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September 26, 2017 - Image 3

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The Michigan Daily

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DINNE RTIME

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, September 26, 2017— 3

Max Kuang/Daily

Zingerman’s Deli hosts a paella party cookout Sunday.

was taking place in response to
the racist graffiti written on his
brother’s door in West Quad, but
also to protest the name of the
building, C.C. Little.

“We’re here today because my

brother Travon, they targeted him
because of his ethnicity. We’re here
today because they stopped us from
trying to learn so we’re … trying to
study,” Felten said. “Another reason
we shut down C.C. Little is because
it’s a racist institution. It’s racist.”

The name C.C. Little has been

hotly debated in recent months at
the University. Earlier this month,
a group of University professors
and a student submitted an official
request to change the name of the
building.

“How would if you were going

to say, if you were Jewish, and you
say, ‘I’m going to Adolf Hitler bus

stop.’ That’s not cool,” Felten said.
“For Black people, this is not cool
because if our great grandparents
had to deal with him, we wouldn’t
be here right now.”

Students attempting to board the

bus lined up at the C.C. Little station
en masse, waiting for a bus to take
them to North Campus.

Postdoctoral
fellow
Austin

McCoy, a veteran organizer and
attendee at the blockade, said the
students waiting for the bus were
what made the protest so effective
in spreading the cause of #BBUM
and #SchlisselWya to the entire
campus.

“I think (the halting of the bus

routes) is part of the lesson: to
get other students who may not
be thinking about issues of racial
inequality
to
understand
how

racism inconveniences Black people,
especially on campus,” McCoy said.

While most MBuses and city

buses could not gain access to the
road, the protesters cleared the way

for an ambulance halfway through
the demonstration.

Felten discussed the number of

Black students at the University
and how he sees it as a problem,
especially in a country with a much
higher proportion of Black people.

“There’s not a lot of us here. We

can go all day walking on campus
and not see another Black person,”
Felten said. “This doesn’t really
affect us on a physical level but
psychologically this does affect us
and hurt us.”

Studying on campus can be

difficult, Felten said, when there are
so few students that look like him.

“You don’t want to study in a

space with people that don’t look
like you,” Felten said. “I don’t feel
safe going to Shapiro because I don’t
know how a white person might
perceive me. They might just have
the gut to say the N-word to me, but
I’m going to stay strong. I’m here for
a reason, I have a purpose in life.”

North Campus buses such as

the Bursley-Baits bus changed
their routes to pick up students on
Church Street instead of North
University Avenue so students could
still get to class, but these students
still felt Travon’s message and the
point of the demonstration.

Engineering senior Dulce Rios

was waiting at C.C. Little at the
time of the protest for a bus to take
her to North Campus. After talking
with the Daily, she found out there
wouldn’t be a bus coming to the
C.C. Little stop.

“I mean, I think the point

of protest is to disrupt other
people’s daily lives, right?” Rios
said. “Because they’re protesting
because their daily lives are
disrupted so I think they’re being
pretty effective if you ask me.”

Other students waiting for

buses weren’t as receptive to the
action that disrupted bus routes.

Engineering
sophomore

Bogdan Manga was waiting for a
bus at the time of the protest to get

to a class on North Campus.

“I respect what they’re doing

but I don’t think the academic
process
should
be
impeded

because I want to go to class,”
Manga said. “I’m fine, I’m not mad
or anything.”

Along with the ambulance

and a few buses, the protesters
also allowed LeRoy Whipple, the
owner and operator of the Whips
Dog Days hot dog stand, to pass
through and set up his cart in
front of the Chemistry Building.
He said the protesters are allowed
to demonstrate and would hold up
city buses as well.

“They have the right,” Whipple

said. “It’s definitely going to hold
the bus systems up and put them
behind schedule. The AATA, the
ones that run through the city,
they can’t get through here, so
that’s going to impact the city
too.”

About
10:45
am,
students

at the C.C. Little crosswalk

stood up from their homework,
gathered themselves in a circle
and chanted and sang. After the
main demonstrators dispersed,
representatives
were
sent
to

relieve the allies blocking the
major intersections with the
police from their posts, signifying
the end of the demonstration.

Stearns said the purpose of

the protest was not to sit with no
purpose and cause stress for those
trying to use the buses. He said
the constant roadblocks keeping
students from classes and doing
homework, such as the name tag
incident, is what Black students at
the University experience every
day.

“We’re not just doing this to

be jerks or things of that nature,”
Stearns said. “We have an end goal
in mind. We’re really doing this so
you can hear us, hear the issues
that we have on this campus. This
is what it’s like to study at the
University of Michigan.”

BLOCKADE
From Page 1

feel like if it’s on State Street it’s
just going to be like ‘Hey, I’m just
walking into Mason Hall’ and
you’re not really going to have
those conversations. But people
who actually walk here (now),
then they’re going to want to talk.”

LSA senior Catherine Daoud

attested
to
the
increasing

importance of wanting to talk,
especially with a number of
racially-charged
incidents

happening on and around campus
in recent years, including racist
writing that occurred as recently
as last weekend.

“The students that come here

to organize these protests, they

utilize our space to write down
their demands, write down what
they want to be done,” Daoud said.
“People will host meetings on how
to tackle this racist incident or this
racist remark that just occurred,
or they will just come in and
have discussions and have that
dialogue that needs to be done.”

She added the move could have

made protests like Monday’s even
more centralized.

“The (protests) on the Diag,

if we were closer, we would be
having a dialogue discussion
about it,” Daoud said.

The move, though, comes

with logistical implications. The
new building is slated to be in
front of the Betsy Barbour and
Helen Newberry residences, just
north of the Kelsey Archaeology
Museum,
the
LSA
building

and
the
Michigan
Union.

Construction has closed half of
State Street’s southbound lane
and the sidewalk.

Susan Pile, senior director of

University Unions and Auxiliary
Services, said she thinks the
construction on State Street,
though a disruption, has made
minimal impact.

“I
don’t
think
(the

construction) will really have an
impact on the Union,” she said.
“It’s far enough down the street
that we’re not anticipating it’ll have
any impact on pedestrian flow
and parking and that sort of thing
because the street is still open and
the sidewalk is open, just kind of
across the street.”

The Office of Public Affairs

declined to comment at the time
of publication.

TROTTER
From Page 1

of Michigan’s campus, especially
to Greek life, I’ll go into a fraternity
and say, ‘What is sexual assault?’
and a lot of them can’t tell me a
definition of it because they’re
unaware of certain things that fall
into that category,” Snyder said.
“Education is like the baseline of
what we’re trying to do.”

Kelsey Snyder is the director

of the Panhellenic peer educators
who organize the Speak Out for
Greek life that provides an open
forum for survivors to share their
stories.

“I am really proud of Kelsey

stepping up and the role she’s
played. As you’ve heard she’s gone
to fraternities to talk to young
men about this issue,” Gov. Snyder
said. “I mean, that’s the kind of
involvement we need.”

Some
lawmakers
were

concerned when U.S. Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos issued new
rules requiring a higher standard
of evidence for sexual assault cases.
Additionally,
Trump
recently

removed a report of sexual violence
from the White House website.
The Obama-era report was often
used as a resource for those doing
research on sexual assault.

“I don’t have a fear and I hope

it comes together well. I’ve talked
to Betsy DeVos and I’ve shown
her what we’ve done in the state
and I told her we are a resource

for whatever she may need,” Sue
Snyder said. “I honestly don’t think
it’s going to hurt. I think it will
help.”

EMU sophomore Joheny Yanes

agreed with Kelsey Snyder in that
Campbell’s words hold a lot of
weight.

“I think it is great to be able to

listen to politicians’ words, but
since Campbell is a researcher, she
had like firsthand experience with
survivors, and their stories are
often the most moving,” Yanes said.

Many campus-level initiatives

are taking place due to funding
granted to the University by the
state to prevent sexual assault ––
Sue Snyder said Michigan is the
only state which allocates general
budget dollars to this effort. But
additionally, the state legislature has
introduced legislation with many
of the same goals, largely due to
the female representatives on
the appropriations committee.

“We are making sure that

survivors have access to their
medical records when they do
seek treatment and go through a
rape kit,” Sue Snyder said.

State
Rep.
Kristy
Pagan,

D-Canton, said the legislation,
known as the Sexual Assault
Victims’
Medical
Forensic

Intervention and Treatment Act,
will provide funding to medical
care and forensics teams that
work on sexual assault cases,
while ensuring survivors have
access to counseling.

Additionally,
Rep.
Debbie

Dingell said they are working

on funding a sexual assault kit
tracking system that would
allow survivors to know exactly
where their kit is in the criminal
justice process, whether it be
the prosecutor’s office or a lab. If
they are successful in allocating
the funds, Michigan would be
the first state in the country to
provide kit tracking.

Campbell
explained
many

victims of sexual assault refrain
from disclosing the crime in fear
that their inebriation during the
assault would place blame on
them or make them vulnerable
to minor in possession offenses.
State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker,
R-Van Buren, however, said the
women on the panel wanted to
rid survivors of as many worries
as possible.

“We amended the law so that

minors who had been drinking
and were getting a sexual
assault exams would not be
getting a minor in possession,”
Schuitmaker
said.
“Sexual

assault is the top priority of the
situation and we didn’t want
survivors to have any barriers.”

With the support of attendees

and
bipartisan
political

leaders, Dingell said the state
and federal governments will
continue advocating for the
safety of college campuses and
empowerment of survivors.

“I remember what it was

like to be on college campus.
I remember the shame, the
trauma. We cannot go back,” she
said.

SUMMIT
From Page 1

here until my knees bleed, then
that’s what I’m going to do.”

In a letter addressed to Schlissel

that circulated around the Diag,
Greene traced his experiences
with racism in his five years on
campus.

“I have crossed the fountain

in Ingalls Mall as an incoming
freshman and as a graduate,” he
wrote. “I have watched as anti-
Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Latinx,
and
anti-immigrant
rhetoric

has raced across our campus
and across our country...I am no
longer numb but instead I will
use this moment in time to make
a statement.”

E.
Royster
Harper,
vice

president for student life, said she
was proud of the students who
were protesting that morning.

“I think that (I am proud of),

not only the student who chose
to take a knee, but also all the
students — how they feel about
equality in our country and
also at our University. I am just
glad to be here to be in support
and make sure everything goes
well. I couldn’t be more pleased,
actually,” she said.

She also touched upon how

the University is responding to
student concerns.

“I feel like we’ve been

responsive in terms of showing
up and talking to students,” she
said. “I think that what we do in

the next two weeks is not really
the answer, it’s what we do after,
because this is long-term work,
and it’s work we’re going to have
to do as a community. There’s
nothing you can do short-term
about a long term problem, and
racism is a long-term problem. We
all just have to keep working on it.
So this gives me hope that we can
do that together.”

Last year, Colin Kaepernick,

former quarterback for the San
Francisco 49ers, was the first
professional athlete to take a
knee during the national anthem
to draw attention to anti-Black
racism and police brutality in the
United States. Trump blasted
Kaepernick in a speech this
weekend, telling owners to “get
that son of a bitch off the field
right now.”

“What Colin Kaepernick did

last year, taking a knee, wasn’t
to disrespect the troops. In fact,
I think I’m honoring the troops
right now because they gave me
the right to do this. My father
served in the military, and … this
isn’t disrespecting the flag, this
is honoring it,” Greene said. “If
Black people can get killed in this
country and not get any justice for
their lives, for their murder, then
that’s disrespecting the flag.”

Following the white nationalist

groups protesting the taking
down of the statue of Robert E.
Lee, a Confederate general, in
Charlottesville,
Va.,
President

Trump blamed “all sides” for the
violence that occurred, which

received a great deal of backlash.

“If the president of the United

States
can
equate
peaceful

protesters with KKK members and
the alt-right, that is disrespecting
the flag,” Greene explained. “This
is not disrespecting the flag, and
I’m doing this for every student
on this campus that has ever felt
like they didn’t belong here, any
person in this country who felt
like they didn’t belong here.”

In the morning, Greene said

he was surprised Schlissel could
not come to the Diag. Throughout
the
afternoon,
administrators

including E. Royster Harper, vice
president for Student Life; Provost
Martin Philbert; Dean of Students
Laura Blake Jones; and Chief
Diversity Officer Robert Sellers
stood at the edge of the Diag.

“I’ve been out here since 7

o’clock, it’s damn near 90 degrees
out here, the president of the
campus ain’t even showed up.
So how much is my life worth?”
Greene said. “He can come out
here, but that’s not going to send
me home. That’s a start.”

Many ordered rounds of pizza

to the protestors, and Counseling
and
Pyschological
Services

distributed yoga mats to those
kneeling.

Central Student Government

President Anushka Sarkar, LSA
senior, tweeted solidatory with
students protesting.

KNEELING
From Page 1

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