NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 3,4"
CAMPUS
Internship fair to
be held at Union
Students looking for internship
opportunities are invited to attend the
Internship Fair today between 2 p.m.
and 6 p.m. in the Michigan Union
Ballroom. Sponsored by the Career
Center, the fair offers the chance for
students to meet with representatives
of organizations including Lifetime
Television, the Institute for Social
SResearch, Alticor, Clean Water Action,
W the U.S. Department of State and Tar-
get Corp.
Panel to discuss
SARS epidemic
Experts on severe acute respiratory
syndrome from Beijing, Hong Kong,
Canada and the United States will
gather today from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
in the Mendelssohn Theater of the
Michigan League. The panel of experts
is part of the International SARS Sym-
posium. They will discuss lessons
learned from the global epidemic of
SARS and will apply their experiences
to issues of bioterrorism and public
health vigilance.
Lecture examines
homemade music
Musicology Prof. Albin Zak will !
speak about his music and homemade
pop records today at noon in the Oster-
man Common Room of the Rackham
building.
The lecture is part of the Artists-at-
Work Series and is sponsored by the
Institute for the Humanities. A profes-
sor in the University's School of
Music, Zak's topic is, "The Art of the
SBasement Tape: Pop Music from a
FPrivate Place." Zak recently released a
CD of collected songs called "An
Average Day."
Film studies life
of gay civil-rights
activist, organizer
As part of the Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. Symposium 2004, the
film "Brother Outsider: The Life of
Bayard Rustin" will be presented today
at 6:30 p.m. in the lower level multi-
purpose room of the Ann Arbor Public
Library. A group will gather at the
Cube near the Michigan Union at 6
p.m. to walk to the library together.
Civil-rights activist Bayard Rustin
was' the main organizer and strategist
behind the 1963 "March on Washing-
ton,"'but as an openly gay mhan, he was,
forced to remain in the background and
became known as the "brother out-
sider." A facilitated discussion will fol-
low the presentation.
The Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexu-
al, and Transgender Affairs, the Ann
Arbor Public Library and the Office of
Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs will spon-
sor this event.
Latin America
expert to speak on
Cuban economics
University of Pittsburgh Prof.
Carmelo Mesa-Lago will speak at a
Latin American Series seminar tomor-
row at 4 p.m. in Davidson Hall room
D1273. He will discuss Cuba's current
socio-economic situation and its
prospects. The William Davidson Insti-
tute at the Business School will spon-
sor the lecture. Mesa-Lago is a
professor emeritus of economics and
Latin Amer ican studies.
Recipient of social
justice award
speaks on racism
The Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program will sponsor a
lecture by social-justice advocate Tim
Wis e tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in Rack-
hmAuditorium. The title of the lec-
ture is "Beyond Diversity: Challenging
Racism in an Age of Backlash."
Wise currently serves as senior advi-
sor to the Fisk University Race Rela-
tions Institute in Nashville. He is the
recipient of the National Youth Advo-
cacy Coalition's Social Justice Impact
Award and the 2001 British Diversity
Award for best feature essay on race
and diversity issues.
Lecturer explores
Great Lakes
history, resource
The Museum of Zoology will launch
the "Life of the Lakes" exhibit tomor-
row with a lecture at 7:30 p.m. at the
Exhibit Museum of Natural History on
Geddes Avenue. The lecture, titled
"L ife of the Great Lakes: History and
REMEMBERING THE DREAM
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By Michael Kan
Daily Staff Reporter
Monday morning in the Modern Languages
Building was almost like any other school
day. Students filled Auditorium 3 and were
ready to learn. But instead of University stu-
dents, youth ages 6 to 17 occupied the seats of
the auditorium to celebrate Martin Luther
King Jr. Day.
The day's learning started like no other,
with a teacher holding up one hand and count-
ing down from five to quiet the crowd.
Although these students were much younger
and perhaps a little more rowdy than college
students, at yesterday's University-sponsored
event for children the young students did not
just want to have fun, but also wanted to dis-
cuss the importance of the holiday.
"It was interesting and fun as well," said Ali
Quraishi, a ninth grader from the Michigan
Islamic Academy in Ann Arbor. He said he
learned more about the disadvantages of segre-
gated schools, and how even with the desegre-
gation of schools, black students still had to
face challenges in finding educational equality.
Quraishi said his discussion group talked
about how Linda Brown Thompson and
Cheryl Brown Henderson - the sisters who
helped inspire the fight that led to the U.S.
Supreme Court's Brown a. Board of Education
ruling - felt when first entering a newly-
desegregated school. "I thought they would be
scared both mentally and physically. They
would be just made fun of and that wouldn't
be right," added Quraishi.
This was just one of the ideas coordinators
hoped students would come away with from
the event titled, "Martin Luther King Day
Activities for Children and Youth." The event
was created five years ago and meant to serve
as a day to encourage a greater understanding
of the event for younger generations.
In correlation with this year's Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium theme,
"Still Separate? Still Unequal?" event coordi-
nators also attempted to facilitate ways for
children to learn about the racial issues in the
education system, and to allow students and
teachers to shed some light on the current
issues concerning diversity in their schools.
Education junior Elisabeth Lawrence, a
volunteer for the event, said, "Basically what
we're here to do is to celebrate with the chil-
dren Martin Luther King, Jr. Day We want to
share with them their honest thoughts and we
want to learn more about him together, and
this program is meant to facilitate that."
The activities ranged from story-telling to
listening to American folk music- activities
which were meant to engage students in
thinking about the ideals of the holiday while
also entertaining them.
Event coordinator Kellie Hammers said the
activities were created in a way to deepen the
meaning of the holiday for the children.
The event's purpose is "not to just under-
stand that it is just a national holiday that we
"Basically what we're
trying to do is celebrate
with the children Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day:'
- Elisabeth Lawrence
Junior, School of Education
and event volunteer
celebrate, but that we also want to know more
about what MLK stands for and we want kids
to understand that too. They don't always get
that in schools," Hammers said.
One of the topics the students discussed
was the history of the civil rights movement.
Other topics included unequal funding in pub-
lic schools and self-segregation among ethnic
groups.
"We take it even further depending on the
age level, to actually ask them, 'Do you still
see the inequality going around, what kind of
things do you see and what could we do about
them?' said Hammers
She added that discussion groups would
offer ways to deal with those issues at their
school.
"Once they discover all these injustices
around the world, they could be very frustrated
of not being able to do anything about it, so we
See KIDS, Page SA
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Christopher Edley, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at
Harvard University, speaks about the persistence of racial
disparities yesterday at the Michigan Union Ballroom.
Speaker: Racial
inequality still1
affects schools
By Melissa Benton
For the Daily
Prof claims economic
disparity contr ibutes
to institutional racism
By Victoria Edwards
Daily Staff Reporter
Camela Jones uses her garden to illus-
trate the central issue of Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s life struggle against racism.
Jones, an associate professor of Com-
munity Health and Preventative Medi-
cine at the Moorhouse School of
Medicine, addressed about 300 mem-
bers of the University community in the
Dow Auditorium during her speech,
"Health Disparities: Still Separate? Still
Unequal?" as part of the Reverend Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium.
She used her garden example to
demonstrate the importance and the
depth that institutional racism takes as
the root of other forms of racism.
"A gardener has two boxes- one has
rocky soil in it and the other has fertile
soil. There are two different seeds, a red
one and a pink one, for the same flower.
The gardener likes the red one more
than the pink one, so he plants the red
seeds in the fertile soil and the pink ones
in the rocky soil. The red ones flourish
while the pink get weaker," Jones said.
To fight such inequality in American
society, Jones said economic divisions
within society must be addressed. She
said that instead of passing down
wealthy estates, after one's death their
estate should be given to the community.
"With estate inheritance, they concen-
trate wealth in a few families. When
every child is born equal with social
resources they will be encouraged to
organize wealth to improve the commu-
nity'" Jones said.
In addition to this idea to restructure
America's economic system, Jones
urged individuals to end racism in their
own communities by identifying it and
to routinely check for differential oppor-
tunities between the races. She added
that only by identifying and digging into
the depths of institutional racism to see
if it can be uprooted.
Jones answered whether there are
health disparities between the races with
See DISPARITY, Page 9A
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Educational equality has a long way to go, according to
Christopher Edley, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at
Harvard University.
Although the law now forces integration at schools and
the workplace, "continuing disparities exist between people
of different races. Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court's
landmark Brown a. Board ofEcto Education ruling, there are still
achievement disparities in K-12 education, Edley said.
"The question is not whether school integration is desir-
able - because surely it is - but whether we care enough
about it to do something. The question is the degree of our
determination to close racial disparities," said Edley, dean
of the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of Cali-
fornia, Berkeley.
Yesterday afternoon in the Michigan Union Ballroom, a
packed audience listened to Edley's lecture, part of the Uni-
versity Library's theme semester, "Fulfilling the Promise -
SBrown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commemo-
ration."
Edley emphasized affirmative action as one means of
school integration. "Affirmative action is far from a cure-all.
It is a limited tool for a limited purpose. Nevertheless, it is
worth fighting for. Affirmative action gives us a simple tool
to use against that simple human tendency to choose people
like ourselves. Diversity is critical to success."
Edley added that he is a strong supporter of the Universi-
ty's race-conscious admissions policies and helped to write
one of the briefs for the court during its admissions lawsuits.
However, Edley said he's worried that people believe the
fight for affirmative action ended with the court's ruling last
summer.
"Now the question is mobilizing people to combat the
See EDLEY, Page 9A
aafter graduationthen what?
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*s
the Peac orps.
come to an information meetingr
where you'll learn more:
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 6-7:313M
INTERNIATIONAL CENTERt-1RM. 9j
chckoturwebte:www.peaceoosrpsogov
;'...................or caR 7348647.2182 for more, info-
Your GSI is
catching on.
Last years Best Excuse
for Cutting Class was
being sick. Come up with a
new reason and tell the rest
of us.
fnf rn4- Ap Frr
21 -4:0 n. @ The AMichgan Union
Connect with employers right here on carpus!
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