michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, January 19, 2016

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

INDEX
Vol. CXXV, No. 54
©2016 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com

NEWS......................... 2A

OPINION.....................4A

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A

SUDOKU..................... 2A

CL ASSIFIEDS............... 5A

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 B

NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM
Meet the wrestling team’s “Murderer’s Row”
MICHIGANDAILY.COM/SECTION/SPORTS

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

WEATHER 
TOMORROW

HI: 22

LO: 8

University hosts 

30th annual 
campus-wide 
symposium

By BRANDON SUMMERS-

MILLER

Daily Staff Reporter

The University hosted a 

series of events across campus 
for the annual Martin Luther 
King 
Jr. 
Day 
symposium 

Monday to honor the life and 
social 
activism 
of 
Martin 

Luther King Jr. Monday. In its 
30th year, the 2015 symposium 
was titled “#WhoWillBeNext,” 
and focused on addressing 
modern day racism, generating 
proactive social attitudes and 
encouraging racial inclusion.

The symposium featured 

a variety of events outside of 
the annual keynote memorial 
speech in Hill Auditorium, 
including the annual Youth Day, 
campus-wide watch parties, 
the Circle of Unity, West Quad’s 
Connector Forum and the Law 
School’s symposium event titled 
“#YourLifeMatters.” While the 
events were unique in what 
they offered their audiences, 
each 
posed 
questions 
of 

modern incarnations of racism 
and shared sentiments of social 
justice, collective responsibility 
and community awareness.

Beginning Monday’s events 

was the 18th Annual Children 
and Youth Day, hosted by 
the University of Michigan 
School of Education as a part 
of the Martin Luther King Jr. 
Symposium.

In 
an 
interview, 
Molly 

Green, a graduate student in 
the School of Public Health 
and an event organizer, said the 
event aims to educate about the 
legacy of Martin Luther King 
Jr.

“This is a day of service 

and to come together as a 
community,” Green said. “It’s 
a chance to think more about 
civil rights and equality.”

Throughout the day, local 

youth 
from 
schools 
and 

churches in the Washtenaw 
County area participated in 
small group activities and 
workshops, such as musical 
chairs to teach inclusion and 
fairness, civil rights poetry 
readings, 
open 
discussions 

about equality and justice and 
a viewing of King’s “I Have a 
Dream” speech.

The event included remarks 

from 
Elizabeth 
James, 

program 
assistant 
for 
the 

Department of Afroamerican 
and African Studies, as well 
as performances from the 
Detroit School of Arts’ Ladies 
Achievers Ensemble, Detroit’s 
Reverend Jones, acapella group 
58 Greene and more.

GRANT HARDY/Daily

Shermin Kruse, author of Butterfly Stitching, discusses why 

the public is less responsive to mass killings than individual 

ones in South Hall Monday.

An open letter to my 
mother about why my 
natural hair is beautiful

DAVID SONG/Daily

Naomi Tutu, race activist and daughter of Desmond Tutu, speaks at the Keynote 
Memorial lecture for the MLK Symposium Monday at Hill Auditorium.

STINA PERKINS/Daily

Jim Toy, UM alum and co-founder of the UM Spectrum Center, reflects on the legacy of community activist 
Grace Lee Boggs in a panel hosted by the School of Social Work and the Multicultural and Gender Affairs 
Committee on Monday. 

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Protestors chant outside Gov. Rick Synder’s Main Street condo at a march on Monday. Demonstrators 
marched from Rackham Auditorium calling for the arrest of Gov. Snyder in response to the Flint water crisis. 

See EVENTS, Page 5A

By KRISTEN SWOPE

Michigan 
in 
Color 

Contributor

I will be completely 

honest in saying that 
this is one of the hardest 
things I’ve had to write 
— mainly because I know 
that, as my mother, you 
are my biggest supporter 
and encourager. I can 
always count on you to 
be my number one fan 
— except when it comes 
to my natural curls. 
From the age of 10, I can 
remember only negative 
comments 
from 
you 

when I tried to wear my 

hair in its natural state — 
without any chemicals, 
heat or manipulation.

I 
admire 
your 

simplicity when it comes 
to beauty, which is why I 
wonder why there seems 
to be so much distaste 
toward 
my 
natural 

hair. But as I’ve grown 
to recognize that the 
negativity surrounding 
Black 
women 
and 

natural hair has to do 
with race and many 
underlying 
historical 

reasons, I have gained 
a better understanding 
of the inherent racism 
that drives us as Black 

women to desire the 
universal standard of 
beauty — which is that of 
the European aesthetic. 
I wonder, though, if 
you understand that? I 
wonder if you understand 
the underlying teachings 
of self-hate toward our 
own race that have been 
inflicted on both you and 
me growing up. Because 
this is what America 
teaches us — that we 
must conform to the 
ideal image of the white 
race or else we are not 
considered “beautiful.”

I 
remember 
when 

MICHIGAN IN COLOR

At Hill Auditorium, 
activist challenges 
audience to become 

involved

By ALYSSA BRANODN and 

LARA MOEHLMAN

Daily News Editor and Daily Staff 

Reporter

Nontombi Naomi Tutu, South 

African race and gender activist 
and daughter of archbishop 
Desmond Tutu, joined the ranks 
of renowned social activists who 
have delivered the University’s 
annual Martin Luther King Jr. 
Symposium keynote memorial 
lecture 
Monday 
afternoon. 

Addressing a packed audience at 
Hill Auditorium, Tutu charged 
the audience to hold themselves 
individually 
responsible 
for 

taking 
action 
against 
the 

injustices they see in the world. 

The 30th annual Martin 

Luther King Jr. symposium, 
which featured multiple events 
across 
campus 
including 

Tutu’s keynote address, aimed 
to 
engage 
the 
University 

community in dialogues about 
King’s legacy. This year’s theme 
is 
#WhoWillBeNext, 
which 

seeks to prompt the campus 

community to consider both 
who will fall victim to and who 
will lead the escape from hatred 
in the world, according to the 
sympoisum’s website. 

For Tutu however, this theme 

was problematic. She began 
her remarks by challenging the 
University’s theme, criticizing 
the theme for highlighting the 
negative associated with Martin 
Luther King Jr. She said she was 
told by the University the theme 
would be in the context of both 
“who would be the next to 
lead?” in addition to “who would 
be the next to suffer the injustice 
of racism by being killed?”

Tutu said she prefers to focus 

on the positive potential of the 
future, 
instead 
encouraging 

audience members to take a 
more proactive approach to 
injustice, challenging them to 
consider themselves the next 
generation of social activist 
leaders. 

“Maybe what we should be 

saying is ‘We are all next, and we 
refuse to allow anyone else to be 
next,” Tutu said.

Veering from praising only 

Martin Luther King Jr., she 
emphasized instead that like 
all great leaders, King was no 
different from any person sitting 
in the audience.

See KEYNOTE, Page 3A

Students and 
faculty reflect 

on legacy of local 

activist

By JACKIE CHARNIGA

Daily News Editor

At the School of Social Work 

Building 
Monday 
afternoon, 

more than 100 students and 
faculty convene to discuss one 
of the most influential activists 
of the 20th century, Grace Lee 
Boggs.

Boggs, who died last year, was 

an activist, writer and speaker 
with seven decades of experience 
advocating for civil and women’s 
rights. The event was part of the 
University’s Martin Luther King 
Jr. symposium.

Stephen 
Ward, 
professor 

of Afroamerican and African 
Studies, 
is 
writing 
a 
dual 

biography of Boggs and her 
husband James, titled “In Love 
and Struggle: The Revolutionary 
Lives of James and Grace Lee 
Boggs,” is a board member of 
the James and Grace Lee Boggs 
Center to Nurture Community 

Leadership 
and 
helped 
to 

organize the event.

Ward said the language used 

to 
describe 
Boggs’ 
activism 

doesn’t give a full picture of her 
work because she doesn’t fit into 
traditional classifications of an 
activist.

“In some ways most of those 

are only partially accurate, or 
there’s some ambiguity there,” 
Ward said. “Grace doesn’t seem to 
fit our own categories.”

In particular, Ward said an 

Asian American woman was 
anomalous in the civil rights 
movement when Boggs began 
her work, and it would be more 
fitting to refer to her as a human 
rights activist. He said those who 
call Boggs a revolutionary would 
hit closer to the truth, but are no 
closer to identifying her.

“I think in the use of ‘civil 

rights’ 
we 
sometimes 
lazily 

use to describe Black people or 
other types of struggles without 
properly recognizing what it 
takes to make a movement,” Ward 
said.

Raina LaGrand, a School of 

Social Work alum, is a member of 
their People of Color Collective, 
a group which aims to create a 

See BOGGS, Page 3A

State residents hold 
governer responsible 
for Flint water crisis

By MARLEE BREAKSTONE

Daily Staff Reporter

A group of Michigan residents 

from across the state gathered in 

Ann Arbor on Monday to call for 

the arrest of Gov. Rick Snyder, one 

of wave of Monday protests held 

in past weeks over the Flint water 

crisis. 

In April 2014, the state of 

Michigan decided to temporarily 

switch the supply of Flint’s water 

from Lake Uron to the Flint River 

as a way to save money. However, 

lead from the service lines in 

Flint began to leak into the water 

supply. As a result of the switch, 

researchers warned city and state 

officials of the toxic lead in the 

water, when the city changed 

the water source in October 2015 

— 18 months later — and Snyder 

declared a state of emergency on 

Jan. 5.

President 
Barack 
Obama 

also issued a federal emergency 

declaration in response to the 

Flint 
water 
crisis 
Saturday, 

allocating $5 million in federal 

aid to immediately assist the city. 

Several democratic canidates for 

president highlighted Flint during 

Sunday night’s debate, calling the 

situation deplorable. 

Novi resident Colleen Crossey, 

alum of the University School of 

Social Work and co-organizer 

of the protest, said she chose to 

hold the march on Martin Luther 

King Jr. Day to coincide with the 

University’s annual symposium 

aimed at highlighting modern-day 

social justice.

“Many of the speakers on 

this day will encourage their 

audience members to organize 

and 
fight 
back 
against 
the 

unethical activities that oppress 

others,” Crossey said. “This rally 

and march will give them the 

opportunity to do just that.”

Protesters 
marched 
from 

See SNYDER, Page 3A
See MIC, Page 3A

RITA MORRIS/Daily

Artist Walter Lacy leads a creative expression workshop 

with local children during the MLK Children and Youth 

Program in the Modern Languages Building Monday.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Dr. Martin 
Luther King 
Jr. honored 
with events

CAMPUS LIFE
KEYNOTE
Naomi Tutu 
talks social 
awareness 
in address

Grace Boggs 
remembered 
in discussion 

DETROIT

Protesters hold 
rally in A2 calling 
for Snyder’s arrest

FLINT

