L

ast week, the Latinx Alliance for Community Action, Support 
and Advocacy sent a list of demands to administrators 
detailing where the University of Michigan needs to increase 

their support for the Latinx community. As the national political 
climate becomes more hostile toward Latinx communities and 
incidents of hostility toward the Latinx community on campus 
continue, the University needs to live up to their values of diversity 
and inclusion to ensure that Latinx students and faculty are 
supported on campus. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board stands 
in solidarity with La Casa as they seek action on these demands, 
and calls on the administration to listen to them. Recognizing and 
acting on the barriers Latinx students and faculty face will not only 
help the Latinx community, but also have effects that reverberate 
throughout the campus when it comes to diversity. 

W

here were you when 
you found out Kylie 
Jenner had her baby?

I was on a bus full of middle 

schoolers, on our way back 
from a winter retreat I led. 
For a moment, I lost sight of 
any responsibility I had to be a 
mature, positive role model and 
squealed, “Guys! Kylie Jenner 
had her baby!” Cue the madness.

For the uninitiated, Kylie 

Jenner’s original claim to fame 
was being the youngest star of 
the reality TV show, “Keeping 
Up With The Kardashians,” 
which premiered when she was 
only 9 years old. Jenner is the 
daughter of Kris Jenner and 
Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and 
half-sister of Kim Kardashian 
West. At 20 years old, Jenner 
is known for her lip injections, 
rapper boyfriends and alarming 
rate at which she posts pictures 
of herself on social media. In 
September, rumors began to 
circulate that she was pregnant 
— a theory that Jenner herself 
did not confirm until Feb. 4, four 
days after the baby was born.

The socially accepted view 

of Jenner is that she is a vapid, 
tasteless reality star without 
any real talent to account for her 
millions of teen superfans. When 
I ask someone whether he or she 
has heard about Jenner’s baby, 
the most common response is, 
“Why do you even care?”

To which I respond: “Why 

don’t you?”

The key to success in our 

world right now is appealing 
to 
millennials. 
Companies 

are 
drastically 
changing 

their office culture to recruit 
millennial employees. Chains 
like Applebees and TGI Fridays 
are suffering thanks to their 
inability to attract millennial 
customers. During her 2016 
presidential campaign, Hillary 
Clinton infamously tried to win 
over millennial voters by saying, 
“I’m trying to figure out how we 
get them to have Pokemon Go to 
the polls.”

Further, in a world that is 

increasingly dominated by social 
media, an inability to advertise 
effectively 
on 
social 
media 

platforms is a serious liability for 

any business or political figure. 
The 2008 presidential election 
is often called the Facebook 
election, as analysts cite Barack 
Obama’s strong social media 
presence as an asset over his 
opponents. 
Seemingly 
every 

brand, nonprofit, political figure 
and social movement is spending 
a huge portion of time and 
resources to attract views on its 
social media profile.

And, yet, the most-liked 

photo on Instagram isn’t any 
of those things. The most-
liked photo on Instagram is the 
photo in which Kylie Jenner 
announces that her daughter is 
named Stormi.

That photo has over a million 

likes. For someone with no 
talent, clearly, Jenner is doing 
something right.

Attracting 
Instagram 

likes 
isn’t 
Jenner’s 
only 

accomplishment. In 2015, she 
created a cosmetics startup, 
Kylie Cosmetics, which earned 
her $8.7 million in its first year 
alone. Jenner serves as founder 
and CEO of Kylie Cosmetics, 
as well as chief marketing 
officer and chief creative officer 
(Her mother, Kris Jenner, is 
the company’s chief financial 
officer). 
Kylie 
Cosmetics 
is 

predicted to take in $1 billion in 
lifetime sales by 2022.

In addition, Jenner earns 

money from her endorsement 
deals with PacSun and Puma. She 
is estimated to earn $200,000 
per post on Instagram, and her 
Snapchat was the most-viewed 
account of 2016. In 2017, at age 
19, Jenner was listed on Forbes 
30 Under 30 for her position 
as founder of Kylie Cosmetics. 
She also became the youngest 
celebrity on Forbes 100, having 
earned $41 million that year.

I can think of plenty of 

people who don’t have any talent 
and also aren’t Forbes 30 Under 
30 entrepreneurs.

Though 
Jenner’s 
position 

as the sister of a reality TV 
star certainly didn’t hurt her 
business, that alone doesn’t 
account for her astronomical 
success. There are countless 
celebrities on television, many of 
whom reach way more viewers 

than Jenner. In fact, KUWTK 
is only the 386th most popular 
show on television. If the stars 
of those shows have way more 
viewers, why aren’t they able to 
build the fanbase that Jenner has 
built? Jenner, more than anyone 
else in the world, has proven 
to have the business savvy to 
leverage her position as the sister 
of a reality TV star to become 
one of the most successful 
businesswomen in the world.

In fact, even though all of the 

Kardashian and Jenner sisters 
were effectively given the same 
platform and celebrity status, 
only the youngest Jenner figured 
out how to monetize it to the 
extent of which she did. Jenner 
is now worth more than all of her 
sisters combined. (Her sisters, in 
case you’ve forgotten, include 
Kim Kardashian West and model 
Kendall Jenner.)

Jenner may appear to lack 

any sort of substance or depth, 
but 
underneath 
the 
heavy 

makeup and Instagram filters, 
every selfie is a researched, 
calculated 
business 
decision. 

She has the millennial consumer 
segment under lock and key. So 
if you didn’t care that Jenner 
had a baby, perhaps you should 
reevaluate. Or at least spend 
some time analyzing why this 
20-year-old sister of a reality 
TV star could draw in over a 
million likes on her baby name 
announcement, but brands like 
Chili’s, which has an entire 
marketing 
department 
that 

likely 
focuses 
on 
attracting 

millennials, can’t even draw in 
500k followers on Twitter.

“I really do feel like people 

don’t take me seriously as a 
businesswoman because of my 
age and my reputation,” Jenner 
said on her TV show “Life of 
Kylie”, which premiered after 
the massive success of her 
cosmetics brand. “But I feel like 
they’re starting to. I like to prove 
people wrong.”

Politicians and business people 

alike should be asking themselves 
this $41 million question: What can 
I learn from Kylie Jenner?

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4A — Wednesday, February 14, 2018

DAYTON HARE

Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

ALEXA ST. JOHN

Editor in Chief
 ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND 

ASHLEY ZHANG
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

Samantha Goldstein

Elena Hubbell
Emily Huhman
Jeremy Kaplan

 
 
 
 

Sarah Khan

Lucas Maiman

Ellery Rosenzweig

Jason Rowland

Anu Roy-Chaudhury

 
 
 
 

 

Ali Safawi

Kevin Sweitzer
Tara Jayaram
 Ashley Zhang

The 
recent 
campus 

climate survey conducted by 
the Office of Diversity, Equity 
and Inclusion found Latinx 
students are 132 percent more 
likely to feel discrimination than 
their white peers. Along with 
this feeling, the proportion of 
Latinx students at the University 
is rising: 7.33 percent of the 2017 
freshman class identified as 
Hispanic while 6.67 percent of 
the student body as a whole was 
comprised of Hispanic students.

Yet, 
the 
University 

has 
not 
kept 
pace 
with 

supporting Latinx students. 
Specifically, La Casa takes 
issue with the few Latinx 
faculty members hired at 
the University in addition 
to the lack of Latinx studies 
faculty at the University and 
the 
subsequent 
increased 

workload 
that 
falls 
on 

them as they must support 
students and engage in their 
own scholarship. The lack of 
community-focused 
faculty 

members in a time where 
the Latinx community is 
increasingly 
important 
to 

our nation’s political rhetoric 
sends a message that the 
community is of little interest 
to the University, even as it 
tries to prioritize diversity, 
equity and inclusion. The 
additional steps demanded, 
including the creation of 
a 
presidential 
advisory 

committee, 
are 
relatively 

simple, tangible actions that 
can be taken to demonstrate 
the importance of the Latinx 
community at the University 
and give them space for 
dialogue and representation.

The University also has a 

commitment to its students 
to make sure they feel safe 
and 
supported 
in 
their 

academic community. One of 
the major advertising points 
of 
the 
University 
is 
the 

diverse campus atmosphere. 
However, the school needs 
to realize there are unique 

communities 
beneath 
the 

umbrella 
term 
“diverse,” 

each with their own wants 
and needs. With increased 
animosity 
towards 
Latinx 

communities 
around 
the 

nation, it becomes even more 
necessary for the University 
to create spaces of safety 
where students and faculty 
alike can learn about the 
barriers that Latinx students 
face here at the school and 
work with the University to 
take concrete action to break 
them down.

As 
the 
nation 
pushes 

forward 
with 
the 
debate 

over the Latinx community, 
the 
University 
needs 
to 

support its own population 
and take substantial action 
in championing their Latinx 
students and staff. The first 
steps the University should 
take are enacting the demands 
of La Casa and continuing to 
listen to the group, should 
more issues arise.

Support La Casa’s demands

L

ast week, Nancy Pelosi 
set a record. Speaking on 
the floor of the House of 

Representatives, she stretched her 
so-called “magic minute” privilege 
as Minority Leader into an eight-
hour defense of the DREAMers. 
This came in response to Senate 
Democrats agreeing to a budget 
deal that would have left millions 
of 
undocumented 
immigrants 

without protection. She shattered a 
record that was set in 1909, telling 
DREAMers’ stories and taking a 
stand for one of the causes that 
progressives 
have 
consistently 

rallied around in the Trump era. 
What’s more, she did this in four-
inch heels. So where is Nancy 
Pelosi’s “yass queen” moment?

On paper, she should be the 

toast of progressives and liberal 
Democrats 
everywhere. 
Pelosi 

was the first and only woman to 
serve as Speaker of the House, 
helped found the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus, opposed the 
Iraq War, has been a strong ally 
to the LGBT community since 
the 90’s, and holds a strong pro-
choice record. She pushed through, 
against all odds, the Lily Ledbetter 
Fair Pay Act and Obamacare. As 
Speaker, she once removed a statue 
of Robert E. Lee from the Capitol 
and replaced it with Rosa Parks. 
In 2017, she raised $50 million for 
Democratic candidates to take 
back the House next November.

So why is she so unpopular, even 

among Democrats? Candidates 
routinely dodge questions about 
whether or not they would vote 
for her to remain as leader. Several 
younger Democrats blamed her 
for her role in Jon Ossoff’s loss in 
the Georgia 6th special election 
last year. She has shockingly low 
approval ratings (only 29 percent 
view 
her 
favorably, 
while 
a 

whopping 50 percent disapprove) 
and is the subject of substantial 
derision in her own party.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) 

made waves last summer when she 
repeated the phrase “reclaiming 
my time” over and over again 
during a hearing for now Treasury 
Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The 

Internet celebrated her and she 
was dubbed by many “Auntie 
Maxine.” Where is this treatment 
for Pelosi? Granted, she did receive 
some applause from her fellow 
House Democrats when her speech 
concluded and a positive write-
up in The Washington Post, but 
whatever good will Pelosi earned 
from this will be temporary at best.

There are, of course, probably 

dozens of explanations for this 
inconsistency. There is always 
inherent 
hostility 
towards 

members of party leadership and 
authority figures — especially 
those who have held their posts 
for as long as Pelosi has. She gave 
a tone-deaf answer last November, 
calling for due process for John 
Conyers after sexual harassment 
charges were leveled against him 
(though she quickly turned around 
and called for his resignation). She 
is one of the wealthiest members 
of Congress. She was a driving 
force behind Hillary Clinton’s 
2016 campaign. Her unpopularity, 
though, may be attributed to, 
more than anything else, a streak 
of latent, subtle sexism that is 
festering in the Democratic Party 
in 2018.

Think about some of the most 

popular figures right now in the 
party. Bernie Sanders, Barack 
Obama and Joe Biden — all men. 
Nancy Pelosi is viewed to be out of 
touch and shrill. No one can seem to 
stop taking hits at Hillary Clinton, 
despite the fact that it has been a 
full 15 months since the election. 
People knock Elizabeth Warren 
for her claims of Native American 
ancestry and Kamala Harris for 
her inexperience.

These 
attacks 
are 
usually 

carried out under the guise of some 
sort of woke, progressive purity. 
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is still 
way out of step with the average 
Democrat on gun control. Barack 
Obama expanded the U.S. drone 
program beyond what any liberal 
would have thought appropriate. 
Joe Biden plagiarized speeches. 
Men, it seems, are afforded mistakes 
and forgiven. Once again, women 
are being held to an unrealistic 

standard, just a few ticks above their 
male counterparts. In this instance, 
though, it is being done by the party 
that claims to advocate for and 
empower women.

Given the current state of the 

GOP as a party that is inherently 
hostile towards women, Democrats 
should be celebrating its female 
leadership, rather than subjecting 
it to the same nonsense that they 
experience on the other side of the 
aisle. One recent ranking of the 
top fifteen potential democratic 
andidates for 2020 included only 
four women total, with just one of 
those in the top five contenders (in 
fourth). The relatively unknown 
Sen. Chris Murphy (CT) was 
ranked higher than Elizabeth 
Warren and California Governor 
Jerry Brown (who would be 82 
on Election Day) was listed above 
two qualified, popular, sitting 
senators in Kamala Harris and 
Kirsten Gillibrand.

Of course, it is possible that 

these preferences are entirely 
incidental; that, somehow, the 
women in leadership roles in the 
Democratic Party are out of touch 
and inexperienced compared to 
their male counterparts. Nancy 
Pelosi may be a beltway insider 
who no longer has a place in 
the party. Male candidates may 
simply be better suited to lead the 
party against Trump in 2020.

To 
accept 
all 
of 
these 

possibilities, though, takes quite 
a bit of mental gymnastics and 
ignores the much more likely 
common denominator. In fact, 
speaking as a progressive, I accept 
exactly zero of those explanations.

Democrats 
need 
to 
very 

seriously reflect on how they 
respond to women who take on 
leadership roles within the party. 
Is it possible that sexism is still 
alive and well, perhaps even on the 
rise? If not, great—but there is still 
a lot to explain to Nancy Pelosi and 
the host of qualified Democratic 
women with their eye on 2020.

Latent sexism in the Democratic Party

BRETT GRAHAM | COLUMN

Businesses should learn from Kylie Jenner

HANNAH HARSHE | COLUMN

Hannah Harshe can be reached at 

hharshe@umich.edu.

Brett Graham can be reached at 

btgraham@umich.edu.

JOE IOVINO | JOE CAN BE REACHED AT JIOVINO@UMICH.EDU

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