statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | APRIL 4, 2018
Finding their
voice
LSA Dean Andrew Martin
sent out an email to all LSA
department chairs last month
informing
them
the
LSA
Executive
Committee
has
reached the decision to halt
the production of new minors
housed within LSA and for LSA
students at the University of
Michigan.
The
LSA
Curriculum
Committee will take time until
the end of fall semester 2018 to
review the current and existing
minors within LSA. Currently,
LSA offers 111 minors.
LSA Associate Dean Angela
Dillard, who serves as the
chair for the LSA CC, said the
increasing number of minors in
the college was becoming more
difficult to navigate.
“The growing number of
minors,
and
the
confusion
caused
by
the
increasingly
complex relationship between
and among them (prompted
the decision),” Dillard wrote in
an email. “Some minors are in
separate units but very close to
each other in content and focus.
There is also a general lack
of guidance from the College
about the requirements for new
and existing minors that seems
worthwhile to address.”
Dillard wrote it is also
possible
some
smaller
minors may be suspended or
re-conceptualized.
Public Policy junior Lauren
Schandevel has been working
In the wake of a blackface
incident involving Snapchat on
campus, History Club at the
University of Michigan hosted
a dialogue Tuesday evening to
examine the historical roots
of the blackface caricature
and its harmful modern-day
implications.
The racist Snapchat was
posted
by
LSA
sophomore
Lauren Fokken wearing a black
face mask with the caption
“#blacklivesmatter.”
Stephen Berrey, associate
professor in the Department
of
American
Culture,
led
Tuesday’s
conversation,
providing insight into how
the blackface caricature has
evolved
from
19th-century
minstrel shows to the ultimate
“taboo” of blackface by 1980.
When
Berrey
introduced
himself,
he
said
cultural
conversation on blackface, and
its racist implications, is largely
neglected.
“I would say that the majority
of people in this country know
that it is wrong or know that
on some level it is offensive but
not necessarily why or how it is
this symbol that is connected to
this much over history,” Berrey
said.
The
earliest
historical
evidence of blackface is linked
to T.D. Rice, a white entertainer
in
the
late
1820s
who
popularized an act imitating an
African-American man he met
on the street who he claimed
was named “Jim Crow.” Over
time, Rice began to burn cork
and rub the black residue over
his face.
“All of minstrelsy is about
imagining, rather than the
diversity and the humanity of a
population, reducing it to a few
stock caricatures representing
millions of people,” Berrey said.
Despite the fact Rice began
the blackface act in New
Orleans,
Berrey
cited
how
blackface minstrel shows were
most popular in the Midwest
and Northeast. The rowdy
audiences
attending
these
shows
were
mostly
white,
working-class men from states
such as Ohio, New York and
Kentucky.
As blackface minstrel shows
reached their peak popularity
during the mid-19th century,
hallmarks of the blackface
caricature began to emerge
including
“minstrel
black”
makeup,
white
gloves
and
mocking dialect patterns.
By the early 20th century,
blackface
minstrel
shows
experienced
a
professional
decline.Yet,
blackface
continued to be a welcome
image of American culture
well into the 20th century,
evidenced by the traces of
blackface imagery in cartoons,
advertising and film characters.
Berrey engaged students in
attendance by passing around
blackface pamphlets from the
20th century including how-
to guides, blackface makeup
catalogs and blackface show
scripts. Berrey has accumulated
an archive of blackface artifacts
Information senior Ibrahim
Rasheed said he knows he
took “two or three” courses
at the University of Michigan
that fulfill LSA’s Race and
Ethnicity
requirement,
but
cannot recall which ones they
were. After spending a few
minutes searching for his LSA
audit to no avail, he decided
that one of the courses was
most likely titled, “The History
of Islam in South Asia.” After
checking the LSA course guide,
he found that the course did in
fact fulfill the requirement.
Rasheed, who is a South
Asian Muslim, said he took
the course in order to learn
more about the history of
his culture and religion as it
explores the tensions of being
Muslim in South Asia and the
role of Muslims in South Asian
society.
Rasheed took the course
because of the subject matter,
and the fact it fulfilled a
requirement was a “bonus.”
While he later transferred to
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
LSA pauses
creation of
new minors
for Fall 2018
Inclusive Campus Corps discuss
economic disparities on campus
See MINOR, Page 3A
IBRAHIM IJAZ/Daily
LSA Program Coordinator Shamalia Ashraf speaks at the Low Socioeconomic Status Workshop in Mason Hall Tuesday.
ACADEMICS
With 111 exisiting minors, committee
decides to review current programs
SAYALI AMIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Homogenity of CSG, other student orgs connects to high average SES of ‘U’ students
While
the
University
of
Michigan has the ninth highest
endowment
of
universities
in the world, many students
say they see an apparent lack
of collectivized resources for
students of lower socioeconomic
status on campus. To address
this issue, the Inclusive Campus
Corps held a workshop Tuesday
for student leaders centered
around “Low Socioeconomic
Status on Campus.”
The workshop was led by
three students who are a part
of the Inclusive Campus Corps
— Ryan Bennett, Ben Rosof
and Aubrey Klein, all LSA
sophomores. The students began
with a discussion about the
definition of low socioeconomic
status, resources on campus
and personal experiences at the
University.
Bennett and Rosof shared
their contrasting experiences
growing up, and how their
personal socioeconomic status
has dictated how their lives
operate at the University
TAL LIPKIN
Daily Staff Reporter
R&E reqs
do not live
up to hopes
of students
ACADEMICS
Students disappointed in
“watered down” content of
Race and Ethnicity classes
ZAYNA SYED
Daily Staff Reporter
CAMERON HUNT/Daily
LSA Professor Stephen Berrey discusses blackface throughout recent history in Tisch Hall Tuesday.
‘U’ staff host conversation on origins of
blackface following racist Snapchat
History Club facilitates dialogue connecting historical roots to modern incidents
SHANNON ORS
Daily Staff Reporter
Finding Their Voices
A look inside how University
of Michigan students and
participants work to master
American accents.
» Page 1B
See INCLUSIVE, Page 3A
In
Research
Assistant
Professor Margaret Hicken’s lab
at the University of Michigan,
the word vigilance takes on a
new meaning — as in, the stress
associated with carrying the
burden of one’s race whenever
one walks out the door. Through
her
research
and
findings,
Hicken said she has associated
this vigilance with unhealthy
habits that could be contributing
to obesity among marginalized
communities.
“Vigilance is a lay word; it’s just
part of our regular vocabulary,”
Hicken said. “But the way I use
it that it’s the anticipatory stress
or the worry-related stress about
structural and cultural racism.
So it’s not about discrimination
or about one person being mean
to another person. I’m talking
about the stereotypes that we
hold of marginalized groups, and
then the actions that we take as
a society to marginalize different
racial groups.”
She
further
emphasized
SeeWEIGHT,Page 3A
Effects of
racism may
be linked to
weight gain
RESEARCH
‘U’ researcher connects
“vigilance”, burden of race
to unhealthy eating habits
MOLLY NORRIS
Daily Staff Reporter
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Daily’s News
podcast, The
Daily Weekly
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 104
©2018 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See ORIGINS, Page 3A
statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | APRIL 4, 2018
See R&E, Page 2A