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Wednesday, April 21, 2021 — 3
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MichiganDaily.com
RESEARCH
LSA professor leads Virulent Hate Project
Dr. Melissa May Borja aims to track anti-Asian hate incidents, community resistance efforts
Dr.
Melissa
May
Borja,
University of Michigan assistant
professor of American Culture,
founded Virulent Hate, a project
which aims to raise awareness
around the surge in anti-Asian
racism
during
the
COVID-19
pandemic as well as document
resistance
to
hate
incidents.
Founded in April 2020, the project
tracks anti-Asian hate crimes
reported in news media across the
country and focuses on identifying
trends.
The project is a collaboration
between
student
researchers
across the country as well as
the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting
Center and is funded by U-M
Poverty Solutions, which provides
aid to research initiatives that
aim to inform policymakers and
community organizations. So far,
the team has parsed through 4,600
articles and found around 700
overall instances of hate against
Asian Americans.
According to Borja, a general
trend in anti-Asian hate incidents
is that they disproportionately
target women. In Virulent Hate’s
own research from 2020, around
61% of anti-Asian hate incidents
were experienced by women. The
shootings at Asian-owned spas
in the Atlanta area last month
sparked wider discussion about the
impact of hate crimes against Asian
Americans and the fetishization
of Asian women, since six of the
eight victims were women of Asian
descent.
Borja said she was particularly
surprised by the number of hate
incidents occurring during the
pandemic, even when lockdowns
or other restrictions were in place.
“We saw a peak in incidents
occurring in March and April of
2020 and it was very shocking
to us that these incidents were
happening when most of us were
trying to stay home and reduce
how much we go outside,” Borja
said.
Borja said a distinct part of the
team’s research is looking at the
different forms of hate experienced
by Asians and Asian Americans,
including various forms of non-
physical
harassment
and
the
impact of stigmatizing rhetoric
used by politicians.
“We are paying attention to
forms of non-verbal harassment
and
verbal
harassment,
not
just
physical
harassment
and
violence,” Borja said. “Research
suggests, pretty compellingly, that
it (stigmatizing rhetoric used by
politicians) contributes to harm
and racist backlash against Asian
Americans.”
LSA freshman Krystal Huang, a
student researcher on the project,
said Virulent Hate’s goal is to
publish information about Asian
hate crimes around the country.
This information is essential,
Huang said, to informing people
about the ongoing racism targeting
Asian Americans.
Huang
said
when
political
leaders
like
former
President
Donald Trump use phrases like
“China virus” and “kung flu”, this
only fuels unfounded hate toward
Asians.
“A lot of people don’t recognize
the discrimination Asians face
every day,” Huang said. “It is
normalized through the model
minority myth. We (at Virulent
Hate) really are putting a spotlight
on the rise in anti-Asian hate
incidents.”
U-M alum Jacob Gibson, a
researcher on the project, said
Virulent Hate initially aimed to
document the rise in anti-Asian
hate incidents due to the pandemic,
but he said he now expects to see a
continued rise in hate crimes even
as people perceive the pandemic to
be coming to an end.
Gibson said the project also
tracks various forms of resistance
to anti-Asian crimes across the
nation,
specifically
the
way
activists and organizers respond
to these incidents in their local
communities. Gibson said this
data is critical to informing local
activism and raising awareness.
“We have the distinct goal
of
empowering
community
organizers,” Gibson said. “We
want to use the information we
have and share it as widely as we
can so that organizers and activists
can look at national trends and
compare them with their local
conditions.”
Gibson also said the project
places a focus on the stories
of victims and the impact of
anti-Asian
hate
incidents
on
local communities rather than
focusing on the perpetrators. By
using resources available to the
public, the project helps to tell
these stories while respecting the
privacy of victims.
“By using publicly available
resources, we are not unearthing
trauma that someone might wish
to protect, but (the project) also
offers a chance to center those
stories,” Gibson said. “So often it’s
the perpetrators that get the news
headlines. By collecting the stories
of individuals, there’s a chance to
flip that narrative.”
Borja said she hopes Virulent
Hate’s research findings are used
to shape public policy, inform
the
activism
of
community
organizations
and
improve
people’s understandings of anti-
Asian hate incidents.
“Our hope is that we can take
this information and share it with
a scholarly audience through
journal articles and reports, but we
also think it is really important for
the broader public to understand
this research, too,” Borja said.
“My hope is that by providing this
information we can help educators,
local activists and public officials
understand the way anti-Asian
racism is being expressed in their
particular locale.”
Virulent
Hate
will
be
publishing a general report about
the information gathered and an
interactive map depicting anti-
Asian hate incidents across the
country on May 1.
Daily Staff Reporter Navya
Gupta can be reached at itznavya@
umich.edu.
NAVYA GUPTA
Daily Staff Reporter
Design by Erin Shi
CAMPUS LIFE
You can have the best plans,
but sometimes you have to
change”: VP of Student Life
reflects on past year
Martino Harmon talks fall semester plans, vaccinations
Before the Winter 2021 semester
comes to an end, The Michigan
Daily
interviewed
Martino
Harmon, vice president of Student
Life, about fall semester plans,
housing, Fraternity & Sorority Life
and vaccinations. This interview
has been edited and condensed for
clarity.
TMD: Last semester, students
were essentially kicked out of the
dorms, and some scrambled to
find off-campus housing. How
will you ensure that students
living in residence halls in
the fall will have an improved
experience? How will you ensure
that 50% of the students living in
the dorms will be vaccinated in
the fall semester?
MH: We’re really optimistic
about the future. Our plans for
the fall — which are definitely
rooted
in
encouraging
a
large number of students to be
vaccinated — will give Housing
the opportunity to have more
safe
face-to-face
in-person
interactions
in
addition
to
maximizing some of the virtual
interactions that we’ve learned.
For example, the lounges and
the study spaces will be more
accessible. They may be by
reservation, but depending on the
state of vaccinations, we may be
able to have more flexibility.
Also, providing vaccinations
and testing for those that may
not be vaccinated will help the
Res Staff members feel safe and
engage
more
with
students.
There will always be exceptions,
but we’re strongly encouraging
students to be vaccinated, and
we’ll be talking about more
and better ways to do that.
The Campus Health Response
Committee
is
working
on
systems that will allow students
to report their vaccinations over
the summer. The key is really
encouraging
students
to
get
vaccinated as supplies continue
to ramp up.
TMD:
Will
students
on
campus who are fully vaccinated
have
different
guidelines
to
follow than students who are not
fully vaccinated?
MH: Some of those details
are still unfolding based on
(Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention) guidelines. So for
example, we expect to have some
safety measures in place, like
masking and social distancing.
We also don’t know if a booster
vaccination will be needed at
some point during the academic
year, and that will impact some of
the safety measures. There may be
some safety measures that can be
relaxed that will be determined
by CDC and Washtenaw County
public health guidelines.
TMD: The Daily has written
multiple
stories
regarding
students’ mental health during
the pandemic, especially how
virtual classes and COVID-19
are affecting the campus climate.
How do you plan to address this
and
improve
the
well-being
of students now and moving
forward?
MH:
Counseling
and
Psychological
Services,
Wolverine
Wellness,
Services
for Students with Disabilities
and (University Health Service)
are working collaboratively to
deliver a more holistic approach.
I’ve worked with Provost (Susan)
Collins, and we have appointed a
review committee of people from
academic affairs and Student
Life to look at what we currently
do and how we can improve or
expand access. They have gone
around
various
town
halls,
they’ve engaged with students,
with staff and faculty and got
a lot of feedback on a variety of
different possibilities. They will
present
recommendations
to
the provost and I in May, and I
think we’ll be able to implement
some in the fall. The stress from
virtual work is something we
need to address as a root cause.
To address the issue, we need
to focus on more counseling
and engaging with faculty and
academic planners to see: “How
can we be more aware and
sensitive and plan to minimize
some of those stresses?” If we
only address the symptoms, we’re
really not going to solve the issue.
TMD: Although student life
was difficult due to the virtual
format of this semester, how do
you think that this year went, in
terms of the student experience?
MH: We surveyed students
twice in the fall semester and
had over 9,000 responses. It was
clearly difficult for students to
connect and find things to do,
so I appointed a task force at
Student Life to look at how to
enhance
student
engagement.
The task force really came up
with a number of innovations
like grouping weekly events and
opportunities together in the Top
Picks email sent every Sunday.
We also expanded our cohort
program to reach up to 2,000
first and second-year students,
providing a forum for students
to make connections. We also
launched
a
program
called
Resource Navigators where about
140 volunteers from Student Life
check in with over 2,000 first
and second-year students who
may not be connected to another
established group. It was a tough
year — a tough semester — and
students really are exhausted
from the whole experience. But
our goal was to find ways to help
students engage and connect and
do all that we could do in a safe
way to make the experience as
good as it possibly could be given
the context.
TMD: How much of student
organizations and campus events
do you anticipate will be virtual
versus in-person come the fall?
MH: For Student Life, this
will be the year of transition,
meaning things won’t be 100%
back to normal, but we’ll be
moving towards that. We are
planning and optimistic about
more in-person events, and that
includes student organizations.
We want to give them guidance
on how to have more in-person
events. But, a lot of this revolves
around
students’
willingness
and ability to be vaccinated. As
vaccines are ramping up, we’ll
have more options in terms of
opening things up.
TMD: Fraternity and sorority
life has a sizable presence on
campus and in student life. What
would you like to see change
or continue about FSL here at
Michigan?
MH: I’m really pleased that
the councils’ leaders, which
are
the
four
major
groups
within Fraternity and Sorority
Life, have stepped up during a
difficult and challenging year
and set some guidelines for their
organizations. Self-policing and
safety have been a real challenge
for them during a time when
everyone is exhausted and people
naturally want to socialize, but
those council leaders have done
that.
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
JASMIN LEE,
MARTHA LEWAND &
DOMINICK SOKOTOFF
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporters
The state of Michigan sent a
concurrence letter April 12 to the
Environmental Protection Agency,
officially setting in motion the
federal cleanup process for the
decades-old
1,4-dioxane
plume
contaminating
Ann
Arbor’s
groundwater system.
“As
requested
by
the
communities,
please
reinitiate
assessment of the site for the
(National Priorities List) listing
process,”
the
letter
reads.
“The Michigan Department of
Environment, Great Lakes, and
Energy (EGLE) will work closely
with the USEPA and will also
ensure that the current remedy
continues to protect human health
and remains in compliance with
Michigan law during the NPL
process.”
The plume, known as the
Gelman plume, takes its moniker
from the late Charles Gelman, a
manufacturer
of
micro-porous
filters in Ann Arbor in the 1950s.
The chemical 1,4-dioxane — a
likely carcinogen found to cause
kidney and liver cancer as well as
respiratory complications — was
used in the manufacturing process
and seeped into the ground beneath
the company’s Scio Township
plant. The contamination has since
spread through the Ann Arbor area
toward West Park and branches off
of the Allen Creek drain system
that discharges into the Huron
River.
In December 2020, Ann Arbor,
Washtenaw County, Scio Township
and Ann Arbor Township all sent
letters to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer,
urging
her
to
support
EPA
Superfund cleanup efforts. After
four months, Whitmer approved
EPA cleanup aid, prompting April
12’s concurrence letter sent by the
Department of Environment, Great
Lakes, and Energy.
The concurrence letter comes
one
day
before
community
members and local officials were
planning to travel to Lansing to
demand action from Whitmer on
the steps of the Capitol. The rally
has since been canceled.
The EPA has previously specified
that its involvement in the Gelman
site cleanup will only move forward
if the state approves. Whitmer’s
support will begin the process of
placing the Gelman site on the
National Priorities List, which will
then allow the EPA to step in and
begin the cleanup. To be eligible
for the NPL, the EPA will continue
local and state efforts to collect
data and samples from the Gelman
site before determining cleanup
methods. The eligibility process
would normally take two to three
years, but local efforts to collect
data and samples over years may
shorten that time period, officials
tell The Michigan Daily.
“Thank you Governor Whitmer
for sending the letter to the EPA,”
Ann Arbor City Councilmember
Kathy Griswold, D-Ward 2, wrote
in a tweet April 12. Griswold has
been active in organizing efforts
around a more comprehensive
cleanup of the site.
“I see that the EPA path is more
strategic,” Griswold told The Daily.
“It is going to take a few years
before there’s actual cleanup under
the EPA. But during that time, we’ll
continue to clean up under consent
judgment three, and then we may
have a ruling from Judge Connors,
that will require greater cleanup
and that’s what I’m hoping for.”
U.S.
Rep.
Debbie
Dingell,
D-Mich., also released a statement
April 12 in praise of the progress
toward the Gelman plume being
added to the National Priorities
List.
“For
decades,
the
growing
dioxane plume has been spreading
through Ann Arbor’s groundwater,
posing a concerning threat to our
families
and
the
surrounding
environment,” Dingell’s statement
reads. “Our communities have
worked together to get us to
this point, and I will continue
to work with all federal, state,
and local officials, as well as all
stakeholders involved, to ensure
this contamination is properly
remediated and our public health is
protected long-term.”
In 2016, the city of Ann Arbor
filed a new lawsuit against Gelman
and his company. A settlement
was reached in September 2020,
which detailed a thorough cleanup
protocol,
but
residents
were
skeptical about the ability of local
authorities to oversee and enforce
this cleanup.
Dan Bicknell, an environmental
remediation
professional
who
discovered the Gelman plume
while
completing
research
at
the University of Michigan in
1984, called the idea that local
government
could
compel
a
“resistant polluter” to conduct
these cleanup efforts “not logical”
in a September interview with The
Daily.
While local officials continue to
play out litigation in court — and
are expected to present ideas for a
new cleanup proposal in early May
— the state is now also one step
closer to receiving EPA Superfund
cleanup.
Ann Arbor resident Beth Collins,
secretary of Coalition for Action on
Remediation of Dioxane, told The
Daily in an interview that April
12’s letter will be instrumental in
bringing in the federal aid needed
to strengthen cleanup efforts.
“I’m excited and all of us that
have been wanting this (letter)
for many years are hoping that
this (letter) is the start of a
new partnership between the
state, federal and local units of
government are all stakeholders,”
Collins said.
Previous attempts to introduce
EPA intervention began in 2017,
when the EPA conducted a
preliminary analysis of the Gelman
site after increasing activism from
local community members. The
preliminary
assessment
found
that the Gelman site qualified
“for further investigation and
evaluation in the NPL listing
process
—
however,
former
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder did not
support Superfund intervention.
“I have said before that the
definition of insanity is doing the
same thing over and over again,
expecting
a
different
result,”
Collins said. “Every time (officials)
want to go back to court — I mean
nothing different has happened,
and the plume keeps moving so
you just want something different.
I feel like a lot of people (may be)
apprehensive of the EPA because it
is different, but in my mind, that’s
good. Difference is going to be good
on this site.”
Jason
Morgan,
District
8
commissioner on the Washtenaw
County Board of Commissioners,
told The Daily the state’s letter is
“monumental” given that it starts
a bigger process with the federal
government. Morgan also said
the federal government will be
able to finally hold the polluter
accountable by requiring Gelman
Sciences to pay for the adequate
cleanup measures set by the EPA.
“That’s something we weighed
quite a bit as we were thinking
about our essentially two routes
that we could go to pursue cleanup,”
Morgan said. “The benefit to the
federal approach is that they have
more tools at their disposal. With
the state process, we have a limited
regulatory framework of state law
to work with.”
ANN ARBOR
State sends letter to EPA regarding Gelman plume
Federal cleanup process to begin for for decades-old 1,4-dioxane pollution after years of community demands
KRISTINA ZHENG &
JULIANNA MORANO
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at