4A - Thursday, February 7, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4A - Thursday, February 7, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MELANIE KRUVELIS ANDREW WEINER and ADRIENNE ROBERTS MATT SLOVIN EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. In the driver's seat Issuing IDs is just the beginning of immigration reform n Friday, the Michigan Secretary of State's office announced they would issue driver's licenses to undocumented immi- grants who've been approved to work and study in the state. Immigrants who qualify for the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, a policy announced by President Barack Obama in June, can now receive temporary Michigan licenses, reversing the state's previous approach under Secretary Ruth Johnson. While the state aligning with the DACA program is a good first step, more sub- stantial immigration reform is needed to keep immigrants working in Michigan. EDITORIALS IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LES @CrislerCenter @Adidas@Nike So glad we beat OSU, but with the -fl #mustard and #ketchup - - mmfl uniforms now we want a hot dog. -@michdailyoped Turn off the stereo(type) 0 6 6 Under DACA, illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States'before they were 16, are under age 31, have lived here for five years, are enrolled or graduated from high school and don't pose a risk are eligible for a renewable 2-year deportation deferral. According to a recent MLive article, John- son previously denied licenses to DACA- approved immigrants, stating issues with technical language in Michigan's law, which forbids issuing licenses to those without proof of legal presence. But after last month's decision from the U. S. Citizenship and Immi- gration Services, which affirmed that DACA receivers were indeed legal citizens, John- son changed her tone. On Feb. 1, the Michi- gan SOS office announced they'd allow these immigrants to own Michigan driver's licens- es. Comprehensive reform still lies ahead. In January, Gov. Rick Snyder reflected on the immigration debate currently taking place on the national level, urging for more extensive change in immigration policy: "It's critical that we implement an effective sys- tem for legal immigration," he said in a Jan. 30 statement. Snyder is a proponent of increas- ing work visas to highly skilled immigrants - as well as other reforms - but no legisla- tive action has been taken to make this a real- ity. If Michigan wishes to be on the forefront of immigration reform, the state legislature must take action to open up opportunities to all immigrants - not just those skilled in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The governor has verbalized his sup- port for Obama's four-part immigration plan, yet there are still families that are worlds apart while Congress argues on full amnesty for immigrants. Here at the University, Mary Sue Coleman has come out in support for changing the school's immigration policy but has made no tangible commitments to specific issues like tuition equality. Currently, undocumented students who live in Michigan but lack nec- essary paperwork don't qualify for in-state tuition - even if they've lived in the state throughout high school. Federal and state financial aid isn't offered to these students either, making an affordable education at the University out of reach for many. Cole- man applauded the national discussion about immigration reform but refrained from chal- lenging the current tuition policies, instead stating that there needed to be laws that allow tuition equality in order for the University to act. While the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996 prohibits immigrants from benefits like finan- cial aid, public universities are constitutional- ly autonomous, meaningthe University makes its own rules regarding residency require- ments for students. While administrative task forces have been made with the Coali- tion for Tuition Equality, progress has been slow. Going forward, the University must take a stronger stance on immigration rights, encouraging effective and moral policies. Duke University has been making the news - but not for the right reasons. A fra- ternity's decision to hold an Asian- themed party sparked outrage across the cam- pus. The party incorporated many different Asian stereo- types, including HARSHA conical hats and NAHATA geisha outfits. The party inspired protests by the university's Asian Students Association - sen- timents that have been supported campus-wide. A few months earlier, a Pennsylvania State University fra- ternity's decision to throw a Mexi- can-themed party also elicited anger from many. There's a lot that has been said about these incident, especially in our campus community. If Facebook is any indication, the consensus is that what happened at Duke is out- rageous and unacceptable. And it is. It's disrespectful and a huge over- simplification and overgeneraliza- tion of an entire community. What's at the root of this and other bias incidents we hear about - whether here or at schools around the country - are stereotypes. gen- eralizations about how we see each other and in turn how we expect each other to act. , So, let's get to the bottom of this. Let's talk about stereotypes. They do exist. They always have and always will. "Asians are extremely smart and competitive, have funny accents and drive slowly." "African Americans are lazy or criminals." "Hispanics are here illegally. They're all border jumpers. Or they facilitate the drug trade." "Arabs and Muslims are terror- ists." And these are just the big ones. Then there are all the other assump- tions we make about personality and appearance. Are they wearing bright colors? They must be preppy. Dark colors? Goth. Are they quiet? Social- ly awkward. Are they smart?.Nerds. Are they athletic? Arrogant. I hope that those preceding para- graphs were as difficult for you to read as they were for me to write. It's painful to acknowledge many of these stereotypes because doing so reminds us of just how superficial they are. And yet, they exist. We can't ignore stereotypes. We can't discount them or hope for them to magically disappear. They won't. And if we keep tryingto cover them up under a farce of political correctness, they'll only continue to subconsciously influence how we see people. Which, if anything, is in some ways just as bad as using them in a disrespectful manner. But we also can't be limited by stereotypes. We can't let them influ- ence what we strive for, or how we see ourselves. And we absolutely cannot use them to target or margin- alize a group. Simply put, we can't use them as a tool to hurt those who are different. And so it's necessary to under- stand the purpose that stereotypes serve, but then to take them with a grain of salt. Stereotypes are an extension of the heuristic devices our brain uses to quickly process the vast amount of information it takes in. We categorize objects and ideas all the time - in terms of color, shape, size and purpose. In terms of how much we like somethingor how happy it makes us. Heck, we even categorize categories. But we have to. It's how our brain forms connections. It's how we remember information and inter- nalize it. Stereotypes are simply an extension of this need to find order in a world with so much diverse information. They're a way to orga- nize the patterns we see. The only difference is that with stereotypes we're categorizing people, not just objects or ideas. And that's what we often forget - that when we use stereotypes as a way of categorizing, it's people we're categorizing. Humans - with feelings, dreams and insecurities. We forget that the simplest way to understand someone is just to talk to them. We forget that no matter how different our identities might be, we all feel in the same way. The problem is we're categorizing people, not just objects or ideas. Stereotypes lead us to oversim- plify; and when we do, the only per- sonthatloses outis us.Yes, incidents like what happened at Duke are hurtful to the targeted group, but the targeted group knows its iden- tity and has the strength to assert it. Those perpetuating the generaliza- tions of the stereotype are the ones truly missing out. They miss out on understanding the beauty of a Zulture and a people. They miss out on embracing a group that may be potential friends. They miss out on experiencing a new way of life and think. Many of us prefer to live in a simplified black-and-white version of the world. And if that's the choice you make, then so beit. But in doing so, you close out a world of pos- sibilities, a world of opportunities, a world of learning about different places and people and ways of life. There's way more to an indi- vidual than the stereotypes associ- ated with the identities they hold. It's unfair to them and to our- selves to limit them to just that. - Harsha Nahata can be reached at hnahata@umich.edu. 0 EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Barry Belmont, Eli Cahan, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis, Maura Levine, Patrick Maillet, Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Jasmine McNenny, Harsha Nahata, Adrienne Roberts, Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Luchen Wang, Derek Wolfe ALAINA WYGANT A'xe the Axe j ~The Working Ethic: Should out-of-state students really ,t be paying more than in-state students? SOU If Charlene Lerner discusses the ins and outs of tuition. Go to michigandaily.com/blogs/The Podium SHARIK BASHIR W Asking the right questions I'min lecture and suddenly, my heart starts racing. Heart attack! Panic attack! Sponta- neous human combustion! Is it because I'm anemic? The possibilities I come up with for what's happening to me seem endless. My head fogs over as I slump into what might possibly be the most resigned posture you've ever seen. Let's backtrack. I've been here before: Someone walks into class, sits somewhere by me and a bit of them proceeds to go up my nose. I don't want to come across as hoity-toity, and I'm aware that air theoretically belongs to everyone, but please, for the love of baby Jesus, don't wear your perfume or cologne to class. Let me try and talk you out of it. First of all, if you're a person who is fond of a couple morning sprays of a chemical fragrance, you might want to check out the term "endocrine disruptor." This is a broad category of chemi- cals that includes things like phthalates, bisphenol A, lead, pesticides, detergents and other olfactory-inducing additives. But if you intend on keeping your reproductive organs intact, you might want to know that using Axe on yourself might end up sculpting more than just your aroma. Endocrine disruptors are little buggers in perfume, cologne and other things that mess with how hormones work, and could lead to breast cancer, pros- tate cancer, allergies, asthma and other con- ditions and complications. Oprah has talked about them, Nick Kristof has written about them and while there're definitely some sci- ence aspects I don't understand about them, I do know how perfume and cologne physically make me feel. There needs tobe a bigger discussion about what these chemicals do to our bodies. We shouldn't be used as guinea pigs like the gen- eration before us with smoking and figure out years down the line that oh, hey, in retrospect, that was a pretty harmful idea and we had no clue what was going on. I realize that we can't put seat belts and child safety locks on every- thing we come in contact with, and I'm not arguing for as big of a shaming campaign as the one against smoking. ButI do think we need to talk about the obnoxious and probably noxious fragrances we subject ourselves to. We might end up having fewer headaches all around. Alaina Wygant is an LSA sophomore. 0 When I mention to people that I am Pakistani, I'm often asked, "Oh, do you speak Arabic?" Other times I'm told "Oh yeah, soccer must be huge there." But I don't speak Arabic - I speak English and Urdu. I won't lie though, I love football, or soc- cer, depending on where you are in the world, but it's not actually huge in Pakistan. Cricket is what's huge there. The fact that I've stayed up until 3 a.m. to watch Pakistan play South Africa in a cricket match, that will likely last 5 days and might end in a draw, serves as a testament to how important cricket is in Pakistan. But that it's assumed that I speak Arabic and watch soccer is a result of grouping Pakistan with Arab Mus- lim states and considering Pakistan a part of the Middle East - not just geographically but culturally, too. I don't mean for this to be a long rant about America. In fact, I appre- ciate such questions - it's honest curiosity. However, the generalized grouping of people can be danger- ous. Linguistically, historically, cul- turally and politically, Pakistan has nothingin commonwithArab states. Brown skin and Muslim doesn't equal Arab, just as white skin and Christian doesn't equal American. Making generalizations about other countries isn't limited to stu- dents. I've seen it in the spheres of journalism, academia and even in classes here. Many articles published in renowned political magazines and journals refer to the Muslim world as if it were one monolithic bloc. At times, the observations made by these academics and journalists about the wider Muslim world may be accurate, but it does a disservice to their audience who look to them as a resource on these differentregions. It can be hard to understand that these groupings made by academics and journalists aren't holistic. There are stark differences between most Muslim majority countries. While there may be some similarities in values and political systems in mid- dle-eastern countries or "the West," it's even more important to under- stand how each member of these groups is unique. Go to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan and you'll notice how different these coun- tries are. The people don't speak the same language, they don't have the same culture and the political scenes are completely different. In this one big Muslim bloc that people create, there are some countries bit- terly opposed to eachother. The only thing that is similar is the majority religion, Islam, but there are differ- ent sects that divide even there. In order to talk about issues facing us today, we must try to understand the intricacies of each separate state. A principle criti- cism of the U.S. operation in Iraq was that the Bush administration had notdone their homework on the nation. They didn't consider the socio-political climate of the country, and, as a result, political rifts were triggered after the inva- sion. Once former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown, absolute political and administrative chaos ensued. Such mistakes are bound to repeat if we remain aloof to the particulars of different countries and societies that exist. I've seen my country being tossed around in different broadly defined religious or geographical categories - categories that it doesn't belong in. Ourunique SouthAsianheritage and cultureisn'tgivenitsduerecognition. And it's not just Pakistan - many regions are simplified to the point of nonrecognition. Going forward, we must educate ourselves about the world. Or, at least understand what distinguishes Pakistan from Saudi Arabia. That would be a start. Sharik Bashir is an LSA sophomore. CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit viewpoints. 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