The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, November 19, 2018— 3A
A headline from The Michigan
Daily
reads
“Conservative
commentator Steven Crowder
critiques erasure of conservative
voices
on
campus.”
As
a
photographer for The Daily, my
editor assigned me to cover a
live taping of his show, Louder
with Crowder, on Oct. 25 at the
Power Center. Crowder had the
nerve to claim “no one is othered
on college campuses more than
conservatives.” Unbeknownst to
me, what was to ensue was, as a
person of color, one of the most
terrifying events of my life.
I walked into Power Center to
be rudely greeted by a University
of Michigan police officer, who
begrudgingly let me talk to the
event organizer who directed
me to the press area. Walking
into the main auditorium felt
like walking from the dungeons
into the Coliseum as a gladiator.
The auditorium was with over
1,381
people
in
attendance,
almost all clad in the Trumpian
uniform of red MAGA hats and
white rage. Crowder was late.
His fans were getting anxious
and unruly. Chants of “We want
Crowder!” broke out through
the audience, gaining power and
zeal with each passing minute.
Finally, the “Arthur”-voice-
actor-turned-white-nationalist
peeked out from behind the
curtain, to be met with a roar
and a raucous chant of “U.S.A.!”
Crowder did a victory lap on
stage,
dressed
as
Supreme
Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
wearing a red MAGA beer
hat, spilling one of the cans of
Miller Light onto the floor when
the hat tumbled off his head.
Getting settled, some of the very
first words out of his mouth
constituted a threat, instructing
the audience to hold up their
phones to show “the media” that
they have their own account.
The crowd obliged, shining their
phone flashlights onto me and
the other photographers present
while hissing a menacing jeer.
I stayed as long as was
necessary to take enough photos;
on account of reporters getting
harassed and assaulted at 45’s
rallies, and especially cognizant
of my perilous position as one
of the few Brown people in
the room, I left out of fear for
my own safety. Even if I didn’t
feel endangered, I still would
have left – I tested my patience
by withstanding roughly 20
minutes of blatant homophobia,
transphobia,
misogyny
and
racism before I felt like my
stomach was going to vomit up
all of the hate that my eyes and
ears had ingested.
Shortly
after
coming
on,
he described to the audience
in
great
detail
about
how
beautiful
and
lovely
his
assistant was: comments that
were patronizing and clearly
made her uncomfortable. He
continued on a 15-minute tirade
mocking
transgender
people
and
gender
identity,
egged
on by the audience’s raucous
laughter. Not satisfied with only
spewing vitriol against women
and the LGBTQ community,
Crowder aimed to prove he
was also well-versed in racism
and xenophobia,
interspersing
his
show
with
a
running
joke
mocking
a
Honduran
immigrant being
interviewed
by
CNN.
Crowder
never
explicitly
attacked any of
my identities as
a person of color,
which may leave
some white folks
wondering
why
the
experience
was
so
terrifying.
Being
surrounded by a large, unruly
crowd composed almost entirely
of white people would give any
person of color pause, even if
they hadn’t congregated for a
colloquium of hate. Crowder
and other members of the
so-called “alt-right” (read: white
supremacists) have not hesitated
to espouse loathsome ideology
against people who look like
me before. Given the history of
white violence against racial
minorities in this country, and
its recent encouragement by the
fascist demagogue in the White
House, I had every reason to be
on my guard. This was a situation
during which the threat of
violence was ever present. To
exacerbate the threat, the police,
representing the authority of
the state, were sent to protect
this odious pundit
from facing any
pushback against
his
opinions.
I
have
personally
experienced
enough
misconduct
at
the hands of the
police
to
know
they were more
likely
to
cause
me
harm
than
give me help in
the
event
that
something
did
occur. According
to
political
scientist Iris Young, one of the
five faces of oppression is not
only violence itself, but also
the constant threat of violence
because of one’s membership in
a social group.
Whenever
I
hear
some
white boy crybabying about
how conservatives and whites
are the ones who are actually
discriminated against, I always
want to laugh, but too many
white people across the country
share
the
same
ignorant,
uninformed
opinion
for
me
to dismiss it this easily. The
opinions espoused by extreme
conservatives like Crowder are
directly contributing to the
propagation of systems of white
supremacy. As a person who is
directly threatened by this, I
have every right to push back.
This is not discrimination, this
is self-defense. Conservatives
on college campuses are not
exploited, are not marginalized,
are not powerless or threatened
by
violence:
the
hallmarks
of
discrimination.
The
Daily article gave them the
privilege of presenting his open
mocking of gender identity as
“debating whether gender is a
social or biological identity” and
generally commented more on
how conservative students feel
than about how these beliefs
oppress others. The presence
of the police at the event shows
how dedicated the state is
to protecting them, not only
against violence but also against
facing any contrary opinions at
the event. Actual discrimination
is
more
than
just
having
someone disagree with you.
If white conservatives (or any
white people, for that matter)
had to face any degree of the
constant trauma people of color
face on a daily basis from the
institutions of white supremacy,
I’m not convinced they would
survive.
White fragility is a huge
roadblock in the fight against
racism. Many white liberal
students here would probably
be surprised by how many
people
attended
Crowder’s
event, seeing the University
as a liberal and diverse place.
Students of color know this
is a lie, and have experienced
all of the day-to-day traumas
stemming
from
interactions
with white people, which is
why Crowder’s popularity is
unsurprising to me. I doubt
very many of the people in that
auditorium would identify as
racists. Most would probably
react
very
defensively
to
the accusation, and this is
counterproductive to the goal
of getting someone to actually
critically evaluate themselves.
Crowder
and
others
like
him railing against “identity
politics” fail to realize that
whiteness is also an identity,
and it has been the dominant
political force over the entire
history of our country. They
profess feeling marginalized
on college campuses for their
political
beliefs,
but
when
your beliefs include spreading
hostility
against
actually
marginalized
groups,
like
women, people of color and
the LGBTQ community, then
you can expect repudiation.
A tolerant society must be
intolerant of intolerance.
DANYEL THARAKAN
MiC Columnist
MICHELLE FAN/Daily
conservatives aren’t discriminated against
No,
Given the history
of white violence
against racial
minorities in this
country... I had
every reason to be
on my guard
What were the first meeting
notes like for East Wind, the
first space for Asian/Pacific
Islander
Americans
at
the
University of Michigan back in
the ’70s?
What were leaders of color
on campus in the late ’90s
debating when they occupied
the Michigan Union for 38 days
straight?
What
were
the
reactions
of
Asian-American
student
organizations during the 2016
election?
These
are
questions
that
explore the history of Asians
and Asian Americans on this
campus, and the best way we
can answer them for future
students and activists is saving
our important work through
archiving.
There is unfortunately not
a lot about Asian-American
organizing and action in the
Bentley Historical Library. But
the United Asian American
Organizations and the Bentley
want to change this!
We
are
gathering
vital
flyers, meeting notes, videos,
Google
Documents,
events,
petitions, projects and so much
more to send to the library for
archiving, so the legacies of
our organizations and their
progress is documented and,
hopefully, recognized.
But we need your help! If
you
have
anything
related
to UAAO and A/PIA student
organizations, we would be
incredibly happy to see it. Even
if it’s something you don’t think
is a big deal, it might still be a
valuable piece of information
that stands for something in our
point of time — so send those
Canva posters!
We aim to be inclusive and
thorough. We want to make sure
we are properly representing
the A/PIA community.
Students, professors, faculty,
staff, alumni — everyone is
extremely welcomed to submit.
Please forward all questions
and submissions to Nisa Khan
(nisakhan@umich.edu)
with
[UAAO Archiving Project] as the
subject line.
No one ever returns from
intimacy whole.
We always leave a part of
ourselves
in the crux of another
person’s history,
a bookend to their yesterday.
Here lies the flesh,
its youth pulled taut,
and here is the tongue which
conquers it.
In my dreams, I am
a gentle noise
rolling through the
countryside,
catching stories on my limbs.
I am my mother’s child
until the sound of a foreign
boy
takes down an entire village.
A spark of lust
or maybe just curiosity
gone wrong.
The white of the flames so
perfect
I can almost rewrite my
family’s past.
His heat begins to
dissolve the tension in my
chest,
erase the color
with which I was born,
so I put out his light
before it can claim me, too.
After all,
what good is a body
that is no longer a home?
Erasure
Preserving A/PIA history at UM
ELIZABETH LE
MiC Columnist
NISA KHAN
MiC Senior Editor
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR