The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
8 — Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Well, here we are again. I
can’t say I’m surprised; I don’t
even think I’m disappointed.
Deep down, I knew it was only
a matter of time before more of
the National Football League’s
(NFL) corruption would come
to light to prove, yet again, that
no matter how many helmets
they print “end racism” on, the
NFL is, without a doubt, racist. I
was hopeful that the next piece
I would write about the NFL
would be to praise some of my
current favorite quarterbacks
that have completely changed
the game. Patrick Mahomes,
Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray
and Russell Wilson, I’m talking
to you. Unfortunately, another
instance of systemic racism in
the NFL has been brought to
light with a recent lawsuit by for-
mer Miami Dolphins head coach
Brian Flores.
Flores has sued the NFL claim-
ing the organization was racially
discriminatory in its head coach
hiring process. He alleges that
the owner of the Dolphins, Uni-
versity of Michigan’s own Ste-
phen M. Ross, of the Ross School
of
Business,
offered
Flores
money to purposely lose games
in the 2019 season. Having more
losses than wins would better
the Dolphins’ chances of acquir-
ing a higher draft pick, allowing
them to select the best upcom-
ing player for the future of their
franchise. However, Flores was
focused on having a successful
season by winning, not by manip-
ulating the future NFL draft.
Every time Flores and his team
would win games, the Dolphins’
general manager would express
anger towards him, claiming
that he was hurting the team.
With his commitment to the cur-
rent success of his team, Flores
recorded back-to-back winning
seasons with the Dolphins for
the first time since 2003. Despite
the immense success he brought
this organization, on Jan. 10, the
Dolphins fired him, on grounds
of being considered difficult to
work with.
Then, as he began seeking a
new job as a head coach, Flores
attended interviews with the
New York Giants and the Den-
ver Broncos. Flores had a Zoom
interview with the Giants and
was given a date for an in-person
interview in the near future.
However, before this interview,
he was informed through a text
by one of his old colleagues that
someone else had received the
position. The NFL has a rule
called the Rooney Rule, which
states that its teams are required
to hold an in-person interview
with at least one minority or
female candidate for a general
manager or head coach posi-
tion. This means they were still
required to hold the interview,
only for him to find out that
someone else was offered the
position a day later, implying
that the decision had already
been finalized before Flores’s
interview. Flores states he had a
similar experience in interviews
with the hiring managers of the
Denver Broncos, further alleging
that the interviewees arrived an
hour late and were hungover.
In addition to his success-
ful seasons with the Dolphins,
Flores has had a triumphant
coaching career with other NFL
teams. As an assistant coach,
defensive coordinator and safe-
ties coach for the New England
Patriots, he has won four Super
Bowl titles. Many of the players
he has coached rave about how
supportive and compassionate
he was to them. His past col-
leagues have even stated that he
is dedicated “to doing things the
right way. He never cut corners…
He’s always been a guy that’s
been level, never too high, never
too low. That’s what made him
a great player, and that’s what’s
making him a great coach.”
Flores has an incredible résumé
and numerous accolades to his
name; having recently been fired
from the Dolphins being denied
these two head coaching posi-
tions is questionable consider-
ing the large impact he has had
on the organization in his time
there and the potential he brings
for its future.
The NFL has a long history
of racial discrimination against
Black coaches. The fact that the
Rooney Rule exists just to check
a box to say that a marginalized
individual was taken into con-
sideration shows its corruption.
Flores having been fired because
he was labeled difficult to work
with, a common way of devalu-
ing Black people in professional
settings, shows the NFL’s dis-
criminatory ways. I hope he is
given the justice he deserves.
The NFL is long overdue in
enacting actual systemic change
and owning up to its apparent
discrimination. But instead of
focusing solely on all the ways
this institution is corrupt, I want
to now call attention to some of
the amazing and talented Black
coaches in NFL history and pres-
ent day.
Hue Jackson is a former coach
of the Cleveland Browns who had
an impressive coaching career.
As a testament to this, Jackson
won the 2015 NFL Assistant
Coach of the Year award and has
played an integral role in the suc-
cess of franchises he has been a
part of. Former colleagues praise
him for his industrious mentality
and overall commitment to play-
er development. However, Jack-
son claims to have had the same
experience as Flores in his time
with the Browns. The Browns
offered him money to lose games
and were successful in their goal
of acquiring high draft picks;
but Jackson was fired from his
position in the 2019 season. He
now serves as the head coach of
Grambling State’s football team.
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Head
Coach, Mike Tomlin, has given
this
organization
consistent
success in his 15 seasons with
the Steelers. Tomlin made his-
tory in the NFL this most recent
season by setting the record for
the most consecutive non-losing
seasons at the beginning of a
coaching career. He has seven
American Football Conference
(AFC) North Division titles, two
AFC titles, has had nine playoff
appearances and is the youngest
coach to win a Super Bowl. He is
one of the longest-tenured active
head coaches in the NFL. Tom-
lin is praised by his players and
fellow NFL coaches for how well
he controls and commands his
team. Mike Tomlin still remains
the head coach of the Steelers.
As a Lions fan, I have a soft
spot for Jim Caldwell. Though
there has not been much to cel-
ebrate in Lions history, Caldwell
gave Detroit hope for a brighter
future during his time here as
a head coach. At the beginning
of his career with the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, he trained its
quarterback,
Brad
Johnson,
and in turn, Johnson broke
team records for passing yards,
completions and attempts, help-
ing the team to finish with a
winning season and a National
Football Conference Wild Card
spot. He served as part of the
coaching staff for seven years
with the Indianapolis Colts, and
head coach for another three
years. In nine of these seasons,
the Colts set records by appear-
ing in nine consecutive playoff
appearances in which they won
six AFC South titles and made
it to two Super Bowls, winning
one. Later, serving as an offen-
sive coordinator for the Balti-
more Ravens, Caldwell led the
team to a Super Bowl win. Final-
ly, in his time with the Detroit
Lions, the defense ranked sec-
ond in the NFL in total defense
in 2014, making it one of its best
defensive teams in Lions history.
He was also the Lions’ first non-
interim coach to leave the team
with a winning record since the
1967-72 coach, Joe Schmidt, with
two playoff seasons. He was
fired from the Lions in 2017 on
grounds of not being successful
enough against higher-ranked
teams for the then general man-
ager, Bob Quinn. Jim Caldwell
was the Lions’ most successful
coach in almost 30 years. Two
coaches have since gone on to
take his place, but they have
failed to even reach Caldwell in
his success.
I love clothes. My night-time
routine involves plugging music
into my ear and muting out all
my thoughts because at the
end of a long and stressful day
of classes, I get to unwind and
focus on creating my next day’s
outfit. At the end of a long day,
what I want to focus on most are
the clothes in my closet. I spend
a few intimate moments curat-
ing what I want to wear and how
I want to wear it. I want to look
good for me, myself and I.
Today, my fashion inspira-
tion comes from the rappers
I listen to, the skateboarders I
keep up with, the N.B.A play-
ers I imitate and Mexican L.A.
street style. Artists like Kanye
West, Tyler, the Creator, Frank
Ocean, skaters like Louie Lopez
and Sean Pablo and athletes like
Kevin Durant put together out-
fits that make them shine bright.
Each has a unique and signature
style, inspiring me to curate my
own. There’s a tension, however,
between being truly unique and
conforming to the trends of soci-
ety.
Over the years, I’m sure
you’ve come across the “Aes-
thetic Starter Pack” meme. It’s a
collection of clothing pieces that
are associated with a particular
type of person. It’s interesting to
see how people categorize them-
selves, others and their person-
alities based on a particular set
of clothing. When I go out to
skate, I put on my beanie, button
up shirt and loose flowing pair of
pants to pull off a classic skater
boy look. It’s fun and easy, but I
want to push myself to not fall for
the trends too heavily. Though
thrifting, I’m able to experiment
with my clothes and avoid cur-
rent trends by acquiring time-
less pieces. Thrifting allows me
to enter my own fashion world
and find my own style in a finan-
cially stable and sustainable way.
I’m creating my own collection
of clothes that speak to me. I
find confidence in who I am by
what I wear, and finding my own
style fuels an ongoing journey of
authenticity. When I look good
and feel good about myself, I can
feel better on my skateboard or
on the basketball court.
When I am thrifting, my
eyes are constantly adjusting,
moving from left to right as my
fingers comb the clothing racks
in search of my next purchase.
It takes time, but I search for
pieces that call to me. It could
be a smaller fitting shirt that
complements my skinny frame
or an oversized dress shirt that
drapes over my arms. I’m always
looking for polos of all different
shapes and sizes or pants that
are baggy enough to cuff and fit
nicely over my sneakers. Thrift-
ing appeals to me because you
can become the owner of a piece
that is one of a kind. Thrift stores
are not like the stores at malls,
where there are hundreds of
shirts in all sizes with the same
graphic. These clothes come
from dusty basements and can
be generation-long hand-me-
downs. And, if someone doesn’t
love or want their piece of cloth-
ing, I’m able to take it in and care
for it.
One particular piece of cloth-
ing that I care deeply for came
from the city of Detroit. When I
lived in Detroit this past summer,
I explored the city and visited
all the thrift stores and vintage
shops to find my next catch. I
learned about the city’s history
and gained a greater apprecia-
tion for its culture. Detroit loves
its sports teams, with the Detroit
Pistons playing such an impor-
tant role in the city’s culture.
The Pistons are three-time
world champions. From the
Bad Boy Pistons winning two
championships in the late 80s
to beating the Shaq and Kobe
duo in 2004, Detroiters love the
Pistons and living in Detroit
made me become a bigger fan of
the team. On weekends when I
wasn’t working at my internship,
I would bike down to Tolan Park
and play basketball on a court
designed with Pistons decals. I
would join pick up games with
the people from the city and play
for hours. I was playing basket-
ball in Detroit while listening
to some of my favorite Detroit
artists like Baby Tron and Flint
rappers like Rio Da Yung Og.
My love for the city, and the Pis-
tons, made me want to thrift and
find vintage Pistons pieces, so I
embarked on a search.
A few blocks from Tolan Park
is Eastern Market. This farm-
ers market is filled with food
vendors on Saturdays, but on
Sundays, the sheds become a
space for vendors to sell their
art, clothes, jewelry and more.
One vendor, Brandon’s Vintage
Basement, had my attention the
moment I laid my eyes on the
clothes racks stuffed with vin-
tage Detroit sports teams shirts.
Vintage tees can be expensive
— ranging from $50-$200 —
but I was always aware of my
budget. I kept drifting back and
forth from this stand through-
out the day, finding myself star-
ing at the shirts on the rack and
debating if I should purchase a
Detroit Pistons shirt. I eventu-
ally had to ask myself, ‘when will
I ever be living in Detroit, on my
own, spending the summer in
the city?’ My summer in Detroit
would be coming to an end, and I
needed something to remember
it by. I finally purchased a black
shirt with the classic Pistons
logo from the 90s, even though
it was more pricey than usual,
because I knew that I would love
and wear that shirt until it wore
down to its final thread. And far
later that summer, I also found a
championship hat from the ‘04
Pistons title run. When I bought
this hat, I knew that I was paying
for a quality hat that, to me, had
a deeply sacred and historical
meaning.
1. What you need: flour, yeast, water,
salt and olive oil. Focaccia is a no-brain-
er for beginner bakers. It’s the perfect
bread for college students who commute
back and forth between classes and club
meetings. The yeast respiration allows
the dough to rise in the fridge overnight,
without excessive kneading or complica-
tions.
2. My mother says only food sticks in
my memory. Her secret noodle recipe
which became a go-to whenever we were
too lazy to cook. The individual drops of
rice swimming in the porridge for my sick
days as a child, with a perfect consistency
achieved from being boiled on low heat
for hours. The vegetarian bao, bursting
with bok choy, shiitake mushrooms and
tofu, that she and I always picked up on
Friday afternoons in Shanghai. She hates
that I forget to bring my homework to
school, but never the packed lunch. She
hates that I forget she’s a light sleeper
when I lurch into the kitchen at 2 a.m.,
shoving Kirkland Mixed Nuts down my
throat until my heartbeat slows.
3. Measure yeast and mix it with room-
temperature water. Using warm water
nurtures the yeast and helps it grow.
4. My mother’s birthplace is named
after its proximity to water. The area of
the country is, which is “South of the
River” in Chinese. The women of
were known to be honey-voiced, moon-
skinned with hips that homed oceans
and swayed liked fishtails. We know this
because male poets wrote about them
for dynasties. My mother was raised by
her grandparents on sticky rice rolls that
wrapped youtiao, marinated egg, zhacai,
yellow croaker noodles and shengjianbao.
Later, she moved to Beijing for schooling,
where her parents worked as aerospace
engineers.
5. Pour the yeast water into the salt-
and-flour mixture. Mix gently until a
mass forms in your bowl. Pour the olive
oil and begin kneading.
6. is the abbreviation of my father’s
home province, named after the state of
from the Spring and Autumn period.
But the only seasons I remember of his
city are the summers and winters, when
my family visits for the holiday. My father
comes from the land of black vinegar,
knife-sliced noodles, millet porridge and
coal mines. My mother told me that he
never tasted fish before the age of 12. The
eldest son in a peasant family of six, my
father was his family’s pride for attending
a top college in the capital. After gradu-
ation, he drifted toward the seaside and
settled there, where he gradually grew
accustomed to the breakfast xiaolongbao
and plum rain.
7. Olive oil should alleviate the sticki-
ness of the dough. Once all the flour is
properly incorporated into the mixture,
you are more than halfway there. Cover
the bowl and leave it in the fridge for at
least 12 hours.
8. Even after my parents got married,
my grandparents never approved of my
father. They say he eats like someone
who starved to death in their past life.
He slurps up noodles like a hurricane
demolishing a village and gulps down his
rice with the force of a ghost general who
can make things disappear into thin air.
They trace his crude manners to his peas-
ant lineage, saying no matter how smart
a monkey is, it can only paddle in the
ocean. My grandparents always called me
a fat Shanxi girl, because I bear no resem-
blance to the women of . Whenever
I ask for more rice, they take my bowl to
refill it. But the bowl that appears before
me is only half-full, with a familiar warn-
ing that crawls up behind my ear: “Don’t
eat too much, or else you will be like your
father.”
Bala hasad, Yasmine, say Smallah so you
don’t give ayn”
This is a phrase that has been regurgitat-
ed to me throughout my life. When compli-
menting family and friends, I have always
been careful to not cast the “evil eye” onto
someone. Whether I have been conscious
of it or not, the evil eye has played a signifi-
cant role in how I talk to and coexist with
others.
The evil eye: a sacred phenomenon and
the superstition of all superstitions. In my
religion and culture, the evil eye is a widely
held belief. It is a malicious gaze cast by an
envious person, preventing one from good
health and fortune by sending negativity
their way. In order to be protected from
hasad, or evil, various cultures have pro-
moted wearing or displaying the symbol
as a form of defense. Over the course of
my life, my home was littered with evil eye
wall decor and I was constantly gifted evil
eye jewelry by my loved ones. I was taught
to bless others after giving compliments
so as not to cast evil or bad fortune upon
them. If my evil eye decor or jewelry were
to break, I’d quickly become suspicious;
legend has it that if your evil eye emblem
breaks, it has successfully protected you
from someone’s ayn or harmful “eye”. I
would wonder, “has it really served its pur-
pose?” After, I’d promptly replace my pen-
dant, whether that be a necklace, anklet,
bracelet, ring or keychain. Believing in this
protection from evil almost became second
nature to me, treating the evil eye as not
only a superstition, but a way of thinking
that translated into my everyday life. This
easily discernible symbol, composed of a
royal blue outer circle, white midsection
pupil and small black iris, is more than just
a colorful work of art. However, over time,
the evil eye has lost its historical signifi-
cance, becoming more of a fashion fad than
religious and cultural hieroglyph.
The evil eye stems far beyond popular
culture. Dating as early as 5,000 years ago,
the first-ever recorded evil eye was marked
on clay tablets by the Mesopotamians.
Intersecting both culture and religion,
wariness of evil is found in the scriptures
of various religions — Islam, Judaism, Bud-
dhism and Hinduism (among others) —
while also dating back to ancient Greek and
Roman cultures. From the beginning of
civilization, humans have feared a harmful
gaze, doing whatever was in their power to
protect themselves and their families from
evil.
As a practicing Muslim, the evil eye
has always been something I am wary of.
I’ve been taught to be careful of the lan-
guage used when complimenting someone,
almost always blessing them afterward
with Islamic reaffirmations such as
Mashallah and Smallah, in order to pre-
vent their good fortune from being jinxed.
Throughout my life, I have gifted friends
and family with variations of evil eye pen-
dants as protection from evil. As I write
this, I am wearing an evil eye necklace and
gold bracelet with multiple evil eye pen-
dants interlinked together. To some, this
symbol ignorantly serves as a cute jewelry
piece — an uninformed infatuation with
cultural symbols without actually bearing
the weight of carrying that culture. For
those who practice the culture it originat-
ed from, the evil eye serves as a protective
measure from harm they may not be aware
of. In Islamic culture, the Hand of Fatima
and the evil eye symbol are equal signs of
protection that have reappeared hand in
hand throughout my life. I often see new
parents pin an evil eye charm to their new-
born child’s clothes, while others hang the
Hand of Fatima or evil eye symbol in their
new homes or business establishments.
Some may even choose to dangle the sym-
bol from the rearview mirror of their car.
Protection from hasad or “destructive
envy” is a recurring theme in Islamic cul-
ture. Both religiously and culturally, the
evil eye holds tremendous weight for those
who believe in it, serving as much more
than a trendy wardrobe fad, later to be
found in a pile of other short-lived “fash-
ion must-haves” in the back of someone’s
Here we go again: examining the NFL’s anti-Black discriminatory hiring processes
I love my clothes… but it’s complicated
Focaccia recipe from a Chinese
daughter
Younji Jin/TMD
Design by Maya Sheth
MARIA PATTON
MiC Columnist
JUAN P
ABLO ANGEL MARCOS
MiC Columnist
LOLA YANG
MiC Columnist
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
YASMINE ELKHARSSA
MiC Columnist
Evil eye: cultural emblem or fashion fad?