The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, January 16, 2018 — 3A

Broderick Johnson talks engagement

progress which still needs to 
be made toward social justice, 
especially at the University.

“(The symposium) reflects 

a desire to do good in the 
world and help create a better, 
more just and more equitable 
society,” he said. “We know 
there is so much more for us 
to do, because while talent 
is equally distributed in our 
society, 
opportunity 
most 

certainly is not.”

According to Harper, it is 

“shameful” that today’s society 
and activists are still facing the 
same issues of social and racial 
injustice Martin Luther King 
Jr. worked to address 50 years 
ago.

“It’s a shame for me to stand 

here, next to this podium, 
talking about the exact same 
things that he was talking 
about,” he said. “We have to 
hold a mirror up to that and 
realize that that is shameful. 
And you know where that falls? 
That falls on us.”

This 
symposium 
holds 

special 
significance 
in 
the 

wake of a year of bias incidents 
and hatred directed against 
communities 
of 
color 
and 

other marginalized groups — 
ranging from racist vandalism 
in West Quad Residence Hall 
to racist slurs being painted on 
downtown buildings.

In an earlier interview with 

The Daily, E. Royster Harper, 
vice president of Student Life, 
expressed 
the 
importance 

of working towards a more 
inclusive campus community in 
light of the divisive narratives 

being expressed in the national 
news media.

“Students don’t come here 

in a vacuum, so they’ve been 
watching and listening to the 
national 
narrative, 
all 
the 

divisiveness and the vileness, 
and they’ve seen it on television, 
they’ve seen it on social media, 
and you think ‘I’m going off 
to school, and I’m all excited 
about that, and I’ve got to come 
here?’” she said. “Particularly 
when we promote and advertise 
something different. So we 
talk about our aspirations, the 
kind of community we want 
to be — it’s not the community 
we are yet, but it’s the kind of 
community we want to be.”

LSA 
freshman 
Jazmine 

Johnson thought this message 
of responsibility was especially 
relevant 
and 
powerful 
for 

today’s 
social 
and 
political 

climate.

“I thought it was really 

inspiring seeing (Harper) talk 
about (those struggles) and how 
they are still happening today,” 
she said.

Harper spoke of the power 

individual 
actions 
play 
in 

making the changes Martin 
Luther 
King 
Jr. 
dedicated 

his life to. Following with 
his message of “power is the 
people,” he emphasized the 
difference that can be made by 
each individual, especially by 
participating in elections at all 
levels of government. He also 
encouraged the audience to 
consider what they are willing 
to do to make the world a better 
place and to act on that intuition 
by refusing to let anything hold 
them back from standing up for 
justice.

“Elections matter,” Harper 

said. 
“Solidarity 
matters 
… 

Everyone here who has an 
intuition or a notion, we need 
you. We need your greatness, 
we need your inspiration. We 
need you to step out and step 
in.”

Harper said this potential for 

positive change comes down to 
the strength of positive energy.

“We can turn our potential 

energy into kinetic energy,” he 
said. “And as we turn our kinetic 
energy on, we start to feel a 
fire. You start to feel something 
happening in your spirit … And 
you start to say ‘We can do this, 
and we will do this, and this is 
how we are going to get there’ 
… We are all we need, because 
the power is the people. And 
so as we think about that, own 
the power. Own your greatness. 
We need you. The legacy of Dr. 
King calls for you, pleads for 
you to come out.”

Music, 
Theatre 
& 
Dance 

freshman 
Sarah 
Morgan 

said she believed the central 
message of the symposium was 
inspiring and impactful.

“I think the quote ‘power is 

the people’ will really resonate 
(with) me and I’ll take that 
wherever I go,” she said. 

Harper concluded his speech 

by leading the audience in a 
pledge to always harness their 
energy and their power to stand 
up for what is right.

“I will not allow fear to stop 

me from taking actions that I 
already know I should take,” 
he said. “Instead, I will act, 
encourage, with heart. I will 
fight and I will change the 
world. I will help humanity. I 
will fight for social justice. The 
power is the people. The power 
is the us. The power is me.”

because talent is ubiquitous in our 
society, but opportunity is not.”

Jackson and Schlissel last 

crossed paths in public last 
November during a symposium 
in Jackson’s honor. Following 
President 
Donald 
Trump’s 

election last November, Jackson 
spoke on campus in support of 
an anti-racist walkout that drew 
more than a thousand students. 
Organized by Students4Justice 
in the aftermath of not just the 
election, but a spate of racist 
incidents on campus, the walkout 
aimed to “hold President Schlissel 
and our Regents at the University 
of Michigan accountable for their 
claims of valuing diversity and 
student safety and well-being.” 
Student protesters also birthed 
the viral #schlisselwyahashtag 
last fall, asking “Schlissel, where 
you 
at?” 
after 
inconclusive 

investigations and a strategic plan 
many deemed too far-sighted. 

Jackson received a standing 

ovation as he described current 
political 
movements 
and 

encouraged 
those 
who 
feel 

marginalized not to adjust, but 
to take action and rise above the 
maltreatment that may be felt 
from those in positions of power.

“It’s dangerous to be ignorant 

in a high place,” Jackson said. 
“Beyond culture and color is 
something called character.”

The Guarantee — a historic 

pledge of four years of waived 
tuition for Michigan residents 
with a family income of $65,000 
or less — has achieved preliminary 
success in encouraging more 
applications from lower-income 
students. 
Still, 
socioeconomic 

diversity at the University is sorely 
lacking. The University ranked 
last in socioeconomic mobility 
amongst peer institutions in a 
study by the Equality Opportunity 
Project — one in ten students 
are in the one percent of income 
distribution.

In a previous interview, Kedra 

Ishop, vice provost for enrollment 
management, said the Guarantee 
needs further work to make sure 
the program doesn’t ignore the 
needs of new students from lower 
socioeconomic strata.

“We all have a responsibility 

to make sure that we help our 
students become part of the 
U-M experience,” she said. “It’s a 
challenging endeavor for us and 
we don’t always get it right the first 
time but I think we’ve put a great 
deal of effort … into identifying 
students, identifying their needs, 
to make sure they’re supported by 
the University.”

Other recipients of the award 

included Bankole Thompson of 
The Detroit News, Flint mayor 
Karen Weaver and Archbishop 
Desmond 
Tutu, 
humanitarian 

leader and civil rights activist. 
Before awards were presented, 
audience members heard from 
several 
speakers, 
including 

U.S. Reps. Brenda Lawrence, 
D-Detroit, and Debbie Dingell, 
D-Ann Arbor, as well as Rev. Jesse 
Jackson, who accepted the award 
on behalf of Tutu in his absence.

When addressing the audience, 

Lawrence 
highlighted 
the 

importance 
of 
remembrance 

on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 
explaining that taking action in 
the face of oppression would allow 
King’s dream to be furthered 
within a democracy.

“While we stand here today 

and reflect on the history of a great 
man … Will they be able to say that 

we stood up and fought when they 
tried to roll back our rights and 
freedoms?” Lawrence said. “We 
talk about a dream but this is about 
action.”

Though Schlissel was selected 

as an honoree, many students felt 
that his actions this past semester 
— specifically toward students of 
color — did not warrant an award. 
LSA senior LaKyrra Magee, a 
co-founder 
of 
S4J, 
criticized 

Schlissel for his insensitivity 
toward members of the Black 
community.

“Mark Schlissel is the same 

University president that pulled 
Black students at every level from 
the University of Michigan into 
a room and told them he wanted 
to ‘learn’ to be a more sensitive 
person,” Magee wrote in an email 
interview. “Someone who tries 
to exploit Black students for their 
labor doesn’t deserve an award but 
(instead) a course to learn how to 
deconstruct white supremacy.”

LSA senior Jamie Thompson, 

also an S4J founding organizer, 
echoed 
Magee’s 
sentiment. 

This semester, she wrote in 
an email interview, Schlissel’s 
consideration of granting white 
supremacist Richard Spencer’s 
request to speak on campus 
contradicts the principles of DEI.

“Allowing Richard Spencer to 

come to campus works against 
every tenant of DEI and goes 
against what he says are values 
of ‘education, social justice and 
equality,’” Thompson wrote. “Not 
only is (Schlissel) co-opting the 
work of black student activists 
and faculty by taking credit for 
these achievements, he is actively 
participating in white supremacy 
on this campus and stripping away 
the small sense of safety and voice 
that students of color have.”

KEYNOTE
From Page 1A

AWARD
From Page 1A

As we enter into our new 

editorial 
positions 
at 
The 

Michigan Daily, we find ourselves 
at the crossroads of campus, on 
the cusp of moments interrogating 
sexual harassment, racism at the 
University of Michigan and the 
intersections of inequity. Getting 
the news right has never been 
more important. And more than 
ever, our readers are at the heart 
of what we do.

It’s a new year at the news desk. 

Allow us to reintroduce ourselves.

EQUITY
We live and work on a campus 

that is 65 percent white, and 
where two-thirds of students 
are in the top 20 percent of the 
income bracket. Ann Arbor wears 
the mask of a liberal bubble, but 
students and administrators with 
privilege create all sorts of unfair 
playing fields across campus.

We also acknowledge The Daily 

has reproduced this inequity. The 
list of repeated mistakes goes 
on, from inaccurate headlines to 
racist cartoons to misgendering 
to sometimes overlooking stories 
altogether. In order to move 
forward, we must acknowledge 

our past.

The same stale demographics 

that 
plague 
the 
University 

pervade our staff as well. Eighty-
five percent of news reporters 
are white, and nearly 45 percent 
hail from household incomes of 
$200,000 a year or more. 

We can’t listen, read and report 

accurately through homogeneity. 
Which is why we’re investing in 
reporters from underrepresented 
backgrounds, closing gaps in 
financial aid opportunities and 
training our current editors to 
own their privilege. We commit 
to leveling the playing field in 
reporting and recruiting this year. 
We commit to equity.

ACCOUNTABILITY
As 
we 
write 
this 
letter, 

administrators limit the release of 
information on Richard Spencer’s 
request to speak on campus. Greek 
life chapters refer to action plans 
in response to patterns of hazing 
and sexual assault. Tuition rates 
and yearly budgets tick up every 
year. Important details get lost in 
the moving parts of tense politics 
at the University, in Ann Arbor 
and across the country.

The Daily is positioned to hold 

all of these players accountable 
and amplify those speaking truth 
to power. We recognize the role 
we play as the only daily print 
publication in the county. This 

year, we’re increasing the number 
of FOIAs we file, getting more 
public officials on the record 
(and live streamed!) and sourcing 
information from our readers. 

(Do you have an issue you think 

needs investigating? Send a tip via 
this live form.)

We commit to not just keeping 

track of those in power, but 
keeping them in check, too. We 
commit to accountability.

More than anything else, we 

commit to you, the reader. There 
is no one more important to this 
work than you, your tips and your 
trust.

We know trust must be earned. 

We ask you to hold us to the 

promises and goals we’ve laid 
out here, and to call us on our 
mistakes.

We have a duty to serve the 

contract between ourselves and 
our readers — the student body 
and Ann Arbor community— as 
best as we can. “Best” has meant 
different things in the last few 
years: 
efficiency, 
speediness 

or being digitally-minded. For 
the students of color and first-
generation students, the survivors 
and the undocumented, for all 
those underserved by our paper 
in years past: this year, we won’t 
forget equity and accountability 
along the way.

Broderick Johnson, a former 

member of the Obama and 
Clinton administrations, along 
with University of Michigan 
professors and directors, spoke 
on engaging with students of 
color and promoting greater 
access to education and job 
placements at the “Innovative 
programs for youth and young 
adults” 
panel, 
part 
of 
the 

University’s Rev. Dr. Martin 
Luther King Jr. Symposium.

During his time in the Obama 

administration, Johnson served 
as Cabinet Secretary and the 
chair of the White House’s My 
Brother’s Keeper Task Force, 
which 
addressed 
persistent 

opportunity gaps faced by young 
men of color by connecting them 
to mentoring, support networks 
and the skills they need to find a 
good job or attend college. As of 
Monday evening, Johnson is also 
the newest member of the Ford 
school’s faculty. Public policy 
dean Michael Barr announced 
Johnson’s appointment as a 
Policy Maker in Residence in an 
email to students. 

At 
the 
panel, 
Johnson 

discussed how his motivation to 
create My Brother’s Keeper was 
strengthened by the shooting 
death of Trayvon Martin. He said 
the president wanted to create 
a strong program for African-
American youth with the backing 
of the federal government.

“I had the opportunity to 

speak to the president right after 

the 2012 election campaign,” 
Johnson said. “He talked about 
how he really wanted to go big, 
to use the power and the reach of 
his presidency to better organize 
how the federal government 
established programs and use 
his power as a convener to bring 
people together across the public 
and private sectors in the United 
States.”

According to Johnson, Obama 

wanted the task force to produce 
evidence-based results and to 
assess the problems and the 
solutions with the same level 
of rigor that he demanded in 
everything else from the White 
House.

Within the last three years of 

Obama’s second term in office, 
Johnson, with the My Brother’s 
Keeper Task Force, was able to 
identify six milestones in the 
lives of young adults that impact 
their levels of success and adopt 
an expansive and comprehensive 
approach to examine the data. 
The initiative also created the 
Second Chance Pell Grant, which 
was a collaboration between 
the Department of Justice and 
the Department of Education 
granting 12,000 Pell Grants to 
people incarcerated across the 
United States. 

Johnson 
said 
the 
Second 

Chance Pell Grant initiative 
helps 
incarcerated 
people 

across the country start their 
educational career while serving 
their court-mandated sentence.

“The route to jail and to prison 

is often times about economic 
and educational deprivation so 
an important way to stay out … is 

to help people get an education in 
prison,” Johnson said.

The 
Task 
Force’s 

recommendations 
also 

influenced President Obama’s 
executive order to remove the 
mandatory yes-or-no question 
regarding whether an applicant 
has been previously incarcerated. 
This practice of asking about 
a criminal record at the first 
step in the application process 
takes a particularly increased 
toll on applicants of color, who 
are disproportionately arrested, 
convicted 
and 
sentenced, 

according to Johnson.

Following 
Johnson, 
Brian 

Jacob, the Walter H. Annenberg 
professor of education policy 
at the University, discussed the 
regional programs created by 
Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, 
a 
city-wide 
summer 
jobs 

program that employs young 
adults in Detroit between the 
ages of 14 and 24. The program 
includes several hours per week 
of training on topics such as 
financial literacy and workplaces 
readiness. 
The 
younger 

participants work approximately 
20 hours per week for six weeks. 

Jacob noted GDYT is different 

from other summer employment 
programs as it not only provides 
opportunities 
in 
community-

based 
nongovernmental 

organizations, but also in the 
private sector. Private sector 
companies which partner with 
GDYT include Quicken Loans, 
Touchpoint 
Support 
Services 

and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

In reporting the effects of 

summer 
youth 
employment 

programs 
(SYEPs), 
Johnson 

admitted 
there 
were 
mixed 

results. A positive result was 
the large reduction of criminal 
arrests. 
In 
Chicago, 
violent 

crime arrests were reduced 
by 43 percent; however, these 
results cannot be attributed 
solely to SYEPs because the 
percentage also decreased in the 
winter. Similar decreases and 
limitations were seen in New 
York City, according to Jacob.

Luke 
Shaefer, 
director 

of Poverty Solutions at the 
University, discussed the SYEP 
created 
by 
the 
University 

to 
address 
socioeconomic 

inequality in the larger Ann 
Arbor community. One of the 
ways the University is seeking to 
address this is with the Go Blue 
Guarantee, a scholarship that 
promises 
Michigan 
residents 

with a family income less than 
$65,000 who are admitted to the 
University full cost of four-year 
in-state tuition covered.

Shaefer 
noted 
initially, 

students 
from 
low-income 

families were disproportionately 
opting out of applying to the 
University as they felt they 
couldn’t afford the tuition prior 
to the Guarantee.

While the effort to attract 

more students of color from low-
income families to the University 
is appreciated, some students feel 
that the effort doesn’t continue 
once students arrive at school. 

On Monday, as a part of the 

University of Michigan’s Rev. 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 
Symposium, 
more 
than 
300 

students and faculty attended a 
lecture by guest speaker James 
Forman Jr., a Yale University 
professor who drew his dialogue 
largely from his career as a public 
defender and his book, “Locking Up 
Our Own: Crime and Punishment 
in Black America.”

Bayrex Martí, assistant dean 

for Student Life at the Law 
School, opened the event and 
provided several words on King’s 
life, emphasizing the need for 
continuous action.

“This is a day that we challenge 

instead of congratulate ourselves,” 
Martí said. “As others have stated, 
this is also a week in which the 
University celebrates the successes 
of African descendants for equality, 
while acknowledging the progress 
we still have to make to reach full 
equality and respect for all.”

Forman opened the discussion 

by highlighting his background 
and 
childhood 
in 
Georgia, 

explaining 
his 
experiences 

watching the growth of prisons 
and the increasing statistics that 
illustrate the high correlation 
between African American males 
and incarceration. He explained 
that 
mass 
incarceration 
has 

become a human rights crisis in the 
U.S., which led him to realize his 
calling as a public defender.

“That reality showed me the 

unfinished business of the civil 
rights movement,” Forman said.

Forman 
outlined 
the 

tumultuous relationship between 
Black 
communities 
and 
the 

government, reaffirming that the 
U.S. is still a country that has lived 
with slavery longer than it hasn’t. 
He said this institutionalized 
racism still shapes our government 
and, 
combined 
with 
limited 

allocation 
of 
resources, 
these 

factors have acted as detriments 
to socioeconomic development in 
Black communities.

He continued to point out, while 

African Americans have garnered 
more 
political 
representation, 

their power is mainly concentrated 
at a local level. Furthermore, in 
response to the many community 
issues 
presented 
by 
these 

representatives, a stronger stance 
on prosecution and police force 
has always been elected over the 
implementation of education policy 
or 
community 
revitalization. 

Forman provided a hypothetical 
scenario 
of 
a 
representative’s 

experience 
with 
crafting 

legislation to fight drug addiction 
as an example of this favoring of 
prosecution over education.

From the news desk: A recommitment to readers

SOPHIE SHERRY & 

RIYAH BASHA 

JULIA FARENZES

For The Daily

KATHERINE SOURINE

Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
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Read more at 
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Law school hosts 
lecture on crime 

Managing News Editors

