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November 13, 2008 - Image 4

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4A - Thursday,;November 13, 2008

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

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Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu

ANDREW GROSSMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF

GARY GRACA
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

GABE NELSON
MANAGING EDITOR

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheirauthors.
A perception problem
Athletic Department must break ties with faculty reviewers
onsider this hypothetical situation: the Michigan football
team is having a stellar season, and with only a few games
left, it is close to securing a trip to the Rose Bowl. But the
team's star running back is having some trouble in the classroom
so his case is brought to the Committee on Academic Performance
(APC), an advisory committee to the Office of the Provost that
decides student-athletes' academic eligibility. Coincidentally, the
committee has an extra stake in the decision: if the player remains
eligible and the team goes on to the Rose Bowl, the Athletic Depart-
ment will offer to foot the bill to send the committee's members off
to beautiful Pasadena. See the conflict of interest? Apparently, the
University doesn't.

Oy - this would appear to be a hoax."
- The New Republic's political blog, referring to the supposed existence of Republican adviser "Martin Eisenstadt."
CHRIS KOSLOWSKI 'j T A E-MAIL CHRIS AT CSEOSLOW@UMICH.EDU
Ladies and gentlemen, the You deserve a representtive When you vote this year,
Michigan StudentcAssembly is that has a hunger for tacklng 5 don'twrte in yoursef or your
due for a change important student issues friends like yo usually do.
Andyo hae thepower touAdasstoa
o andetioust arVote for change. Vote fa
make it happen. y deiou milkshakes, a ,r,, , «he Write in The Gimace, .
Saving Darfur?
n Mondaya group of activists ing for the CIA to arm an abusive Dar- black uprising by arming Arabs, who
from 48 states pitched 350 furi militia and finance an attempted also formed their own tribal alliances
tents on the National Mall, revolution in the African country that and began to fight black Darfuris.
hoping to encour- harbored him. What can the United Nations possi-
age President-elect And itcgets more complex. Western- bly do in a situation like this? "Peace-
Barack Obama ers are accustomed to seeing political keep?" We've seen how well that
to take a tougher entities solely in terms of geographi- worked in Rwanda (800,000 civil-
stance on the Suda- cal or ideological divisions. In much ians died while peacekeepers were
nese government's of Africa and the Middle East, though, there), and how it is currently failing
handling of Darfur. divisions can transcend geography in Congo (a couple million have died
At an associated and involve ethnic and tribal strc- since peacekeepers' deployment). It is
gathering, State tures. For instance, the Justice and unrealistic to expect a force of a few
Department rep- IBRAHIM Equality Movement is a Darfuri group thousand soldiers, who aren't allowed
resentative Roger dominated by the non-Arab Zaghawa to shoot unless shot at, to secure an
Winter spoke in KAKWAN tribe, as is the government of neigh- area the size of Darfur.
support of the boring Chad. This makes it easy for Which brings me to another point:
Sudan People's the Chadian government to inter- why should China be blamed for doing
Liberation Army (he used the word' fere on Sudanese soil. That is exactly business with the Sudanese govern-
"Movement," instead of "Army") that what happened in May, when the JEM ment? The current ethnic conflict
incidentally stands accused of human launched an attack on the central existed in the area long before China's
rights violations. Sudanese government, presumably
This just highlights the stupidity of with Chadian backing. Together with
the "Save Darfur" slogan and accom- the SPLA's acceptance of CIA aid, such
panying movement. What does "Save foreign interference justifies govern- The blurry line
Darfur" even mean? Apparently for ment action in Darfur, if for nothing
the activists whosaw it fit to set up 350 else than to protect Sudan's borders.-between good and
tents in Washington, it meant taking Now consider that the Justice and
the side of an armed rebel group. Equality Movement is a Darfuri mili- bad guys in Sudan.
While many are quick to condemn tia allied with other Darfuri groups,
the Sudanese government and its allies in addition to its alleged relation-
the Janjaweed as violators of human ship with Chad. The JEM is just one
rights, it should be pointed out that of many groups representing various arrival, and it would have continued
Darfur's resistance movements are not tribes and militias, each with its own with or without the Chinese presence.
unified and partake in depredations of complex set of ever-changing allianc- Heck, we're the ones who sent $20
civilians as well. In fact, a 2006 U.N. es and goals ranging from control of million to an armed rebel group, not
report included the Sudanese People's oilfields to secession. the Chinese.
Liberation Army among the groups Viewed through the lens of tribal- So what does "Save Darfur" mean?
that showed "the least regard for the ism and ethnicity however, what is Ihonestly have no idea. But blaming
welfare of civilians." happening makes more sense. Though the Sudanese government is not the
In an increasingly complex web of the various tribes traditionally solution. Surely it is not innocent-but
alliances, acronyms like JEM, SPLA/ engaged in small-scale turf wars over it should be understood that the war is
SLA and UFLD represent the various land and water rights, these conflicts not simply Arabs against blacks or the
armed Darfuri militias that fall in and intensified in the 1980's as the region's government against civilians. There
out of alliances with each other, and 3.5 million people competed for are no clear "good guys" or "bad guys"
at times collude with foreign nations. resources diminished by a worsening in this fight, and there is no "Darfuri"
In 1996, for example, the U.S. Central drought. As the nomadic Arab tribes side. There are many separate Darfuri
Intelligence Agency spent $20 million and Zaghawa from the hard hit north groups fighting each other, the gov-
to support the SPLA's armed effort to encroached upon the lands of the black ernment and on behalf of other gov-
overthrow the central Sudanese gov- Fur, the Fur formed groups like the ernments - with civilians caught in
ernment. That was in the days when SPLA to combat the new arrivals, mur- the middle.
Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan, and deringtribal elders and destroyingthe
although not yet a household name, he nomads' settlements. The Sudanese Ibrahim Kakwan can be reached
was considered sufficiently threaten- government then tried to counter the at ijameel@umich.edu.
The struglefor sexual equality

6

Common at many universities, the Ath-
letic Department's practice of offering to
pay for faculty who review student-ath-
lete's academic eligibility to attend bowl
games has recently come under fire. The
practice had been revealed in a July 2007
internal audit that found the Athletic
Department paid for seven members of
the APC to attend the Rose Bowl that year.
But for the past year, little action has been
taken on the issue.
The faculty's Senate Advisory Commit-
tee on University Affairs - which initially
voiced concern that the practice encouraged
a bad University image and unanimously
agreed upon the audit's release that the
practice should be reviewed - is taking the
issue up again. Defiantly, the University's
administration is not. In a recent interview
with the Daily, President Mary Sue Cole-
man argued that because the practice was
properly disclosed to the public and because
the Office of the Provost has the final say on
who plays and who doesn't, the APC's perks
aren't concerning.
Coleman's position couldn't be more
wrong. At the very least, there is an obvious
perception of a conflict of interest here. APC
members receiving perks from the Athletic

Department gives the disturbing image of a
system skewed to favor athletes. That's not
to say the APC has been acting in an unethi-
cal manner or that their verdicts have been
polluted. However, the mere perception
of such a conflict gives rise to questions
regardingthe validity of their decisions.
What's more disturbing is that nothing
has been done about the problem since it was
brought to light. Coleman won't acknowl-
edge that even a tiny problem exists. Univer-
sity Provost Teresa Sullivan has "taken the
audit's findings under advisement," but has
yet to take any further action. And SACUA,
which has already noted the problems here,
hasn't done much yet on this issue either. It
seems like everyone just wants it to go away
so business can continue as usual. It seems
that no one is willing to make a change.
It's time for the University to stop hiding
behind convoluted justifications and picky
semantics and take action to end this prac-
tice. Not dealing with the problem won't
make it go away or make it less question-
able. Until the University does that, this
committee will be tainted by people's sus-
picions about its biases. And what we think
we don't know is probably much worse than
what the reality is.

6
"

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Elise Baun, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Satyajeet Deshmukh,
Brian Flaherty, Matthew Green, Emmarie Huetteman, Emma Jeszke, Shannon Kellman,
Edward McPhee, Emily Michels, Kate Peabody, Matthew Shutler, Robert Soave, Eileen Stahl,
Jennifer Sussex, lmran Syed, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Margaret Young
The Daily is looking for smart people with an interest in campus issues
and excellent writing skills to be members of its editorial board.
E-MAIL GARY GRACA AT GRACA@MICHIGANDAILY.COM
FOR MORE INFORMATION
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU

There are many options for
the homeless in Ann Arbor
TO THE DAILY:
Though Brian Flaherty made good points with
regardsto helpingthe needy in his viewpointyes-
terday (Homeless, bst still worth help, 11/12/2008),
he isn't very familiar with Ann Arbor's homeless
situation. Downtown Ann Arbor has a homeless
shelter, and churches often offer shelter topeople
duringthe winter. At the Delonis Center, you can
receive three meals during the week and two
meals on the weekend, take a shower, do laundry
and have space to store belongings.
Though homelessness is often associated with
beggars on the sidewalk asking for money, many
homeless people have a job or are in the process of
finding a job. Some may own a cell phone or even
have established relatives. There may be many
reasons for their homelessness - perhaps they
were former prisoners, former alcoholics, former
drug users, veterans, mentally illor simply down
on their luck. It is hard to say why this man Fla-
herty saw became homeless. One thing for cer-
tain: The man chose to be on the streetcover being
at a homeless shelter with many amenities.
Donating our time and money to a home-
less shelter so these places can better serve Ann
Arbor's homeless community is a better use of
our resources. Please visit www.annarborshefter.
org for more information.
Lang Sui
Engineeringgraduate student

The lazy do not deserve our
hard-earned handouts
TO THE DAILY:
I nearly fell off my chair reading Brian Fla-t
herty's viewpoint yesterday (Homeless, but
still worth help, 11/12/2008). Flaherty wrote
that a homeless person with a sign reading, "I
won't lie, I'm just lazy," deserves to be given
food, clothing and shelter. Even though I hold
moderate political beliefs, his opinions blew
my mind. I doubt even Karl Marx would have
agreed with Flaherty.
The idea that I should make money so that
it can be taken away and given to people who
refuse to work is absolutely ridiculous. Nobody
should have to give up hard-earned money to
the government so that it can literally be redis-
tributed to lazy bums.
Using the article's logic, every class at the
University should take some of the points
received by A students and give those points
to others who openly admit to being lazy and
receive Ds or lower.
This neo-communist mindset of liberals
who seem to think that they have a right to play
Robin Hood for the lazy has got to go. There
is nothing wrong with giving money to char-
ity and helping victims of events beyond their
control, but I would rather shoot myself than
reward leeches on society.
Sam van Kleef
LSA freshman

W ithmostelectionresultsnow
tallied up, it is tempting to
believe that America is cur-
rently faced with an
equality quagmire.
While voters elected
the first black presi-
dent in U.S. history
last Tuesday, they
repealed many sex-
ual rights.
Some media out-
lets also have run ROSE
stories noting irony.
An article on CNN. AFRIYIE
com had the head-
line "Same-sex
Marriage Ban Para- peaking with
doxical in Historic Tongues
Election," in refer-
ence to bans in California, Arizona and
Florida. Another story, in The Guard-
ian, asserted that Arkansas voters'
decision to prevent couples who are not
married to serve as adoptive or foster
parents along with a slew of other bal-
lot measures to ban gay marriage and
affirmative action is a "darkly sober
note in this euphoric moment of inclu-
siveness and joy."
I partially agree with these notions.
I'm disarmed that I live in a country
where more than 40 states now have
constitutional bans or laws against
gay and lesbian marriage. I believe
unequivocally that folks who have sex
with people of the same gender should
have the same rights as folks who have
sex with people of the opposite gen-
der across the board - not just with
respect to marriage. I also believe that
a person's relationship status, be it
complicated and co-habiting or mar-
ried, is completely unrelated to what
kind of parent that person would make
if given the chance.
But I also reject the notion that
Barack Obama's victory is an adequate
measurement of racial equality in the
United States. What's lost in these
comparisons between Obama's elec-
tion and the passage of these ballot ini-
tiatives is the route traveled by Obama
- and bypassed by gay marriage lead-
ers. This route involved expansive
coalition building, effective funding
distribution and an overall optimistic
approach to investing in constituents
who have been wrongfully framed as

monolithically conservative. When relied on racial bias and stereotypical
you consider this, the success of these assumptions about people of color. The
discriminatory initiatives seems more true irony this season is an exercise of
like a campaign failure than a mark of racial inequality engendered marriage
closed-minded voters. inequality in California.
This was particularly the case with And yet, these points are seldom
California's Proposition 8 that success- raised when the chorus of CNN's mis-
fully banned gay marriage. The orga- leading exit polls repeats the refrain
nizers fighting this initiative failed on that 70 percent of African Americans
these three fronts with respect to gal- voted to ban marriage in California.
vanizing communities of color - mis- The Daily Kos dispelled these myths in
steps that proved costly considering "Facts Belie the Scapegoating of Black
that people of color make up more than People for Proposition 8" last Friday. It
50 percentof California's population. reported that these numbers involved
Starting with racially diverse coali- a random selection of precincts when
tion building, The Nation, in "Mari- African Americans overwhelming-
tal Discord: Why Prop 8 Won" cited ly live in only nine counties, didn't
a source who revealed that earnest include millions of early voters and
outreach to African Americans to vote asserted that African Americans were
against the ban began only a week 50 percent of voters whenthey are only
before the election. The article went on 6.2 percent of the population - and not
to note thatAsian media were engaged all of them are eligible to vote.
weeks after opponents had already
been running ads.
The same themes came up in the
Huffington Post's story "The Non- How gay marriage
Campaign to Beat Proposition 8." That
article noted that Equality California proponents failed to
and No on 8, two major players advo-
cating for gay marriage, were tradi- reach out
tional top-down campaigns that "made
a conscious decision not to conduct
outreach to Latino and African Ameri-
can communities." This scapegoating has created
With respect to fundraising,itshould infighting in progressive circles that
also be notedthatthe campaignto defeat will be counterproductive for the next
the ban on gay marriage raised $37.6 battle that is surely on its way. Advo-
million, slightly more than the $35.8 cates for equal marriage must learn
million raised by proponents. In total, fromtheir errors this November. Black,
the $73 million spent on this campaign white, yellow and brown people need a
is the most that has ever been spent for a seat atthetable thatalso acknowledges
social issue on a ballot measure. " they aren't defined either by race or
But as an article in the Los Angeles sexuality - they are both.
Times noted, this money was some- The truth is communities of color
times misspent. Supporters of gay aren't more homophobic than white
marriage presumed the black com- communities and vice versa. We all
munity could be won simply by writ- have a role in making our country a
ing a $250,000 check to the NAACP, more equal place on the racial and sex-
an organization dedicated to people of uality front. I, for one, am continuing in
color-but not explicitly their sexual the struggle for equality this Saturday,
rights. Supporters went forward with engaging in a peaceful protest of Prop
this strategy even against the advice of 8 with students of color at 1:30 p.m. at
black lesbians and gays. 2 Woodward Ave in Detroit, Michigan.
If Obama imparted one thing this Many students committed to justice for
electionseason,it'sthis:assumenothing. all are attending, and you should too.
Don't let stereotypes aboutdemograph-
ics that are often framed as apathetic, Rose Afriyie is the Daily's sex and
prejudiced or too conservative govern relationships columnist. She can be
your campaign. Anti-Prop 8 leaders reached at sariyie@umich.edu.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor. Letters should be less than
300 words and must include the writer's full name and University affiliation. Letters
are edited for style, length, clarity and accuracy. All submissions become property of
the Daily. We do not print anonymous letters.
Send letters to tothedaily@umich.edu.

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