The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, October 2; 2012 - 5
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - 5
Hip-hop artists discuss,
Islamic musical culture
Resistance
movements plays
role in developing
musical stylings
By KATIE SZYMANKSI
Daily StaffReporter
About 60 students took out
their ear buds and learned from
the artists on their playlists
firsthand about the unique con-
nection between music and the
Islamic religion at an event at
Rackham Amphitheatre on Mon-
day night.
The Islam & Hip Hop Panel
Discussion: The 5 Pillars & The
5 Elements - sponsored by the
Office of Multi-Ethnic Student
Affairs and developed by Hip
Hop Congress, a University orga-
nization that utilizes hip-hop
culture to spark social action,
and the Muslim Students' Asso-
ciation -addressed the historical
link between hip hop and Islam.
The event featured a question
and answer session with Muslim
hip-hop artists One Be Lo and
Langston Luv.
Amer Ahmed, the associate
director of MESA, emceed the
event, opening with a rap greet-
ing and moving into an in-depth
lecture on the interconnected-
ness of hip hop and the Islamic
community throughout history.
The presentation discussed
moments of struggle that helped
shape hip hop's creation, includ-
ing the slave trade involving the
Islamic population from West
Africa. Ahmed's presentation
highlighted' how the Islamic
faith was part of the guiding ide-
als of African-American culture
in North America, because both
groups spoke against resistance.
ADIDAS
From Page 1
University places on ensur-
ing that the workers who have
been involved in manufactur-
ing license products receive the
assistance they require and have
earned," Coleman wrote in the
letter.
Coleman's letter was addressed
to Patrik Nilsson, the president
5 of Adidas America and Gregg
Nebel, the head of the company's
Social and Environmental Affairs
department. Coleman wrote that
she acted in response to the rec-
ommendation of the University's
Advisory Committee on Labor
Standards and Human Rights,
which oversees the responsible
use and reproduction of the Uni-
versity's copyrighted logo.
"Adidas has acted laudably in
seeking and locating re-employ-
ment for former P.T. Kizone work-
ers and in pursuing improved
enforcement of labor laws, and
the University appreciates these
efforts," Coleman wrote. "How-
ever, it remains the committee's
considered view that the compa-
ny's response to the P.T. Kizone
situation is inadequate. I accept
the committee's assessment"
Adidas spokeswoman Lauren
Lamkin acknowledged that the
company responded to Coleman's
letter last week, but declined to
release the reply letter. But she
did say the workers' well-being is
a concern for Adidas.
"Importantly, we are mak-
ing headway in leading industry
efforts to develop sustainable
business solutions that address the
systemic root cause of unethical
factory closures around the globe,
and protecting workers impacted
by them," the statement said.
The apparel company said it
works with governments, indus-
try groups and other companies
to investigate poor labor condi-
tions in factories it contracts for
manufacturing.
"We work with hundreds of
factories in our supply chain
every year to ensure fair, healthy
and safe working conditions,"
the company said. "We measure
"There is a continuation of
oral tradition and the delivery
of these messages of identity, of
reclaiming of identity, of resis-
tance through the use of oral tra-
dition," Ahmed said.
He explained how the resis-
tance movement fueled the cre-
ation of a genre of music that
embodied the same ideologies.
"This culture of resistance
was very much part of the iden-
tity of people connected to Islam-
based ideologies, but it was also
part of the cultivation of hip-hop
culture," Ahmed said. "Hip-hop
culture is a counterculture; it's
a resistance to hegemonic forces
and systems of oppression."
After Ahmed's introductory
presentation, One Be Lo and
Langston Luv appeared on a
panel to answer questions and
demonstrate their rapping tal-
ents. Luv addressed how it can
be difficult to be a hip-hop artist
that also identifies as Muslim.
"I'm almost fearful because
I, don't want to become (or)
appear as if I'm some poster-boy
for Islam," Luv said. "I would
misrepresent it personally; I do
things that are maybe against the
permissibility of Islam."
He added that many well-
known hip-hop artists such as
Lupe Fiasco are associated with
Islam and place Islamic refer-
ences in their music.
"The jewels that these people
are sharing are a part of their
gift and a part of their faith," Luv
added.
During the question and
answer session, One. Be Lo
described his process of convert-
ing from Christianity to Islam,
and how he. was introduced to
Islamic faith during his time in
prison. He explained how his
original views towards Islamic
faith changed during this time.
"I was comingto Islam in stag-
es," One Be Lo said. "When I first
heard about Islam, I thought it
was about 'The white man is the
devil,' and when I started read-
ing the Quran, (I learned) it was
nothing like that. It was a real
beautiful thing to me."
In an interview after the
event, One Be Lo said music is
a universal language that is all
encompassing.
"Maybe we don't speak the
same language and totally dif-
ferent backgrounds, but we both
like this beat," he said.
LSA freshman Dakota
DeGroot said he attended
because of his interests in hip-
hop music and Islam.
"I like to write music (and) I
write a lot of hip hop," DeGroot
said. "It's something that I've
really loved my entire life. On the
religious side, I tend to believe
in the general beliefs of Islam,
so it's culminating two things
that I feel strongly about into one
event."
LSA junior Yazan Kherallah,
the MSA social justice and activ-
ism committee chair, said the
event was important for spread-
ing knowledge about various
aspects of Islam.
"(The event) helps to give a
greater awareness of what Islam
is," Kherallah said. "It is not real-
ly one dimensional. Islam relates
to so many things."
LSA junior Zach Kendall, the
president of Hip Hop Congress,
said the event was successful in
uniting a variety of people from
many backgrounds.
"We like to get people in a
space, in the name of hip hop,"
Kendall said. "We want to bring
people together that wouldn't
normally be in the same space
... for me, this was an extremely
successful event."
MEMOIR'
From Page 1
the death knell for any profes-
sional ambitions I might .have.
And in the 1950s, he was statis-
tically right, but he was wrong
about me."
The last chapter of her book
boasts the title "Having It All."
"What I mean by that is, look-
ing back at my advanced age, I
realized that I've been able to do
what my father wanted me to do,
which is use whatever intellectual
capacities you have," Whitman
said.
"I managed to be very happily
married for 56 years to the man I
announced at the age of 17 I would
marry. And we had two terrific
children and two terrific grand-
children. And so, in a sense, all
* those expectations merged," she
added.
Using two distinct anecdotes,
Whitman's second focus in the
book is how society has changed
during her lifetime. In the first,
she describes how she was turned
down for a prospective job oppor-
tunity at IBM because the rfcruit-
er saw she was engaged to be
married.
"I stood up and apologized for
taking up his time and left," Whit-
WEIBO
From Page 1
Twitter had that capability,"
Foreman said. "Soit's really quite
incredible."
As a result of government
restrictions, individuals living in
China are prohibited from access-
ing Twitter, Facebook or You-
Tube, and turn to Weibo for their
social networking fix. On Weibo,
people make profiles to create and
comment on 140-character Weibo
posts, photos and videos that their
followers can view.
The University's Weibo profile
currently has about 4,000 follow-
ers, comprised primarily of peo-
ple from Beijing and Shanghai.
"(Weibo is) the mostimportant
source of information for a large
segment of the Chinese popula-
tion," Foreman said. "Right now
the most recent estimates are
400 million Chinese are using
Weibo."
According to Weibo analytics,
Foreman said the University's
Weibo site was the most influen-
man said. "He was completely in
his rights. I could have kicked and
screamed on the floor and threw a
fit, and it would have made abso-
lutely no difference. There was no
(Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission), nothing."
The second anecdote dis-
cusses Whitman's application to
Princeton University for a Ph.D.
in economics; the economics
department invited her to apply,
yet turned her down for a simple
reason.
"I went to see the president (of
Princeton). And what the conver-
sation boiled down to was, 'I'm
so sorry, Mrs. Whitman, we can
accept a student of your caliber,
but we just don't have enough
ladies' rooms.'
"And I think the message for
younger people, young women,
but young people in general today,
is that it is still within my lifetime
that things have changed," Whit-
man said.
"It took the work of a lot of peo-
ple to get there despite the fact
that there are still plenty of prob-
lems," she said. "And it's fragile;
it could disappear. And I think in
the current political environment
the notion of that fragility, and
the fact that it takes some work to
make sure we move forward and
not backward, is relevant."
tial American university profile
and ranked fourth among other
global university Weibo sites.
The University's Weibo,
account also serves to attract
prospective . students overseas
and publicize the University's
acclaimed programs, while also
allowing alumni to remain con-
nected.
Foreman and Zhangsendthree
posts a day and post pictures and
videos regarding University mat-
ters, deriving their content from
campus life and University activ-
ities. Foreman said the program
attracts viewers of a wide age
range of users, including parents
and alumni.
Foreman added that the page
allows the University to promote
school spirit overseas.
"It's a great platform for
engagement," Foreman said. "For
example, during (the) Michi-
gan-Alabama football game, I
was (posting) quarterly scores
on Weibo, and alumni in China
started sending me pictures of
parties that they were having."
Foreman specifically noted
Having served in such power-
ful positions during her career,
Whitman said the media was
much 'to blame for continuing
stereotypes about women in the
workplace.
"The very worst were the
Fourth Estate," Whitnan said.
"The press was appalling. Every
headline was, 'Woman Econo-
mist' Half of them would write
things about my looks and my
clothes and whether the family
gerbil survived the trip to Wash-
ington. I mean the press reports
were about as sexist as you could
get."
In the gallery of the Hatcher
Graduate Library on Tuesday,
Whitman will read the prologue
to "The Martian's Daughter,"
take questions and sign cop-
ies of the book. There, one can
ask about her dream job on the
Council of Economic Advisors -
and why she eventually chose to
resign in 1973.
"Like many people, I suc-
cumbed to the vanity of thinking,
'Well, if rm involved in it, it'll do
less harm than if someone else
was involved,' "Whitman said.
As hinted by the book's title
- which references a nickname
given to her father by his col-
leagues - like Martian father,
like Martian daughter.
an instance last spring when
he posted a photo of maize and
blue cookies at a Ross School of
Business graduation event. The
photo was reposted by a Hong
Kong investment banker who is a
University alum with more than
10,000 followers, many of whom
are former Ross students.
"The coolest part of it was
people started tweeting back to
her, 'Oh, I didn't know you went
to Ross.' This was great exposure
for the University... That's what
we're doing. We're tryingto raise
the awareness of the University
of Michigan overseas," Foreman
said.
University students who use
Weibo feel that it has become an
important part of their lives.
Dang Shuodong, a Business
and Engineering junior and a
Chinese international student,
said he has used Weibo since it
first started.
"I basically go on Weibo every
single day," Dang said' "On
Weibo, I tweet about college life
... other times I retweet other
people's tweets."
factories' performance, 'as well
as our efficacy in resolving these
issues."
In the statement, Adidas
announced that it has called
for a summit of manufacturers,
financing institutions, insurance
experts and other firms in part-
nership with the Global Forum
for Sustainable Supply Chains,
an industry advocacy group, to
form a private insurance fund for
workers affected by the factory
closures and lack of compensa-
tion. The forum is scheduled to
take place in Switzerland later
this month.
Adidas claims the use of an
insurance fund, which the com-
pany is calling a "provident
fund," will provide relief in coun-
tries that require severance pay
by law, but don't ensure employ-
ers have sufficient funds to fulfill
severance obligations.
In addition to a job placement
program and a $250,000 food aid
program that Adidas said it has
provided for the former employ-
ees of P.T, Kizone, the company
announced in the statement that
'it would pledge an additional
$275,000 in humanitarian aid.,
"As a company, we are sym-
pathetic to the plight of workers
impacted by the unethical clo-
sure of the P.T. Kizone factory in
Indonesia," the statement said.
"Although the Adidas Group had
no business relationship with the
factory for nearly six months prior
to its closure, we are the leaders
in the industry and, accordingly,
the Adidas Group has directly
dedicated more towards the for-
mer P.T. Kizone workers than any
other brand."
In March, University students
met with Nebel to discuss the con-
troversy, asking the executive to
leave after 30 minutes of intense
questioning.
At the time, Nebel said the
meeting made no progress in find-
ing a solution to concerns with the
company's handling of the dis-
pute.
"That wasn't very respectful to
just make me dismissed like that,
and that is a little disconcerting,"
Nebel said. .
United Students against Sweat-
shops released aletter on Monday
praising Coleman's recognition of,
the issue with Adidas, but also
criticizing her for not going far
enough in "targeting the true
problem."
"As we have seen from past
groundbreaking campaigns
against Nike and Russell Athlet-
ic, apparel brands only respond
to universities making credible
threats of contract loss if they fail
to remediate their code of con-
duct violations," the letter stated.
"Given this reality, we call on you
to put Adidas on notice, and if the
company fails to pay the legally
mandated severance within the
contractual remediation period,
then the University should termi-
nate its $60 million contract with
Adidas."
The letter also stated that
USAS took issue with the services
that Adidas has offered to the for-
mer P.T. Kizone employees, writ-
ing that the food vouchers were
a cheaper way of getting out of
paying the actual severance pay
owed to the workers.
Public Policy senior Michael
Guisinger, a member of USAS,
said although the organization
was pleased to see Coleman rec-
ognizing the problem, they were
dissatisfied that Coleman did not
directly threaten the partnership.
"We're not entirely satis-
fied," Guisigner said. "It does not
threaten actually severing the
contract. What we wanted was
for the University to say, 'If you
don't do something about this,
we're going to have to end ties
with you.' There's none of that in
the letter."
In September, a representative
of USAS presented the group's
case before the University's
Board of Regents at the board's
month meeting.
The University of Wisconsin
and Cornell University have pre-
viously expressed their concerns
about Adidas' conduct in the P.T.
Kizone case. Earlier this year,
the University of Wisconsin-
Madison sued Adidas, alleging
it was not in compliance with its
contract with the university. The
Colombian president says he
has developed prostate cancer
Santos has a 97
percent chance of
survival
of neighborin
Hugo Chavez, w
to release m
regarding the c
identified last ye
he has been treat
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Santos did n
- Colombian President Juan when the cance
Manuel Santos announced but he said it
Monday that he has prostate his doctor int
cancer. He said the tumor was a routine annua
caught early and would be confirmed by
removed this week.
The 61-year-old Santos
told reporters in announcing,
the cancer at the presidential
palace, his wife Maria , o)aua tts
Clemencia at his side, that he 55 tlassa
has a 97 percent chance of a full letre and
recovery. nyonntt 7,34.l
"It is not an aggressive
cancer," Santos added.
He said he planned to fly to
Lima, Peru later Monday for a
summit of South American and
Arab leaders and then undergo
surgery on his return to Bogota
on Wednesday.
Santos said the surgery
would be performed under local
anesthetic so he would not need
to relinquish temporarily his
presidential responsibilities.
Santos said his doctors told
him the surgery places him
in no danger, "but they have
recommended that after the
surgery and after I leave the
hospital, I don't travel for
several weeks."
He was also joined by his
doctor, Felipe Gomez, who
characterized Santos' situation
as "common among men."
The news comes two years
into Santos' four-year term and
with his government about to
begin formal peace talks this
month with Colombia's main
leftist rebel group.
Santos said his medical
records would be completely
public. That contrasts
sharply with the president
g Venezuela,
'ho has refused
edical records
ancer that was
ar and for which
ted in Cuba.
ot say exactly
r was detected
was found by-
Colombia after
al physical and
specialists at
Memorial Sloan Kettering
hosptial in New York during
his visit last week for the U.N.
General Assembly.
"This could happenlto anyone.
Prostate cancer is much more
common than people imagine,"
said Santos. "I am calm because
this cancer was detected very
early thanks to my discipline in
repeating medical exams year
after year."
The University's chapter of case is still under review.
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