Ibram X. Kendi — author of
“Stamped from the Beginning,”
the 2016 National Book Award for
Nonfiction winner — conveyed
to a crowd of 50 his thoughts
on how government policy has
perpetuated
racist
ideologies
throughout U.S. history.
An
assistant
professor
of
African-American history at the
University of Florida, Kendi has
published work in publications
such as The New York Times,
The Huffington Post and Black
Perspectives.
Kendi began his talk Tuesday
night by stating the United States
has experienced two narratives:
one of racial progress and one of
increased racism in society. He
said understanding this duality
can reorient how one thinks about
racism throughout history.
“We’ve actually had a dueling
history of race,” he said. “What
I mean by that is we’ve had a
history of racial progress, but
we’ve also had a simultaneous
progression of racism. We’ve
actually experienced, as a nation,
two historical forces.”
A key component of Kendi’s
discussion was that racist ideas
stem from policy enacted by self-
interested politicians, rather than
the commonly assumed falsehood
that ideas lead to policy. He
cited historical instances where
political parties, unhappy with
Months after the University
of Michigan’s release of a new
policy on building renaming,
the LSA History Department
convened a bicentennial panel
Tuesday
afternoon
on
the
potential renaming of the C.C.
Little Building, which has been
named after former University
of Michigan President Clarence
Cook “C.C.” Little since 1968.
About 50 people attended the
discussion on the many factors
involved with the process of
name-changing and examples
of other universities’ actions in
similar cases.
Though he was a renowned
genetics, cancer and tobacco
researcher, Little has recently
come under fire for his support
of policies such as compulsory
sterilization
of
the
“unfit”
and immigration restriction.
American
Culture
Prof.
Alexandra Minna Stern opened
the panel by reflecting on the
nuances of building names.
“We’re going to think about
the arguments for removing
his name and what are some of
the arguments for retaining his
name,” she said. “There is a high
bar for renaming. If we just take
his name off the building, we
erase the past.”
Panelists
referenced
the
notion that Little’s associations
with ideas and practices are
antagonistic
to
the
values
of
diversity,
inclusion
and
nondiscrimination
the
University is pushing toward
today.
Stern
said
one
line
of
reasoning
for
preserving
Little’s name is that the name
causes little harm, as not many
students know who he was or
what he did.
LSA junior Joshua Hasler
countered those reasons by
arguing Little’s interests in
eugenics cannot be separated
from his tenure as University
president. He found it hard to
believe Little became president
of
the
American
Eugenics
Society
after
leaving
the
University in 1929.
“Like many students here at
the University, I’ve had a class
in the C.C. Little building,”
Hasler said. After discovering
The engineering and medical
fields
came
together
when
five
University
of
Michigan
undergraduates teamed up to
contribute to modern medicine
with a device that can give the
same data as a $30,000 machine
in one-fifth of the time.
Sanguis
Diagnostics,
also called Team 805, is a
group of students who have
developed the product HeRM —
hemoretractometer — a device
that can measure a patient’s pre-
treatment hemostasis, or natural
blood-clotting abilities.
Recent prototype development
by these students has recognized
current demand for a low-cost,
fast-paced,
technologically
savvy and informative device for
diagnostic blood testing.
The
ability
to
maintain
hemostasis is crucial for normal
life function, as clotting too much
or not enough could have serious
implications
for
a
patient’s
health. The device, however,
could be used for providing
high-tech medical care to those
who do not have access to it,
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 65
©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
Author talks
how policy
perpetuates
racist ideas
Panel discusses negative aspects
of Trump’s first 100 days in office
See BOOK, Page 3A
BRIAN KOSASIH/Daily
James Morrow, professor of world politics, talks about the impact of the Trump administration at the Jack L. Walker Conference on Tuesday.
GOVERNMENT
Kendi is know for his award winning
book “Stamped from the Beginning”
KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
The group considered the President’s legislative actions, current political climate
University of Michigan students
and
faculty
gathered
Tuesday
evening in the Michigan Union to
discuss President Donald Trump’s
first 100 days in office for the annual
Jack L. Walker Conference, hosted
by the Undergraduate Political
Science Association and sponsored
by the Political Science Department.
The conference, named after
Jack L. Walker, the late University
professor
of
political
science,
explores different topics in politics
every winter semester with experts
and professionals in government and
academia.
This year’s conference featured
five professors specializing in a wide
range of political science subfields,
including feminist political theory,
international trade and the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.
LSA sophomore Eve Hillman,
a co-president of UPSA, explained
holding panels like these allow
students to interact with professors
in a way they rarely have an
opportunity to in class.
“UPSA really focuses on building
a relationship between political
science students and faculty because
so many of the political science
classes are really big,” Hillman said.
“So if you can get events and get
professors to come to events where
ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter
See DEVICE, Page 3A
Prototype
promising
for hospital
treatment
RESEARCH
Five students built a more
effective, cost-efficient and
fast-paced medical device
ALEXA ST. JOHN
Managing News Editor
JULIA LAWSON/Daily
LSA student Josh Hasler speaks at The Power of Place-Naming: C.C. Little, Eugenics, and the University of Michigan
event in Hatcher on Tuesday.
Panel debates merits of C.C. Little’s
legacy as ‘U’ president, eugenicist
Discussed pros and cons of renaming the building with his name following controversy
KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See LITTLE, Page 3A
See TRUMP, Page 3A
Author and journalist Elizabeth
Kolbert
discussed
species
extinction and how individuals
are combatting certain climatic
changes in a talk sponsored by
the University of Michigan Erb
Institute as a part of the Purpose to
Impact Speaker series on Tuesday
night.
Kolbert has published a number
of books, including her most
recent, “The Sixth Extinction:
An Unnatural History,” which
details how the Earth is on course
for a sixth, unprecedented mass
extinction. Kolbert is also known
for her pieces in The New Yorker,
including a three-part award-
winning
series
about
climate
change published in 2005.
Though Kolbert has extensively
researched
the
issues
she
writes about and discusses, she
emphasized she does not have the
solutions necessary to solve these
problems. However, she shared
several stories of people around the
world fighting extinction.
Kolbert discussed the work of
Sam Wasser, the director for the
Center for Conservation Biology
See SPECIES, Page 3A
Prevention
of species
extinction
highlighted
CAMPUS LIFE
Author and journalist
Elizabeth Kolbert talked
elimination of species
COLIN BEREFORD
Daily Staff Reporter
statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | APRIL 12, 2017