Thursday, June 11, 2020
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 122
© 2020 The Michigan Daily
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS/NEWS..........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
Dual-faithful
A glimpse into the
beautiful reality of
growing up practicing
two faiths.
>> SEE PAGE 9
NEWS
What is the
endowment?
The Daily explains the
endowment and how it can
be used. >> SEE PAGE 2
OPINION
Don’t stop talking
about ICE
International students should
be valued for being students.
>> SEE PAGE 5
ARTS
“Letter To My
Younger Self”
Quinn XCII’s new album
is more reflective than
his previous work
>> SEE PAGE 6
SPORTS
Schedule changes
The fallout surrounding the
Big Ten’s decision to play a
completely in-conference
season for fall sports.
>> SEE PAGE 10
inside
2
4
6
8
10
LSA senior Dylan Gilbert was
sitting in a class discussion with
the other 20-or-so members
of her class, when her English
professor Scott Lyons read out
loud the N-word from a short
story by American writer William
Faulkner. Gilbert, uncomfortable
with the situation, left the
discussion that day.
Though the class carried on,
the professor’s choice to read
the racial slur and the student’s
protest
ultimately
raised
an
ongoing
academic
debate:
whether or not the use of racial
slurs from academic text is
appropriate in the classroom.
In June 2020, around a year
later, Gilbert told her story on
Twitter, where she received
an outpouring of support from
fellow University of Michigan
students, alumni, faculty and
staff, many condemning the
professor and the University for
tolerating the behavior.
“I was just kind of exhausted,”
Gilbert told The Daily. “I don’t feel
like I should have to sit in a room
and have a non-Black person
keep saying the N-word in front
of me. So I just quietly packed
up my stuff
into my bag, walked out of class
and did not say anything.”
Details
of
the
incident
surfaced
amid
a
renewed
national commitment against
systemic
racism,
thereby
calling into question the impact
classrooms have on perpetuating
racial injustice.
“The
environment
wasn’t
comfortable anymore,” Gilbert
said. “I felt targeted in the
environment, and I felt unsafe
in the environment, and I didn’t
feel like I was learning the way
I needed to learn. So when you
use racial slurs in the classroom,
you’re taking away some sense
of equality in the classroom
because now a group of your
students aren’t feeling the way
they should be feeling to properly
learn.”
Gilbert’s tweets also included
screenshots of email exchanges
between her and Lyons after the
class, in which Lyons did not
offer an apology but committed
to “avoid uttering the word for
the rest of the term.” For the
next class period, according to
Gilbert, Lyons assigned an article
defending the use of the word.
“I’m not sure I understand the
distinction between assigning a
work with the n-word (written
by a non-black writer and read
by mostly non-black readers) and
reading it out loud -- imagination
versus exhaulation? -- but I do
take your point,” Lyons wrote in
the email exchanges.
The Daily reached out to Lyons
multiple times for a comment,
but was referred to University
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald.
“Students have a variety of
ways to raise concerns about
their classroom experiences,”
Fitzgerald wrote in an email to
The Daily. “In this case, these
concerns are being addressed
through
the
appropriate
channels.”
This
incident
does
not
appear to be an isolated one,
either.
Universities
across
the country have struggled to
address how professors should
approach teaching racial slurs.
Some institutions have taken
to suspending professors for
using racial slurs in an academic
environment, while others have
defended their use based on
academic freedom.
English
professor
Susan
Parrish often teaches texts from
Southern literature, which can
include epithets against various
groups.
She
explained
how
voicing these slurs can harm
the ability for students to learn
Government
rescinds DHS
and ICE policy
Rule restricting
international students
from taking full online
courses now barred
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Read more at michigandaily.com
FRANCESCA DUONG
AND KRISTINA ZHENG
Summer Managing News Editor
and Summer News Editor
KRISTINA ZHENG
Summer News Editor
Read more at michigandaily.com
michigandaily.com
‘U’ community debates whether the
N-word has a place in the classroom
Design by Hibah Chughtai
Tuesday afternoon, the Department
of
Homeland
Security
and
U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agreed to repeal regulations that
restrict international students from
taking a full online course load while
residing in the U.S.
The rescinded regulations were
announced by federal Judge Allison
Burroughs during a lawsuit in Boston
brought by Harvard University and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
according to the Associated Press.
The decision comes after the July 6
federal guidelines that stated F-1 and
M-1 visa students will not be allowed
to enter or remain in the United States
if all university classes were moved
online.
The
announcement
sparked
an
uproar of opposition from institutions
across the country, including Harvard
and MIT, who led the lawsuit against
the federal government. The University
of Michigan, along with several other
universities and colleges, have since
joined the lawsuit as a friend of the
court.
Rackham
Student
Government
also filed an amicus brief in the
Massachusetts District Court in the
lawsuit against the ICE restrictions on
Monday morning along with 15 other
student government bodies.
Since
the
federal
government
announced
the
new
policies,
international students were faced with
difficult and unprecedented challenges
amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The
michigandaily.com
Thursday, July 16, 2020
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
michigandaily.com