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Thursday, February 14, 2019 — 3A
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“School shootings and kids being
shot in schools, not necessarily just
mass shootings, have been very, very
common before Parkland,” Elkolaly
said. “But the thing is Parkland, a
white, suburban school, was the
catalyst needed for the gun violence
prevention movement. This happens
in areas that are predominantly black
and less wealthy all the time. But you
can tell that the government only
really cares when there are wealthier
students on the line.”
Elkolaly said she has continued
to see this whitewashing in the gun
safety movement in the year since
Parkland.
“I
learned
further
how
whitewashed the movement really is,”
Elkolaly said. “Like any organization,
Washtenaw Youth Initiative has its
flaws. Many people don’t want to
join because it is a predominantly
white group when gun violence
affects people of color more … there’s
still a socioeconomic discrepancy in
activism. It’s extracurricular for some
and a mode of survival for others.”
These
observations,
Elkolaly
said, show how much the movement
needs
to
include
intersectional
voices. Keeping this in mind, Elkolaly
emphasized her appreciation of
the work of the student activists
from Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School. But Elkolaly noted
it’s important to understand how
privilege helped them succeed.
“I don’t want to discredit what the
Parkland kids have done,” Elkolaly
said. “They’re absolutely amazing and
they started this massive movement.
But it was definitely their privilege
that helped them get there.”
Public Policy senior Kellie Lounds,
chair of the University of Michigan’s
chapter of College Democrats, echoed
many of Elkolaly’s points, applauding
the work of young activists and
bringing to attention the fact that gun
violence most frequently affects low-
income communities of color.
“It’s a problem in low-income
communities and communities of
color and all sorts of other groups
that don’t get the spotlight,” Lounds
said. “And so I think activists helping
acknowledge that while also using
their experiences to elevate how
important this issue has been a big
change in this past year especially
with the activism of the kids from
Stoneman Douglas.”
LSA sophomore Dylan Berger,
president of the University’s chapter
of
College
Republicans
and
a
columnist in the Opinion section of
The Daily, said the focus on issues
concerning gun violence and gun
control is the result of numerous
shootings, and that the Parkland
students’ activism is what brought
the issue further into the spotlight.
Berger said while he strongly believes
in citizens’ rights to the Second
Amendment, a position not held by
many of the student activists, he
appreciates the conversation being
brought to the table.
“I think the Stoneman Douglas
shooting was the straw that broke
the camel’s back in that now that the
shooting has happened and a whole
bunch of intelligent young people,
whether we agree or disagree with
them, are coming out and speaking
on this issue, people are paying
attention,” Berger said. “I disagree
with a lot of what activists have said
on the issue of Second Amendment,
but I appreciate that they’re bringing
up the issue. We need to discuss it.”
Outside of activism and political
realms, faculty and staff within the
University work in various ways to
combat gun violence. John-Mark
Branch, a police sergeant within
the Division of Public Safety and
Security, is the police response
expert for active attackers. Branch
said DPSS has been trained in active
shooter response consistently since
the Columbine shooting in 1999. He
explained Parkland did not affect
their efforts, as they were already up
to par, but DPSS reviewed Parkland
along with all other shootings that
occurred throughout the year for
safety risks.
“We have actually been one of
the departments in the county who’s
been training active shooter since
Columbine,” Branch said. “We have
several active shooter instructors…
I am an instructor for that. We
do refreshers, courses every year,
we do annual training for active
attackers, active shooters … There’s
so many (shootings) that happen
throughout the year, obviously we
get that information, we review
(the response) — what went wrong,
what went right … but as far as our
response, it pretty much hasn’t
changed.”
Branch said DPSS’ active attacker
response protocol is to immediately
send a dispatch to the location once
they’re made aware of an active
attacker and to respond based on
the specifics of the situation. If the
attacker is inside, officers will enter
the building and stop the threat as
quickly as possible. The approach is
also affected by the type of weapon,
as a firearm is more dangerous than,
for example, a baseball bat.
According to Branch, all of the
Washtenaw County police agencies
are trained for active attacker
response in the same way. Branch
is a member of the SWAT team
that conducts an annual refresher
course for the county in this training.
Branch said SWAT makes sure all the
local police forces are on the same
page.
“In
Washtenaw
County,
we
have the metro SWAT team that is
comprised of University of Michigan
police, Washtenaw County Sheriff,
Ann Arbor City, Ypsilanti Police,
Pittsfield Township and I believe
Eastern Michigan,” Branch said.
“I’m a team leader on the SWAT team
there and our SWAT team does the
annual active attacker training each
year. So every agency in the county is
trained the same way.”
DPSS also holds active shooter
presentations for faculty, staff and
students within the University.
Branch said the active attacker
safety tips DPSS recommends are
encompassed in three words: run,
hide and fight. These methods
are taught to incoming University
students
during
new
student
orientation.
University
faculty
are
also
utilizing
a
research
approach
to gun violence. Patrick Carter,
assistant professor of emergency
medicine, is a leader on the Firearm
Safety Among Children and Teens
Consortium project. This initiative,
aiming to prevent gun violence while
taking into account gun ownership,
launched a website in November
2018 with data, fact sheets, videos
and other resources regarding gun
violence prevention.
Carter said in the aftermath of
Parkland or any mass shooting,
people bolster their efforts to reduce
the problem of firearm injuries. He
said it’s crucial to keep in mind gun
violence greatly affects people on a
smaller, daily scale as well.
“I think anytime there’s a mass
shooting, it serves to redouble the
efforts of people who are working
in those fields, and I think we have
to remember that the problem of
firearm injuries is not just about the
mass shootings,” Carter said. “We
see those and they’re horrific and
tragic events, but there’s also a daily
toll related to gun violence that we
have to remember that affects people
too, that that is part of the prevention
discussion.”
Doctors can only do so much to
help a person injured by a firearm
when they see them in an emergency
room, Carter said. He explained
the issue can be more effectively
addressed by researching evidence-
based prevention measures.
“We see the end result within
the medical field of injuries and
frankly, given the legality of what I
can do for a patient who comes into
the emergency department or the
hospital with a firearm injury, at that
point we’re pretty far down in the
spectrum in terms of my ability to
intervene to help that person,” Carter
said. “We can do so much more on
the prevention end to prevent them
from ending up in the emergency
department in the first place if we
apply evidence-based research and
solutions to the problem.”
To base the team’s research in
the community, Carter said the
project incorporates perspectives
of gun owners and trainers. This is
important, he noted, in order to have
a realistic conversation about the
issue.
“I don’t think you can have a
dialogue around how to solve this
problem and approach evidence-
based solutions to the problem
without engaging people… having
the ability to own and use guns is an
important part of the discussion so
we find solutions that are gonna work
and not fall through the cracks,”
Carter said.
One year after the deadliest high
school shooting in the U.S. history,
acts of gun violence keep happening,
including an incident at Central
Michigan University in March 2018
and a shooting at a synagogue in
Pittsburgh in October. Yet the efforts
surrounding gun violence continue
— especially among activist youths,
according to Elkolaly.
“I think we’ve discovered just
how powerful the youth voice really
is,” Elkolaly said. “Even if we’re
minors and unable to vote, we have
so much power. That’s really what I
want young activists to know. First
of all, your representatives serve you.
You say jump, they say how high. And
when you band together, you can
accomplish so many great things.”
“These motifs that are impor-
tant to analyze because stories
are as essential as sleep to being
human,” Goodenough said. “If
we don’t tell stories, we really
lose who we are and who we
become. Often, I think because
we’re all quite pressed and
overstimulated, we don’t ask
ourselves questions about the
existential realities of the stories
we’re living. Are we living some-
body else’s story for us? Or at
least we can become more aware
of the guiding voices in our own
stories.”
Part of the six-week class is a
unique speaker series. All stu-
dents are required to attend the
lectures by global experts such
as historians, anthropologists,
poets and filmmakers, whose
perspectives provide insight on
the challenges and complexi-
ties of the representation of dis-
placed children.
Goodenough believes these
lectures are an essential aspect
of the course, not only for her
students to gain a fuller view of
this topic, but also as her own
learning tool.
“I taught the course because
I wanted to learn more,” Goode-
nough said. “I mean, I’m trained
in literary studies, not as an
anthropologist, not as a profes-
sional academic historian, not
as an art historian or interpreter
of visual art. So, you go into this
business of teaching because you
want to keep learning.”
Choberka presented a series
of photographs and lithographs
by Peter Turney, a University of
Michigan alum, featuring refu-
gees in places including 1999
Albania or 1988 Malawi.
“A lot of what we do is teach
thinking with images — how
do images express things to us?
How do we represent them?”
Choberka said. “So that is an
important part of our engage-
ment of any class, because
images are such an important
part of our cultures as depic-
tions of refugees are something
we encounter in the news. It’s
really just about what sort of
meanings do these things bring
up for us. My role is to put these
interpretations into a sort of
dialogue.”
Choberka
encouraged
stu-
dents to talk about the interpre-
tations, the meanings and the
feelings the image brings up for
them. He emphasized the mul-
tifaceted components of these
images, and how the experience
might be different for each per-
son as they bring in their own
experiences into the picture.
He wanted to talk about the
complicated nature of these pic-
tures and perhaps the issues or
questions that the pieces might
inspire.
The discussion began with a
photograph of four refugees in
1999 Albania with a young boy
in the center. Students ques-
tioned whether the child knew
he was getting his picture taken,
to what extent it was planned or
spontaneous and whether or not
the subjects were contemplat-
ing how to present themselves
to the camera. Moreover, they
wondered how they could use
visual cues as indexes of expe-
riences that other people have
had or in stories they’ve seen in
the news.
LSA senior Kaithlyn Sanchez
told The Daily the class has
taught her to question the chil-
dren’s perspectives in times of
chaos and displacement, instead
of the artist’s views and to really
pay attention to how they might
feel.
“This class is about question-
ing how certain people want us
to look at these displaced chil-
dren, whether it’s when they’re
taking their picture or writing
about them and if we can actu-
ally grab the full experience of
what a child might think about
a certain situation or what their
headspace is,” Sanchez said. “It’s
all about us trying to tap into
how a children sees a situation,
versus how we see it.”
Choberka noted that although
the students are interacting with
these images, they still are inter-
acting with them at a distance
and inferring the type of story
the image is trying to tell. They
still don’t know any of the true
context.
In
another
picture
of
a
Mozambican refugee camp in
Malawi in 1988, Choberka noted
how the photographer has decid-
ed to show only a young child
walking between two vertical
rows of bright yellow restrooms.
“I am very skeptical of this
picture,” Choberka said. “The
photographer has chosen to
position himself so that we
have a weirdly serial organized
experience of these built struc-
tures — which has probably been
brought in by outsiders to alle-
viate some of the problems they
have had. To me, it says, ‘We
have successfully helped these
people! We have built structures
in a very organized fashion.’ But,
it could look more disorganized
and worn down. There is no
sense of urgency in the image,
and it looks like the kid is hav-
ing a good time. Which is sug-
gestive of an order that has been
imposed on a chaotic situation.
But it could be total triumphant
story.”
The students then began a
discussion on the role the per-
son taking the picture plays into
telling the story of these differ-
ent cultures, and the agency that
the subjects have in telling their
story to the viewer. Choberka
emphasized that each image
might be inadequate on their
own as they only tell part of a
story.
“It can be a much more com-
plex story and could potentially
misrepresent them,” Choberka
said. “Although it is one moment
of fun, it could have been their
one moment of fun that has only
happened within the last few
years.”
“It’s hard to do certain things
while retaining your Blackness,”
Harmon said. “And if we’re not
accepted in our community, we feel
like we’re not accepted in the world
at all.”
Harmon stressed the fact that
there is no prerequisite to Blackness
beyond biology.
“To be Black is literally just have
Black skin,” Harmon said. “Look
down at your hands and your skin is
Black, congratulations you’re Black.
That’s just how that works.”
Harmon said from slavery to the
civil rights movement, the Black
community has always had more
exterior problems than mental
health, and now it has gotten to the
point where they cannot be worried
over more interior and personal
issues.
“That isn’t too long ago,” Har-
mon. “What mattered was your
safety. They didn’t have the luxury
to teach you about your emotions.”
Harmon also noted the ongoing
struggle that the Black has faced
regarding tragedy and violence.
He surveyed the room, asking who
remembered where they were in
2012 when 17-year-old Trayvon
Martin was shot and killed by a
police officer in Sanford, Florida.
“That was like everything I
learned about Black history was
like, ‘Nah, we still here,’” Harmon
said.
Harmon explained vulnerability
is not seen as an option among Black
people. He cited the musician Frank
Ocean came under fire after coming
out as bisexual. He said Ocean was
ridiculed for being too effeminate
or not Black enough, but that he did
a great thing for the Black commu-
nity by coming out. Harmon said
Ocean set the stage for other young,
gay Black people to find their own
identities in a safe, understanding
context.
“Representation matters because
it allows you to feel comfortable in
your own space,” Harmon said.
Harmon encouraged others to
follow Ocean’s example, taking
risks in talking about how they feel
to shift the paradigm.
“It’s so embedded in our DNA,
so we have to undo it,” Harmon
said. “We have to hold each other
accountable. We have to raise our
children better.”
Harmon said he wants to make
a better life for his future children.
He wants to help his mother retire,
and he wants the rest of his family
to have the luxury of rest which he
said was a lot to hold on his shoul-
ders.
The event was put together by
the University’s chapter of the
NAACP and You Good Fam?, a peer-
based support group for students
of color experiencing difficulties
regarding their mental health. The
event was also funded in part by the
Black History Month committee
under the University’s department
of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs.
LSA senior Carlos Henderson is
the health and awareness co-chair
for the University’s NAACP chap-
ter. He told The Daily after the
event that Harmon presents a relat-
able message to students because he
is the same age and primarily uses
social media to communicate his
message of health, perseverance
and positivity.
“This event was important in
particular because Demetrius is a
very big face in social media,” Hen-
derson said. “So we thought what’s
a better way to connect with stu-
dents than to bring social media to
the campus and also to bring aware-
ness about mental health?”
LSA senior Khadija Williams,
president of You Good Fam? said
she admired Harmon for his genu-
ineness. She said Harmon speaks
from a place of empathy due to
his own struggles with his mental
health.
“(Harmon) deals with Black
mental health in his own personal
aspect of him having mental illness
and being Black, using his platform
to explain and go into how it affect-
ed him personally in the different
situations that he’s been in,” Wil-
liams said.
Harmon grew up in Detroit.
Many of his close friends and fam-
ily members attended the event,
including his mother, grandmother
and childhood best friend. As a local
artist, students felt an even deeper
connection to him and his work.
LSA freshman Madison King has
followed him through his presence
on Vine, onto Twitter and now into
mental health advocacy.
“I’ve always known about him,
so I feel like I had to see him,” King
said.
Harmon champions a mental
health awareness campaign called
“You Matter,” selling apparel and
raising awareness about the preva-
lence and legitimacy of mental ill-
ness in the Black community.
Williams said You Good Fam?
was founded to fill this gap in con-
versation. She wanted Black people
to have somewhere to turn when
they need to talk.
“For a Black person to have any-
thing with mental health or want-
ing to express the problems that
they face with mental health, that is
seen as a taboo in our families and
it’s seen as something that is really
talked down upon,” Williams said.
Public Health senior Halimat
Olaniyan is head of MESA’s Black
History Month committee. She said
she and her fellow committee mem-
bers have witnessed firsthand the
difficulty Black students have rais-
ing issues of mental health in their
families and social circles. They
wanted to address the issue with
the programming they’re putting
on.
“A common thing that kept com-
ing up in the committee meetings
was health, particularly mental
health, because I think there’s a lot
of stigma in the Black community
around mental health,” Olaniyan
said. “It’s not talked about. You’re
considered kind of weak if you bring
up that you’re having mental health
issues and mental health concerns.
(The NAACP and You Good Fam?)
came to us about it, and it fit really
well into what we wanted to do
with mental health.”
LSA freshman Faith Crosby
attended the event. She said she
appreciated the timing of the pro-
gramming, noting that acknowl-
edging this issue during Black
History Month provides the con-
text needed to understand and
properly address the issue.
“I like that he came during
Black History Month,” Crosby said.
“Mental health in the Black com-
munity is such a taboo topic, now is
the perfect time to talk about it.”
University students are feel-
ing that pressure more and more.
Williams explained she wanted
Harmon to come to speak during
midterms and around Valentine’s
Day because they are particularly
stressful times of the year.
“The main thing I want to accom-
plish from this event is to show stu-
dents that there are resources on
this campus that are here to help
them out,” Williams said.
This event was the beginning
of the effort to enhance mental
health awareness in the Black
community.
“This event is something small
on a wide agenda,” Williams said.