Wednesday, October 7, 2020 — 7
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan In Color

The very existence of the United 

States of America presents itself 
as perhaps one of the most con-
founding paradoxes. A country that 
claims a perfectly veneered founda-
tion of life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness, interstate highways 
tarred with gold and a guarantee of 
the ever-fleeting American dream. 
This is a country that is simultane-
ously founded on the backs of Indig-
enous peoples, immigrants and 
Black Americans — on marginal-
ized communities whose contribu-
tions constitute the leather binding 
that establishes this nation’s nar-
rative. While the pages of this nar-
rative are slick with their blood, 
sweat, and tears, I’ve found that the 
complexities and intricacies of their 
history are consistently excluded 
from the story that has come to 
define All-Americana. Nonethe-
less, the majority of U.S. History 
courses I’ve taken seem to accept 
this account as a baseline standard 
in the classroom. This begs the 
question of whether neglecting to 
rawly and honestly teach said com-
munities the jarring truth that this 
nation was once a colonizer state 
— deriving its power from ethnic 
cleansing, the bloody bondages of 
slavery, and widespread imperial-
ism — is a product of pure altruistic 
intent, an attempt to shield our chil-
dren from the harshness of reality. 
Or rather, is this ahistoric failure a 

tragic and deliberate miseducation 
of the masses; a strategic maneu-
ver bred from the knowledge that 
a thorough education serves as the 
unofficial language of revolution, 
capable of deteriorating the power 
that characterizes a modern day 
portrait of America

At the forefront of a growing 

movement towards rectifying the 
falsities that countless Boards of 
Education have deemed a proper 
recollection of American history is 
the African American Integration 
Initiative (AAII), a new student 
organization at the University of 
Michigan. AAII aims to draft state 
legislation that would require 
increased hiring of educators of 
color, an unreserved and forthright 
teaching of African American his-
tory, and racial ethics in order to 
emphasize an essential truth: that 
there is simply no American history 
without African American history. 
I spoke with LSA freshman AAII 
founder, Shelbie Taylor, and LSA 
freshmen team leaders Vicky Wang 
and Monica Khalique to gain a full 
understanding of what led to the 
conception of AAII, its organiza-
tional hierarchy, and how such a 
student organization fits within the 
complex framework of a predomi-
nantly white institution. 

In the wake of George Floyd’s 

murder,riots soon followed. Taylor 
spoke to me about activism fatigue 
and a summer of America on fire.
Taylor tells me she was compelled 
to make a tangible change, to 
drive a new sort of racial reckon-

ing. Much more deeply though, for 
Taylor, the genesis of AAII was not 
only a testament to the reality that 
racism is an early product of igno-
rance and the manifestation of an 
education gone wrong. It was also 
an amendment to a childhood of 
gritted teeth, clenched fists, and 
inky blue lonelinessbecause more 
often than not, Taylor had lived a 
grating existence of being the only 
Black student on any given day in 
any given room. 

AAII is a well-oiled, complex 

machine, consisting of three parts: 
Data Gathering, Networking and 
Allyship, and Marketing and Public 
Image. Taylor leads Data Gathering, 
in which members collect budding 
statistical data, surveying students 
on the extent of their knowledge 
surrounding 
African 
American 

history. The goal is to build an all 
encompassing curriculum tailored 
to their responses. Taylor tells me 
she expects these results to serve 
as tangible proof of an education 
system in need of dire reform. 
Monica Khalique is team leader of 
Networking and Allyship, the sec-
tor of AAII dedicated to reaching 
out to professors and administra-
tors at the university with the intent 
of establishing a presence and 
gaining endorsement and mentor-
ship opportunities. Vicky Wang is 
co-leader of the Marketing/Public 
Image team, which aims to amplify 
AAII’s presence as a student orga-
nization on campus through social 
media and campaign initiatives. A 
typical AAII meeting consists not 

only of brute groundwork through 
data gathering and analysis, it also 
serves as a safe haven for many of 
those shunned by the dividing lines 
of America. It is a space to discuss 
the disturbing stratifications of 
race and occurences of racism that 
have been shoved in the backs of 
filing cabinets and under yellowed 
manila folders. Moreover, Wang 
and Khalique speak of a life riddled 
with microaggressions and a lack of 
representation. Both describe grap-
pling with the difficult task of defin-
ing what it means to be a woman 
of color amid the perils of a world 
that seemingly wasn’t designed 
for them. Wang tells me that even 
in Ann Arbor, a community that 
lauds itself as one of the epicenters 
of social change and progression 
in the midwest, her run-ins with 
prejudice are still potent. Only here, 
though, they are slyly leveled under 
the table, presenting themselves in 
shifty eyes, altered body language 
and ultimately a crippling sense of 
discomfort in every corner of the 
city. 

Looking forward, AAII aims to 

go beyond drafting a new curricu-
lum and passing state legislation, 
solidifying its place at the Uni-
versity of Michigan as a student 
organization that serves as the 
next generation’s counselor, men-
tor and teacher that Taylor, Wang, 
Khalique, and young kids like them 
had never had. AAII and similar 
alliances are crucial in rearing the 
broken and racially skewed Ameri-
can education system. 

Help! My name is gone

and I can’t breathe
Let me stand, please!

Shh…

Let us stand

Now that he is dead let’s degrade

His only human mistakes
Let’s put him on a pedestal 

And play God

Recount his sins

Tattoo his broken neck

He shall not see the sacred kingdom

Of white Jesus

If I have anything to do with it

He resisted nearly 500 years of damnation 

and police badges

Let me remind you that law is in my hands

And I ruled the death penalty

But please

don’t praise me yet

There’s only so much I can do

To protect white America
From being taken by slaves.

They’ll be dead before 

judgement day

Or imprisoned for their Black crime.

We are all doing our parts
Take up your MAGA hats

To praise Trump for refusing

To put that n*****’s portrait in our history

And let us race over Black Lives Matter

Leave it sprawled on the streets like roadkill
For Justice is only a white man’s affordance

And our system proves that they 

Never belonged here in the first place

ATAIA TEMPLETON

MiC Contributor

The Deliberate Miseducation of America

 SARAH AKAABOUNE

MiC Columnist

‘500 years of damnation, 

let me stand’

By now, the death of 87-year-

old Supreme Court Justice 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 
18 
has 
reverberated 
across 

hundreds of millions of Ameri-
can homes, leaving many filled 
with anguish, uncertainty and 
concern about the state of the 
highest court in the nation. 
Inducted in 1993 by President 
Bill Clinton, Ginsburg was the 
first Jewish female, and sec-
ond female ever, to serve on 
the Supreme Court. With Gins-
burg’s death and lifetime terms 
for Justices, the Supreme Court 
is at risk of having a partisan 
and ideological unbalance for 
generations to come. Judge 
Amy Coney Barett, President 
Trump’s nomination to replace 
Justice Ginsburg, is almost 
entirely noted to be conserva-
tive on immigration, abortion, 
racial equity and a host of other 
interrelated issues.

While confirmation hearings 

for Judge Barett are set to be 
held in October, today, we can 
mourn the loss of an incredible 
activist. In Jewish tradition, 
the Kaddish, a Jewish prayer 
recited during Jewish prayer 
services and associated with 
death and mourning, is tradi-
tionally recited by immediate 
family members, yet an out-
pouring of grief for Ginsburg 
led to a recitation by hundreds 
on the steps of the Supreme 
Court the Friday of her passing.

In a similar vein, we can all 

take a moment to remember 
Justice Ginsburg, most power-
fully by looking at three of her 
most notable impacts in her 
time on the bench.

A mere three years after 

Ginsburg joined the Supreme 
Court, a 1996 case challenged 
the all-male admissions policy 
at the Virginia Military Insti-
tute, which was at the time one 
of the last remaining all-male 
public undergraduate colleges 
in the country. This all changed 
when Ginsburg came. With her 
leadership, Ginsberg wrote a 
majority opinion ensuring that 
the Equal Protection Clause 
of the 14th Amendment of the 
Constitution was constitution-
ally practiced and the abolish-
ment of the gender-exclusive 
policy at Virginia Military 
Institute. The impact of this 
ruling continues to stand today, 
allowing opportunities for per-
sons of all genders to enter pub-
lic institutions without the fear 
of de jure gender discrimina-
tion on their heels. 

The court, led by Ginsburg, 

would require the state-fund-
ed school to accept women 
for admission as well as an 
enforcement of equal consid-
erations of all genders. In the 
opinion of United States v. Vir-
ginia, Ginsburg wrote “neither 
the goal of producing citizen 
soldiers nor VMI’s implement-
ing methodology is inherently 

unsuitable to women,” leading 
the way for women across the 
country to apply to universities 
they would have never been 
able to in the past. 

Three years after this case 

came the landmark case that 
focused on a strict violation 
of the “integration mandate,” 
which, under the Americans 

with Disabilities Act of 1990 
(ADA), requires state and local 
governments to “administer 
services, programs, and activi-
ties in the most integrated set-
ting appropriate to the needs 
of qualified individuals with 
disabilities.” In this situation, 
two women plaintiffs with 
mental illnesses and develop-

mental disabilities were kept 
confined in the state-run Geor-
gia Regional Hospital for years 
even after being deemed medi-
cally ready to move to a com-
munity-based program.

Ginsburg penned a fiery 

majority opinion that ruled 
in favor of the two women 
and emphasized the extreme 

importance of rights for all per-
sons with disabilities, includ-
ing but not limited to mental, 
developmental 
and 
physical 

disabilities. In her words, Gins-
burg noted that the isolation of 
the two plaintiffs unjustifying-
ly “perpetuates assumptions 
that persons so isolated are 
incapable or unworthy of par-
ticipating in community life.” 
This adherence of the ADA, led 
by Ginsburg, allowed persons 
with disabilities to continue 
living integrated lives in a soci-
ety that is so conditioned to the 
able-bodied individual.

More 
recently, 
in 
2015, 

another landmark case put 
Ginsburg in the history books 
as same-sex marriage became 
a right across all 50 states. 
Ginsburg all her life had been 
a major advocate for LGBTQ+ 
rights 
and 
even 
officiated 

same-sex weddings here and 
there, making this case in par-
ticular of special importance in 
her illustrious career. The case 
revolved again around the 14th 
Amendment and its ability to 
ensure persons rights to equal 
protection and due process, in 
light of state bans in Michi-
gan, Kentucky, Ohio and Ten-
nessee which denied marriage 
between people of the same 
sex.

Though she did not write the 

majority opinion this time, Jus-
tice Anthony Kennedy noted in 
his own majority opinion, “the 
limitation of marriage to oppo-
site-sex couples may long have 
seemed natural and just, but its 
inconsistency with the central 
meaning of the fundamental 
right to marry is now mani-
fest.” This ruling was especial-
ly notable because Ginsburg 
directly called out the regres-
sive attitude of John Bursuch, 
the lawyer representing the 
states, and was able to con-
vince Justice Kennedy to flip, 
overturning his questioning 
of marital tradition. In doing 
so, hundreds of thousands of 
LGBTQ+ Americans are able to 
be married today.

While these cases are three 

out of dozens of cases Justice 
Ginsburg had a positive role 
in, Ginburgs stands for more 
than just her decisions in the 
legal realm. Her long career 
stands as a reminder that quali-
ties that were once deemed as 
undeserving of equal treat-
ment are truly valuable. From 
fighting for gender equality 
and marginalized communities 
whose voices often aren’t heard 
to battling against anti-Sem-
itism, Ginsburg has inspired 
a generation of activists for 
decades to come.

Remembering RBG

1933 - 
2020

 AAKASH RAY

MiC Columnist

JUSTICE GINSBURG VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

