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

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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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

