Monday, July 25, 2011
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
5
"I don't think there's any issue
with it whatsoever."
-Maj. Gen Jeffrey Buchanan, on whether alterations of the
Don't Ask Don't Tell policy would affect operations in Iraq.
HOLLY RIDER-MILKOVICH I
Campus safety
DOUG GALANTE
E-MAIL DOUG AT DGALANTE@UMICH.EDU
2m SO l_
No T-Pain, no gain
Recently, the Department of
Public Safety issued three campus
safety crime alerts to inform Uni-
versity of Michigan community
members of sexual assaults near
the campus. While these types of
stranger assaults are not common
on our campus or in Ann Arbor,
members of our community may
have concerns about their safety or
may have experienced emotional
distress related to reading news
stories about the crimes.
It is important to remember that
while sexual assaults do occur on
the U-M campus, the vast major-
ity of those assaults occur between
two people who know each, rather
than by a stranger. Research con-
ducted by the National Institute
of Justice and the Department of
Justice tells us that 90 percent of
college students who experience
sexual assault on campus know
their perpetrator as a classmate,
a friend, a significant other, or an
acquaintance.
In order to reduce sexual
assaults on our campus, we must
focus on translating our shared
institutional commitment to "cre-
ate and maintain a respectful
and inclusive environment that
provides the support and oppor-
tunity necessary for each mem-
ber of our community to prosper
and achieve" into effective action
when we see opportunities for
potential harm. Violence preven-
tion experts refer to this strategy
as "bystander intervention." We
think of it as looking out for each
other and taking responsibility
to help if we encounter troubling
situations or if someone is doing
something to or with another per-
son that just doesn't feel right.
While the actions we take will
change from person to person
and from situation to situation, if
we each commit to moving from
watching with concern to taking
action, we will make our com-
munity safer and bring to life our
Michigan values ofcivility, dignity,
diversity, education, equality, free-
dom, honesty and safety. Until that
time comes we have a responsibil-
ity to survivors of sexual assault to
listen to them, believe what they
are saying, support them in ways
that they choose and connect them
to the resources they need to heal.
The Sexual Assault Prevention
and Awareness Center (SAPAC)
is available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week through our Crisis
Line (734-936-3333). SAPAC pro-
vides support and assistance to
survivors of sexual assault, inti-
mate partner violence, sexual
harassment, and stalking in the
U-M community. Our services also
are offered to the family members,
and supporters of survivors. We
offer individualized crisis inter-
vention and academic, legal and
medical advocacy.
We provide survivors with
information to help them make
informed choices and we sup-
port survivor healing. U-M com-
munity members also may make
an appointment to mget with an
advocate in person by calling 734-
998-9368. Everyone is welcome to
stop byour office to speak with our
advocate on call Monday-Friday, 9
a.m.-5 p.m. SAPAC's office is locat-
ed at 715 N. University Ave., Suite
202 on the second floor.
If you have additional con-
cerns, would like more informa-
tion, or simply want to talk about
your experience, SAPAC is here
for you. As we approach our 25th
year of service to U-M students,
SAPAC is committed to promot-
ing healthy relationships, teaching
non-violence and equality and sup-
portingsurvivor healing. Together
we will foster a respectful and safe
environment for all members of
the University of Michigan com-
munity.
Holly Rider-Milkovich
is the director of SAPAC.
A couple of weeks ago a col-
league at the Daily sought to cap-
ture our generation's zeitgeist by
lightly com-
paring us to a
rapper, call-
ing us "Kids of
Cudi." The title
of the column
stuck with me.
I thought the
theme of the NICK
article was a BRINGARDNER
sweeping gen-
eralization,
and a rather discouraging one. We
shouldn't try to be the kids of Cudi,
entitled young people consuming in
excess. We can do better than that.
If anything, we should strive to be
the sons and daughters of T-Pain.
If you think about it, T-Pain is
the ultimate badass. If Andy Sam-
berg could choose only two peo-
ple to accompany him on a free
boat ride, T-Pain would be one of
those people. In the big single that
launched his career, "Buy You A
Drank," he assumed we knew him
before he was even really popu-
lar, saying, "I'm T-Pain, you know
me..." Well, it doesn't matter if we
knew him before the song because
we certainly know him now. He's a
hugely successful recording artist,
and although the title of his first
album, Rappa Turnt Sanga, might
confuse some, he can actually sing.
T-Pain knows how to play the
game. First, he added Auto-Tune
pitch correction to his voice, which
was (and still kind of is) the fad in
hip hop and other popular music. It
became his signature and his name
is synonymous with the effect. It
propelled him to superstardom,
so much so that he got in bed with
Apple and created an app called "I
Am T-Pain," a portable Auto-Tune
apilication. Rather than advertis-
ing that the program will auto-
tune your voice, it says it grants
you the privilege of sounding just
like T-Pain. Forget what you think
about all the people who bought
the app - or what that says about
our generation - T-Pain is mak-
ing a lot of money from it. Rappers
nowadays get their hands on all
types of entrepreneurial endeav-
ors. Mogul is a word commonly
used now for rappers like Jay-Z,
50 Cent and Nelly, who, while con-
tinuing to produce music, seek to
broaden their horizons by creating
their own record labels, owning
restaurants and basketball teams,
or developing fragrances and cloth-
ing lines. They're finding success
through several business ventures,
which is commendable no matter
how you look at it.
We should all be more like
T-Pain. And it's not just because he
stacks paper to the ceiling and gets
honeys. No. He, like so many other
rappers and performers, is living
his dream of being an entertainer.
He went after what he wanted and
got it. Unfortunately, many would
see his success as selling out, dress-
ing ridiculously and producing
subpar music. However, I don't,
view changing one's image solely
as conforming. In some cases, it
can be more like rebirth, redefining
oneself according to his or her own
choices.
With shrewdness similar to
Lady Gaga, T-Pain is able to do
whatever he wants and act howev-
er he wants to attract fans. He has
carefully crafted his image to get
attention because attention earns
him money. And I don't know why
people are so quick to denounce
his music as trash. Has every art-
ist in the history of music produced
instant classics? Certainly not.
Plus, I bet you can't avoid bopping
your head and moving your feet to
his song's catchy beats. And to be
quite honest, that's more or less the
point of the music.
He went after
what he wanted
and he got it.
There's nothing wrong with
trying to be more like a rapper.
T-Pain's not a caricature of some
silly rapper stereotype and he's
not an inept hack pawning off hor-
rible music. Nope, he's successful.
Maybe rappers and performers like
him are consuming in excess with
fast cars and fast women, but they
certainly earned it first. Whether
we think they deserve it or not is
irrelevant. The Kids of Cudi come
from their middle to upper-class
environments without any regard
for who earned that money, who
provided them with that lifestyle.
Sons and daughters of T-Pain seek
to innovate within the structure of
the game, carving out a niche for
themselves and finding success on
their own terms. The ubiquitous
"rags to riches" stories within the
rap community are actually good
examples of how ambition can get
you anywhere you want to go. So
don't hate, emulate.
Nick Bringardner can be
reached at njbring@umich.edu.