Last week’s protests were
effective
precisely
because
they were disruptive. It is
not every day that the Diag
is populated with dozens of
students for hours on end, some
holding umbrellas to block the
heat and others delivering
food and water. The students
who blocked the intersections
of bus routes near the C.C.
Little bus station sought to
parallel the “inconveniences”
racism and microaggressions
pose for students of color
on
a
daily
basis.
Though
their protest lasted merely
an hour, they had an impact
that “inconvenienced” a large
proportion of campus.
Intentionally
disruptive
student protests are some of
the most effective ways to
enact
much-needed
change
on our campus and beyond.
And in cases such as these,
the nature of the disruption
conveyed the message of the
protest, especially to student
demographics who otherwise
would
not
understand
the
disruptions students of color
on campus deal with regularly.
As such, these types of visible
protests not only force passersby
to think about the issues the
protests are addressing, but
they
also
start
important
conversations. When routine is
broken, students question what is
going on, seek more information
and have discussions with peers.
Furthermore, as an Editorial
Board, we believe the fact that
these protests began various
discussions and debates about
the issues the protests sought
to address and whether their
protest tactics were effective
meant they made the issues at
hand
at
least
visible.
Protests
are a critical
step that goes
beyond simply
the
desire
for
change.
Substantial
positive change
requires
more than an
email from the
administration
condemning hateful actions and
standing in solidarity with those
affected. Emails are all well and
good, but they can be brushed
aside,
archived
and,
quite
frankly, ignored. Protests are
exponentially more visible and
powerful tools to enact change
because they are much more
difficult to ignore.
Human bodies and minds
making
observable
calls
to
action can influence and inspire
communities and individuals to
discuss the issues and act, and it
is our responsibility to support
and encourage protesters in
their work.
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A— Wednesday, October 4, 2017
REBECCA LERNER
Managing Editor
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.
EMMA KINERY
Editor in Chief
ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY
and REBECCA TARNOPOL
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.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Carolyn Ayaub
Megan Burns
Samantha Goldstein
Caitlin Heenan
Jeremy Kaplan
Sarah Khan
Anurima Kumar
Max Lubell
Lucas Maiman
Alexis Megdanoff
Madeline Nowicki
Anna Polumbo-Levy
Jason Rowland
Anu Roy-Chaudhury
Ali Safawi
Sarah Salman
Kevin Sweitzer
Rebecca Tarnopol
Stephanie Trierweiler
Ashley Zhang
P
rotests in the National
Football League took
center stage at the end
of September as hundreds of
players, coaches and owners
knelt, raised fists or linked
arms
during
the
national
anthem in a show of solidarity.
Though the national anthem
protests date back to last
year when Colin Kaepernick
first knelt to protest racial
injustices,
dozens
more
participated this past week
in
response
to
President
Donald Trump’s controversial
comment
that
protesting
players should be fired.
The show of unity drew
national news headlines and
also elicited sharp criticism
from many who claim that
the protests are disrespectful
and unpatriotic. Others have
gone further and trivialized
the players’ cause, calling the
protest’s pretext of enduring
racial biases an “ocean of lies.”
These lines of criticism are
unfortunate and misguided.
While it is understandable why
some, especially those who
have served our country, would
be vexed by demonstrations
during the anthem, it is equally
understandable why players feel
the need to protest. Furthermore,
the act of protesting is not
unpatriotic; rather, it is a staple
of American democracy.
Any analysis of the national
anthem protests is incomplete
without an examination of
why the players are protesting.
Indeed, the players’ motives
have been a central point of
debate in the recent days, with
some critics claiming NFL
players should be grateful for
what they have. They point
to the average NFL player’s
salary, which at $2.1 million
in the 2015 season, is nearly 50
times greater than the average
American’s salary in 2014.
This notion is shortsighted
and minimizes the impact
of racial injustices, many of
which are inescapable and not
alleviated by wealth. A 2016
Pew Research Center survey
found that 71 percent of U.S.
Blacks have experienced racial
discrimination, and roughly
half reported that in the past
year “someone has acted as
if they were suspicious of
them because of their race.”
The wealth of the protesting
players does not fully shield
them from racial profiling,
nor
does
it
diminish
the
importance of their message.
Furthermore,
those
criticizing
the
players
as
“ungrateful” fail to realize
they are advocating for the
entire
Black
community,
especially those without a
platform to protest against the
injustices they face. Despite
an abundance of evidence of
the far-reaching impacts of
implicit racial biases, only
36 percent of whites believe
racial discrimination to be a
major reason Blacks lag behind
whites in education, income
and more.
Considerable
media
attention has been devoted
to
police
brutality,
but
discussions of racial profiling
in policing have often devolved
into
a
tedious
game
of
assigning blame, rather than a
recognition of the omnipresent
biases
against
racial
minorities. Such recognition of
the problem is essential for any
progress to be made; the lack
of recognition compels these
players to protest. Efforts to
trivialize the motives behind
the protests grossly devalue
the pervasiveness of racial
injustices in the United States
and the significance of NFL
players’ willingness to stand
up to it.
However,
other
lines
of
criticism
have
focused
on
the
methods
of
the
protests.
Detractors
claim
the
demonstrations
are
unpatriotic or disrespectful
to
the
flag.
Admittedly,
the
matter
of
patriotism
is
complex
and
delicate.
Kaepernick’s own comments
on the protest, particularly his
statement from August 2016 in
which he explicitly declined
to “show pride” in the flag,
are objectively unpatriotic (at
least denotatively) and add to
the narrative that the protests
dishonor the national anthem.
While
intended
to
contextualize
his
budding
protest,
Kaepernick’s
comments
unfortunately
reinforced
a
narrow
and
simplistic view of patriotism.
Patriotism is far more than
honoring the flag; regrettably,
when it comes to the flag,
some seem to care more about
the physical cloth than what
it represents. This attitude
toward the flag has translated
to the outlook that patriotism
is expressed solely through the
veneration of the flag, when
the true hallmark of American
patriotism is the defense of our
country’s democratic values.
To truly care about the flag
is to care about injustices,
free
speech
and
political
expression.
Kaepernick’s
protest promoted this more
refined view of patriotism
by calling attention to the
inadequacy of merely honoring
the flag in its physical form.
The United States is not
held together by a common
race, religion or even language.
Rather, it is our shared civic
values of democracy, justice and
liberty that define our national
identity. Our nation’s robust
civic culture demands a form
of patriotism that honors these
values. Genuine patriotism is
a celebration of liberties and
freedoms, which is why there is
a subtle, but inherent hypocrisy
in calling the protesting players
unpatriotic. Patriotism requires
a respect for protest. Protest
is
intrinsically
intertwined
with our civic values, and it is
through protest that so many
of the rights we take as self-
evident were secured.
Furthermore,
there
is
nothing innately unpatriotic
about the national anthem
protests. By and large, the
protesting players are simply
using the stage of the national
anthem to point out that
this nation is still far from
achieving many of the virtues
the
anthem
symbolizes.
One can be patriotic while
acknowledging
that
our
country is not perfect — the
two are far from mutually
exclusive. American society
has many areas where progress
is needed. Racial injustice is one.
Realizing the promises of
equality, justice and liberty for
all is an ongoing process, and
neither the protests nor the
controversy surrounding them
are likely to go away anytime
soon. As the NFL season
continues,
it
is
important
to recognize the players are
protesting for a legitimate
cause and furthermore that
protesting is a form of free
speech — and there’s nothing
unpatriotic or un-American
about it.
Wearing ignorance
COREY DULIN | COLUMN
SARAH NEFF | CONTACT SARAH AT SANE@UMICH.EDU
Preserving patriotism
NOAH HARRISON | COLUMN
R
ecently at a concert I
danced in a dark bar
while cringing at the
guy in front of me. He was in
his
own
world
and wasn’t really
doing any harm
— but I would
describe
him
as that person,
the person who
decides
that
the
best
place
to
practice
dramatic
interpretive
dance
mixed
with Beyoncé-esque moves is
in a crowded concert venue.
But besides the fact he kept
jumping up off the floor every
few seconds, what I remember
most about him was his head
wrap.
His head wrap looked really
nice; there was a small knotted
ball at the top, and he put
lavender plants inside the knot.
But his head wrap was also out
of place.
In the United States, head
wraps have been a prominent
feature in Black life and style
for centuries. Originally the
product of sumptuary laws
made to shame Black women,
head wraps became a way
for Black women to express
their culture and unique style.
Slaves and other Black women
were forced to wear rags and
turned them into something
rich. I never thought I would
see a white guy in a head wrap,
and when I did, I thought it
was interesting.
But, at the same time, I
could see a little glimmer of
problematic behavior. People
in our country, from slightly
obnoxious
concert-goers
to
Donald Trump, see no real
issue
in
misrepresenting
and
misinterpreting
symbols and actions.
With
Halloween
coming up, seeing this
man in a head wrap left
me in a nervous state.
As someone who gets
scared easily and has
had enough of looking
at offensive costumes
and depictions, I am
not
looking
forward
to
the
upcoming
holiday. I know some student
organizations post guides to
let students know if a costume
is offensive or not, but you
would
think
people
have
enough common sense to know
what is appropriate and what
counts as offensive.
I thought the head wrap
incident was minor and hope
people will use more creativity
and
fewer
stereotypes
to
pick a Halloween costume,
but
appropriation
and
misrepresentation of identities
are serious problems. When
items of cultural significance or
items specific to a marginalized
group are worn because they
look cool or because people
think it would make a good
Halloween costume, we forget
what these items represent.
But the problems different
cultures overcame — and still
work to overcome — are not
just represented in physical
objects
like
head
wraps,
but also in actions. So when
athletes take a knee during the
national anthem, it is not about
the flag or for the purpose of
disrespecting the country — it
is to call attention to issues in
our country.
Colin
Kaepernick
didn’t
start this protest to disrespect
the flag — he started it to bring
attention to the murders of
Black men and women at the
hands of police. So why Donald
Trump calls Kaepernick and
every athlete who takes part in
these peaceful protests a “son
of a bitch” but can’t say much
about gun-toting Nazis other
than that they “were very fine
people” makes no sense to me.
He gets angry when people take
a knee and act in a way that is
peaceful, but when another
group incites violence, he is
fine with it.
Our
identities
sometimes
blind us from the cultural
significance
of
items
and
actions
of
other
groups.
Because of this I feel we should
all take a minute to step back
and workshop things. We don’t
need to go over and check
whether every single thing is
culturally
appropriated,
but
some things are not only worn
for style or done because it’s
cool, but because they have an
important purpose that needs
to be recognized. One way to do
this is to talk to others. We can
learn a lot by talking to people
who aren’t exactly like us.
So before calling someone
a “son of a bitch” or wearing
something offensive to a concert
or a Halloween party, maybe
consider the implications of
what you’re wearing or saying.
Corey Dulin can be reached at
cydulin@umich.edu.
Noah Harrison can be reached at
noahharr@umich.edu.
FROM THE DAILY
Don’t stop disrupting
I
f you found yourself at the Central Campus Transit Center,
also known as the C.C. Little bus station, last Monday, perhaps
you were dismayed your normal bus had been rerouted. If
you found yourself walking through the Diag, perhaps you were
confused by the crowds of people surrounding a man kneeling
at the block ‘M.’ These two protests in response to recent racist
incidents on campus intentionally disrupted the normal flow
of everyday life at the University of Michigan. The Michigan
Daily Editorial Board is fully supportive of these protests; they
challenged the routine of everyday life, called attention to the
hostile climate caused by acts of racism and made the issues at
hand accessible to the wider campus and Ann Arbor community.
COREY
DULIN
Illustration courtesy of Roshini Ankireddygari