Talk discusses
current movement,
cites need for
progressive agenda
By EMILY DAVIES
Daily Staff Reporter
About 30 people gathered
Friday to listen to and engage
with Matthew Platt, assistant
professor of political science at
Morehouse College, on the state
of Black politics in the modern
world.
The event emphasized what
Platt described as a need to con-
tinue to think critically about
the strategy the Black commu-
nity employs to fight for change.
Throughout his lecture, Platt
argued that holding protests and
drawing on Black representation
in politics both fail to effectively
advance the “Black-issue agen-
da,” which he defined as matters
pertaining to anti-racism, cul-
ture and social welfare.
As part of a research project,
Platt examined every bill intro-
duced in Congress from 1947 to
1998 and concluded that the vast
majority of Black-issue bills have
been introduced by non-Black
representatives. At the highest
point, he said, only five Black
members of Congress chaired
committees. He said due to this
statistic, among other factors,
the power of change falls to non-
Black representatives.
Platt also touched on two
popular strategies the black
community has used to gain rec-
ognition from non-Black mem-
bers of Congress: protests and
politics. Since the passage of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, Platt
said there has been an inverse
relationship between the num-
ber of protests and legislative
impact.
“Representation has become
weaker post-political empower-
ment in terms of getting Black
issues recognized by Congress,”
Platt said. “After Black enfran-
chisement, both protests and
politics are less effective tools
for gaining white recognition of
Black issues. This is what I call
the normalization of Black poli-
tics.”
Platt added this lack of con-
gressional impact has little to do
with the Black candidates elect-
ed. Even those Black members
of Congress who Platt labeled
as “ambitious” in his research,
meaning those who formed
an exploratory committee for
higher office or ran for a higher
office, are no more likely to fur-
ther a Black-issue agenda.
In a similar vein, Platt said
the most important part of pro-
gressive politics is not about the
votes, but rather about pushing
an agenda to make change.
“If you are defining Black pol-
itics by how many white people
you can get to vote for you, I fail
to realize what is Black about
that,” Platt said. “Instead we
need to think about Black poli-
tics in terms of how you move
forward a Black policy agenda.”
Platt did acknowledge, how-
ever, that even if race does not
matter in Congress, it does mat-
ter in terms of ideology — his
research demonstrates that in
general, Black people in Con-
gress are extremely liberal.
After his remarks, Platt’s
audience, a mixture of under-
graduate students, graduate stu-
dents and professors, engaged
critically with him on several
points.
Audience
members
chal-
Lecturers talk civil
rights, activism in
hopes of exploring
diverse identities
By BRANDON SUMMERS-
MILLER
Daily Staff Reporter
On Saturday, the South Asian
Awareness
Network’s
annual
conference hosted two keynote
speakers and held multiple semi-
nars to discuss activism, inter-
sectionality and civil rights.
While
the
first
keynote
focused on South Asian heritage
and its links to the Civil Rights
Movement, the second empha-
sized the importance of the
intersectionality of racial and
cultural identities. Both lectur-
ers aimed to shed light on social
entrepreneurship.
LSA senior Fatema Chamak,
co-director of SAAN, said the
group’s main aim wasn’t just to
create a conference that acted
as a singular event, but rather to
create one that acted as an exten-
sion of all the events the organi-
zation hosts throughout the year.
Of the conference’s many
goals, Chamak said she hoped
participants learned how to
explore the intersectionality and
fluidity of their identities. Inter-
sectionality refers to the way
different identities connect and
overlap.
“I want them to walk away
with the idea that activism isn’t
over,” Chamak said. “And that
social identity is something that
always needs to be reflective and
explored.”
American
Culture
prof.
Manan Desai, who gave the first
keynote speech, focused on the
relationships
between
South
Asian identities and the U.S.
Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s.
Desai said African American
social activists influenced anti-
imperialist activists in Southern
Asia, exploring the history of
South Asia and subsequently to
activism.
“It was not only the case that
South Asians who came to the
U.S. were often drawn to the
conflict fighting injustice,” said
Desai. “But the history of Afri-
can American struggle had long
influenced activists back home.”
Desai also told the crowd
that he wanted to speak at the
SAAN conference because dur-
ing his time as an undergraduate
at the University, there wasn’t a
space for students of South Asian
descent to discuss the issues that
faced their community.
Overall, he said he hoped
participants could learn where
South Asians fit into the nation’s
history from his keynote.
“I was trying to say something
inspiring about people before
who showed solidarity towards
African Americans or civil rights
movements,” Desai said. “I also
wanted us to think about where
South Asians fit historically in
the larger picture.”
Naya
Jeevan
CEO
Asher
Hasan presented the second
keynote speech, focusing on his
own racial and social identities.
Using his own life as an example,
he noted how participants could
make a positive impact on the
world.
Hasan’s company, Naya Jee-
van, is based in Pakistan and is
dedicated to empowering mar-
ginalized communities by giving
them access to health care, edu-
cation and financial inclusion.
While Hasan spoke specifi-
cally to his South Asian heritage,
he explained he was more com-
fortable now as a person who
views himself as all his identi-
ties simultaneously, whereas he
used to think of himself in terms
of only one or another at a single
time.
“We can all have multiple iden-
tities,” he said. “It’s just trying to
get them to converge together
into an integrated whole.”
Hasan said he wanted to speak
at SAAN’s conference because he
3-News
2-News
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball
team fell to Nebraska,
93-81, at Crisler Center on
Sunday.
>> SEE SPORTSMONDAY ON 1B
2
1
3
TUESDAY:
Campus Voices
THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Photos of the Week
WEDNESDAY:
In Other Ivory Towers
MONDAY:
This Week in History
See LECTURE, Page 3A
See PROFESSOR, Page 3A
2A — Monday, January 25, 2016
News
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Faculty recital
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Handel.
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WHEN: 8 p.m.
WHERE: Earl V. Moore
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SPSS
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WHERE: Modern
Languages Build-
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Stories on
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Alsultany and Dr. Adrienne
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a space for students
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Cities on the East Coast
are working hard on
clean-up
and
flood
mitigation in the aftermath
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Jonas.
Record snowfalls occured
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delaying flights, the New
York Times reported.
1
Discussion on
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WHO: Center for Local,
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WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 1
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WHERE: Weill Hall,
Betty Ford Classroom,
room 1110
Following the lack of
diversity in the 2016
Oscar
nominations,
three
new
seats
will
be
added
to
the Academy’s Board of
Governors to improve
diversity, Slate reported.
Many artists including Matt
Damon and Don Cheadle
have commended the move.
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GRANT HARDY/Dailly
Anthesiology Prof. Dinesh Pal protests caste system dis-
crimination in India, prompted by the suicide of Rohith Ver-
mula, a PhD student at Hyderabad Central University, on the
Diag Saturday.
Film on
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migration
WHAT: Dr. Jesse
Hoffnung-Garskof will
host a screening and
discsussion of the film
“Empire of Dreams.”
WHO: Latina/o Studies
WHEN: 6:30 p.m.
to 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Ann Arbor
Downtown District
Library, Multi-
Purpose Room
Football film
and dialogue
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Multicultural Center
will screen “In Football
We Trust,” followed by a
talk on sports and social
change.
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Multicultural Center
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Digitalizing
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Stern will give a lecture on
creating digital platforms
with Mapquest and Scalar
to uncover histories of
eugenics and sterilizations.
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36 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (JAN. 24, 1980)
Greek life loses pet policy
After five former members
of fraternity Alpha Delta Phi
were involved in killing their
house cat, the local chapter of
the Humane Society decided
to temporarily stop giving
house pets to University fra-
ternities.
At the time, fraternities
could put in a request for a
house pet at the Humane
Society of Huron Valley.
Although the Humane Soci-
ety would not grant the
majority of the requests, sev-
eral fraternities had house
pets they adopted from the
organization. After the cat
killing occurred in early
December and the five stu-
dents had been expelled from
Alpha Delta Phi after their
plea on January 17.
Diane
Allevato,
then-
director of the Humane Soci-
ety of Huron Valley, said at
the time the brutal killing of
the cat served as a catalyst for
reviewing the organization’s
policy.
The
Humane
Society
would
be
“committing
organizational suicide” if it
allowed fraternities to adopt
animals so soon after the cat-
killing incident, Allevato said.
Mark Nehmer, non-act-
ing fraternity president of
Delta Chi, said his fraternity
sought to adopt an animal
but though they had a good
record of taking care of house
pets and had a recommenda-
tion from an LSA assistant
dean with their request for a
new dog, the request wasn’t
granted. According to Nehm-
er, a Humane Society worker
said his fraternity would not
be able to adopt a dog right
away but may be able to adopt
one in two months.
Nehmer was disappointed
that all of the fraternities
were being punished for the
actions of a few members.
Nehman claimed that his
fraternity could appeal to
the state level of the Humane
Society and receive a more
sympathetic response, but
he did not think it would be
appropriate to go over the
local chapter’s head.
— RACHEL COHEN
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Dailly
Matthew Platt, assistant professor in the Political Science Department at Morehouse College speaks about the history
of black voting rights as part of his presentation during Political Scientists of Color in Haven Hall on Friday.
Speakers highlight South Asian
culture and heritage at conference
Professor challenges traditional
norms in Black political action
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