The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 28, 2016 — 3A

“I want each and every student 

here to know that you are welcome 
here, and we’re proud that you are 
here, and your faculty members 
and your staff that work with you 
on a daily basis are proud of you,” 
Martin said.

After Martin’s remarks, the 

gathering was loosely structured, 
and invited students to engage in 
individual discussion with one 
another.

While 
the 
flyers 
were 
a 

large part of the conversations, 
discussions 
also 
addressed 

broader topics of racism on 
campus and in society at large. 
LSA freshman Bailey Dozier-
Shabazz said she appreciated the 
opportunity to share her thoughts 
about the fliers.

“It makes me feel a little bit 

unsafe, like I’m not even wanted 
here,” Dozier-Shabazz said.

Students like LSA freshman 

Carlena Toombs attended the 
event looking for answers as to 
how the University would respond 
to the fliers.

“I came to the event just to 

observe how exactly LSA plans to 
deal with the issues such as the 
racist flyers, because I love the 
University of Michigan, but I’m 
still having trouble finding what 
is the place of the Black students 
here,” Toombs said.

While 
Toombs 
said 
she 

appreciates steps taken by the 
University, she added that the 
response was not entirely in line 
with what the Black campus 
community wants.

“I feel like it’s very hard for 

(the administration) to do what 
we, Black students, want them 
to do, but, at the same time, I 
appreciate them allowing things 
like protests to go on, which I feel 
like is as much as they really can 
do, politically,” Toombs said

Reginald Hammond Jr., student 

administrative assistant at the 
Lloyd Hall Scholars Program, said 

he thinks the event was a strong 
beginning to a greater movement 
on campus.

“This is the beginning of 

discussions, of building a culture 
where people feel comfortable 
expressing how they feel and 
being in a place with other people 
who are unlike them who embrace 
their differences,” Hammond said.

LSA sophomore Chanelle Davis 

said the flyers were an attempt 
to hijack the Black experience of 
oppression.

“It was offensive to me as 

a Black person, because I feel 
like people like that often try 
to take away from what we as 
Black people or we as people of 
marginalized identities try to do: 
get the world to understand why 
we are oppressed,” Chanelle said. 
“And I feel like we try to have the 
conversation a lot and for them 
to portray things like they’re the 
ones being attacked, that they’re 
the ones not being able to be who 
they are freely is not accurate — it’s 
not fair to us.”

COMMUNITY
From Page 1A

Hillary Clinton performed better 
in the debate, with 68 percent 
choosing 
Clinton, 
whereas 

Republican presidential nominee 
Donald 
Trump 
received 
9 

percent. A significant number of 
respondents — 18 percent — said 
neither candidate performed well.

The 
Daily’s 
poll, 
however, 

showed that tuning into the debate 
didn’t necessarily equate to a 
change of preference. The majority 
— 59 percent — of respondents said 
the debate did not influence their 
vote, while 27 percent reported 
the debate somewhat influenced 
their vote and just 2 percent stated 
the debate greatly influenced their 
vote.

Aaron Kall, director of debate at 

the University of Michigan, agreed 
with respondents that Clinton won 
the debate. However, he added that 
the lack of lasting influence the 
debate had on young voters could 
prove problematic for Clinton 
moving forward.

“I think the main reason cutting 

into her support of younger voters 
are these third-party candidates 
and so debates are an excellent 
way for her to bring some of those 

candidates into the fold,” Kall said. 
“But if she’s not talking about issues 
and subjects that relate to them and 
they either don’t vote or vote for a 
third party, then she could be in 
real trouble.”

In the most recent survey of 

overall voter preference on campus 
conducted by the Daily on Sept. 
18, 80 percent of respondents said 
they would vote for Clinton, while 
her primary opponent Trump 
received 9 percent when only 
given the choice of the major party 
candidate, with 11 percent voting 
“other.”

In the poll of students after last 

night’s debate, the “other” not 
present on the stage had a stronger 
showing: 67 percent of students 
favored Clinton, 14 percent favored 
Trump, and 19 percent said “other,” 
though it is important to note that 
the sample for the post-debate poll 
was different than the sample for 
the Sept. 18 poll and the former had 
double the number of respondents.

When asked which candidate 

has the better temperament to be 
president in the post-debate poll 
— something Trump repeatedly 
assured voters of during the debate 
— a majority chose Clinton over 
Trump, 75 percent to 7 percent 
respectively. Sixteen percent of 
respondents felt neither candidate 
has 
the 
temperament 
to 
be 

president.

In 
response 
to 
student 

favorability 
toward 
Clinton 

post-debate, 
Taiwo 
Dosunmu, 

communications 
director 
for 

University’s chapter of College 
Democrats, 
said 
he 
thought 

students had picked up on how well 
she performed and the qualities 
she possesses that would make 
her a better president than her 
opponent.

“Last night’s debate showed 

how unfit Donald Trump is to be 
president,” Dosunmu said. “The 
students surveyed by the Daily saw 
this clearly, and they saw — just 
as clearly — how well Secretary 
Clinton performed. She was calm, 
cool and collected. She displayed 
the command of policy details 
we have come to expect from her, 
while being humorous, likable and 
confident. It should be no surprise 
that a majority of respondents 
listed Clinton as their choice for 
president.”

In the Sept. 18 survey, students 

listed social issues, the economy 
and gun violence as the top three 
issues that mattered the most 
to them in this election — all of 
which were covered in the debate. 
The issue of college affordability, 
however, was only mentioned by 
Clinton briefly twice, and not by 
Trump at all.

SURVEY
From Page 1A

Wednesday in East Lansing and 
Grand Rapids. Holton’s visit 
follows a recent one from Kaine, 
who came to campus two weeks 
ago, and precedes a Friday event 
in Novi featuring Republican 
nominee Donald Trump. In her 
remarks, Holton highlighted 
the importance of grassroots 
campaigning, and repeatedly 
asked the audience to continue 
to volunteer and encourage 
people in their lives to vote for 
Clinton.

“I’m going to talk about you,” 

she said. “You are the key to 
this election. You all know that, 
right? You all know Michigan 
is often the key to the national 
election.”

Mai Le, an attendee and Ann 

Arbor resident, said she found 
Holton’s message reassuring.

“I 
really 
think 
me 
and 

everyone in this room really 
want to see a Clinton campaign 
victory on November 8th,” she 
said. “Hearing how directly we 
are making a difference for the 
campaign was very inspiring.”

Over the past few decades, 

Michigan has been a blue state, 
except for a victory by President 
Ronald Regan in 1988. However, 
the GOP has dominated state-
level politics over the past few 
years, and Trump has stated he 
wants to flip Michigan several 
times. Nonetheless, Clinton has 
maintained a lead in the state 
against 
Trump 
throughout 

the election season. The most 
recent RealClearPolitics polling 
average shows Clinton leading 
by 4.7 points.

After 
the 
event, 
Holton 

repeated 
her 
emphasis 
on 

volunteering in an interview 
with The Michigan Daily, saying 
Michigan could determine the 
outcome of the election on a 
national scale.

“Michigan is a battleground 

state,” she said. “It always 
is like Virginia is. It’s just so 
important. We are fighting for 
votes everywhere. If Michigan 
supports Hillary Clinton, the 
nation will support Hillary 
Clinton, and she will be our next 
president.”

Students on campus have 

been actively involved in the 
election with organizations like 
the University of Michigan’s 
chapter of College Democrats 
hosting 
a 
series 
of 
voter 

registration drives. Additionally, 
the first Michigan Daily election 
survey indicated overwhelming 
support for Clinton among a 
sample of students.

Holton told the Daily she 

believes the student vote is 
valuable in the presidential race, 
but even more so in state and 
local elections.

“I’m really thrilled to hear 

that students are involved in 
the top of the ticket, but also 
we’ve got great candidates up 
and down the ticket,” she said. 
“Our students don’t always fully 
engage in those races … The 
student vote can really make 
a difference for that and it can 
really make a difference for the 
top of the ticket too. Students 
are our future, and when they 
participate, Democrats win.”

Ann Arbor resident Jane 

Campbell, an event attendee, 
said she believes candidates 
visiting the state indicates the 
significance of this election.

“It’s really important to see 

the major candidates and their 
surrogates here in Michigan, so 
that people can understand the 
seriousness of the election,” she 
said. “I do not understand how 
anyone cannot vote in this or 
any election.”

HOLTON
From Page 1A

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Anne Holton, former Virginia Secretary of Education and wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine, 
speaks to volunteers and audience members at the Hillary Clinton office in Ann Arbor Tuesday. 

ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily

Amr Moussa, an Egyptian politician and former Egypt Foreign Minister, explains the current status of the Arab world 
in a talk hosted by the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies in the School of Social Work Tuesday. 

AR AB WORLD POLITICS

the audience of about 50 students, 
“Do you want to hear what Black 
people have to say?” One of the 
protest organizers also led a call-
and-response chant, including the 
statement, “Your life is not up for 
debate, neither is mine.”

The protest and debate came a 

day after racially charged posters 
were found in University buildings 
and 
around 
campus, 
which 

the University condemned in a 
statement Monday afternoon. A 
separate protest was held Monday 
night by students in response to 
the posters, and the College of 
Literature, Science and the Arts also 
hosted an event Tuesday night for 
students to discuss the fliers.

LSA 
senior 
Joshua 
Strup, 

president of the MPU, said the 
group made the decision to hold its 
debate before the racially charged 
incidents that have occurred at the 
University and Eastern Michigan 
University this past week. However, 
he added that he still supported 
going forward with it.

“We feel that it’s a disservice to 

the issue itself to shy away from it 
because of additional events that 
it deserves to be recognized, it 
deserves to be heard, it deserves to 
be discussed and to not do so would 
be a dismissive attitude,” he said.

The protest had a mixed impact 

on the debate, halting parts, but not 
all of it. For several minutes after 
the protesters entered the event, 
debaters continued to speak, while 
protesters 
continued 
chanting. 

Shortly after the chanting began, a 
new MPU speaker took the podium 
and 
engaged 
with 
protesters, 

asking questions and discussing 
the issues at hand. Protesters then 
took to the podium directly, and 
spoke one by one to a mostly quiet 
crowd, when a disagreement broke 
out over whether white people 
should be speaking at the event. 
The protesters began leaving the 
room shortly afterward, chanting 
as they went, and effectively ending 
the debate.

Standing outside the event while 

protesters were inside, University 
Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said 
he thought it was positive that 

protesters and event organizers 
were engaging each other.

“As often happens on this 

campus, groups with different 
points of view find a way to get 
together,” he said. “The dialogue is 
really important. Listening as well 
as talking are important for both 
sides on this campus.”

Many protesters and audience 

members, however, said though the 
two groups had been in the same 
room, not much open dialogue had 
occurred.

LSA sophomore Allison Hellman, 

a MPU member, said she did not 
feel the protesters respected the 
decorum of debates, which resulted 
in four of the intended speakers not 
having the opportunity to speak.

“I thought the protest was fine,” 

she said. “I thought the initial 
coming in and saying their piece 
was fine. I had an issue with once 
they had said what they were 
supposed to, what they were going 
to say, continuing to impede civil 
discourse.”

LSA junior Corey Walker, who 

was an audience member, said after 
the event that he also did not support 
the disruptive nature of the protest.

“I am Black, so yeah, I want to 

make life for myself and my family 
better,” Walker said. “At the same 
time, I don’t necessarily think that 
their tactics are going to get us 
there simply because when you do 
things like what they did today, like 
shut down any type of discussion 
whatsoever, 
not 
being 
willing 

to 
listen, 
interrupting 
people, 

discounting facts, screaming and 
yelling in people’s faces, using 
profanity, trying to silence people’s 
voices, it doesn’t move the ball 
forward.”

Walker added that he felt the 

Black 
Lives 
Matter 
movement 

often follows this format, calling it 
unproductive to achieve long term 
goals.

“As demonstrated here today, I 

don’t think this movement is about 
bridging gaps or actually finding 
solutions to problems; I think it’s 
about people who have a specific 
agenda screaming and yelling, 
which is fine,” he said. “But in order 
to make progress, you have to set 
specific policy goals in order to 
think about what you want.”

LSA freshman Na’kia Channey, 

who spoke at the protest, said she 
wished more dialogue had occurred 
between audience members and 
protesters. Citing the disagreement 
that broke out over whether white 
students should have been able to 
talk during the protest, she said she 
thought the white students should 
have been allowed to ask relevant 
questions about the purpose of the 
protest and Black Lives Matter 
as a whole. This, she added, is 
important for allies to understand 
the movement.

“I know white people have 

questions about Black Lives Matter,” 
she said. “And though they can look 
stuff on the internet, I think it makes 
sense that we let them ask questions 
so we can tell them why they need 
to support our movement.”

However, she also noted the 

importance of incorporating Black 
voices in the conversation.

“I totally agree that Black voices 

need to be listened to,” she said. 
“It’s very important that when our 
narrativism is endured so often that 
we need people to finally listen to 
what we say.”

LSA 
junior 
Chanice 
Taylor, 

secretary of the Michigan chapter 
of the NAACP, said before the 
march she believes their actions 
were important as they attracted 
attention to racist events affecting 
the Black community on campus.

“I’m here to show my support and 

bring awareness that these things 
do happen on campus,” she said. 
“Although we are making strides as 
far as diversity, we still have a long 
way to go.”

Eastern 
Michigan 
University 

seniors Cina Webster and Kaya 
Mills also said they joined the 
protest because they thought the 
debate signified the need to raise 
awareness about these issues among 
the student body.

“Tonight showed that there is 

a ton of ignorance,” Webster said. 
“Willful ignorance.”

“This is only the first step,” 

Mills said. “We have to continue 
doing things like this, we can’t stop. 
Because if we stop, then they think 
‘Oh they’re satisfied.’ But we’re still 
dying.”

Daily Staff Reporter Will Feuer 

and Daily News Editor Jackie 
Charniga contributed reporting to 
this article.

DEBATE
From Page 1A

