4 - Tuesday, April 10, 2007 1,IO The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890, 413 E. Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 tothedaily@umich.edu KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles andillustrations represent solelytheviews oftheirauthors. Tackling discrim-ination End of MHSAA case a big win for female athletes Thanks to Title IX of the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, gender doesn't determine the number of sports available to high school students. Or at least it plays a lesser role than it did 30 years ago. But inequality has persisted in Michigan, with high schools required only to assure that male sports coincide with their respective college seasons. Until last week, no such guarantee existed for women's sports. It scares the business out of me." - Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on the "rabid, rabid Republican nature of a man who lives near the Edwards home in North Carolina and has been known t brandish a gun at the site of trespassers, as reported yesterday by The Associated Press A Detroit love story a The advocacy group Communities for Equity took the Michigan High School Athletic Association to court over its sports seasons in 1998. After a nearly nine- year battle, the case is finally decided, and it turns out they were right. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the MHSAA last week, meaning that sports seasons must change beginning next fall. This case has finally brought Michigan in line with every other state, and it has also drawn attention to lingering gender inequality in high school athletics. The case was straightforward. Girls bas- ketball, soccer, volleyball, golf and tennis are played in the off-season in relation to colleges, while all boys sports are scheduled to match the college seasons. Playing in the off-season hurts girls' access to regional and national tournaments and lessens top ath- letes' chances of receiving athletic scholar- ships. It also didn't help that the off-season scheduling meant girls' basketball, soccer and volleyball seasons were several weeks shorter than seasons in other states. The MHSAA argued that practicality trumped Title IX. If boys and girls basket- ballwerebothplayedinthefall,forinstance, the teams would compete for practice space and fans. What was commonly understood, if not explicitly stated, is that any change would hurt female athletes. No one would dare jeopardize male athletes' access to practice space, and few would watch girls' basketball when boys are playing at the same time. Although this rationale may be true, it should be interpreted to mean that more action, not less, is necessary to address gen- der discrimination in sports. If balancing lim- ited space is a serious concern, then why don't boys play their basketball in the off-season? As of last week, the situation is fairer. The final decision will move girls basketball and volleyball seasons to their appropriate national times, leave girl's soccer and swim- ming in the off-season and shift boys' golf and tennis to the off-season as an equalizer to satisfy Title IX. Schools will have to juggle facilities and resources in order to accommodate the rul- ing. For some female high school athletes, new conflicts between sports seasons mean they will have to pick between sports. The Detroit Free Press dedicated several pages of coverage to the "new hurdles" the switch will bring. The current female athletes who will be negatively impacted by the ruling have every right to be angry. But the switch is not the fault of Communities for Equality; Michigan should have adjusted its sports schedules years ago. The MHSAA and individual high schools are not yet off the hook. Female athletes still face gender discrimination, most notably in the attention and prestige they receive. During the court battle, MHSAA agreed to provide female athletes with better public- ity, more television coverage and expanded facilities for state championships. These long overdue changes show that while treat- ment of female athletics has significantly improved, the status quo is still a long way from true equality. y parents' decision to love one another is the great- est act of political courage I have ever known. I recognize, of course, that it might have begun as a political statement. Young and naive, it is possible they were trying to prove something to the world and to them- selves. Maybe they were, dare I say it, curious. But some- how, right here in , nearby Detroit, the most segregated city in the country, my white mother metmy black father. ARA They fell in love. I cannot imag- GAY ine a more unlikely backdrop for their relationship than 1970s Detroit. It is, after all, the city where my maternal grandmother - a single mother of three in the 1950s - fed her children by redlining along with the rest of her colleagues in the real estate business. Refusing to show homes in certain predominately white neighborhoods to black families, she could not have dreamt she would one day have a grandchild who would be "one of them." Detroit is also the city where my father's father worked his way through Wayne State University Law School. My grandfather ripped the pages out of his law books and pasted them on the inside of his jacket so he could study on Ford's assembly line. One of only two black students, he graduated first in his class. My grandmother explicitly asked that my mother not marry a black man. I have white cousins who live in subur- ban Detroit suburbs whom I've rarely ever seen. And in the almost 30 years that my parents have been married, they've been denied housing, service in restaurants and even acknowledge- ment from friends and family. As soon WYMAN KHUU as their paychecks could take them there, they fled for New York City, where I was born and raised. Sheltered from Detroit's tensions, I arrived at the University 17 years old and oblivious to Detroit's problems. My freshman year - which began less than 12 months after the Universi- ty confirmed its commitment to diver- sity in the Supreme Court - was a rude awakening. However I had chosen to define myself in New York - biracial, black and white or simply Mara - was no longer relevant. I was "Black at Michi- gan," and there were days when little else seemed to matter. The fact of our separateness is undeniable. At a university that trum- pets the value of diversity, we sense that magnitude of our segregation - from our residence halls to our majors to our parties - is embarrassing. But now, even those of us who claim to support diversity are tired of talking about it. After a Supreme Court battle and a two-year fight over Proposal 2, the conversation seems as exhausted as we are. It has become easier to believe that such segregation is inevitable or even natural than it is to challenge it. The University is, after all, simply a microcosm of our divided society. The vast majority of us - black, white and others - were robbed of the experi- ence of diversity in our upbringing and were raised alongside people who look exactly like we do. For most students on this campus, diversity is meaningless. Immersed within our own small worlds, we leave the University without ever under- standing the beauty of our differences at all. But when I think of my parents, I don't think of difference. My mind pours over all the things thatrun deep- er than race. I think of all that unites us. And I wonder what and who we're missing out on. Twenty-seven years later, my par- ents' marriage is legal is all 50 states. My grandmother doesn't like to talk about the day she asked my mother not to marry a black man. But it isn't the difficulty of their circumstances that inspires me. It is the depth of their courage, their decision to make a com- mitment to one another and challenge the world. I walk around campus and won- der what it will look like in the years to come. I want to believe that we can make that same commitment to one another, that we can be as courageous. Diversity is a sacrifice worth every hardship. It's a unique opportunity we've been given. We can dare to know one anoth- er and be more educated, interesting people for it. But we will have to fight to make diversity a reality. The choice is ours. We do not have to retreat from one another and live exactly as the vworld expects us to. We do not have to repeat life exactly as our parents lived it or do what is easy instead of what is better or what is right. My parents could have saved them- selves from a life that required a thou- sand acts of courage. Instead they did what was scarier, braver and far more incredible. They chose to invest in one another, to bet on one another and to question the world as it was by daring to love one another. Maybe it's optimistic. Maybe it's fantastically naive. But it is still the only way I know. Mara Gay can be reached at maracl@umich.edu. a a ANDREW DALACK AND JULIA EDEN RIS VIPO A blueprint for conversation b 3 n" .j I gum .April's Fools Day a few dqs r x_ +' late Ns yew. AAL t F Letters Policy All readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Please include the writer's name, college and class standing or other Uni- versity affiliation. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy, and all submissions become property of the Daily. Letters will be printed according to timeliness, order received and the amount of space available. Send letters to tothedaily@ umich.edu. a Any productive conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be predi- cated on the understanding that the Zionist occupation and settlement of the West Bank is the real impediment to the "peace process." Unfortunately, much of the campus conversa- tion revolves around Palestinian aggression and resistance. This makes the situation in Palestine appear one-sided and paints the Pal- estinians asa brutal people who condone wan- ton violence. But violence on the part of the Palestinians is only one of the forms of resistance to anoth- er form of violence demonstrated by Israeli occupation. This includes Israeli military incursions into Palestinian neighborhoods, harassment of Palestinians at more than 500 checkpoints inside the West Bank and the con- struction of a militarized apartheid wall. Any attempt to explain or academically explore the impetus behind Palestinian violence is stifled immediately. Admittedly, these are difficult topics to deal with consideringthat many peo- ple on campus have family living in Palestine, Israel or the surrounding areas. Thus an environment that fosters useful dialogue and constructive conversation should be subject to the following conditions: " There is no clash of civilizations. Jews do not inherently hate Palestinians, and Pal- estinians do not inherently hate Jews. The conflict is not primarily one of coexistence. The Palestinians' right to self-determina- tion and Israel's territorial expansionist ini- tiatives are the underlying issues behind the hostilities. Israeli policies of collective pun- ishment under the auspices of security have consistently proven ineffective and continue to deny the Palestinians basic human rights. Under no circumstances should anyone support "security" initiatives that directly endanger the very safety and livelihood of an entire people. * Criticizing Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism. Since its inception, Zionism has been a secular vehicle to achieve a reli- gious goal. It is nonsensical for any discussion to render a nationalist ideology synonymous with a religion. Likewise, any criticism of Pal- estinian leadership should not imply Islamo- ERIN RUSSELL FORMER HOUSE HE I$ APPALLED OVER RNG TNGRICH,THE ATT GE L'S IS URGING ATTORNEY CONT VRSALFRG GENERAL, ALSERTO OF SEVERAL U.S GONZALES, TO RESIGN. ATTORNEYS GINGRCH HAD THIS TO SAY AT A PRESS CONERENCE phobia. Open criticism of leadership, ideology and international agendas can begin the pro- cess that leads to some sort of understanding. The fear of being labeled anti-Semitic should not stifle this important conversation under any circumstances. Blanket statements that enforce the notion that Palestinians uphold violent and racist principles are a blatant road- block to intelligent debate. * Zionist insistence that pro-Palestin- ian organizations recognize Israel's legiti- macy ignores Zionists' own responsibility to acknowledge Palestinian identity, autonomy, ownership of land and an unalienable right to a dignified human existence. It also skirts the underlying issue of Israel's final status as a state considering that Israel's borders are expanding at this very moment. " Understanding the impetus behind sui- cide attacks does not imply approval. People should not be marginalized because they seek a greater understanding of the conflict. That said, the validity of one's call for Palestinian liberation and a right to self-determination should not depend on whether he or she con- dones suicide attacks. Intellectual discourse on suicide bombings benefits all parties involved. . The denial of the very existence of a Pal- estinian people or a Palestinian identity is not only tantamount to ethnic cleansing; it is his- torically unfounded as well. The Palestinians do exist, and they deserve the ability to enjoy the unalienable human rights that many take for granted. As members of an institution ofhigher learn- ing, we owe it to ourselves and to each other to remain as informed as possible on issues of global importance. Our collective quest for knowledge should not be inhibited by precon- ceived notions or a reluctance to leave our com- fort zones. This viewpoint is not some sort of demand thatall pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students on campus mustgetalong. Rather, itis a reminder that in this seemingly endless war of words, we have a duty to remain civil, well- informed, open-minded and proactive. Andrew Dalack is an LSA freshman and Julia Eden Ris is an LSA senior. They are members of Students Advocating Freedom and Equality. ARI PARRITZW PI I am not a racist "I believe that Zionism is racism, because in establishing the racially exclusive state of Israel, in 1948, and expelling the indigenous Palestinians from the land, the Zionists severed a relationship that people had to the land for over 4,000 years, uninter- rupted, since beforeAbraham." - Rabee' Sahyoun, a post-doctor- al economic policy advisor and col- umnist living in Beirut, Lebanon. The day after the ballot initiative toban affirmative action in Michigan was passed in November, University President Mary Sue Coleman gave an address on the Diag. As I listened intently, I noticed a young woman, perhaps in her early 20s, passing out pamphlets to the crowd. I recognized the pamphlet as a piece of anti-Israel propaganda from Students Advocat- ing Freedom and Equality. I casually tucked in my Star of David and approached the woman to ask a few questions about the handout. After I pointed out each inaccuracy, she realized that I was not going to be someone she could brainwash. She called me a racist and a "Zionist pig" and walked away. This woman must have been blind to what it means to be a Zionist. Unfor- tunately, she didn't seem to have any intention of opening her eyes. The words of the young woman, Rabee' Sahyoun and countless oth- ers reveal an ideological threat that plagues supporters of Israel every- where: the widespread manipula- tion and distortion of a word closely linked to the survival of Israel. Earlier in his article, Sahyoun compares Zionism to Bolshevism, Nazism and Apartheid. Coupling Zionism with words so linked to hate and oppression does an injus- tice to the rich history of the Zion- ist movement. Sadly, Sahyoun is not alone in his erroneous views. To combat the equation of Zion- ism to genocidal and racist regimes, a clear and comprehensive defini- tion of Zionism must be presented: Zionism is an international move- ment supporting the establishment and the sustained protection of Israel as a homeland for the Jew- ish nation. I've been on campus for almost a year, and I now realize that most people don't even know what the word Zionism means. When people equate Zionism to racism they assume that Israel is a racist, apartheid state like histori- cal South Africa, and they separate Zionism from its true meaning. Those who make this accusa- tion refer to the supposed "racial oppression" of the Arabs living in Israel. Yet Arabs living in Israel enjoy more rights than many of the Arabs living in the Arab world, including gender equality, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Had the young woman on the Diag been interested in an intelligent debate, I would have referred her to these facts. However, she chose to leave the conversation. I should have thanked the young woman, because Iwill always be proud to be a "Zionist pig." Yet, I am not and will never be a racist. Those who equate Zionism to racism are not only igno- rant but anti-Semitic. Last year, I spent nine months in Israel. My friends and I often trav- eled the country on our days off and I was able to experience Israeli diversity in a way that few Ameri- cans have the privilege to do. I saw the checkpoints. I drove through the Arab villages. I even had a con- versation with a young Muslim boy on the top of the Temple Mount. Those who accuse Israel of rac- ism must have not taken the time to learn about Israel. These people don't understand the source of Israeli-Arab hardships. Instead of demonizing Israel for strip searches at checkpoints, people should hold accountable the men who try to pass the check- point with a bomb in a baby car- riage. And don't accuse Israel of being an apartheid state because of widespread poverty within the Palestinian territories. Blame the Palestinian leadership that has embezzled money from its citizens to finance terrorism for years. Anti-Israel rhetoric is filled with gross inaccuracies and oversim- plifications, seldom examining the roots of the conflict. Zionism affirms not only the right for the state of Israel to exist but the right of Israel to defend itself at all costs. 0 0 0 Ad Parritz is an LSA freshman. i Editorial Board Members: Emily Beam, Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam Butler, Ben Caleca, Mike Eber, Brian Flaherty, Mara Gay, Jared Goldberg, Emmarie Huetteman, Toby Mitchell, David Russell, Gavin Stern, John Stiglich, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Wagner, Christopher Zbrozek f