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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Check out the 
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

