Rackham to Snyder’s Ann Arbor condo 

at 211 S. Main St. where they formed a 

moving circle and cheered loudly.

Chants from the protest included 

“Justice for Flint, arrest Rick Snyder” 

and “Democracy, democracy, that’s our 

right; Snyder stole it, that’s our fight.” 

Buttons were also passed out that said 

“Arrest Rick Snyder” and featured an 

image of Snyder, handcuffed, wearing 

a black and white striped prisoner’s 

uniform.

Jan BenDor, Ypsilanti resident 

and another organizer of the event, 

helped organize another attempt to 

fire Snyder in 2011. Her complaint 

at the time was that Snyder was 

promoting 
privatizing 
all 
public 

services. Some Michigan residents 

have filed petitions to recall Snyder to 

the Board of Canvassors. Though most 

of the petitions were denied, two are 

currently pending approval. 

BenDor said Snyder should be taken 

out of office and charged with federal 

crimes for his responsibility in the 

water crisis. She said she saw Snyder’s 

neglect of the water conditions in Flint 

as akin to an act of terrorism.

“Snyder managed to do what ISIS 

could never do,” BenDor said.

The organizers of the protest also 

created a GoFundMe account to raise 

money to buy bottled water and filters 

for the people of Flint. They said other, 

more permanent fundraising efforts 

are in the works.

Several University students in 

attendance declined interviews.

Katie Oppenheim, a registered 

nurse and president of the University 

Nurse’s Union, agreed that Snyder 

should be held responsible for his 

dishonesty about the severe levels of 

lead in Flint water leading up to the 

city’s state of emergency.

Oppenheim recently visited Flint 

and said the tap water was the color of 

mustard and essentially toxic, barring 

citizens from access to clean water to 

live.

John Armelagos, a registered nurse 

from Ypsilanti and an officer of the 

Michigan Nurse’s Association, said at 

the event Flint residents who drank 

the public water are susceptible to 

lifelong illnesses. Armelagos noted 

that children and infants are prone 

to developmental issues affecting 

all parts of their bodies, including 

their brains, and risk being unable to 

reach their full intellectual potential. 

Adults may also suffer various kinds 

of illnesses, including those impacting 

reproductive health.

SNYDER
From Page 1A

space for people of color interested 
in making radical social change. 
LaGrand said for Boggs, it was 
important to view issues as people 
and not politics.

“We need to embrace the idea 

that we are the leaders we’ve been 
looking for,” LaGrand said.

In speaking about the biases of 

the individual that inhibit social 
change, LaGrand highlighted how 
important it is that students learn 
about groups and communities 
different from their own through 
the process of practice-based 
evidence.

“When we solely rely on 

research and evaluation we’re not 
really giving voices to the people 
who need them,” LaGrand said. 
“As students, education doesn’t 
necessarily make us experts, but 
because we have education we 
must advocate certain things that 
communities want.”

She added that increasing 

attention to social justice is a 
double-edged 
sword. 
While 

it draws awareness to social 
issues, she said, it skews who is 
responsible for social change

“Education and money doesn’t 

give (students) a free pass to go 
wherever we want,” LaGrand 
said. “When we stop buying into 
what is done, that’s when we 
become radical.”

Activist 
Jim 
Toy, 
who 

co-founded the Spectrum Center 
at the University and worked with 
Boggs, said during the workshop 
each individual has their own area 
of the world, their corner, that 
they are responsible for making 
more socially aware.

“Grace had a corner and she 

brightened that corner where she 
was and we each I think are called 
to brighten our own corner,” Toy 
said.

Sharon Howell, an Oakland 

University 
professor 
of 

communication and journalism, 
met Boggs in 1973, and said she 
worked with Boggs and her 
husband on a daily basis for 
decades.

Howell said Boggs believed 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was a 
time to think and talk about how 
civil movements can progress, 
especially given her relationship 
with 
King, 
which 
Howell 

described as contentious at times.

She noted that because she 

was not a worker and came from 
a privileged background, Boggs 
had difficulty fitting in when she 
moved to Chicago, and Howell 
said it was not until Boggs married 
and moved to a Black community 
in Detroit that she was able to find 
a home. Howell said there was no 
safer place for anyone at that time 
than within the Black community.

“If a Black family moved into 

say, Livonia, we’re gonna hear a 
lot more about it than we do the 
gentrification that’s happening 
in Detroit,” Howell said. “Grace 
loved Detroit not just because of 
its people but because in Detroit 
an evolution is happening of a 
profound scale.”

University 
alum 
Chase 

Cantrell, 
who 
attended 
the 

workshop, said he has participated 
in the symposium every year since 
2001. He said he saw Boggs speak 
at a meeting of the Michigan 
Progressives and was impressed 
and inspired by what she had to 
say.

“I’ve 
been 
contemplating 

starting a nonprofit organization 
in Detroit,” Cantrell said. “Being 
here it makes me want to move 
forward with that goal.”

Social 
Work 
student 
Liz 

Zhang, an international student, 
said because of her background 
as a Chinese woman, she related 
to the story of Bogg’s life and her 
struggle to fit in.

BOGGS
From Page 1A

I came to college, and I saw so 
many beautiful Black women 
embracing 
their 
“Blackness” 

by 
participating 
in 
student 

organizations celebrating Black 
women, activism in the Black 
Lives Matter Movement and more. 
As I saw others celebrating their 
Blackness, I began to think about 
my identity as a Black woman in a 
different, more positive and visible 
light. I began to notice a growing 
group of “naturalistas” that were 
on campus. Naturalistas, curly 
heads, curlies — whatever you want 
to call it — have become the names 
for women, specifically women of 
color, who embrace their natural 
hair pattern. For me, it was my 
curls. For others it may be waves 
or kinks. For others, it might mean 
protecting their natural hair in 
styles like box braids, Senegalese 
twists, locs, crochet braids and 
much more. There was this drive 
among many to recreate the 
conceptions of beauty, especially 
when it came to hair. Embracing 
these nonstandard forms of beauty 
has become a way of making a 
statement. 

Take Angela Davis, for example. 

Davis, a woman strongly associated 
with the Black power movement 
in the 1960s, is as famous for her 
activism as she is for her afro. Often 
times, she is even referred to as “The 
Afro.” This image of her natural 
hair became a historical symbol 
that served as both a negative and 
positive representation throughout 
the decades. As a radical Black 
revolutionary, she was portrayed 
as a communist and anti-white, 
and her afro became a negative 
representation. She was sought 
out by the FBI because of her 
membership with the Communist 
Party, and soon the stigma of 
criminalization became strongly 
associated with Black women 
who — like Angela Davis — wore 
their hair “natural.” Black women 
began to be harassed, arrested 
by the police and discriminated 
against simply because of the way 
they wore their hair. These women 
became targeted, their hair seen 
as an object of suppression, rather 

than being a positive, unique and 
celebrated part of them. Women 
began to feel self-conscious toward 
their 
hair, 
causing 
increasing 

feelings of self-hate because of the 
negative stigmas surrounding race 
and ethnic features. Women began 
to revert back to the belief that, the 
closer they were to looking “white,” 
the better.

Though this was back in the 

‘60s, this self-hate has manifested 
itself throughout generations and 
is still inherent in many Black 
women today. It’s Black women’s 
use of makeup to make themselves 
appear of a lighter skin tone. It’s 
little girls asking their mothers 
to put bleach in their bath water. 
It’s the assumption that any Black 
woman who is considered beautiful 
cannot possibly be fully Black, 
that there must be some trace of 
another race that contributes to 
her beauty. It’s me thinking that I 
am only presentable when my hair 
is straight. It’s you telling me that 
when I go into work for you that 
I can’t “wear my hair how it is,” 
insinuating that my curly fro isn’t 
professional. All of these instances 
are sending the message that Black 
women are only beautiful when 
they conform to the standard 
image of the white woman.

But this natural hair movement 

is about way more than race. It is 
a stand to challenge the limits of 
beauty. It’s promoting self-love. It’s 
about celebrating health — healthy 
body, healthy hair and in return, 
healthy mind. When I wear my 
natural curls, I feel free in a way 
that challenges me to redefine 
beauty. It took me about two to 
three years to fully feel confident 
in wearing my curly fro, as I had 
to train myself in seeing the beauty 
in my natural curls. Even now, I 
still have my moments of feeling 
self-conscious that my hair is too 
big or draws too much attention to 
my Blackness. It’s a constant battle 
between my own perceptions and 
what I see in society.

I often think about how I will 

teach my daughter this broadened 
definition of beauty. For me, 
encouraging her to have confidence 
in her natural beauty is the first 
step. For a young girl, being able 
to be comfortable in her raw 
beauty without comparing herself 

to societal standards is essential 
for her growth into a confident 
woman. And I’m not saying that 
you did not teach me these things. 
I appreciate the lessons you taught 
me throughout my childhood. You 
taught me humility, discipline, 
obedience, independence and so 
much more. But one thing I hoped 
we could have learned together is 
self-love. And by self-love, I don’t 
necessarily mean us as individuals, 
but us as Black women. I am so 
grateful that this natural hair 
journey allowed me to not only 
grow in loving myself, but to love 
the diverse array of beauty that I 
see in Black women. It’s allowed 
me to become part of this growing 
community of “naturalistas” who 
all celebrate and uplift each other. 
Being able to embrace myself, 
while celebrating the beauty of 
other women who look like me, 
creates such a liberating feeling.

I think this is why I’m writing 

this letter to you, as well as making 
it public. It’s not to embarrass you, 
or expose you for anything. But I 
wanted to address this problem 
many of us have of not thinking 
critically and questioning what 
have we been fed. What’s really 
so wrong about wearing an afro 
or cornrows in the workplace? 
What makes it unprofessional? I’d 
challenge you to give me a logical 
answer to these questions. I bet 
not many can. I’m confident in 
this statement because it’s clear 
that many of us fail to look beyond 
what society “says” and decide 
for ourselves what is acceptable, 
or beautiful. By not doing this, 
we are tricked into believing that 
our brown skin isn’t beautiful, 
or that our wild, kinky curls are 
unacceptable.

I want to feel truth in waking 

up every morning in seeing my 
beauty — whether my hair be 
straight or curly, whether I put on 
makeup or I don’t. I want every 
little girl, and especially every little 
brown girl, to look in the mirror 
and see the beauty in the physical 
features that make her unique. It’s 
time to encourage each other and 
challenge each other to see beauty 
in all different colors, shapes and 
sizes.

MIC
From Page 1A

community based programs and 
patient centered care.”

She added that she believes 

that working toward being more 
diverse in our health care systems 
and having more equity within 
our nation will take constant 
vigilance.

Nursing senior Madeline Dahl, 

who attended the event, said she 
thought Sinkford’s message of 
working toward being a diverse 
community within all the health 
care fields will be a lifelong 
struggle and goal.

“We are constantly going to 

be having to update how we feel 
about it and what we think about 
it and stretching our minds as 
things change in the world and as 
things change in health care,” she 
said.

HEALTH CARE
From Page 2A

“Who will be next is asking 

you what is it that you see that 
others may not,” she said. “What 
is it that you hear that others may 
be ignoring? The world doesn’t 
need the next Martin Luther 
King Jr. The world needs the 
next you.” 

Speaking 
to 
recent 
police 

shootings of unarmed Black men 
and deaths of Black individuals in 
police custody, Tutu said the first 
step in achieving social justice 
is acknowledging injustice. She 
referred to Tamir Rice, who was 
shot by police officers in Cleveland, 
Ohio who mistook his toy gun for a 
real one. 

“We start in recognizing that it 

is not right that a twelve year old 
can be playing in a playground and 
thirty seconds later he is dead,” she 
said. “It is not right that a young 
woman is stopped at a traffic stop, 
and a few days later is dead. It is not 
right. It is not right that children in 
Syria live in fear.” 

Tutu said making social and 

political 
improvements 
that 

work to combat these instances 
of injustice does not require a 
global platform. The contributions 
individuals make on a smaller, local 
level are equally as impactful, she 
said.

“We are not all going to be Nobel 

Peace Prize winners. Believe me, I 
know because I’ve been nominated 
about 15 times,” Tutu said. “We can 
all be community peace activists.”

Tutu 
also 
acknowledged 

what 
she 
called 
the 
hugely 

overwhelming feeling individuals 
experience when aiming to address 
issues of injustice society.

“We see all these things that 

are not right. And it’s easy to 
look at all those things and feel 
overwhelmed,” she said. “But if we 
look at all of those who when the 
question was asked during their 
lives, “who will be next” If we look 
at those who stepped up, we will 
see that they didn’t let the extent 
of the problem to overwhelm 
them.”

Despite hearing accounts of 

extreme injustice in the media 
regularly, 
Tutu 
said 
she 
is 

encouraged by the grassroots 
activism that has formed as a result.

“I hold on to hope by the skin 

of teeth and I’m able to hold on to 
hope because I see so many not 
waiting to be asked who will be 

next,” she said. “I see so many 
being courageous enough to put 
out their hands to those who will 
dehumanize them. I see so many 
who say I know our world can be 
better. And here where I am is 
where I will make a difference.”

Tutu ended her remarks with a 

challenge.

“I stand here as one who knows 

that injustice can be turned to 
justice, who knows that oppression 
that can be moved to freedom, who 
knows hate can be conquered by 
love,” Tutu said. “And I stand here 
asking each one of you, please, will 
you be next?”

After Tutu’s remarks Robert 

Sellers, Vice Provost for Equity, 
Inclusion, and Academic Affairs, 
stressed 
#WhoWillBeNext 
is 

also about reflecting upon the far 
reaching effects of individual acts 
of injustice.

“If you replace the picture of Dr. 

King with Trayvon Martin, Tamir 
Rice, or the kids, children and 
people of Flint, who will be next 
means something quite different,” 
he said. “It’s a clear warning that if 
one of us is not safe, then none of us 
are safe. It is a clear warning that 
injustice for even one of us means 
there is no justice for any of us.”

In University President Mark 

Schlissel’s opening remarks at the 
address, he said the symposium 
serves as a chance for the University 
community to come together and 
reflect on racial issues.

“Our University is a place 

where traditions live and thrive 
with influence that spans decades, 
unites generations, and enlightens 
our nation,” Schlissel said. “This 
symposium is one such tradition 
at the University of Michigan. It 
gives us the cherished opportunity 
to come together as a community 
to discuss important ideas and 
issues regarding race, inclusion and 
justice and embrace the core of our 
nation to serve society.” 

The event also featured a choral 

performance 
from 
the 
Men’s 

Glee Club, who sang a tribute to 
the innocent young lives taken 
as a result of police brutality 
called “Seven Last Words of the 
Unarmed,” arranged by composer 
Joel Thompson.

The 
group 
also 
performed 

“Glory” which was arranged by 
popular artists Common and John 
Legend. The song was featured in 
the critically acclaimed film Selma, 
a chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther 
King Jr.’s struggle to gain the right 
to vote for Black Americans. 

Before beginning her lecture, 

Tutu praised the Glee Club for their 
performance, saying it caused her 
to feel a range of emotions. After 
their performance, Tutu joked, “I 
now know the meaning of cruel 
and unusual punishment, and that 
is to follow your University Men’s 
Glee Club!”

In an interview with the Daily 

after the event, LSA sophomore 
Amber Browder said she felt a close 
connection to Tutu during her 
lecture.

“What she was saying really 

hit home for me because I have 
younger siblings who will one day 
be adult black males,” she said. 
“When she was talking, I felt like 
I was just having a one on one 
conversation with her. She made 
me feel like she was talking to me 
directly.”

School of Music, Theatre & 

Dance senior Marcus Peterson, 
who was a soloist in the Glee 
Club’s performance, said Tutu’s 
remarks 
encouraged 
him 
to 

further pursue his career in vocal 
performance.

“It makes me want to pursue 

my career even further seeing that 
there aren’t many opera singers of 
my color out there in the world,” he 
said. “This has made me want to go 
even further and reach the whole 
world.”

Jacob Belardo, LSA freshman 

and Glee Club member, said he 
was affected by Tutu’s cadence and 
language as well as her emphasis 
on personal accountability and 
potential.

“The way she spoke – you listen 

to every word she said. It was like 
poetry,” Belardo said. “I liked that 
she emphasized that we’re all 
human beings and that we all came 
from a space where we’re equal, 
but we all have the opportunity 
to change things – even if it’s just 
here, even if it’s just going onstage 
and singing a song.”

Glee club performer Michael 

Chrzan, a senior in both LSA and 
the School of Education, said the 
emotionally charged content of the 
group’s repertoire brought him to 
tears on stage.

“For me, as someone who 

identifies as an African American 
male, it’s always emotional,” 
Chrzan said. He added, “I know 
people that could be these 
people… and so every time we 
sing it I think of that and it gets 
to me, but I also center on the 
idea that this is a message that we 
need to get out.”

KEYNOTE
From Page 1A

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 — 3A

