“The movement is greater
than those two men, and, at
the same time, the movement
needed
those
two
men,”
Suleiman said. “And we often
do ourselves a disservice by
trying to create the perfect
hero … that rises victorious
above the rest and had the
perfect
diagnosis
and
the
perfect role to play. And so, this
is the picture that we come to …
This is the picture that deeply
haunts America.”
LSA freshman Salik Aslam
attended
Suleiman’s
lecture
and told The Daily after the
talk that he found it interesting
how people often create a
singular portrayal of a public
figure based on their defining
moments when, in fact, their
legacies
are
much
more
complex.
“I
liked
the
one
point
that (Suleiman) made about
how they froze Malcolm X’s
transformative moment … and
they froze Martin Luther King
at his ‘I have a dream’ speech,”
Aslam said. “I realized that,
when I thought about Martin
Luther King, I had him frozen
in that speech, too.”
Suleiman
also
challenged
the common belief Malcolm X
promoted violence among his
supporters. He argued Malcolm
X did not turn to violence
because he believed it was
convenient or desirable, but
because he found it hypocritical
that African Americans were
urged to remain peaceful even
when they were the subjects of
continued violence and hatred
for much of the nation’s history.
“Malcolm
said,
‘I
don’t
favor
violence,’”
Suleiman
said. “‘If we could bring about
recognition and respect for our
people by peaceful means, well
and good. Everybody would like
to reach (Malcolm’s) objectives
peacefully. But I’m also a
realist. And the only people in
this country who are asked to
be nonviolent are black people.’
And so, Malcolm’s point was
the point that ... if you don’t
have an established critique of
the oppression, you don’t get to
critique the resistance.”
In his lecture, Suleiman
also
emphasized
the
need
for
Americans
to
become
uncomfortable
with
their
history and their previously-
held beliefs about racism and
the Civil Rights Movement
in order to create tangible
change. He related this need
for discomfort with Executive
Order 13769, also known as
the 2017 Muslim Ban, arguing
many
Americans
felt
they
couldn’t live with themselves
knowing
they
tolerated
a
“blatant violation” of human
rights with the Muslim Ban.
“You
cannot
simply
say
this is not right, but you had
to actually move to action,”
Suleiman
said.
“Martin
understood that America … had
to be moved to a point where it
had to be uncomfortable with
itself.”
The
post-lecture
panel,
featuring Abdul Khabeer and
Ward, expanded upon some
of Suleiman’s previous points
and discussed their relation to
African Americans and Islam
today.
Abdul Khabeer said it is
important
to
know
where
activists like Malcolm X and
Martin Luther King Jr. came
from and what perspectives
they were originally exposed to
in order to better understand
their
ideologies.
She
highlighted the international
aspect of the Universal Negro
Improvement
Association,
where Malcolm X’s parents
were active members, to show
Malcolm X’s philosophy did
not exist in a vacuum and was a
product of the environment he
was raised in.
“I
think
what’s
always
important
to
think
about
these people coming out of
communities,” Abdul Khabeer
said. “And, specifically, I was
thinking about his parents
… and their relationship to
the UNIA as organizers and
leaders in that group.”
Ward
also
touched
on
the idea of allyship, noting
that white people who see
themselves as allies should
understand the ways racism
has hurt society at large.
“Rather than try to help
black people or people of
color, recognize that you too
have been dehumanized by
racism,” Ward said. “You too
have been dehumanized —
not in the same way, not to
the same magnitude per se,
but that your own humanity
is corrupted. Acting against
racism,
against
broader
structures
of
oppression
… you can see yourself as
co-liberated.”
Suleiman
echoed
Ward’s
point and added that in order
to be an effective activist, you
have to dedicate yourself to all
aspects of a cause rather than
support it half-heartedly.
“Activism is not showing up
to 20 protests a year, copping
a selfie and putting it on your
social media with a really
cool profile picture and a lot
of hashtags,” Suleiman said.
“Study one or two issues
that you can really have a
meaningful impact. Immerse
yourself, learn from the issues,
be present in other things that
speak to your convictions. Be
present. Show support. But
immerse yourself deeply.”
doesn’t know if she should search
for housing now or to wait until after
the recruitment process is over next
semester.
“I’ve heard a lot of kids sign their
leases first semester, so it worries me
about like what if I drop (recruitment)?”
Ceritano said. “Then it’s a concern
for me to find a house to live in. But if
I don’t (drop), it doesn’t really matter,
because you live in your sorority house
your sophomore year. It’s all just a bit
concerning.”
Ceritano said she hasn’t heard
anything
from
the
Panhellenic
Association, individual sororities, the
Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life or
University Housing regarding what she
should do.
“No one has given any advice or
anything,” Ceritano said. “I feel like it’d
be good to have some advice on how to
handle this from the housing office or
maybe people who do leases. I don’t
really know how to find it.”
LSA freshman Margaret Barber said
she’s excited to begin the recruitment
process at the University and would
like to live in a sorority house. Barber
said she intends to have a backup
plan, but she’s not rushing into any big
decisions.
“I’m taking the time to adjust to
everything, but I was thinking of trying
to come up with a backup plan when
my friends who aren’t rushing start
researching (housing),” Barber said. “I
could also research with them some
possibilities if rush doesn’t work out.
Right now, I don’t have any idea.”
Similar to Ceritano, Barber said
many of her friends who plan to take
part in recruitment don’t know what
they will do yet. However, she claimed
there’s been talk of a safety net for
students who may, for any reason,
drop out of the recruitment process or
who do not get a bid from a sorority or
fraternity.
“It’s kind of up in the air,” Barber
said. “But we had a bay-area Michigan
send-off thing, and there were school
housing coordinators talking to us, and
one said that they would help us out
if you plan on rushing and it doesn’t
work out, that there’d still be housing
available.”
In a statement to The Daily, Nicole
Banks, assistant dean of Students and
interim director of Fraternity and
Sorority Life, said the University’s office
of Fraternity and Sorority Life has
engaged with stakeholders inside and
outside the University in anticipation
of this shift. Banks explained there
is a team of staff, students and
representatives dedicated to finding
housing for students interested in
recruitment, all in collaboration with
University Housing.
“After
extensive
research
and
review of multiple years of data, the
team concluded that there is ample
availability of housing well into the
winter semester,” Banks wrote. “The
Dean of Students office will also
provide support to students searching
for housing and FSL is teaming up
with the First Year Experience and the
Beyond the Diag program to promote
information about taking time to sign
your lease, among other opportunities.”
FSL
advised
students
against
signing a lease preemptively.
“If a student is interested in joining
a fraternity or sorority with a housing
requirement, they should wait to sign
a lease until after recruitment has
ended,” Banks wrote.
Despite this advice, LSA junior
Michael Smith, vice president of the
fraternity Delta Tau Delta, explained
most students usually sign their
leases by November because available
housing during the winter semester is
typically limited, expensive or far from
campus.
If current freshmen decide to
sign leases in the fall semester, Smith
explained winter recruitment can
cause problems for fraternities and
sororities on campus that have come to
rely on sophomore tenants to fill their
chapter’s house.
“The following year runs into
complications because we can’t just
have an empty house,” Smith said. “So,
we have to have people living there
more years than they were expecting,
as juniors or seniors which has become
uncustomary at Michigan, or we just
have a severe lack of tenants.”
According to Smith, the Delta Tau
Delta house is owned by a board of
alumni that maintains the property.
Without enough occupants in the
house the chapter’s future could be
jeopardized, Smith said.
“Without a sufficient number of
tenants, they don’t have the money to
maintain the property,” Smith said.
“Ultimately, that could result in our
chapter losing its national charter, and
just ceasing to exist on campus, because
we’re not financially viable anymore.”
Interfraternity Council President
and LSA junior Nick Wasik did not
respond to requests for comment
by time of publication. Panhellenic
Association President and LSA senior
Taylor Fegan declined to comment.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 — 3A
Therefore,
violations
in
the
treatment
of
the
aforementioned animals are
not required to be included
in a school’s annual report
to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
PETA used the amount
of
funding
each
school
received from the NIH to
estimate the budget of each
laboratory and predict how
many undocumented small
animals
the
laboratory
uses to experiment on. The
University
of
Michigan
received approximately $552
million in funding from the
NIH in 2018.
The University reported
zero violations in 2018, but
PETA claims the ranking
is
valid
through
their
independent
investigation
and the records they obtained
from an unidentified source.
“Records obtained by PETA
reveal numerous incidents of
neglect and incompetence in
the university’s laboratories.”
Laboratories
at
the
University
are
primarily
investigated
internally,
therefore it is difficult to
determine the validity of
PETA’s
claims
without
knowing exactly how their
records were obtained.
In the statement, PETA
explained
their
findings
regarding
the
University’s
treatment of the animals used
for testing.
“Painful tumors in mice
weren’t adequately monitored
and were allowed to develop
past protocol limits, several
mice died of dehydration when
a water system malfunctioned
and no one noticed, and
numerous mice and rats died
after
experimenters
failed
to follow procedures used to
prevent contamination during
experimental
surgeries,”
the statement reads. “Living
mice and rats were found in
coolers after workers failed to
ensure that the animals were
dead before discarding their
bodies.”
In
regard
to
PETA’s
allegations
against
the
University,
Mary
Masson,
director of public relations
at Michigan Medicine, wrote
in an email interview with
The Daily the concerns were
remedied.
“These
issues
were
corrected immediately upon
discovery by our animal care
team,” Masson wrote. “In the
interest of full transparency,
the U-M also self-reported
each event to the National
Institute of Health’s Office of
Laboratory Animal Welfare
(OLAW) and our accrediting
body, AAALAC International.
Both OLAW and AAALAC
reviewed these matters and
found that U-M took all
necessary steps to self-report
and correct these isolated
incidents.”
Additionally,
PETA
advocates for alternatives to
animal testing, such as human
tissue and cell-based research
methods as well as computer
simulations, claiming these
methods
provide
equally
applicable results.
“NIH has noted that 95% of
all drugs that are shown to be
safe and effective in animal
tests fail in human trials
because they don’t work or
are dangerous,” PETA wrote
in their report.
Jim Newman, director of
strategic
communications
for Americans for Medical
Progress, wrote in a statement
to The Daily animal testing is
both ethical and necessary.
“Groups
like
PETA
frequently
claim
that
animal studies are no longer
necessary,” Newman wrote.
“This is simply not true. No
alternative including tissue
samples, organs-on-a-chip or
computer models can mimic
a living, breathing organism.
Nor
can
any
alternative
fully mimic the countless
diseases
that
can
impact
humans
and
animals.
By
suggesting otherwise, animal
rights groups are ignoring
basic facts and logic. More
importantly,
making
these
claims
endangers
public
health
because
doing
so
causes well-meaning people
to reject a crucial scientific
method
that
saves
both
human and animal lives.”
At the University, students
have
the
opportunity
to
work
in
laboratories
that
perform
animal
testing.
Students are required to go
through
numerous
online
and
in-person
trainings
before they are permitted
to
participate
in
these
laboratories.
Johanna
Buschhaus,
Engineering Ph.D. candidate,
has
been
working
in
laboratories at the University
since she was a sophomore
in high school and has been
doing cancer research for
four years involving mice and
rats.
“My experience has been
super positive,” Buschhaus
said. “I have my own animals,
so it’s really important to me
that the animals I work with
are never going to be hurting.”
Buschhaus also explained
for the past year in her
laboratory, they have had
a veterinary resident also
working to identify ways to
improve the treatment of the
animals. For example, once
a tumor is discovered in a
mouse, they are required to
examine that mouse three
times a week.
Ultimately, in the press
release, PETA Senior Vice
President Kathy Guillermo
called students at U-M to
action.
“Students live and work on
university campuses for years
without knowing that animals
are being neglected, burned,
poisoned, crippled, blinded,
and tormented in a host of
other ways right under their
noses,” Guillermo said. “As
the school year begins, PETA
is asking caring University of
Michigan students to speak
out against the abuse of
sensitive, sentient beings in
their midst.”
PETA
From Page 1A
RECRUITMENT
From Page 1A
“Corporate
entities
were successful at gaining
personhood
rights
—
constitutionally
protected,
inalienable rights,” Coleridge
said. ‘“Only human beings
should
have
inalienable
rights.”
He mentioned the court
case Pennsylvania Coal Co. v.
Mahon (1922), which found
private property subject to
public use if corporations
deemed the land a loss of
profits. He said the coal
company was digging under
people’s
homes
for
oil,
causing them to sink. Action
was eventually taken, but did
not go in favor of the people.
“So there was a law passed
that said, ‘you can’t dig
where there are homes,’ and
the coal company said ‘no,
that potentially lost profits,’”
Coleridge said. “‘And if you
want those homes not to
sink, then you have to give us
just compensation for that.’”
Recent
University
alum
Hoai An Pham works with
Planned
Parenthood
in
Washtenaw
County.
She
spoke regarding how the
organization
is
trying
to create an image of an
unbiased healthcare center.
“Sometimes
people
only think that we’re an
abortion clinic,” Pham said.
“(We’re) reforming the idea
of Planned Parenthood as
just a healthcare clinic. As a
healthcare center, we aren’t
trying to politicize abortion,
but
abortion
has
been
politicized for us.”
Pham asked how many
audience members received
their
healthcare
through
their jobs, and the majority
of audience members raised
their hands.
“A lot of times corporations
actually become the source
of healthcare,” Pham said.
“The issue with that is that,
when you get healthcare
from your job, if your getting
good healthcare from your
job, then you might have to
stay in that, even if you don’t
like it.”
Meg
Berkobien,
a
member
of
the
Huron
Valley Democratic Socialist
Association explained her
organization’s definition of
democracy.
“Our working definition
is that it’s shared power,”
Berkobien said. “That it’s
built through mutual aid,
solidarity and really coming
together as comrades, to
think about a different vision
MONEY
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
“Healthcare cost is the number
one cost as you get older,” Oh said.
“If you let it run out of control,
I promise you, you can choose
bond fund one versus bond fund
two. It’s not going to matter in the
scheme of things. The healthcare
cost mismanagement is going to
override everything else.”
Oh told attendees that if their
financial advisors are not already
aware of their long-term health
considerations, they should be.
Oh, who has consulted on a myriad
of financial considerations, said
health insurance is just another
component.
According to Oh, most of
the country is under-informed
on the details of Medicare and
he said anyone who believes
Medicare does not affect them
is overlooking the potential for
increased premiums on their
private plans when uninsured
people
walk
out
on
their
healthcare bills.
“Your neighbor just foreclosed
on their house,” Oh said. “Guess
what? It’s not only their problem
now. It’s your problem. Why?
Your house just dropped in value,
like it or not. Just like (when
people) don’t understand health
insurance or leave an unpaid bill
with a healthcare provider, guess
who pays: the insured.”
The event featured a Q&A
session, in which Oh answered
specific
questions
addressing
individuals’
Medicare
experiences. He admitted the
process is complicated and blamed
the disjointed taxation processes
which support Medicare and
Medicaid separately as a reason
why plans that work in European
countries cannot work in the
United States.
Oh
also
took
issue
with
Americans’
dependence
on
the
internet
for
Medicare
explanation. He said much of
what is posted online muddles
definitions, spreads falsehoods
and confuses even experts such
as himself.
“We
get
hit
with
140
characters,
and
suddenly
everything goes to mush and
the terms get wrongly used, and
then you get biased parties using
terms wrongly for their own
design,” Oh said. “It’s easy to get
confused, and you’ll get that over
and over and over — on financial
topics especially.”
Kalamazoo
resident
Diane
Gregory
attended
the
talk
because of the confusion related
to Medicare. She said her primary
problem is with phone salesmen
who try to convince her Medicare
works a certain way — she has no
idea if they’re telling the truth.
“I’m getting inundated by
these calls, but I don’t answer any
of them because they’re selling
something, and it’s sort of like
if you don’t know enough to be
wary of those things, then any
salesman can come and con you
into something and tell you it’s
the best thing for you when it’s
not,” Gregory said.
Many
people
with
Oh’s
expertise
charge
hundreds
of dollars an hour for private
consulting. Oh said he speaks in
public for free because he believes
those who most need Medicare
advice are those who cannot pay
those consulting fees.
Oh
implored
audience
members to take the information
they learned and disseminate it
within their own communities.
He also provided attendees with
links to a Facebook group and
a Youtube channel for future
reference and further detail.
“There’s resources for this
information, and that marginal
information is enormous to the
people most in need,” Oh said.
“And these exceptions are in their
favor.”
Ann Arbor resident Rosemarie
Russell said she came to hear Oh
speak because she was curious
about Medicare but wasn’t sure
exactly which issues she needed
guidance on. She said she felt far
more informed about her options
following the presentation.
“It
helps
us
know
what
questions to ask,” Russell said.
“You need a lot of information to
know what questions to ask.”
Gregory, like Russell, said she
appreciated the event because she
learned a lot.
“He touched on a lot of good
subjects which I think are of
(importance) in a lot of people’s
minds, but, like he said, you
almost have to go to something
like this to have that level of
awareness be raised in your
mind so that you do know to look
further into it,” Gregory said.
MEDICARE
From Page 1A
ACTIVIST
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com