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Friday, January 19, 2018 — 3
SARAH KUNKEL/Daily
“The Comforter,” an art instillation by Patricia Piccinini, is featured in the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
THE COMFORTE R
Feb 2, 2018
White Card.”
The economics of theater,
as described by Carl, is often
centered around the reality that
the primary consumers of theater
are white.
“It has been an interesting
learning curve for me as an artist
of trying to figure out how do we
present this play in a way that
makes people want to stay in the
room and have the conversation,
but also feels real and true,” Carl
said.
Rankine described the artistic
negotiation that occurs between
profitability
and
authenticity
within the theater business. She
said the amount of thought she
and her collaborators have given
this negotiation has been one of
the most of surprising aspects of
her creative process.
“So, suddenly, you have this
thing you are trying to make, and
you are trying for the thing to be a
reflection of the life you are living
and the life you are seeing, but you
also have to be careful because
the life possibility of the thing you
are making is dependent on the
generosity of the subject of the
play,” Rankine said. “There is a lot
of anxiety around that.”
Rackham
graduate
student
Daniella Toosie-Watson, a first-
year fellow in the Helen Zell
Writers’ Program, said she was
inspired by Rankine’s willingness
to engage in dialogue and was
able to empathize with Rankine
through her own experiences as a
writer within the classroom.
Education. Spencer will rent
the space for $1,650 and
MSU will provide security
and ticketing. Spencer will
provide insurance for the
event but will not contribute
to securing the event and will
not hold any other event on
MSU’s campus.
March 5 is the first day of
MSU’s spring break, a time in
which many students return
home and are off campus. In
negotiations regarding the
pending request from Spencer
to speak on the University of
Michigan’s campus, Spencer’s
team also requested dates
during the University’s spring
break. After announcing they
would begin negotiations in
November,
the
University
said it would suggest dates to
Spencer’s team by the end of
January.
However,
that
doesn’t
necessarily
mean
the
event would be lacking in
attendance. In a December
email shared with the Detroit
Free Press, Bristow said one
of the reasons they needed
a quick response from the
University was so they would
have time to make travel
arrangements for “numerous
involved parties.”
University
spokeswoman
Kim Broekhuizen said that
there are no updates on
whether the decision in the
MSU case will affect U-M’s
negotiations with Spencer.
informing attendees of these
recent events and reaffirming
the purpose of the gathering: To
honor Ansari’s life and mourn her
loss. Public Policy senior Ibrahim
Ijaz, a member of the executive
board of Michigan Pakistanis,
gave a speech voicing his sadness
and highlighting the severity of
the issue and need for action. He
thanked the crowd for showing up
to the vigil the despite the cold.
“It’s important to take time
and space out of your day to think
about what’s going on in the
world,” Ijaz said.
Following
Ijaz’s
speech,
attendees
participated
in
a
moment of silence to pray or
reflect.
LSA
senior
Martina
Cholagh said she appreciated the
moment for t“We all just prayed,
or did whatever we thought
necessary to honor this girl’s life,”
Cholagh said. “We come from
different backgrounds, different
beliefs, but we were able to come
together to honor this girl’s life
and basically pray for her. I think
that was really important.”
Cholagh noted one of the hopes
of the vigil was to help people view
the crime with more empathy
and emotion, rather than simply
reading about it in the news.
“I think vigils really help in
bringing a face to the situation,
acknowledging that this is a
human being just like any other
instead of having this senseless
murder be another number in the
media,” Cholagh said.
Ijaz’s
final
remarks
emphasized the importance of
every individual coming together
to take action in preventing and
seeking retribution for abuses like
Ansari’s.
“We cannot just expect justice
if we’re not harboring it or honing
it in ourselves first,” Ijaz said.
“We need to make sure that as
members of any society that
we’re in, whether we’re Pakistani
Americans, whether we come
from another country, whether
we’re born in this one, we need to
act with justice in everything that
we do, every single day.”
Following
months
of
competition, Amazon released
a short list of 20 cities Thursday
as potential locations for its
second headquarters, “Amazon
HQ2.” Despite encouragement
from Mark Schlissel, president
of the University of Michigan,
Detroit did not make the list.
“We’re a research machine
with
an
enormous
array
of
faculty
doing
work
of
relevance to the types of
businesses that Amazon is
in,” Schlissel stated in an
interview with The Detroit
News in September. “And,
we’re a source of educated
talent
for
whom
Amazon
here in Michigan might be an
employer of choice.”
Amazon seeks to invest
$5 billion into its second
headquarters
and
expects
the headquarters “to be a
full
equal
to
our
Seattle
headquarters,” CEO Jeff Bezos
said in a statement.
Amazon sought locations
fitting
specific
criteria
including being within two
miles of a major highway,
access
to
mass
transit,
proximity to a top university
and being within 45 minutes
of an international airport.
While
the
headquarters
do not need to be located
in an urban area, it had to
meet
the
aforementioned
criteria. An offer of potential
business incentives such as
tax exemptions or relocation
grants
was
an
additional
consideration Amazon took
into account.
A location in Michigan,
specifically near Detroit, fit
many of these qualifications.
Amazon HQ2 in Detroit would
create about 50,000 high-
paying jobs and contribute
billions of dollars into the
local economy, according to
Amazon. The Detroit Mayor’s
office stated the city would
be evaluating the potential of
the office. Gov. Rick Snyder of
Michigan was a proponent of
Amazon HQ2 in Detroit.
“Not only is Michigan a top-
10 state for doing business and
attracting 25 to 34 year-olds,
our workforce is growing at a
higher rate than the national
average and we lead the region
in
inbound
migration
for
those with bachelor’s degrees
or higher,” Snyder said in a
statement.
Following
the
announcement of Amazon’s
decision
not
to
consider
Detroit,
Snyder
released
a
statement
expressing
disappointment as well as
encouragement and excitement
for Detroit’s future.
“It’s
disappointing
we
will
not
be
welcoming
a
new
Amazon
headquarters
to
Detroit,
but
appreciate
their
continued
investment
and expansion in Michigan,
including right in the heart of
our Comeback City,” Snyder
said.
“Michigan’s
spirit
is
unstoppable, and so is our
comeback. This won’t set us
back- we’re accelerating to the
next opportunity. We know it’s
out there.”
Other
cities
still
in
consideration include Bezos’s
hometown
Miami,
Atlanta
and Washington, D.C. and its
metropolitan area. Amazon
received proposals from 238
communities and will now
work with the remaining 20
locations to decide on the best
location for the company. A
final decision is expected in
2018.
of 38,499 were charged across the
state, with 401 citations originating
from Washtenaw County alone.
Enforcement on campus is
relatively consistent. According
to Diane Brown, University of
Michigan Division of Public Safety
and Security spokeswoman, DPSS
arrested 172 people for MIPs in
2017 and 168 people in 2016.
On
campus,
Student
Legal
Services
provides
University
students with free resources and
legal assistance as part of their
tuition. A comprehensive review of
the change in the law is published
on their website. Attorney Douglas
Lewis, director of Student Legal
Services, said they serve many
students with MIP charges.
“Under the old law, it was our
responsibility to make sure that
(the students) left us without
having a conviction on their
records.
That
usually
meant
paying a fine, working through
the court’s first offender program
and the student taking a class
called ‘basics,’ offered by Health
Services,” Lewis said.
Though the original MIP law
included possible jail time for
multiple
offenses,
Lewis
said
through the Washtenaw County
courts, none of his clients ever
faced jail time.
“Even on second and third
(offenses), I never saw a person
sent to jail for a MIP,” he said.
That may be unique to Ann
Arbor, though. Lewis said the MIP
law was being unevenly enforced
across counties, and some courts
were giving harsher penalties than
others.
“The old law read that a court
may give (a violator) a first-
offender program. A lot of courts
that are in the northern counties
weren’t giving anybody any first
offender program. You came in
with a MIP, you walked out with a
conviction,” Lewis said.
He
said
he
believes
one
motivation behind the new law
was to instill more consistency
across all county courts.
“The treatment of the law
from one county to the next was
not necessarily uniform, and I
think the new statute changes
that. It makes the language much
more mandatory for the courts to
follow,” Lewis said.
Brown echoed Lewis’s point
that MIP charges in Washtenaw
County
often
got
expunged
from students’ records, so the
outcome was effectively like a civil
infraction — though this was not
the case in all counties.
“In the county, Washtenaw
County, the court system had
in place some protocols to deal
with
first-time
offenders
for
alcohol violations that allowed the
offender to take a number of steps
and then that particular violation
often was expunged from their
record. So the outcomes for first-
time offenders of MIP, in this
county, likely aren’t going to get a
lot different in what happens with
them,” Brown said.
She recognized such a protocol
for
getting
a
misdemeanor
expunged was not make available
in all counties.
“That kind of active role that the
court system played in Washtenaw
County wasn’t duplicative all
across the state,” Brown said.
In Ann Arbor, the anonymous
student received his first MIP from
holding an open container outside
of a party, and a second MIP for
drinking in his dorm room. He
received his second MIP while on
probation from the first.
For his first MIP, he had to
pay $405 and received 50 days
probation. For his second MIP,
he admitted wrongdoing under
the Michigan’s Holmes Youthful
Trainee Act, which is a way for
young adults to keep convictions
off their record.
He
said
he
thinks
the
punishments he is facing under
the old law are unfair given his
offense, saying the punishment he
received felt on par with someone
who got arrested for driving under
the influence.
“After this whole process is
done, I will have paid close to two
grand, and my chances of getting
a government job are completely
done. The people I am doing my
community service with are there
for stuff like felony assault, DUI
and home invasion, while I am just
a college student looking to have
a good time on the weekends,” he
said.
Ultimately, no one is sure if the
change in MIP law will result in
more or fewer arrests, or affect
student drinking behaviors.
“I don’t think (the new law) will
lead to more drinking… College
students are going to drink no
matter what,” he said.
Lewis pointed out the effect of
the law will still depend on how
police choose to enforce it.
“It’s going to take time to see
what police do with this. The court
has come up with a new system
of dealing with them. Folks can
simply walk in, pay their ticket and
leave,” Lewis said.
DeGraff studies variations of
Creole, a group of languages
that developed during the rise
of colonialism. Haitian Creole,
DeGraff says, is one of the
most stigmatized languages
in linguistics. The dialect
has been called primitive,
undeveloped
and
childish
by linguistic scholars. This
perception is common among
people in Haiti.
Growing
up,
DeGraff
attended a private school
where
speaking
Haitian
Creole was forbidden.
“I spent the formative years
of my life being told by parents
who love me, who want the
best for me, that Haitian
Creole is broken French,” he
said. “If you want to succeed,
you have to be human. You
have to speak French.”
Despite the stigma, only
5 percent of Haitians speak
French fluently and most of
the nation use Haitian Creole,
French remains the primary
language of instruction in
schools.
DeGraff
believes
this worsens Haiti’s standing
when it comes to education.
The country has a 61 percent
literacy rate for males and 57
percent for females, which
is
currently
the
lowest
literacy rate in the Western
Hemisphere.
Being
taught
in French rather than the
much more prevalent Haitian
Creole
creates
another
obstacle
Haitian
students
must overcome.
“We didn’t go to school
to learn math. We didn’t go
to school to learn physics,”
DeGraff said. “Kids go to learn
French. It’s a tough situation.
How do you convince parents
that kids can learn French as
a second language, as well
as math and physics and
geography?”
After his lecture, DeGraff
received a commemorative
plaque for his scholarship and
work in social justice from
the Department of Romance
Languages and Literatures.
LSA sophomore Dominique
Witten
said
anti-Creole
prejudice reminded her of
Ebonics, an American dialect
spoken
by
some
African
Americans.
“My mom has actively said,
‘You need to use standard
American
language,’
with
the idea that Ebonics itself
is a lower grade of English,”
Witten
said.
“I’m
even
struggling myself –– would
I want a school where I’m
taught everything in ebonics?
I’m not sure of the answer.”
LSA
junior
Mitchel
Dipzinski said he also found
similarities between attitudes
toward Haitian Creole and
Ebonics.
“Ever
since
I
took
a
language
and
diversity
course, it has kind of opened
my eyes to the education
system in ways that I didn’t
think about it before, with
things like Ebonics and how
that can affect the people
learning,” he said. “This just
solidified more of what I
want to be an activist for, and
there’s ground being made.”
DeGraff
and
the
MIT-
Haiti Initiative have hosted
numerous
workshops
promoting the use of Haitian
Creole in government and
academics. DeGraff hopes to
expand Haitians’ access to
Creole-speaking education.
“Children being taught in a
different language and being
told that what you speak at
home is not a valued language
is a serious issue,” DeGraff
said. “It’s a challenge to
human rights when you have
schools or administrations
that use another language for
discourse.”
SPEECH
From Page 1
MIP
From Page 1
LINGUISTICS
From Page 1
Detroit cut from Amazon HQ2
short list, cites poor transit
REMY FARKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
VIGIL
From Page 1
POET
From Page 1
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