Campus community members
gathered
Monday
morning
to
commence the 2023 University of
Michigan Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther
King
Jr.
Symposium
Memorial Keynote Lecture. Hosted
in Hill Auditorium, The Symposium
was co-sponsored by the Office of
Academic Multicultural Initiatives,
the Ross School of Business and the
Stephen M. Ross Athletic Campus,
and centered around the theme —
“(R)evolution: from Segregation to
Elevation.”
The
event
began
with
an
introduction from Tabbye Chavous,
the University’s vice provost for
equity and inclusion and chief
diversity officer. Chavous spoke
on
University
President
Santa
Ono’s immediate dedication and
commitment
to
social
justice
following
his
appointment
in
October. She added that Ono’s
support for new initiatives such as
the Inclusive History Project, which
documents the University’s history
around race and racism, and larger
community issues is exciting for the
campus as a whole. She said Ono
planned to give remarks, but was
unable to attend due to an illness.
“We wish him a speedy recovery,”
Chavous said. “In his absence, I
would like to recognize his role in
the fight for social justice as a higher
education leader, from his efforts to
support mental health access and
eliminate cultural stigmas to his
reparative and reconciliatory work
for the University and Indigenous
communities.”
Chavous’ remarks were followed
by Laurie McCauley, University
Provost and executive vice president
for academic affairs, who filled in for
Ono. McCauley said she was grateful
for those who made the symposium
possible, and that members of the
University must continue to work
together to build a more equitable,
just and inclusive community.
“We cannot be excellent without
being diverse in the broadest sense,”
McCauley said. “That is why I was
so pleased to see the results of our
DEI 1.0 strategic plan initiative
that we announced last week. The
evaluation made it clear … we’ve
made much progress, even though
there’s still more to do.”
After
McCauley’s
remarks,
Dr. Scott Piper and Daniel A.
Washington, professors of music
in the School of Music, Theatre &
Dance, performed “Black Pilgrims,”
a hip-hop and electronic opera.
“Black
Pilgrims,”
which
was
written by Stephen Rush, another
U-M professor of music, portrays
a conversation between Martin
Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
“(In composing this piece) I took
the words of Dr. King and Malcolm
directly from YouTube interviews,
not them speaking to each other
but interviews, and wrote down the
words very carefully,” Rush said.
“And what you will hear in this case
is the actual words of Martin and
Malcolm.”
Following the performance, the
three keynote speakers delivered
their lectures, starting with Dr.
Aletha Maybank, Chief Health
Equity Officer and Senior Vice
President of the American Medical
Association
(AMA).
Maybank
said Martin Luther King Jr.’s
organizing helped create significant
contributions to the health care
system and overall state of health
in the U.S. She said King published
an article in The Nation in response
to the federal government passing
legislation to provide funds to build
segregated hospitals in Southern
states during John F. Kennedy’s
presidency.
“(Martin Luther King Jr.) felt
the President should do much more
and actually stop grants from going
to states that were not ensuring
desegregated healthcare and (were
not) stopping to deny care to Black
patients,” Maybank said.
According to Maybank, Black
physicians were often excluded from
working in white hospitals during
Martin Luther King Jr.’s time, in
large part due to the AMA’s policies.
“(The AMA) was considered,
and
really
still
is
the
most
powerful healthcare organization
representing physicians,” Maybank
said. “And so what happened at that
time is that, in order to get hospital
privileges, you actually had to be a
member of the AMA, but the AMA
didn’t prevent local affiliates from
excluding Black physicians.”
Maybank said Title XI of the
1964 Civil Rights Act was crucial
in
addressing
segregation
in
medicine, as it stated that any
program receiving federal financial
assistance could not exclude or
deny benefits to anyone based
on race, color or national origin.
Maybank added that the creation
of Medicaid and Medicare brought
federal funding into every medical
institution in the country, leading
to further desegregation of the
industry. While, as Maybank said,
the AMA did not take the necessary
steps to promote desegregation,
the advocacy of Martin Luther
King Jr. and the National Medical
Association, which consists of Black
physicians, pushed health equality
forward.
“(People) typically question why
I am at the AMA with this racist
history in their practices and their
policies,” Maybank said. “So I’d
be remiss not to talk about that … I
operate out of a sense of love — love
for myself, my family, my community
(and) my ancestors, and I fully
believe in inside outside strategies,
covert and overt strategies in
order to create change for social
justice … (working for the AMA)
was an opportunity to leverage the
(organization’s power) for racial
justice at a national level.”
Maybank went on to say the
AMA has made progress through its
actions, such as by issuing an apology
in 2008 for excluding Black doctors
and removing an exhibit celebrating
the father of the AMA, who played
a key role in this exclusion. She said
though there has been a greater
emphasis on health equity in recent
years — in part due to the COVID-
19 pandemic and the Black Lives
Matter Movement — more work is
needed.
“We’re still in a very segregated
healthcare system,” Maybank said.
“It’s illegal, but we’re still in a very
sad, segregated health system.”
The University of Michigan
hosted Vice President Kamala
Harris
at
the
Rackham
Auditorium last Thursday for a
conversation on climate policy and
action. Despite the welcome from
U-M leadership, members of the
campus community were divided
on the implications of Harris’s
visit, as well as whether or not the
University and the White House
could have been more conscious
of the visit’s logistical impact on
the city.
Outside
of
the
auditorium
and throughout the streets of
Ann Arbor, Students Allied for
Freedom and Equality — a U-M
student
organization
focused
on advocating for Palestinian
identities — protested Harris’s
visit.
Engineering
senior
Zaynab
Elkolaly, co-director of activism
for SAFE, said the organization
was motivated to host a protest
by Israel’s recent decision to
ban the public flying of the
Palestinian flag and the Biden-
Harris administration’s policies
on relations with Israel. The
administration
has
continued
the United States’s history of
providing military support for
Israel even while calling for a two-
state solution between Israel and
Palestine. Harris has personally
confirmed her support for Israeli
security and U.S.-Israel relations.
“There
were
policies
in
occupied Palestine, including the
banning of the Palestinian flag,
which prompted us to want to act,
and then Kamala Harris coming
to join us was just the icing on the
cake,” Elkolaly said.
Elkolaly said while she and
other SAFE members believe
many of the topics she addressed
are
important,
they
were
disappointed to see Harris calling
out
environmental
injustices
while still supporting harmful
policies in Israel and Palestine.
“(Harris) was addressing some
very valid points, including how
disadvantaged zip codes are often
the ones most disproportionately
harmed by (climate change),”
Elkolaly said. “She was talking
about a lot of things that we as
individuals and as SAFE agree
with. But if you just look at the
actual policies that she and
her
administration
support,
it’s
completely
contradictory.
You cannot be supporting this
‘woke agenda’ while facilitating
the death of innocent people
overseas.”
LSA junior Jacob Sendra, vice
president of the U-M chapter
of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, was
invited to hear Harris speak.
He said while he and other
CCL members appreciate the
Biden-Harris
administration’s
achievements in climate policy,
their organization was hoping to
hear Harris discuss more concrete
commitments for the future as
well.
“Although we were really happy
that she came to campus and was
able to speak about the climate
crisis and the administration’s
accomplishments in that area, we
feel like there’s a lot more that
needs to be done to adequately
address the crisis,” Sendra said.
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Vol. CXXXII, No. 102
©2023 The Michigan Daily
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M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
University hosts 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium
UMich commemorated King’s legacy by discussing “(R)evolution: from Segregation to Elevation”
CAMPUS LIFE
SAMANTHA RICH
Daily News Editor
Campus reacts to VP
Kamala Harris visit to Ann Arbor
The campus community remains divided over
implications of Harris’s recent trip to Ann Arbor
GOVERNMENT
The Ann Arbor Fire Department
(AAFD) responded to an early-
morning fire on Maynard Street on
Friday. Jeffrey Shafer, Ann Arbor
Police Department sergeant, told
The Michigan Daily, the department
received the 911 call at 6:48 a.m.,
triggering an emergency response.
The fire occurred on commercial
property a block from the University
of Michigan’s Central Campus. The
building, which was completely
destroyed by the blaze, housed two
local businesses — Madras Masala
Indian restaurant and Vape City
smoke shop.
AAFD
chief
Mike
Kennedy
was responding to the fire Friday
afternoon. He told The Daily the
fire was noticed by a passerby and
no one was inside the building at the
time the fire started. Kennedy said
there were no casualties or injuries
to either civilians or first responders.
He said the fire department still
does not know exactly where or how
the fire started, though he said the
extent of the damage would likely
result in the entire property being
demolished.
“We’ve been here since 7 (a.m.)
— the roof has collapsed and so
that’s what we’re dealing with now,”
Kennedy said. “We’re tearing up the
street to shut off the gas lines and
then once the gas line shuts off we’re
going to bring in an excavator and
start tearing the building apart for
hotspots.”
Kennedy said the fire department
initially
had
to
delay
their
investigation of the fire because
the department was concerned
about flammable materials, such as
e-cigarette batteries, inside Vape
City.
“The vape shop has a lot of highly
combustible material in it,” Kennedy
said. “There was an incident in L.A.
two years ago where six firefighters
were critically injured, so we backed
out and went on the defensive.”
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Ann Arbor Fire Department
responds to fire on Maynard Street
AAFD responded to an early-morning fire in a
commercial building on Maynard Street Friday
NEWS BRIEFS
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
JULIANNE YOON/Daily
LEVI HERRON
Daily News Reporter
NADIA TAECKENS
Daily News Reporter
JENNA HICKEY/Daily