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

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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
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