Content Warning: This column
contains
explicit
language
about sexual assault.
S
everal years ago, I was
sitting in a hot tub with
five or six friends. As the
night wore on, a few of them
went inside, one and two at a
time, until I was alone in water
with a friend of a
friend.
We
were
kissing, but I wasn’t
interested in going
any further. He went
much further than I
wanted to, telling me
to “hold on” after I
told him to stop and
tried to push myself
away from him.
For three years,
I didn’t tell anyone
that I had been assaulted. I kept
it from my parents, doctors and
closest friends. My Catholic
upbringing taught me not to
have sex before marriage, and
believe it or not, that’s exactly
what I planned to do. I felt
ashamed that I’d been unable
to make him stop, and naive for
having trusted him enough to
allow myself to be alone with
him in the hot tub. All I wanted
was to forget it ever happened.
Of course, I didn’t. While I’m
fortunate to have had the support
necessary to move past what was
without question the worst night
of my life, I’ll never be able to
unlive it. Research suggests that
one in five women and one in 71
men experience sexual assault at
least once. Those individuals will
never unlive it either.
Our
legal
and
criminal
justice systems contribute to
the problem by allowing an
estimated 97 percent of accused
rapists to escape conviction.
And those who are convicted?
Many receive far less than
the maximum 14-year prison
sentence. Data from 2009 shows
that of 84 percent of convicted
rapists sentenced to prison, five
percent go to jail and 11 percent
recieved probation or “other.”
I’m not interested in raising
my future children in a world
where this heinous crime occurs
with such appalling frequency.
I don’t want my friends — or
strangers for that matter — to live
in constant fear of spiked drinks
and strange men hiding behind
bushes, waiting to grab them
when they’re walking home at
night. I’d like to think that most
of you don’t want that either.
Over the past few years, our
country has made considerable
strides
on
this
issue.
The
national “It’s On Us” campaign
—
whose
powerful
backers
include the White House, the
U.S. Olympic Committee and
MTV parent company Viacom
Media Networks — has raised
awareness
about
the
issue
on
college
campuses
across
the country, including ours.
California became the first state
to pass an affirmative consent
law, and several others enacted
legislation to help prevent sexual
assaults
on
college
campuses.
One
man
has
already
begun
to
unravel
the
progress
achieved
by
women’s
safety
advocates at every
level of government:
Republican
presidential nominee
Donald
Trump,
the
first
major
party candidate to have been
accused before the primary
of sexual assault in formal
court documents from three
different lawsuits, including an
ongoing civil case alleging he
tied a 13-year-old to a bed and
raped her.
Despite
his
transparent
awfulness,
Trump
has
the
power to influence millions of
his supporters whether or not
he actually wins the presidency.
Trump’s words are dangerous for
the simple reason that leaders’
consequences
have
actions.
Diminishing
boastful
claims
that he can grab women “by the
pussy” without consent as mere
“locker room talk” runs the risk
of normalizing the criminal
behavior he described.
In interviews with Politico,
several
Trump
supporters
defended Trump’s words in the
video as they way “real men
talk”; one 17-year-old said that
“Trump’s
comments
weren’t
predatory because they let him
do it because he’s a star, and that
is a form of consent,” according
to the article. It’s possible that
these words were born out of
pure loyalty to the candidate.
But it’s equally likely — perhaps
more so — that these are the true
attitudes that some hold.
As
just
one
example
of
Trump’s influence on those
closest to him, his own son told
radio listeners that Trump’s
“grab
her
by
the
pussy”
comments were simply a “fact
of life.”
Reducing the prevalence of
sexual assault requires that more
— not fewer — American men
recognize it as the serious crime
that it is. It also requires a social
and legal environment where
women can come forward with
the reasonable expectation that
she and her accusations will be
taken seriously. Trump has made
this unlikely as well.
After
the
now-famous
“grab her by the pussy” video
was released, 11 women came
forward claiming that Trump
sexually assaulted or harassed
them.
Trump
responded
by personally attacking the
women’s
characters
and
appearances.
He
defended
himself against one woman’s
claims
by
saying
that
she
wouldn’t be his “first choice”
to sexually assault. He told the
American public that the women
were manipulative liars, part
of a media scheme to “rig” the
election against him — despite
the fact that several witnesses
claimed that wasn’t the case.
When the women refused
to
recant
their
statements,
Trump announced to cheering
supporters that he would sue
each woman who accused him
of assault. He also threatened
to sue The New York Times for
publishing articles about the
women’s allegations.
To be clear, these aren’t likely
to be very successful lawsuits.
Even still, the media coverage
surrounding Trump’s threatened
lawsuits
could
create
the
misconception that survivors of
sexual assault could face legal
action against them if they come
forward about their experiences
or report the crime to police.
In the eyes of some of his
supporters, this might actually
be a good thing.
In a few weeks, voters will
have the opportunity to seize
Trump’s national soapbox by
electing
his
opponent.
Both
the polls and election-betting
markets strongly suggest that
voters will seize this opportunity.
But a Clinton victory will
not be sufficient to undo the
damage
Trump’s
campaign
has inflicted on the legitimacy
of sexual assault as a serious
crime and on survivors as
people to support and believe.
When it’s all said and done,
millions of voters will not believe
Hillary Clinton was rightfully
elected, even if Trump loses.
Trump will still be a leader to
some of those people, and his
words will still have value.
I still want my children to
inherit a world devoid of sexual
violence, and I still think it’s
possible. It will require years of
education, advocacy and criminal
justice reform. But perhaps the
best first step toward combatting
the vehement, baseless rhetoric
Trump spreads is to simply
be louder than the pervasive
coverage of the campaign.
Opinion & Michigan In Color
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A— Tuesday, October 25, 2016
The prowess of the lamestream media
ROLAND DAVIDSON | COLUMN
I
have a deep self-destructive
streak, which is why I often
add myself to Tea Party
Facebook groups. These groups
are
wonderlands
of
people
totally
unironically
sharing
National Inquirer articles, and
conspiracy theories
that
Michelle
Obama is actually
a trans woman and
that
Obama
will
declare martial law
any day now. To be
clear, none of this is
exaggeration. What
binds these Facebook
posts together is the
persistent complaint
that the mainstream
media (itself a nebulous term)
is not covering these “issues.”
I often see a similar complaint
from the left, that mainstream
journalism
doesn’t
cover
issues (note the lack of scare
quotes) as well as they should.
However, neither critique really
holds water once one critically
examines the relationship that
consumers of news and niche
news organizations have with
mainstream media.
After ISIS agents killed 130
people in France last November,
many
progressives
begun
criticizing
the
“mainstream
news media” for not properly
covering
terroristic
violence
in non-Western countries like
the bombing in Beirut, which
happened
a
day
prior
and
claimed over 40 lives. I could
rationalize
the
discrepancy
and come up with reasonable
justifications, such as the fact
that a terrorist attack in France
is more concerning to American
audiences than one in Lebanon
since the former could portend
violence here. But all of this
is
irrelevant
because
these
maligned news outlets actually
did an excellent job covering
these terrorist attacks,
giving them plenty
of airtime and page
space. What I believe
is going on here is that
people didn’t know
about these issues and
instead of owning up
to
their
ignorance,
they made the claim
that the media had
failed to educate them.
A
similarly
common
critique
is
that
the
news
media
“rigged”
the election against Bernie
Sanders because they denied
him essential coverage during
the primary. This simply isn’t
the case. A report by Harvard’s
Shorenstein Center confirmed
that though he may have gotten
a third of the coverage Clinton
received, he also had the most
positive coverage out of all
candidates,
averaging
50.5
percent more positive news
coverage than his competitor.
However, liberal media outlets
chose to ignore that part of
the report, instead printing
headlines like “Harvard Study
Confirms Bernie Sanders Was
Right: Media Blackout Badly
Hurt Campaign” and then not
bothering to go into the story
on a deeper level. You can’t
have your big media conspiracy
go both ways.
Part of the issue with these
critiques of mainstream media
is that these critics are people
who don’t even bother to glance
at, say, The New York Times.
Many
progressives
claimed
that The New York Times didn’t
even bother covering the Dakota
Access
pipeline,
a
pipeline
that would run through miles
of Sioux land. Lo and behold,
on Aug. 24, 2016, the Dakota
pipeline is on The New York
Times’ front page. I would add
that the Anti-Media article I
linked to was actually published
on the 25th, lending further
credence to my belief that those
critical of mainstream media
don’t even bother looking at it.
Explicitly
liberal
news
sources don’t have the same
vested interest in presenting
balanced media coverage as
The New York Times because
websites like Democracy Now!
specifically cater toward a
niche audience, much in the
same way that Fox News does.
These leftist journalist outfits
don’t
bother
interviewing
government officials or people
building the pipeline so they
can churn out the stories faster.
The process of creating fair and
balanced media has cleaved
against our society’s desire
for faster and faster news such
that taking time to properly
research a story has become
perceived as media blackout.
ROLAND
DAVIDSON
LAURA SCHINAGLE
Managing Editor
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
SHOHAM GEVA
Editor in Chief
CLAIRE BRYAN
and REGAN DETWILER
Editorial Page Editors
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Carolyn Ayaub
Claire Bryan
Regan Detwiler
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EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Roland Davidson can be reached at
mhenryda@umich.edu
Victoria Noble can be reached at
vjnoble@umich.edu
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Trump’s sexism isn’t isolated
VICTORIA NOBLE | COLUMN
TUNE IN TO OUR ELECTIONS PODCAST
For our second episode of The Michigan Daily’s Election Podcast,
columnist Brett Graham interviews Democratic candidate for the
Michigan 7th congressional district Gretchen Driskell and her campaign
manager Keenan Pontoni.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION
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VICTORIA
NOBLE
NICOLE KHAMIS | MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Support scholarships for Syrian refugees
I
wake up in my room and
I close my eyes, trying to
go back to sleep as the sun
shines through my windows.
In a state neither quite asleep
nor awake, I hear the sound of
a plane. Instantly, I am awake.
All I can hear is the sound
of the plane, and
it’s coming closer.
Nothing will happen,
I reassure myself.
This sound brings
me back to Jordan
and Syria, and all the
individuals I met this
summer who fled the
brutal civil war, now
going into its sixth
year. I sit up in my
bed and immediately
turn toward the window. All
I can focus on is the sound of
the engine nearing my house.
Nothing will happen, I say.
There is nothing you can do, the
refugees would say. I sit helpless
in my bed and wait, my eyes
on the sky. I am transported,
if only for a second, back to
Jordan, to the stories that I
was told while living there,
many revolving around what
the sound of a plane evokes for
those who fled rebel-held areas
in Syria, where bombs would be
dropped on civilian areas. The
sound of a plane consumes you,
the refugees would say; you look
to the sky and follow the plane
with your eyes, and wait to see
if you are spared this time. It is
an anthem of death, our anthem,
they would say. At this moment,
I am thinking of Amira, a Syrian
girl whom I tutor over Skype.
Amira, upon hearing the sound
of a plane fly by (even though
she was granted asylum in
Canada) hysterically bursts into
tears and shakes uncontrollably
as she is reminded of the horror
she witnessed. But, as expected,
as I sit in my small town 1,000
miles away, the low-flying plane
is already gone.
Once you cross a border,
everything changes. This is
what the refugees I met this
summer in Jordan would say
to me. Here, lives are valued, a
plane isn’t dropping bombs and
I am already asleep. I am here.
The sound of a plane means
nothing to people here anyway,
I remind myself.
While studying for midterms
this past week, did you have a
safe place to study? Access to
Internet? A teacher to email
to ask pre-exam questions?
Did you fear an end to your
education? Were you confident
that school was going to begin
again on Wednesday? I ask
these questions only because
it is important to realize that
the very environment we find
ourselves in, one that allows
safety and security and is
conducive to our ability to study,
is one we take for granted. The
normalcy of what we experience
is
something
unavailable to many
individuals
around
the world. As we
posit
ourselves
as
“Leaders
and
the
Best,” and recognize
our unique position
to
assist,
stand
with
and
support
disadvantaged people
throughout
the
world, we must also
take a look at the importance
of education and what it can
do. While we are empowered
by virtue of our education, let
us pass on the opportunity of
a world-renowned education
to also empower others. This
is why I am calling on Central
Student Government to support
fully funded scholarships for
Syrian refugees, as proposed in
a resolution this Tuesday by the
Books Not Bombs campaign.
The impact of the Syrian
Civil War on education has been
disastrous. After five continuous
years of civil war, the conflict in
Syria has reversed more than a
decade of progress in children’s
education. Today, 2.2 million of
Syria’s 4.8 million school-age
children are not in school as a
result of the conflict.
Since the start of the war
over 4,000 schools throughout
Syria have been devastated,
damaged
or
converted
into
shelters for those displaced. If
they are able to attend school,
many students are stopped from
accessing education. They are
physically attacked for trying
to go to school, under threat of
having their school bombed, and
commonly find themselves in the
crossfire of snipers. Under the
United Nations Convention of
the Rights of Child, the right to
a quality education is guaranteed
to
all
children.
Under
the
continuing civil war, children
and students our age are being
denied a basic human right.
As students who have made a
promise to ourselves and to the
University of Michigan to use
our education to contribute to a
more just and equitable society,
will we stay silent in the face of
the worst humanitarian crisis
the world has ever seen? The
answer has never been clearer.
If we truly believe in the power
of an education to transform
the lives of individuals, and if
we truly believe education to
be the basis of the betterment
of society, we must stand by
our commitment of education
for all. We must remember
that we are here by luck. By
chance, we found ourselves
not in the midst of a civil war;
by chance we can achieve our
dreams. We are the lucky ones;
we get to continue our lives as
normal simply because we are
here. If we are “Leaders and
the Best,” let us as students
collectively come together to
ask our University to provide
educational
opportunities
to
individuals
who
have
been
displaced, and whose education
has been interrupted by a
conflict they found themselves
embedded within by no fault of
their own. It is time, and it is
long overdue, to place Michigan
among the ranks of the many
other universities that have
been
offering
fully
funded
scholarships to Syrian refugees.
Many in the world have risked
being dangerously complacent
about the Syrian humanitarian
crisis. Those who have lost the
opportunity of education risk
becoming a lost generation in
our lifetime. Let us be among
those who stand up and make
our voices heard in this time of
deafening
silence.
Education
knows
no
borders
and
no
ethnicity; it is a human right and
one we must support by offering
scholarships to Syrian refugees.
You can support the Books
Not Bombs campaign to support
scholarships for Syrian Refugees
as an individual here, and as a
student group here.
Questions about the BNB
campaign?
Email:
books-not-
bombs@umich.edu
Nicole Khamis is a Michigan In
Color columnist and can be reached at
nlkhamis@umich.edu
NICOLE
KHAMIS
Let us be among
those who stand
up and make
our voices heard
in this time of
deafening silence.