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.

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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

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columnist Brett Graham interviews Democratic candidate for the 

Michigan 7th congressional district Gretchen Driskell and her campaign 

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tothedaily@michigandaily.com.

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. 

