F
rom the end of World
War II through the pres-
ent day, the United States
has maintained a position as the
world’s premier superpower. For
decades, the American values of
hard work, individualism, liber-
alism and free-market capitalism
appeared to lead to massive suc-
cesses, including technological
advancement,
economic
pros-
perity and high standards of liv-
ing. However, as COVID-19 has
exposed, the values which people
once associated with America’s
brand of strength and prosperity
now appear antiquated and out-
dated and are ultimately holding
the U.S. back. While countries
around the world have respond-
ed to the virus in different ways,
American society’s fundamen-
tal focus on individualism, free-
dom and economic growth have
exposed the inequality, distrust
of government institutions and
lack of protections for vulnerable
populations within our country.
First and foremost, the spread
of COVID-19 has highlighted
America’s
extreme
inequality,
something which is largely a prod-
uct of American society’s fanati-
cal devotion to economic growth.
As economist Milton Friedman
declared in a 1970 New York
Times Magazine article, “The
Social Responsibility of Business
is to Increase its Profits.” In the
decades since Friedman’s arti-
cle was published, it’s clear that
America has taken his advice to
heart. Today, the U.S. has 10 of the
world’s 20 most profitable compa-
nies, but at a cost: It also ranks
39th worst in income inequal-
ity, worse than countries such as
Angola, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and Turkmenistan.
Last year, a study found that
nearly 60 percent of Americans
had less than $1,000 in their bank
accounts, another sign of Ameri-
ca’s staggering income inequality.
Unsurprisingly,
America’s
focus on profits, and its accep-
tance of the inequalities that phi-
losophy inherently produces, has
greatly contributed to the nation’s
disastrous response to COVID-
19. On April 21, a day on which
over 2,600 Americans died of the
virus, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
said that “there are more impor-
tant things than living and that’s
saving this country.” Similarly,
former New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie
commented,
“there
are going to be deaths no mat-
ter what,” but “we have to stand
up for the American way of life.”
In saying this, Christie clearly
implied that the American way of
life is primarily focused on eco-
nomic growth — inequality and
public health be damned. When
faced with skyrocketing unem-
ployment rates, the U.S. Congress
was both unwilling and unable to
come up with an economic solu-
tion that addressed America’s
income inequality. Although the
federal government ultimately
sent out a one-time $1,200 stimu-
lus check to citizens, by April 23,
only 10 days after the first checks
were deposited, 84 percent of
Americans said they already
needed another check to make
ends meet. That federal relief bill,
which cost over $2 trillion in total,
simply proved how unassailable
American inequality has become.
The COVID-19 pandemic has
also revealed the problems with
the American society’s support
of free-market capitalism, as
workers often find themselves
under-protected and devoid of
rights. Although there has con-
sistently been some opposition
to America’s overly laissez-faire
attitude — such as Upton Sinclar’s
1906 novel “The Jungle” — sup-
port for deregulation and limited
government oversight of the pri-
vate sector is a major component
of both America’s society and
economy. As of 2015, American
employees worked an average
of 1,779 hours per year, the sev-
enth most of any nation globally.
W
hat felt like a distant
reality for the past six
months is finally here.
In just few short weeks, students
across the nation will be reckoning
with school start-ups — whether
that means cautiously moving
into a new apartment on campus
or logging onto Canvas from your
hometown. As we gear up for the
long-anticipated
fall
semester,
inboxes are filled with campus-
wide public health-advised guide-
lines for courses, clubs and sports,
and I can’t help but feel a little
nostalgic for a time before COVID-
19 and masks. The optimist in me
had hoped that summer would be
the end of it, but now a corona-less
future seems unimaginable — or at
least until 2024. Working at a local
grocery store this summer, I feel
my current cynicism deepen with
every customer that refuses to
wear a mask during their 10-min-
ute grocery runs despite Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer’s
statewide
orders — that, and seeing videos
and Snapchat stories of “COVID-
19 petri dish” parties and gather-
ings.
I’d like to think my peers and I
will be more responsible and con-
siderate on campus, but higher risk
of infection on college grounds
across the country has already
been deemed inevitable by a New
York Times survey prior to the
new academic year. Unfortu-
nately, this is not all that surpris-
ing given the night-life crowds
that took over Ann Arbor bars
after Whitmer’s rescinding of
the Safer at Home Order in June
and Theta Chi’s careless summer
kickback. Our image as the Lead-
ers and the Best was rightfully
scrutinized then, and it is bound
to face even heavier surveillance
during this experimental semester.
As university students, it’s high
time our increasingly expensive
schooling be put to productive use
this semester. According to a New
York Times article, we are impul-
sive, risk-taking college students
that study together, live together,
party together and sleep together.
And they’re right. As thousands
of students are welcomed back,
campuses will become what psy-
chologists call a strong situation
in which external environmen-
tal forces define the desirability
of potential behaviors despite an
individual’s personal tendencies
and personality. This is especially
true in cultural systems like that of
universities where the norm is the
often anti-intellectual nature of
college student culture. The endur-
ing coronavirus calls for a reevalua-
tion of hookup culture and reckless
school spirit, and we must be the
ones at the forefront of this battle
against amateur human tendency.
While
reopening
campuses
seems like a doomed endeavor
from the beginning, we should
take this opportunity to rede-
fine our college experience apart
from tailgating and Thursday
night excursions — whether that
means spending more time on
Zoom meetings and nights in, or
looking deeper into the flaws of
our own college culture. Amid a
global pandemic that doesn’t seem
to be going anywhere any time
soon, it’s time for a cultural reset,
if you will — one that encompasses
a little more accountability for
our actions. The only question is:
Are we up for the challenge? For
everyone’s sake, I sure hope so.
This quarantine period has
woken America up to the glaring
systemic issues of highly politi-
cized public health initiatives,
structural racism within every
established institution and the col-
lateral damage from U.S. Immi-
gration and Customs Enforcement
policies. It would be for naught if
we did not bring those issues back
to our own schooling as many have
done with the newly resurfaced
review and reassessment petition
for the University of Michigan’s
Race and Ethnicity requirement
as well as the student-led peti-
tion in response to ICE’s recent
international student regulation.
Closer to the University of Michi-
gan’s campus, in Ypsilanti, Mich.,
protesters gathered on the after-
noon of Tuesday, May 26, after
a video was circulated showing
a white police officer punch-
ing Sha’Teina Grady El, a Black
woman, in the head multiple times.
Building
awareness
about
and a consensus against these
horrific, racist acts of vio-
lence has to be a priority. But
doing so safely and effectively
is important as a pandemic
rages on and police depart-
ments continue to aggressive-
ly crackdown on those who
speak truth to their power.
First, it is imperative to offer
a historical context into the
nature
of
policing
agencies
in America when wanting to
approach conversations about
the current Black Lives Matter
protests occurring across Amer-
ica and around the world. The
birth of modern-day police offi-
cers in America can be traced to a
multitude of political, economic,
legal and historical conditions.
Most
importantly,
perhaps,
modern policing departments
can be traced to slave patrols
and night watch groups, which
were both maliciously designed
to control the behaviors and
freedoms of minorities — most
notably Black and Native Ameri-
cans. In the southern colonies
of the United States especially,
origins of policing were root-
ed in racialized social orders
and in the economy that so
heavily depended on individu-
als that were enslaved. Slave
patrols
and
night
watches
assisted wealthy landowners
and maintained economic order
by recovering and punishing
both enslaved and freed Black
individuals who did not adhere
to white societal standards.
The vicious and abhorrent
rationalizations of slavery and
racism did not end after the 13th
amendment abolished slavery in
the U.S. With the rise of so-called
vigilante groups who resisted
abolition and Reconstruction
after the Civil War, America
continued to perpetuate deep
racism, oppression and injustice
toward Black Americans. Due
to the traditions of slavery and
racism that are, unfortunately,
so deeply embedded within this
country’s history, these vigi-
lante groups felt it their duty to
uphold the narrative that Black
individuals were sub-human.
Coinciding with the onset of
the second phase of post-Civil
War Reconstruction, the most
infamous vigilante group, the
Ku Klux Klan, was founded.
Notorious for brutal campaigns
of violence against Black indi-
viduals, “local law enforcement
officials either belonged to the
Klan or declined to take action
against it.” Due to law enforce-
ment’s involvement with the
infamous group, Congress even-
tually passed the Enforcement
Act of May 1870 and two more
Force acts — also known as the
Ku Klux Klan acts — which
acted to prohibit the assembly
of groups with the intention of
violating constitutional rights of
minority groups. However, this
legislation, along with many
more legal events, has not sup-
pressed the inhumane practices
of racial abuse and oppression
that have persisted in America.
Today, we are witnessing the
continued perpetuation of racial
injustices and violence from
modern-day institutions against
Black Americans. From being
disproportionately affected by
health inequalities that have
been made most apparent during
COVID-19 to repetitive injustic-
es perpetuated by the criminal
justice systems in America, it is
clear that what has been done so
far is not nearly enough. Dur-
ing this global pandemic, many
disparities and corrupt systems
have come to light — ranging
from the exploitations of essen-
tial workers who are primarily
POC to healthcare inequalities
and biases to precariously unfair
shortages of protective equip-
ment
for
frontline
work-
ers — which has undeniably
showcased where the values
of our country’s leaders lie.
While our healthcare workers
are “at war with no ammo” —
forced to use expired masks and
perform invasive procedures
on COVID-19 patients without
any personal protective equip-
ment — local police forces tout
a saturation of protective gear
and riot gear when confront-
ing protesters. This disparity
forces the financial hypocri-
sy of this country to light. In
response to the jarring lack of
PPE for healthcare workers,
President Donald Trump stat-
ed, “the Federal government
is not supposed to be out there
buying vast amounts of items
and then shipping … we’re not
a shipping clerk.” However, he
quickly changed tune when
American citizens took to the
streets to protest, mobilizing
nearly a dozen federal agen-
cies to “dominate” protesters.
Right now, it is most impor-
tant to stay safe and keep
friends, community members
and loved ones safe as well.
However, The Michigan Daily
Editorial Board understands
the boundless difficulties of
doing just that when our coun-
try is fighting both the COVID-
19 pandemic and racism. The
fact that Black communities
are having to gather in large
numbers during a pandemic to
protest their right to stay alive,
all the while being dispropor-
tionately disposed to having
higher rates of non-communi-
cable diseases is not lost on us.
This is why we, as an editorial
board, encourage resourceful,
respectful and safe protesting.
Because of the pandemic,
many individuals who would
normally opt to practice activ-
ism in person at protests are not
able to. This may be the result
of immunocompromised fam-
ily members, personal health
reasons, working essential jobs,
etc. If this is the case, there are
many ways to protest unjust,
racially
oppressive
systems
from home. Considering donat-
ing to bailout funds for protest-
ers who have been arrested,
boycotting
organizations
or
businesses that continue to
perpetuate racism or exploit
Black
creators,
researching
ways to stop offering funds to
local policing agencies while
simultaneously
supporting
Black businesses are some of
the first steps one could make.
Social media right now is
a huge platform for activism,
information and resources. It
is imperative, however, to uti-
lize these platforms to the best
of our abilities. This includes
active interactions with the
media while trying to edu-
cate yourself and/or others
about current events and how
we can move forward. It is
very easy to be passive when
dealing
with
social
media
activism, a term designated
“slacktivism,”
which
can,
unfortunately,
block
access
to important, helpful infor-
mation. Consider the recent
event
of
#blackouttuesday,
where millions of Instagram
users reposted a black square
with the hashtags #blacklives-
matter, #blm or the afore-
mentioned
#blackouttuesday.
EASHETA SHAH | COLUMN
Back to school, not to normal
Easheta Shah can be reached at
shaheash@umich.edu.
ZACK BLUMBERG | CONTRIBUTOR
How COVID-19 exposed America’s failing values
From The Daily: The history of
policing and the power of protesting
O
n Monday, May 25, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white
Minneapolis police officer. This incident was a final breaking
point and has galvanized outrage from communities all over the
country, sparking protests and calls for justice across the United States.
The unjust death of Floyd is not an isolated incident by any means, nor
is it unprecedented, nor should it be a surprise to anyone who has access
to news and media outlets — this is a tale as old as time, one that has
happened to an unfathomable number of intersectional Black citizens.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
WHAT’S YOUR
REASON?
When we all closely follow public health guidelines, it slows
the spread of COVID-19 — protecting those who need it most
and giving researchers time to find the treatments we need.
Together, we will make a difference.
campusblueprint.umich.edu/care
TAKING CARE OF MAIZE&BLUE
“It’s important we work together
to keep our campus safe.”
JENSEN, STUDENT
Monday, August 31, 2020 — 11
Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Zack Blumberg is a junior in
the College of Literature, Science
& the Arts and can be reached at
zblumber@umich.edu.