Yavilah McCoy, an African-
American Jewish activist and
educator, spoke to a diverse
group of about 60 students on
Thursday evening at the Trotter
Multicultural
Center
about
her experiences as an activist
and holding multiple identities,
particularly in a changing political
and social climate.
The event, called “Holding
Racial
Justice,
Equity
and
Intersectionality in 2017,” was
hosted jointly by the Black Student
Union, University of Michigan
Hillel and NOiR Runway Fashion.
McCoy
is
the
CEO
of
Dimensions
Educational
Consulting,
a
company
that
promotes diversity education in
institutions, and the founder of
Ayecha, a nonprofit that advocates
for Jews of Color in the United
States.
McCoy invoked her diverse
experiences
in
advocating
coalition
to
the
audience,
something she said is important
to build in the face of hate and
racism.
“I want to dedicate this
discussion about how we can
hold social justice and equity
and
intersectionality
across
lines of difference,” McCoy said.
“What I came prepared to do
was to talk to you about the ways
which race, religion and gender
have intersected in my lived
experience, and given me very
powerful reasons to stand and
deliver in the name of equity and
justice.”
She described her experience
of holding multiple identities
as a practice of having multiple
perspectives,
both
of
which
are situations have different
privileges
and
face
different
oppressions.
Communicating
personal truths across different
communities, McCoy explained,
is crucial in building coalitions in
justice advocacy.
For the organizers of the event,
this message comes
at a crucial time on the University
of Michigan’s campus.
“There’s been tensions in both
(African-American and Jewish)
communities,
with
different
students
enacting
violence
in different ways against our
communities,” said BSU member
Jesse Love, an LSA sophomore.
“We felt that it was important
to build a sense of connections
between our organizations, in a
time where our communities are
being attacked in very similar
ways.”
Late
last
week,
three
anonymous emails were sent to
engineering students with anti-
Semitic and racist messages. The
sending of the emails spurred
students
to
protestoutside
University
President
Mark
Schlissel’s house to call for
increased institutional responses
to racially-charged incidents.
McCoy noted the first step in
fighting for justice was to listen,
In an effort to fund the
restructuring of Michigan’s
deteriorating
roads
and
bridges, a new state tax on
gasoline will place Michigan in
the nation’s top five for highest
gas tax rates. There have been
mixed
reactions,
however,
since the implementation of
the tax.
The tax took effect Jan. 1 and
increased the tax on unleaded
gasoline from 19 cents to 26.3
cents per gallon. Tax revenue
will go toward an investment
in Michigan’s transportation
infrastructure and will add
about $455 million a year to
the budget, according to the
Detroit News.
The Republican-backed plan
is the first gas tax increase in
20 years, and is a part of a $1.2
billion
package
announced
last November. The package
passed narrowly, though Gov.
Rick Snyder promised benefits
that would go beyond repaired
roads.
“It’s not just about asking
for more revenue,” Snyder
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, February 17, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 32
©2017 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See TAX, Page 3
Opposition
over gas tax
aiming to fix
public roads
GOVERNMENT
Tax revenue to go toward
an investment in State
infrastructure, transport
CARLY RYAN
Daily News Reporter
Activist and CEO Yavilah McCoy talks
holding multiple identities at Trotter
Event jointly hosted by BSU, Hillel, and NOiR Runway Fashion draws crowd of 60
ALON SAMUEL
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See TROTTER, Page 3
Ann Arbor City Councilmember
Zachary Ackerman (D–Ward 3)
announced in a Facebook post he
will be running for re-election in
2017, earlier today.
Ackerman,
a
University
of
Michigan
alum,
became
the
youngest councilmember in over
20 years when he won the 2015
general election with 90.68 percent
of the vote while he was still a
student.
The 2017 election will be the last
municipal election in an odd year,
as a result of a successful November
ballot proposal extending City
Council term limits from two
to four years. Councilmembers
elected in 2017 will serve a three-
year term, making their next
election year even.
As of the time of publication, no
one else has announced candidacy
for the Ward 3 seat.
In the press release announcing
his re-election bid, Ackerman
pointed to his successes as a
councilmember in the areas of
transportation — helping to develop
a plan to repave several of the
city’s major roads — and housing
See CITY, Page 3
‘U’ alum
announces
bid for City
re-election
ANN ARBOR
Councilmember Zachary
Ackerman stated his
intent in Facebook post
ANDREW HIYAMA
Daily Staff Reporter
About 100 students gathered
in Annenberg Auditorium to
listen to a series of speakers
address the topic of campus
sexual assault as a part of a
policy talk at the Ford School
of Public Policy Thursday
night.
William Axinn, a research
professor at the University of
Michigan Institute for Social
Research,
underscored
the
implications of his research,
which focuses on gathering
and analyzing statistics on
sexual assault.
“I think you’ll see numbers
that demonstrate that all of
us are bystanders,” Axinn
said. “And as a result, it can be
pretty stressful to look at some
of these numbers. I’m the data
guy, but not the happy data
guy.”
According to Axinn, 25
percent of American women
report they have been forced
into
sexual
intercourse.
However, women are almost
three times more likely to
experience this type of assault
on university campuses.
At the University, Axinn’s
research tries to quantify one
of the most pervasive problems
regarding
sexual
assault:
underreporting. Of the sexual
assaults in the last 12 months,
only 46 percent of survivors
tell anyone about their assault,
and of those, only 3.6 percent
report to an official resource
at the University.
In an attempt to mitigate
some of these problems, he
works
with
the
National
Survey of Family Growth,
an organization that seeks
to
inform
the
discussion
on
sexual
assault
in
the
United States, to increase
participation in surveys about
sexual violence.
By
using
third-party
facilitators and a non-web
based poll, the latest survey
conducted by the University
got a 67 percent response rate,
which is considered high in
Panel talks
methods to
curb sexual
assault cases
Students denounce ‘U’ response
to recent events at Regents meeting
See SPEAKERS, Page 3
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
President Mark Schlissel discusses University projects at the Regents meeting in the Fleming Administration Building on Thursday.
CAMPUS LIFE
A series of speakers addressed statistics,
challenges faced in tackling the issue
NIKOLA JAKSIC
For the Daily
The Board also approved renovation projects and made faculty appointments
Public
comments
on
the
University
of
Michigan’s
alleged
response
to
anti-
Semitic acts on campus, the
renovations
to
University
recreational facilities and new
administrative
appointments
led the conversation at the
February Board of Regents
meeting Thursday.
The meeting marked the
board’s first public convening
in 2017. Regents Shauna Ryder
Diggs (D), Mark Bernstein (D)
and newly elected Ron Weiser
(R) phoned into the meeting,
while
Regent
Denise
Ilitch
(D) was not present in order
attend the funeral of her father,
prominent Detroit businessman
Mike Ilitch.
Response to anti-Semitic acts
In
both
public
comment
sessions
of
the
meeting,
students
and
community
members criticized University
President
Mark
Schlissel’s
response to the racist and anti-
Semitic
emails
sent
earlier
this month. Engineering and
computer science students were
sent emails from a hacker posing
as
University
faculty.
The
emails
expressed
anti-Black
and anti-Semitic sentiments.
Speakers conveyed the common
sentiment that Schlissel did not
respond to the threats toward
African Americans and Jews on
campus with enough force.
Eugene Greenstein, former
president
of
the
Zionist
Organization
of
America-
Michigan
Region,
said
in
the past, the University has
routinely failed to condemn
anti-Semitism
on
campus.
Nearly all the speakers also
brought
up
demonstrations
put on by Palestinian student
advocacy group Students Allied
for Freedom and Equality as a
part of #UMDivest, a movement
calling on the University to
divest
from
human
rights
violations in Israel.
“It’s three strikes and you’re
MATT HARMON
& JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Reporters
See REGENTS, Page 3
JEREMY MITNICK/DAILY
The Art and Science of Healing From Antiquity to the Renaissance exhibition investigating the history of modern medicine through early
medical artifacts is displayed at Kelsey Museum of Arcaeology. The exhibition is on display through April 30.
THE HISTORY OF ME DICINE