through eBay to inform his 
research.

In attendance at the event 

was LSA senior Levi Teitel who 
said he learned new information 
about how widespread the 
popularity of blackface was at 
one point in American culture. 

“What struck me is how 

much is really ingrained in 
American mass culture and 
that (blackface) was always a 
popular force within it and not 
a marginal prejudice,” Teitel 
said.

LSA junior Nikola Jaksic, 

vice president of History Club, 
emphasized 
how 
Berrey’s 

presentation filled gaps in his 
own 
knowledge 
concerning 

blackface.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t know 

how explicitly modern use 
of blackface is tied to these 
minstrel shows,” Berrey said. 

“It is unfortunate that we 
have to talk about these things 
specifically, but it is great that 
we have people like Professor 

Berrey who are knowledgeable 
and can facilitate a discussion 
about why these things are 
problematic, what we can do 
about them, and hopefully 
create a more informed student 
body.”

personal identities relate to the 
social climate,” Hudson said.

Engineering 
junior 
A.J. 

Ashman, 
who 
recently 
ran 

for 
president 
of 
Central 

Student 
Government 
under 

MomentUM, emphasized the 
Race and Ethnicity course is 
designed to help University 
graduates 
achieve 
cultural 

competency and inspire them 
to work to fix these issues after 
leaving the University.

“If our goal is to produce 

global 
citizens 
who 
are 

culturally competent in all 
kinds of things, we need to push 
that in our R&E classes and not 
have R&E classes that kind of 
touch on R&E but don’t really 
bring it forth,” Ashman said. 
“This really does serve a higher 
purpose 
than 
just 
another 

box on one student’s checklist 
before they graduate. This is 
about making students aware 
of injustices in our world, along 
the lines of race and ethnicity, 
and saying each of us have a role 
to play in fixing these issues. 
These issues should somewhat 
affect you. It shouldn’t be, ‘Oh 
that sucks.’ They should be a 
call to action.”

While Brown does not believe 

that better implementation of 
the requirement would cure 
racism like blackface, or people 
writing racist messages on the 
University rock, she does think 

it would be a “fantastic start.”

“We wouldn’t have to focus 

on 
the 
racist 
things, 
like 

blackface, or people writing 
on the rock, ‘F*** Latinos,’” 
Brown said. “We wouldn’t have 
these things if people were 
actually culturally competent 
and understood the complex 
histories of the people they 

mock and ridicule. I can’t say 
that the Race and Ethnicity 
requirement is a catch-all, but 
it would be a fantastic start to 
eliminating a lot of the racist 
problems on campus.”

with other students on a new Class 
and Inequalities Studies minor 
for about a year and a half. This 
minor would draw on courses 
from various departments across 
campus, but would be potentially 
housed 
within 
the 
Women’s 

Studies Department.

Schandevel 
said 
the 

Women’s Studies Department 
chair reached out to her letting 
her know of this decision made 
by the LSA CC.

“We thought initially there’s 

no use advancing this minor at 
this point, but I reached out to 
Angela Dillard,” Schandevel 
said. “I explained that we had 
been working on it for a year 
and a half.”

Next 
month, 
Schandevel 

said 
the 
minor 
will 
be 

presented in front of the full 
Women’s Studies faculty for 
their approval. With faculty 
approval, it would go to the 
LSA CC for approval.

According 
to 
the 
email 

sent out by Martin, the high 
number of LSA minors has 
made Registrar’s Office’s work 
more complicated.

“Academic majors required 

multiple 
layers 
of 
review, 

including accreditation by an 
external state agency,” Dillard 
wrote. “Minors do not; they are 
relatively unregulated.”

Dillard wrote the units sending 

proposals for new minors in the 
fall may still do so; however, the 
process for getting them approved 
will require considerably more 
time and consideration.

For certain programs, such 

as the Entrepreneurship minor, 
the area of study is offered only 
through its minor. Jeni Olney, 
academic program manager for 
the minor, said the roles minors 
play for students is unique.

“That’s the value that a minor 

adds to an undergraduate student 
experience … You can decide 
how you want to spend your 
time in terms of which major, 
but beyond that, you still have 
other interests and skills that you 
want to explore,” Olney said. “So, 
finding a minor that complements 
that is really what can enhance a 
student’s experience.”

Olney said Entrepreneurship 

is a program that will stay as a 
minor because it is intended to 
be applied to other disciplines 
students are engaged in.

Dillard also wrote the high 

number of minors has spurred 
questions about the nature of 
minors such as whether they 
should 
be 
interdisciplinary 

or the number of credits they 
should encompass.

“There is also the question of 

whether 111 minors is enough 
or too many,” Dillard wrote. 
“We’d like to have enough time 
and space to think through 
these questions.”

Public 
Health 
Junior 

Faith 
Reynolds 
expressed 

disappointment, 
stating 
she 

thinks academic ingenuity will be 
limited by this change. 

“It’s sad that LSA is considering 

stopping the creation of new 
minors because that leaves little 
room for growth and exploration 
of new academic horizons for 
both the students and faculty 
involved.”

Bennett 
explained 
why 

growing up in a low-income 
household has affected his life 
as a student.

“I 
come 
from 
a 
low 

socioeconomic status home,” 
Bennett said. “I was raised 
by a single mother, so I know 
what it is like to be raised in a 
household that lives on a week-
to-week paycheck.”

Rosof 
then 
shared 
his 

experience of growing up in a 
high-income environment, and 
why he chose to get involved in 
the Inclusive Campus Corps.

“Only once I got to college 

did I realize how privileged 
I was,” he said. “I joined this 
workshop to educate myself 
because I know I have made 
numerous 
mistakes 
in 
the 

past. I personally feel this is 
something that the University 
does not talk enough about.”

Bennett and Rosof then 

shared 
statistical 
data 
of 

University 
students 
which 

clearly displays the economic 
disparities 
within 
the 

University student body.

One of the pieces of data 

shared was the median family 
income of University families 
as $154,000.

Bennett 
continued, 

emphasizing the discrepancies 
in percentages of students at 
the University who are in the 
top 1 percent of family income 
and those who are in the 
bottom 60 percent.

“Students 
in 
and 
above 

the 1 percent are 9.3 percent 

of students and those in the 
bottom 60 percent are 16.5 
percent of students,” he said.

The 
participants 
were 

then separated into groups to 
discuss what being a low-SES 
student means and what the 
University can do to aid low-
SES students.

Public 
Policy 
junior 

Lauren 
Schandevel 
shared 

her 
definition 
of 
low 

socioeconomic 
status 
and 

explained how it means more 
than low income, but also a 
lack of opportunity.

“I think it is someone’s 

income relative to everyone 
else’s,” she said. “But I also 
know that it’s more than just 
income and also about access 
to opportunity.”

The 
presentation 
then 

transitioned to a series of guest 
presenters 
who 
explained 

their 
work 
on 
improving 

the economic disparities on 
campus.

LSA senior Micah Griggs, 

former 
Central 
Student 

Government vice president, 
shared her experience of being 
a member of CSG and how 
she has worked to develop 
the Leadership Engagement 
Scholarship.

“I ran to be a member of 

Central Student Government 
and once I was elected, I 
realized that I was the only 
Black girl in the organization 
and that it was a pretty 
homogenous group,” Griggs 
said. 
“When 
our 
first 

demographic 
report 
was 

published, it showed that the 
majority of our organization 
was white, male and upper 
middle class.”

She 
then 
continued 
to 

explain 
why 
economic 

disparities play a large role 
in allowing the homogeneity 
of CSG and other student 
organizations.

“There are barriers within 

student leadership,” she said. 
“When 
you’re 
involved 
in 

student organizations, you’re 
involved maybe five to 10 hours 
a week. Other students cannot 
spend that time because they 
are working and because they 
cannot afford to.”

Griggs also explained how 

the divides she experienced in 
CSG motivated the Leadership 
Engagement 
Scholarship, 

which was released on April 2, 
2018.

“These barriers are what 

led us to create the Leadership 
Engagement 
Scholarship,” 

she said. “This scholarship 
provides financial awards to 
emerging or established new 
leaders who are low-SES or 
facing some type of financial 
burden.”

Reginald 
Hammond 
Jr., 

the assistant director of the 
Kessler Presidential Scholars 
at the University, spoke about 
the different resources the 
scholarship office has like 
“Walk-in 
Wednesday” 
and 

peer tutoring.

“What we do is offer a 

drop-in period called ‘Walk-
in Wednesday’ and we invite 
students every week, whether 
it’s about income, social, or 
something else, to come and 
troubleshoot ideas with us so 
they can help us help them,” 
Hammond 
said. 
“We 
also 

have the peer mentor program 
which is our one way of really 

getting to know the students. 
What we want to do is to help 
them set goals.”

Schandevel, 
one 
of 
the 

authors of the “Being Not-
Rich at UM” Guide, explained 
why she decided to create this 
guide for low-SES students and 
why it is important that the 
issue of socioeconomic status 
is discussed since it often is an 
invisible identity.

“My 
document 
was 

in 
response 
to 
the 
CSG 

Affordability 
Guide, 
which 

had a lot of good information,” 
Schandevel said. “A lot of the 
criticism people had towards it 
was that it was geared towards 
all students on campus, and 
when you’re on a campus where 
66 percent of people are a part 
of the top 20 percent, you’re 
going to have something that 
doesn’t quite match the needs 
of lower income students.”

She continued to explain 

why she felt that a resource 
such as the “Being Not-Rich at 
UM” is necessary for low-SES 
students.

“This document is so people 

can identify others who have 
had other experiences and 
learn from them,” she said.

Engineering junior Lindsay 

Rasmussen 
explained 
why 

she felt having events that 
increase awareness of low-SES 
identities is important.

“It’s important to come to 

these events because a lot of 
people at this school do have 
privilege and making people 
more aware is a good first step 
in getting the ball rolling so we 
can improve things for low-
SES students on campus,” she 
said.

how 
marginalized 
groups 

must take extra care in the way 
they present themselves to the 
public due to societal stigmas 
— a repetitive cycle of actions 
which weighs heavily upon the 
individual forced to practice 
such vigilance. 

“That burden of not being 

seen as an individual but being 
just seen as a member of your 
race — I argue that that results 
in people of those marginalized 
groups, like Black Americans, 
having to be careful about what 
they say, be careful about how 
they dress and appear, and take 
care of where they go and how 
they socialize, and just kind of 
prepare themselves on a daily 
basis for things that might or 
might not happen,” she said. 
“And that’s what I call vigilance.”

Hicken said she studied the 

effects this type of vigilance 
can have on individuals and has 
found, particularly for Black 
women, this vigilance can lead 
to unhealthy eating habits and 
associated weight gain.

“I had been reading things 

on how obesity, especially the 
kind that is really related to poor 
health which is the kind around 
your waistline, the ‘apple shape,’ 
can be related to stress,” Hicken 
said. “So not only can chronic 
stress change your metabolism 
so you start to deposit fat around 

your organs, but then also 
that stress can result in eating 
behaviors, because what we call 
comfort foods that are high end 
in fat or sugar can release these 
chemicals in our brains that 
make us feel better. ”

Hicken said she focused her 

study on women because women 
are much more prone to weight 
gain and obesity based on stress 
according to her own research. 
She found that while white 
women also have to deal with 
discrimination rooted in sexism, 
they do not encounter forms of 
vigilance compounded by race 
and identity. 

“Discrimination 
might 
be 

important for Black women, but 
if we start to really account for 
vigilance, then that becomes 
what 
is 
important,” Hicken 

said. “On the other hand, for 
white women vigilance does 
not matter, it’s not related to 
health at all, and really it’s 
about discrimination, and the 
difference between these two is 
that vigilance is about the burden 
of your race, and discrimination 
is about this person was mean 
to me, or this person treated me 
unfairly in my day to day life, and 
that’s really the difference.”

Lindsey Burnside, a research 

associate at the Institute for 
Social 
Research, 
has 
been 

working 
with 
Hicken 
since 

she was undergraduate at the 
University.

“Individual 
effects 
of 

discrimination 
happen 
to 

everyone all the time,” Burnside 

said. “So someone could say 
something really bad to me, but 
if they don’t have any power to 
back it up then it doesn’t mean 
very much, whereas if someone 
that has power over me, then 
it has a lot more impact on my 
body and how I cope with the 
individual act, and then also 
what that means chronically, 
long term.”

Burnside said that while it 

is hard to think of ways we can 
fix the institutional racism that 
causes vigilance, it is still very 
important to confirm that this 
vigilance exists and that we 
must do something about it.

“It 
is 
meaningful 
to 

understand,” 
Burnside 
said. 

“And it is empowering as you 
are going through your life to 
be able to understand that there 
are reasons for the things that 
are happening to you, in ways 
that better equip individuals 
to actually cope, when you’re 
like, ‘No, this is not just me, no 
I am not being gaslighted about 
what’s happening to me.’ It helps 
to really understand why these 
things happen, and that you’re 
not alone in it, and that having 
coping responses is absolutely 
natural.”

Public 
Health 
Graduate 

student Alexis Stanton said 
she found the research she 
conducted with Hicken to be 
incredibly important, especially 
coming from a public health 
background.

“I think that in my work 

with Dr. Hicken, I’ve been able 

to think more deeply about the 
way that cultures and systems 
are often foundationally racist 
in many ways, and how that can 
perpetuate health inequities in 
marginalized 
communities,” 

Stanton said. “I think it’s really 
important work, and as someone 
who’s coming from public health 
I think we often think about 
issues like discrimination on a 
very interpersonal level, but I 
think that studying vigilance 
we think instead about the way 
culture and society perpetuates 
racist views an ideologies, and 
how that can really impact 
people’s health and well-being.”

Hicken 
stressed 
this 

phenomenon 
was 
the 
fault 

of society rather than any 
individual, and that it was 
something 
that 
needed 
to 

change.

“Once 
you 
start 
really 

understanding the systematic 
continuous unfair treatment of 
Black 
Americans 
throughout 

our history up until today, it’s 
astonishing, and heartbreaking, 
and my goal is to really start 
documenting that it’s not just 
coincidence, or it’s not just poor 
health behaviors,” Hicken said. 
“This is not about something that 
Black Americans are doing, this 
is about something that society 
is doing to Black Americans, and 
to other racialized groups as 
well.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, April 4, 2018 — 3A

CHRIS FCASNI/Daily

Youtube personality and transgender rights activist Kat Blaque speaks with students at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre in the League Tuesday night.

CHANGE OUR WORLD

“It is 

unfortunate 
that we have 
to talk about 
these things.”

“If our goal is to 
produce global 
citizens whoa 
re culturally 

competent in all 
kinds of things, 
we need to push 
that in our R&E 

classes...”

ORIGINS
From Page 1A

INCLUSIVE
From Page 1A

R&E
From Page 2A

MINOR
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

WEIGHT
From Page 1A

