagram stories when they soft-launch their boyfriends or play in the background of their TikToks while
talking about their significant others or serenade each other with at karaoke after one too many mixed drinks. And these interpretations make sense because it sounds like a love song. The music is sweet, the perfect sound to awkwardly rock back and forth to at your high school dance, stepping on your partner’s feet while maintaining an extreme amount of unbreakable eye contact. Sandoval’s voice is subtle, yet flooded with infatuation. It slowly drowns and suffocates you with love and sweetness every time you hear it, enough to start to truly feel it yourself. But with every listen you learn more and more from the vague lyrics, and you come to realize the song can be about the ending of an unrequited love. It can be a realization of how one-sided this deep longing actually was, or how it was not truly love but a scary obsession. With this new perspective, my favorite line — “a million smiles cover your heart” — may not refer to how beautiful the partner’s love is, but how fake and deceitful it actually was. Or how the lyric and title “Fade Into You” may not mean to become one soul with the person you love, but to lose every part of yourself that made you who you are.
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Opinion
8 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022
From The Daily: demystifying misconceptions about gun violence THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUMMER EDITORIAL BOARD
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n the past month, a string of tragic mass shootings have dominated the media. Witnessing the senseless barbarity has left many Americans in despair over what can be done to stop the monolith of gun violence. With increased media coverage and civic dialogue, the recent shootings have publicly demonstrated just how false common arguments against stricter gun control are. As Democrats in Congress push for even minor policy changes, ordinary voters have an opportunity and obligation to put the pressure that is clearly needed on our elected officials to prioritize gun control. In order to begin unraveling a system that has enabled repeated acts of gun violence, we must work to demystify the common misconceptions that prevent necessary change. MISCONCEPTION 1: Arming good guys with guns can help to stop bad guys with guns One widely accepted myth about gun violence prevention, especially touted by Republican members of Congress, is that providing guns to the “good guys” can help stop bad guys with guns. After all, if we arm our teachers or school security with ammunition and firearms, then they can take action to stop a shooter themselves, right? Wrong. A perfect example of this myth in action can be observed in the recent school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which the shooter killed 19 children and two teachers. Despite the fact that officers of the Uvalde Police Department, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team and deputy U.S. Marshals were all armed and on the scene at Robb Elementary, 77 minutes passed before the tactical team was finally able to enter the locked classroom and kill the shooter. While the Chief of Police, Pete Arredondo, attributed the delayed response to “measures meant to protect teachers and students in mass shooting situations work(ing) against police trying to gain entry” — including the fact that the classroom door was “reinforced with a hefty steel jamb” to prevent forced entry from intruders — these facts do not change the reality that good guys with guns were unable to stop the bad guy with a gun from murdering innocent children. In fact, a 2021 JAMA Network Open study that analyzed every incident from 1980-2019 in which “one or more people was intentionally shot in a school building during the school day, or where a perpetrator came to school heavily armed with the intent of firing indiscriminately” found that “no association” existed
“between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence.” This damning statistic proves the unfortunate reality that good guys with guns are often unable to stop school shootings, even when they’re properly armed and trained to do so. This trend can be further seen in the examination of other mass shootings in which armed officials were present at the scene. During the recent mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., in which a white supremacist targeted and murdered innocent Black shoppers, an armed security guard and former police officer named Aaron Salter attempted to stop the shooter with his weapon. However, because the gunman shielded himself using an armor-plated vest, Salter’s shots did not stop the shooter. Salter was ultimately killed, making him one of the 10 victims from the mass shooting. And yet, these armed individuals are not even responsible for being incapable of defending others from mass shooters. The fault lies within the fact that good guys with guns are rendered practically defenseless when faced against assault rifles, a popular weapon of choice among mass shooters. While the majority of shootings are perpetrated using handguns, assault rifles are significantly deadlier, explaining why some of the worst mass shootings have been perpetrated using AR-15-style rifles — including the Uvalde shooting (12 killed), the Las Vegas shooting (59 killed), The Pulse nightclub shooting (49 killed) and the Sandy Hook shooting (27 killed). The AR-15 itself is a destructive semi-automatic rifle which was originally “intended for the U.S. military” because of its ability to kill mass amounts of people in an efficient manner. Without the proper protection, even a good guy with a gun could be annihilated by the bullets of an AR-15-style rifle. MISCONCEPTION 2: The “lone gunman” Another common misconception surrounding gun violence is the perpetuation of the idea that one sole individual is behind the act. In reality, there are a multitude of forces and contributing factors that bestow these gunmen with the ideological methods by which they go about their sprees. Many conservatives, whether they be politicians or political commentators, are under the impression that the issue of mental health is the reason for the uptick in gun-related violence, but this is absolutely unfounded in terms of scientific and social evidence. To shift the conversation towards mental health and away from the actual problem of guns avoids the problem entirely and creates damaging stereotypes against those in America who struggle with mental illness.
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I am a woman. But not in the way you may think. SOPHIA LEHRBAUM Opinion Columnist
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s a young and impressionable child, the concept of gender and what it meant to be a “proper” girl were enshrined into seemingly every fabric of the world that surrounded me. When I visited Target to spend my carefully accrued Tooth Fairy money, the segregated blue and pink aisles quickly indicated which section I should browse. The girls section was filled with gendered stereotypes to carefully cultivate a new generation of domesticated women through marketing: Instead of Lego sets, we were offered baby dolls that needed to be “mothered” by us with mock baby bottles and diapers; instead of Nerf guns, we were gifted Easy-Bake Ovens that introduced us early on to the concepts of cooking and baking; instead of Pokémon cards, we got to browse an assortment of plastic Barbie dolls who modeled how to girl-boss through womendominated fields of life while perfectly maintaining Eurocentric standards of beauty.
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Concealed behind fuchsia plastic was the societal goal to slowly condition a generation of young girls to collectively understand our “proper place” in the world without asking any questions. While the boys got to be boys, the girls were fed discreet corporate messages about their predetermined roles in society. While sex concerns the biological differences between females and males, gender is much more complex. According to Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos, a PeruvianAustralian applied sociologist,
gender is “a concept that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories; the cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities.” Gender, she explains, “involves social norms, attitudes and activities that society deems more appropriate for one sex over another.” She adds that gender is further determined by “what an individual feels and does.”
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What the Depp v. Heard trial means for domestic abuse survivors AMY EDMUNDS Opinion Columnist
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ou’ve probably heard the names Johnny Depp and Amber Heard being thrown around recently. Maybe a meme here or there, or a clip of some movie stars in a courtroom. But what’s the scandal? Who’s suing whom? Isn’t Johnny Depp a pirate? As someone with a little too much interest in both “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the judicial system, I’m here to tell you exactly what’s going on and what the true importance behind the trial is. Johnny Depp became a household name after his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the widely popular movie series, “Pirates of the Caribbean.” As a family favorite, loved by children and adults alike, fans were devastated when, in 2016,
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rumors that Depp had abused his ex-wife, Amber Heard, began to spread. Almost overnight, his high reputation was slashed, costing him millions of dollars as fans and employers began to boycott him. As a beloved pirate-turned-wifebeater, Johnny’s reputation and
career were over. Denying the abuse allegations from the beginning, Depp set out to save his reputation through a series of defamation lawsuits.
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