2020-06-18

Thursday, June 18, 11, 2020 2020

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

inside

Community asks ‘U’ to recognize Juneteenth

NEWS

#ShutDownStem

School of Education members send open letter to University President Mark Schlissel

STEM and academia strike in solidarity with Black Lives Matter

JASMIN LEE

>> SEE PAGE 2

Summer Managing News Editor

OPINION

Dismantling police Read into the history of policing agencies and what systems of injustice we must correct in America. >> SEE PAGE 4

ARTS

Country music and race The genre has a persistent white supremacy problem that is being addressed. >> SEE PAGE 6

MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Politicizing emotion The sentiment of resentment is presented as a tool for revolution and proper reconciliation. >> SEE PAGE 8

SPORTS

Draft Stories

A look inside Michigan’s 2020 MLB draft class. >> SEE PAGE 10

INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 118 © 2020 The Michigan Daily

NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS/NEWS..........................6 MiC......................................... 8 SPORTS................................ 10

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Chinese grad students face federal restrictions Design by Hibah Chughtai

JULIANNA MORANO Daily Staff Reporter

Chinese students in the U.S. have faced a unique set of challenges amid the pandemic, several of which exceed those of their domestic peers: from dealing with hate speech that wrongfully places blame on Chinese immigrants for the pandemic, to the threat of deportation in light of disruptions to their in-person research and academic pursuits.

For Chinese graduate students in STEM fields, they face additional concerns from the federal government.

On May 29, President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation that restricts certain Chinese students and researchers at the postgraduate and postdoctoral levels from entry to the U.S. on student visas, effective as of June 1. The proclamation specifies a few exceptions, such as undergraduate students, permanent residents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent

residents.

According to the proclamation, these restrictions are a response to China’s “wide-ranging and heavily resourced campaign to acquire sensitive United States technologies and intellectual properties” for use by the People’s Liberation Army. The proclamation claims that this campaign constitutes a threat to both the U.S. economy and national security.

Although affected students and institutions — including the University of Michigan, according to the International Center — await clarifications from the Department of State and Homeland Security on what may constitute an association with the PLA, some students say they already saw these targeted restrictions coming.

A graduate student at the University, who requested anonymity citing fears of retaliation from prospective

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When Education graduate student Alyssa Brandon and Katherine Taylor, manager of communications and special projects at the School of Education, noticed the University of Michigan was not observing June 19 as a holiday, they decided to send an open letter to University President Mark Schlisel asking the University to allow faculty members and staff to officially recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday in the workplace.

Since its release on June 16, the open letter has received over 500 signatures and continues to gain support from staff, students, alumni and other University community members.

“We thought this was such a timely, urgent request,” Brandon said. “Given the daily reminders of brutality and loss faced in the Black community (and) the pain that is (being) experiencing. This is an opportunity for the University to really step up and to offer tangible evidence of its commitment to — not just only Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — but to its Black community members.”

The letter asks the University to “give all regular staff members the option to take paid time off (without having to use vacation or sick time)” on June 19. It also includes a long term request, asking the University to develop plans for continuing to acknowledge Juneteenth in the future.

University Public Affairs did not respond in time for publication.

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, is the day all slaves in Texas were freed in 1865, which signified the freeing of all slaves across the United States.

Juneteenth is known among the Black community as the Black independence day. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed proclamations recognizing Juneteenth since 2019 and the holiday has been officially celebrated in the state of Michigan for 16 years.

Quicken Loans is giving their employees a paid holiday and other companies are recognizing Juneteenth in different ways. Many events are occurring in Ann Arbor on Friday to celebrate Juneteenth as well. The holiday has gained more recognition through the recent protests that have supported the Black Lives Matter movement and stood up against police brutality.

According to Brandon, the School of Education is giving their staff early release to recognize the holiday, but she believes it is important for the whole University to be involved in celebrating Juneteenth.

“You have to think of the University (as not) just a research institution, but it’s an institution that is a member of a larger community that not only serves the Black community, but is served by the Black community,” Brandon said. “It’s also the systems of white supremacy and anti-Blackness and violence (that) impacts us just as they do (at) other organizations (and) other communities. The University is not immune to those patterns. It’s very much entrenched and impacted in them … This timing really presents a very crucial opportunity for the University to step up. It will be such an awesome opportunity to show the care and commitment that (the University has) for the Black community and the University community at large.”

David Humphrey, School of Education diversity and inclusion officer, signed the open letter, saying it was important for him as a Black man to celebrate Juneteenth. He said the University should be able to recognize the holiday for the Black community.

“I thought this was an excellent thing to consider,” Humphrey said. “As a Black man, this is my Independence Day. An opportunity for an institution that I love and is committed to thinking deeply about

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2 NEWS

Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Tens of thousands protest in suburbs Metro-Detroiters march against police brutality CLAIRE HAO & CALDER LEWIS

Daily News Editor and Summer News Editor

Last weekend, The Michigan Daily reporters went to 11 different protests, driving 269 miles and speaking to almost 100 people in 10 cities about why they came out.

Some said it was their first time protesting. Many more said they were used to protests in big cities, but they never expected protests of this magnitude — or even protests in general — in their suburban hometowns. When asked if not before, why now, almost everyone had the same answer: People are tired, and they want change.

This article is the fourth installment of a four-part series on police brutality protests across Metro Detroit over the weekend of June 6 and 7. Read part one here, part two here, and part three here.

Elizabeth Taylor lives in Redford and has a membership with the Livonia Recreation Center.

When she and her family use the rec center, she said multiple people will harass them and come up to them asking for their IDs. Taylor said she was taught not to drive in Livonia and not to come to Livonia unless she has to.

One among thousands protesting police brutality in a city that has been often hostile to her and family, Taylor said she couldn’t help but get emotional.

“When I first got here, I was moved to tears and I tried to hold them back,” Taylor said. “But just to see all of these people, the white people, here with us, I do not know anything about this. I’m not used to white people being on my side. So this is amazing to me.

This is an experience I will never forget in my life.”

Over the weekend, tens of thousands wore masks to march in suburbs throughout Metro Detroit against police brutality, joining millions across the country and around the world in wave after wave of protests sparked by

the killing of George Floyd.

Throughout the latter half of the 1900s, the growth of the suburbs often came at Detroit’s expense, as capital and white residents moved out of the city in droves while Black residents were prevented from following. To this day, Detroit is unique among other metropolitan hubs across the country in that much of the wealth is concentrated in its outlying suburbs rather than in the city itself.

The majority of those arrested in the first several days of Detroit’s protests lived in the suburbs. Through the week, protests began spreading to Detroit’s suburbs, many of which are predominantly white.

Southfield resident Monique Montgomery said her 12-year-old daughter has been upset and traumatized from hearing about police brutality in the news, as she is now “at the age where she gets it.” She said she brought her daughter to the Birmingham protest because she wanted her daughter to see Black and non-Black protesters denouncing racism together.

“I wanted her to see that not everybody feels that way,” Montgomery said. “It’s nice to see the diversity, it’s nice to see that we have allies. I think it’s not just Black people that are sick of it, all people are sick of it. They realize they can’t stay silent if they want change. Their children are growing up in this world too.”

The Daily contacted the Livonia Police Department, but they did not reply in time for publication.

Below are some of the protesters from Sunday on their experiences with racism and what this current moment means to them.

2PM - Birmingham - 91.5 percent white and 2.8 percent Black - $118k median household income Thousands filled the streets of downtown Birmingham, shutting down a portion of Woodward Avenue, walking past pretty boulevards and flooding nearby neighborhoods with chants of “Black Lives Matter.”

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#ShutDownStem demands equality

Design by Christine Jegarl

Academia strikes for Black Lives Matter movement KRISTINA ZHENG Summer News Editor

In an effort to combat systemic racism in the fields of academia, professionals in the academic and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) communities across the country participated in a #ShutDownSTEM, #ShutDownAcademia and #Strike4BlackLives day on June 10.

Over 5,800 members of the STEM and academic community pledged to participate in the strike.

The shutdown also received support from multiple organizations such as Nature and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among others.

Brian Nord, one of the organizers of the strike, is a physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. He wrote in a statement explaining how this movement was more than acknowledging marginalized groups in STEM. Instead, this strike is to call attention to the racial inequities Black scientists and educators face in the workplace and beyond.

“This is not about identifying with a minority or marginalized group or diversity and inclusion,” Nord wrote. “This moment is about Black people and the conditions under which we live and work.

It is about how white supremacy pervades my professional spaces as

well as my life outside of them.”

Tim McKay, professor of physics and astronomy and associate dean for undergraduate education in LSA, participated in the shutdown in hopes of initiating meaningful change in the STEM community.

He said scientists must pay equal attention to both their innovations as well as the implications their work has on supporting racism.

“We need to acknowledge that a field which is not equitable and inclusive cannot be excellent,” McKay said. “Most scientists work hard to become deep experts in the subject matter they study. We must also work hard to understand the role of science in creating race and supporting racism, to find out when and how what we do is still causing harm, and take action to change.”

The day opened opportunities for white and non-Black people of color to educate themselves, take responsibility in creating anti-racist actions moving forward and develop safe and healing spacies for those affected. To McKay, that starts with acknowledging the inequities and prioritizing the dismantling of racism in STEM. “Racial inequities have been well-documented in many areas of science and engineering, including education, hiring and employment, research and publication,” McKay said. “For too long, those of us working in STEM fields have been willing to accept external explanations for these inequities.

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NEWS 3

Espresso Royale Coffee announces permanent closure Local college staple closes locations around the country amid COVID-19 pandemic FRANCESCA DUONG

Summer Managing News Editor

Research program EMBRace to open new place in Detroit

Design by Hibah Chugtai

University helps families handle racial stress through dialogue IULIA DOBRIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race is a research program at the University of Michigan involved with helping Black parents and children confront racial stress through dialogue.

Alum Emma Schmidt, a program coordinator with EMBRace, said the goal of the program is to reduce parent and adolescent racial stress, as well as promote bonding for the families in the program.

“A lot of the work we do centers around racial socialization, which is basically talking to children about what their race means and what the social consequences surrounding race are,” Schmidt said.

The EMBRace program received Institutional Review Board approval in winter 2020 and was set to launch its intervention program in Detroit this summer.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic, EMBRace leaders postponed the program due to restrictions on working directly with Detroit residents.

With the delay and limited ability to do in-person work, research assistants such as Public Health senior Nia Watkins have been doing transcriptions and observational coding of videos from the EMBRace program in Philadelphia, as well as weekly lab meetings.

“The program has been done in other cities, most recently in Philadelphia,” Watkins said. “I know that there’s been a lot of positive responses there; we’re looking at a lot of that data.”

Watkins said her involvement in EMBRace gave her the ability to understand perspectives on current racial tensions from those outside her age group.

“As a member of EMBRace, I’m thinking like how are young kids experiencing this, what are they thinking when they see this and how are their parents talking to them,” Watkins said. “I think I have a broader array of thought looking at these topics, because I just realized that there are younger kids who also have to deal with this and it’s not just me and people my own age.”

The program — which was founded by Dr. Riana Anderson, University researcher and assistant professor of health behavior and health education — is an eight session family program that brings Black parents and their children together for

conversations about race, cultural pride, discrimination and stress management.

Schmidt said the plan for the program is to have families with children between the ages of 10 and 14 meet for an hour and a half each week to engage in conversations surrounding race. These conversations can be facilitated through a variety of techniques such as role playing, debating and art projects.

Schmidt got involved with EMBRace after taking PUBHLTH 308: Black American Health: A Focus on Children, Families, and Communities with Dr. Anderson as an undergrad. “(The class) was mostly based on racial disparities in Detroit, and structural barriers and structural racism,” Schmidt said.

“It was eye-opening for me (that) as a white person, I could be able to use my privilege and power and education and my middle class status to be able to try and help people and try to reduce these barriers that so many people don’t even recognize.”

With the international protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd and prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement in recent weeks, Schmidt said she felt EMBRace’s research has been emphasized.

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After temporarily closing all locations for almost two months in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Espresso Royale Coffee has announced all business will permanently cease, including branch operations, catering and online sales.

“Some would say that a company that goes out of business has failed; we don’t think so,” their website said. “Since 1987, Espresso Royale has served excellent coffee to millions of customers, has provided good work for thousands of people, and has purchased millions of dollars of goods and services from businesses around the country. We think that’s a success.”

LSA sophomore Lucianna Rosania said she was surprised the company was closing, especially since the coffee shop has been around for most of her childhood.

“I was totally shocked when I found out it was closing,” Rosania said. “It hit a lot as an Ann Arbor native because I’ve been going there since I was 6 years old, and my dad is a professor at U of M so I have very fond memories of those locations.”

Besides being integral in the Ann Arbor community, Espresso Royale has also been a long-time campus staple. It was even voted Best Coffee Shop in Ann Arbor in 2014.

Engineering sophomore Zach Eichenberger noted Espresso Royale had a special ambiance that made it better than other coffee shops.

“I always loved going to Espresso Royale,” Eichenberger said. “The atmosphere was really chill. It stood out from all the Starbucks and other (places) because it had more of a cozy atmosphere. It was more personal.”

Conveniently having multiple

locations on campus, the University of Michigan community could often be found holding meet ups and doing homework while sipping a cup of coffee. For LSA sophomore Dominic Coletti, the Espresso Royale on South State Street and South University Avenue was a frequent place to visit both for quality coffee and a place to study.

“I would always go there before all of my exams and just grab a small, hazelnut coffee because their hazelnut was the best out of anybody that I could find,” Coletti said. “I also lived in East Quad, so that was a pretty popular place to go and study for people that just needed to get out of the building but didn’t want to go too far, especially on cold, winter days.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic struck, classes moved online and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Stay Home, Stay Safe order took into effect, many local businesses set up GoFundMe pages to stay afloat.

Many businesses told The Daily they question the future of the local economy and the possibility of reopening.

Unfortunately as the pandemic dragged on, Espresso Royale noted “it became impossible for our company to remain viable.”

Eichenberger said he thinks the absence of the campus community played a large part in Espresso Royale’s closing and noted the misfortune of the loss of the coffee shop.

“Their main source is probably college students, professors, and with everything going online they’re not going to have those people,” Eichenberger said. “I think the University (community) is losing something really special by losing Espresso Royale.”

Summer Managing News Editor Francesca Duong can be reached at fduong@umich.edu

4 OPINION

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FROM THE DAILY

Divest to invest — the reality of dismantling the police

O

n Sunday, June 7, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council acknowledged that the current system of policing is not working and that they intend to “defund and dismantle” the city police department. Council President Lisa Bender stated, “(We need) to listen, especially to our Black leaders, to our communities of color, for whom policing is not working and to really let the solutions lie in our community.” While still in the process of planning exactly what these new, transformative and community-based initiatives may look like, the goal is to implement a model of public safety that actually keeps each community safe.

C

onversations of defunding and dismantling police departments have popped up all over the country, and many are concerned about what exactly this means.

Past attempts at reform, even in Minneapolis, have been evidently ineffective and do not satisfy community demands. Instead of trying to change things from within the system — what reform sought to do — it is more essential to defund and dismantle the policing system that has disproportionately targeted and harassed Black communities for centuries. By divesting and funneling financial resources away from policing agencies, we can instead build and invest in municipal programs that work to fix the underlying challenges in communities — such as poverty, poor education, inadequate housing, food insecurity, drug rehabilitation, mental health problems, etc.

There is reasonable confusion over the true difference between police reform and defunding the police, creating subsequent hesitance over the latter.

When evaluating your own confusion, it’s essential to listen to the voices that have been most impacted by the continuous overabundance of policing and surveillance. Black Lives Matter co-

founder Alicia Garza stated, “When we talk about defunding the police, what we’re saying is invest in the resources that our communities need. So much of policing right now is generated and directed towards quality-of-life issues, homelessness, drug addiction, domestic violence. … But what we do need is increased funding for housing, we need increased funding for education, we need increased funding for quality of life of communities who are overpoliced and over-surveilled.”

When trying to disrupt a system that has been maintained through different mediums since slavery, we must have a mutual understanding of what we are hoping to disrupt and of what our ultimate end goal should look like. Many activists have advocated for reforming the police departments; others, for a defunding model that would strive to divest large funds from national police departments and equitably invest that money into community services.

However, we have seen, with a prime example being the Minneapolis Police Department, that reforms are not successful. TIME reports that “the same reforms were recommended time and again over the past two decades in the MPD to increase accountability, curb

use-of-force violations and build up community trust — with seemingly little implementation.” A recent movement called #8cantwait advocates for banning unnecessary measures of violence, for requiring police officers to exhaust all alternatives before shooting and intervening and comprehensive reporting, among other things. Organizers claim this initiative could reduce police use of force by 72 percent. However, many activists are already criticizing this plan, calling it “copaganda” and saying it will improve policing’s war on the Black community, as it does not call for the removal of funds from police departments and does not address the entire issue of systemic racism and brutality within the institution.

Decreasing police budgets is the first step in addressing the disproportionate amount of funding that police departments receive from the federal government. Calls for defunding do not mean the removal of efforts for public safety, but rather a demand to stop spending millions of dollars on military-style equipment for poorly trained police officers.

The protests against police brutality and the greater system that Americans are witnessing and participating in right

now are nothing new. From many past demonstrations — including the 2014 Ferguson protests in Missouri that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement to the 1992 Los Angeles riots to the 1965 Watts riots — we are reminded that the stringent acts of racial profiling, oppression and violence enacted by police officers on the Black community is a centuries-old problem. As discussed in a recent editorial, modern policing agencies in the U.S. originated from slave patrols and night watches, which were primarily constituted of white men using vigilante tactics to further control and oppress Black individuals. These groups worked for wealthy white slave owners to punish, capture and return enslaved people who escaped or were believed to have violated plantation rules. These first police forces were overwhelmingly focused on responding to, and punishing, what they considered disorderly, nonwhite behavior rather than actual crime.

As American slavery gratingly matured into a depraved regime that denied Black people humanity while still criminalizing their actions, they were considered capable of engaging in crime but “incapable of performing civil acts.” Similarly, while the 13th Amendment is credited with ending the concept of slavery we are taught in grade school, it stopped short of ending slavery for those convicted of crimes.

The laws that once governed slaves were replaced with Black Codes governing free Black individuals, soon making the new criminal justice system of America central to strategic racial control.

These methods of oppression intensified whenever Black people asserted their autonomy or achieved any degree of success. For example, during Reconstruction, white policymakers and other white people in positions of power invented offenses used to target Black individuals. These included breaking strict curfews only for Black people, loitering, vagrancy, not carrying proof of employment from a former slave owner, etc. Those caught for such actions were quickly apprehended and American slavery persisted in the form of convict leasing, where Southern states could lease their prisoners to large plantations, mines and railways — all for profit.

Later, in the second half of the 20th century, a new political fear would emerge during protests over harsh inequalities and civil rights. Black and brown people are still disproportionately targeted by these policies that were not as explicitly racialized as the Black Codes, although their implementation has been characteristically similar. Former President Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs,” “broken windows” policing, mandatory minimum sentences, three-strike laws, children tried as adults, etc., were all implemented.

The rhetoric of “law and order” and subsequent focus on suppressing the Civil Rights Movement was adopted as a centerpiece for Nixon’s platform, which white authorities heavily utilized to criminalize Black individuals fighting for equal rights.

As “cracking down on crime” became a codified tune, no distinction was drawn

between civil rights activists, traditional petty crimes and rebellions. Within the past weeks, we’ve seen President Donald Trump invoke the same racist rhetoric as he declared himself the “president of law and order” and also quoted a racist 1960s Miami police chief by tweeting, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Unfortunately, many prominent politicians, including Joe Biden, former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee have not voiced their support for what Black communities across the country are calling for and are instead “opposed to cutting police funding and believed more spending was necessary to help improve law enforcement and community policing.” Many activists advocating against reforms at this time are calling for politicians to “read the room” and to listen to the people. However, many fear that instead of taking political risks to implement the much needed systematic changes in this country, politicians are more worried about alienating moderate white voters.

For example, in response to an uproar of protests against systemic racism and police brutality in May 2015, former President Barack Obama and a selected team crafted “The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.” This report consisted of various reform approaches, many similar to those of the #8cantwait campaign circulating recently. These reforms have made no permanent or effective progress and local activist groups are continuing to reject broader pushes for more reform-based training. Johnetta Elzie, a civil rights activist and organizer, stated, “People in power — politicians and policymakers — are still talking about reform.

We’re beyond that. We’re over that. If they wanted reform, they would have done it six years ago when we actually had the chance to. But that’s not what happened.”

Instead, it is time to reimagine the ineffective and systemically racist notions of policing agencies and their superficial procedural reforms by defunding the police and investing in specific, communityfocused safety and prevention programs.

Productive steps forward could include the installation of multiple community departments and facilities that interactively work with community residents, to an equitable degree. This is suggested in the #8toabolition initiative, which was initially made by activist group Critical Resistance and was then reproduced by an ad team that created a website providing a variety of shareable graphics for social media.

In Minneapolis specifically, a report was published in 2018 that outlined all the reforms the police department has embraced, including body cameras and various training sessions that cover mindfulness, implicit bias and crisis intervention. The Minneapolis Police Department also forfeited money to training programs and better equipment, but there was little to no decline in Black fatalities caused by law enforcement.

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Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ALLISON PUJOL | COLUMNIST

When do you think the protests will stop?

“

When do you think the protests will stop?” My mother asked me this when we were both sitting in the kitchen a few days ago. “Didn’t they arrest the cop who killed that guy? I don’t understand why there are all these violent protests still. And how does it benefit anyone to vandalize a building?”

My mother is the daughter of two Cuban immigrants. My father is the proud son of two Cubans who also came to the United States decades ago. Many older members of my family, including my grandparents, have likewise voiced concerns about the legitimacy of the protests erupting around the country in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. One of my late relatives was imprisoned in Cuba for more than 20 years for his activities as a political activist. I have been wondering lately what he would have to say about my family’s response, given Cuba’s own history of protest. Likewise, political activism before and during the 90s in Cuba bears notable distinctions from the contemporary protests in the United States, but there are also important parallels.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Cuba lost its main trading partner as well as the source of much of its international political support. An economic crisis soon unfolded within Cuba, resulting in strict rationing, rolling blackouts (for up to 20 hours) and severe medicine shortages. In 1994, nearly a thousand Cubans gathered at Havana’s Malecon (a sea wall along the country’s capital known for its tourist appeal) to voice their frustrations.

Protesters broke windows and destroyed property as others recorded the events unfolding, desperate for their voices to be heard. The uprising was effectively quelled on the same day it started because police shot, beat or threatened protesters who would not leave the streets. Nobody really writes much about this uprising.

But many Cubans solemnly remember it, even if they no longer live on the island.

Cuban-American communities should bear those parallels in mind when considering their role and respective privilege in the broader context of police violence against people of color.

Despite the destructionist tactics used by protestors, the Maleconazo riot is a point of pride for many Cubans who now reside in the U.S. If my own community’s continued willingness to speak out against past injustice at the hands of Fidel Castro’s military and police force is any indication, many Cubans who now reside in the United States would not be so quick to condemn the Maleconazo riot more than 25 years ago. I struggle to imagine any of my grandparents criticizing those protestors who vandalized buildings in a display of their frustration against their country’s deteriorating economic conditions. No Cuban-American I know

speaks out against those who stole boats that same year to flee to the United States.

In some ways, the lack of understanding that many Cubans in my community have exhibited towards those protesting police brutality and the United States’ long legacy of systemic racism is surprising. In many ways, however, this reaction is predictable.

Despite the history of anti-Latino sentiment in the United States, Latin American communities have not always been compassionate or responsible partners in the fight against racism. Even though people of Hispanic descent have been racially profiled by police or are increasingly the target of hate crimes, racism has been deeply internalized in many immigrant communities. As Karla McKanders, a clinical professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School, writes, instead of seeing themselves as natural allies in the fight for social and economic justice, many white and white-passing Cuban-Americans see themselves in competition with Black Americans. Furthermore, George Martinez, a professor of law at Southern Methodist University, writes that some Latinos “often sought to ‘pass’ as white … because they thought that becoming white insured greater economic, political and social security … [which] meant gaining access to a whole set of public and private privileges, and was a way to avoid being the object of others’ domination.” Like many privileged Cuban-Americans, I personally have been guilty of implicit bias and racism — both intentional and not — and am still learning how I can most effectively dismantle the subtle, yet powerful hatred that often exists in my own community.

Whether these comments are intended to belittle Black activists or not, many of the critiques I have heard of the ongoing protests are nonetheless reflections of that same subtle hatred. Deflecting to concerns about property damage belittles the real and immeasurable pain that police brutality has inflicted upon Black communities. Responding to the international outcry over the irreplaceable loss of lives with reports of damaged vehicles or stores suggests that perhaps, in fact, you might not think Black lives matter as much mass-produced, replaceable objects from Target. (As an aside, it is never a good sign when a multi-million dollar corporation’s response to looting is more charitable than your own). Dismissing these protests as “violent” and thus irredeemable avoids an important discussion about why protests are taking place at all and does not consider the larger history of protests across the world.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Allison Pujol can be reached at ampmich@umich.edu.

INIO ION N5 OPIN

KEITH JOHNSTONE | COLUMNIST

Protests or no protests, I wake up Black

E

very morning I wake up and pray, Pray that my Black life might matter today.

Flashing lights came on behind our car and my lunch immediately went straight to my throat.

My mother, who is a University of Michigan trained corporate attorney, told my sisters and I to quiet down as she nervously rolled down the window to face a white officer in the wealthy northern suburbs of Detroit. As she tried to explain that my father usually drove the car, he cut her off, “What are you doing in this neighborhood?” “Officer, I live around the corner,” my mother explained.

A bead of sweat appeared above her forehead despite the fact that she was telling the truth.

The tense exchange continued, “Ma’am, have you been drinking?”

If I wasn’t about to cry, I probably would have laughed at the ridiculousness of the question. In my 20 years on this Earth, I have only seen my mom drink three times and, certainly, none of them were at 4 p.m. on a Monday afternoon.

After a few more tense minutes of the exchange, the officer let my mom go without ever explaining what she did wrong. As we pulled away, I began to cry.

Every morning I wake up and pray, Pray that I won’t fear for my safety today.

When tragedies like George Floyd’s death occur, the traditional response from white liberals has been to go directly to social media, posting to remind everyone how woke they are while advocating for changes to the systemic disenfranchisement of Black people. Hashtags trend, protests are organized, conflict ensues and escalates and the conversation ultimately becomes more about the violence in these protests than the inequities facing the Black community, fueling the left’s rage. This, in turn, allows Fox News and other conservative media talking heads — who claim not to be explicitly racist but simply support a policeman’s right to kill unarmed Black people — to change the narrative and muddy the waters. Suddenly, the voices are so muddled that most people tune out, Trump or someone else in the Republican Party creates a diversion, then eventually everyone moves on. Nothing changes.

Every morning I wake up and pray, Pray that I will see my bed at the end of the day.

With my brothers and sisters, I watch these movements with hope, believing that this time might be different; This time police might be held accountable and real change might send shockwaves through the system.

Together, we cringe when the president sends a tweet. Together, we raise our voices in solidarity as opposition to whoever stands against our movement, but we know that speaking up risks our lives. Knowing this, we speak louder because each word might be our last. Each word might force us to leave this world too early, like our brothers Trayvon and Freddie and our sisters Aiyana and Breonna.

Every morning I wake up and pray, Pray that my ancestors’ dreams are fulfilled today.

My ancestors back in the motherland were ripped from their peaceful villages and forcefully taken to a new country that they were forced to build on their backs. For 200 years, they tilled soil and farmed land with the faint hope that one day we might achieve freedom, that one day, we might get a share of our owners’ wealth. Despite all we gave, these owners bound us with chains, beat us with whips and instilled fear into our hearts. 400 years later, we are still put in chains by Paul Ryan nearly decimating Medicaid,

by John Roberts allowing states to gut our voting rights, by Trump emboldening the “very fine people on both sides.” Don’t even get me started on our fallen brother Clarence Thomas discrediting the affirmative action that got him into Yale Law School. Not only are we put down by politicians who don’t believe we belong here, but we are kept down by the police who have internalized their own privilege and hate us even though they do not know us.

Every morning I wake up and pray, Pray that, upon Officer Chauvin, guilt will weigh.

I believe that police have a critical function in the workings of any civil society, but some officers have replaced their mandate of “protect and serve” with “harass and demonize.” I believe that most policemen and women wear their badge with honor, but no American who believes in the freedom that this country purports to offer should be alright with a border patrolman who shoots a Mexican teenager across the border. We

should not ignore a man whose hands are up but still gets shot.

We absolutely should not be okay with a police officer who kneels on a Black man’s throat for allegedly counterfeiting a $20 bill. See, if you accept these atrocities, you don’t just support the police, you are a racist plain and simple and, if you do not actively oppose it, you implicitly support it.

Every morning, I wake up and pray, Pray that I can secure the blessings of Liberty today.

My grandfather is and will always be my hero. He embodies the kind of heroism that we all should strive for because it’s not written in history books, but it entails waking up every single day and trying to make your corner of the world marginally better.

He worked his whole life, being one of the first Black swimmers in Detroit, serving in the military during World War II and working as a public servant back in the city for more than 40 years. After he retired, he worked every day to teach all 16 of his grandchildren what it meant to be a Black person in the United States, and what it could mean. He taught me that being Black means standing up for your community, but it can also mean growing prize-winning hydrangeas. It means lifting up our neighbors, but it can also mean beating people at Bid Whist. In his 96 years on this Earth, he spent every day securing more blessings of liberty for me, my sisters, my mother and my city. To honor his legacy, it is my responsibility to not only further secure the rights that he fought for but also to fight to spread these rights to more of my downtrodden brothers and sisters. The most important of these rights is the right to live without the deadly consequences of police brutality. However, it does not just fall on me, it falls on all of us to battle every day to make our corners of the world, and thus the world itself, better. So, go out and peacefully protest today, but tomorrow, the next day, the next week and the next month, try to improve someone else’s life because large barriers cannot be broken by one protest.

Every morning I wake up and pray, Pray that my Black life will matter today.

Keith Johnstone can be reached at keithja@umich.edu.

6 ARTS

Thursday, June 18 , 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FILM NOTEBOOK

MUSIC NOTEBOOK

Confronting a legacy of racism in country KATIE BEEKMAN Daily Arts Writer

Film and the history of racism in America KARI ANDERSON Daily Arts Writer

In the summer of 2016, my cousin and I saw “Southside with You,” a biographical indie film depicting Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date in 1989, filled with intelligent conversations between the future POTUS and FLOTUS about everything from bigotry to desserts.

After Michelle and Barack watch a screening of Spike Lee’s 1989 film “Do the Right Thing,” the two run into a white colleague from their law firm, who expresses confusion about the film’s end: Mookie (the film’s main character, played by Lee) throws a garbage can through the storefront window and incites violence from bystanders. Barack tells his colleague that Mookie did it to save the white storeowner — a common justification used by people who didn’t understand the film — but after he and Michelle are alone, he makes the truth clear: “Mookie threw that trash can because he was fucking angry.”

These words have been echoing through my mind as I watch the Black Lives Matter movement unfold over the death of George Floyd.

Between the peaceful protests and strong social media coverage, some people have focused on moments of violence and looting peppered throughout the movement, finding riots to be just as coarse and confusing as white audiences did in 1989. White critics and viewers who watched “Do the Right Thing” in 1989 clung to their explanation because they struggled to comprehend the place of violence in the conflict — if Mookie threw the trash can with the good intentions of saving Sal, they think, then the violence is justified. The belief that violence delegitimizes the movement only demonstrates that these people don’t understand the conflict. And the fact that I was surprised by Barack’s comment while watching this movie in 2016 means that I don’t really understand it either.

These past few weeks have seen a whirlwind of protests as the Black Lives Matter movement gains steam across the country. There are many ways to get involved, whether it’s marching in protests, donating to bail funds or buying from Black-owned businesses. It’s also crucial for non-Black allies to take this time and educate themselves. There are many ways to do this: reading books or articles, listening to podcasts, watching speeches from community leaders, etc. Simple education on the Civil Rights movement is half the battle; the other half is forcing yourself to realign your view of the world to match those who have been oppressed for centuries. I turned to watching films, inspired by lists I’d seen circulating around social media.

Film has long been an effective method of telling stories that aren’t always told and sharing voices that aren’t always heard, capable of filling in some blanks left by the American education system. Fictional or not, these stories are powerful, able to humanize people that are consistently dehumanized by the system and the media.

In January, I reviewed “Clemency” for the Daily, heralding it as a tragic but important depiction of the crippling prison system and death row. What I didn’t mention is that it took days after I’d watched it to process the full force of the story. It was a glimpse into a system so broken and destructive — murder that is sanctified because the state said it was okay, based on a crime that the man likely didn’t do. By becoming embedded in the story, you’re forced to acknowledge the sheer inhumanity of the system. Understanding the consequences of institutionalized racism and realities of police brutality is not simple — there are many layers to the conflict, extending from the macro to the micro.

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Black squares. Thoughts and prayers.

“Love,” heart emojis and hashtags. That about sums up the country music community’s response to the recent uprisings for racial justice that were sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others. Instead of using their platforms to advocate for change and denounce white supremacy, many country artists have been reprehensibly quiet.

As a longtime fan of the genre, I’d be lying if I said I was surprised by the silence. Artists’ flowery calls for “peace” and “unity” might as well be plucked from the lyrics of hit songs like Tim McGraw’s “Humble and Kind” or Luke Bryan’s “Most People Are Good.” Fear of backlash for taking a stance is so prevalent in country music, the presumed resulting downfall for doing so has its own verb: getting “Dixie Chicked.” But don’t get me wrong. This isn’t the time to lament artists’ avoidance of anything “political” or make excuses for a culture that skirts around the “controversial.” It’s time to get specific.

We need to talk about country music’s relationship with white supremacy.

Before there was “country music” and “R&B,” there was “hillbilly” or “old time” music and “race records.” “Hillbilly music” was strictly sung by white people, while “race records” were exclusively recorded

by Black people. But the music itself? It was all the same kind of sound. Predominantly poor Southerners, white and Black, had been swapping songs, techniques and styles for years. Much before the recording industry, which got its start in the 1920s, could officially start to segregate the music by using different labels. Hank Williams, for example, learned to play guitar from the Black street performer Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne. Lesley Riddle, a Black musician, accompanied A.P. Carter of the Carter Family on song-collecting trips throughout Appalachia.

Of course, appropriation is important to this story too. Few people know of “Tee-Tot” Payne or Lesley Riddle, but Hank Williams and the Carter Family are country music legends. How many other influential Black musicians have been forgotten, only to have their contributions live on, and be credited to, white performers? The history of the banjo provides another example. Today, the banjo is a decidedly country instrument associated with whiteness. But, it has African origins. The banjo was a plantation instrument solely played by enslaved people decades before blackface entertainers popularized it in minstrel shows in the 1830s.

The institutions dedicated to telling country music’s story have played a part in preserving the myth of its essential whiteness.

Three out of the 139 members of the Country Music Hall of Fame are Black. The label executives who guide country music’s future have contributed as well. When Charley Pride was first releasing records in 1967, his label didn’t send promotional pictures of him to radio. Darius Rucker’s country career was only made possible by his previous success as the Hootie and the Blowfish frontman.

The narratives surrounding the careers of newcomers Kane Brown and Jimmie Allen are examples of this too. As successful Black country artists, they have been tokenized — simultaneously used to represent industry “inclusion” and made to feel like they don’t belong, like Black music and Black people aren’t key to country music’s very existence.

This is acutely insulting when so many hit songs on country radio today are heavily influenced by hip hop and R&B. Thomas Rhett’s rise to fame was bolstered by synths, sound effects and dance beats. Sam Hunt literally raps on almost all of his songs. Their acceptance as “country” has been met with criticism, but Rhett and Hunt, both white, have been accepted nonetheless. The same can’t be said for Lil Nas X. “Old Town Road” was excluded from Billboard’s Hot Country chart for “not being country enough” — a move that echoes the decision to separate genres by race from nearly 100 years ago.

This history has cultivated a culture that is not only unwelcoming of non-whiteness, but distinctly anti-Black. A few weeks ago, I came across a post that some of country’s more outspoken artists were sharing on their Instagram stories. Rachel Berry, a Black country music lover, shared the nervousness she’s experienced while attending concerts.

Before buying tickets, she looks up “the name of the town/city and then ‘racism,’” when she wants to stand up for a song, she worries “‘what if someone yells a racial slur at me?’” and when she walks through a festival full of confederate flags, Berry writes that she feels “uneasy.” Her story went viral and for good reason. Everything she wrote seems obvious upon reading it. But having gone to quite a few country music concerts myself, I have to confront the less obvious fact that my whiteness has shielded me from those kinds of worries. When I’ve seen confederate flags waving in the parking lot of a concert venue or printed on a fan’s t-shirt, I have had the privilege of merely looking away. How many Black country fans haven’t seen their favorite artists in concert for their own safety?

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Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SUMMER SERIES

ARTS 7

BOOKS NOTEBOOK

What Balanchine got Protests and poetry from Black dancers LILLIAN PIERCE Daily Arts Writer

ZOE PHILLIPS Daily Arts Writer

Fourteen-year-old Jalaiah Harmon choreographed the famous “Renegade” dance in September 2019. She posted it on the social video app Funimate and by October the bouncy set of moves had been recreated on TikTok. It was quickly popularized by influencer Charli D’Amelio and by early 2020 the dance had reached unprecedented stardom. The choreography floated into seemingly every corner of the internet and many offline dance parties. But as the trend raked in millions upon millions of followers, Harmon found herself looking on with confusion — she hadn’t been given credit for any of it.

Harmon’s story was eventually welldocumented: The New York Times offered a thoughtful deep-dive, and the young dancer landed a performance on “The Ellen Show” as well as at the NBA All-Star game.

She eventually met D’Amelio, who seemed enthusiastic to have found the dance’s original owner. But the “Renegade” story is one of many anecdotes often used to describe the unfair realities of what NYT called “The Viral Dance-iarchy.” Odd nomenclature aside, the phenomenon is real — it’s the process by which white mainstream TikTok creators co-opt the work of less well-known Black choreographers on apps like Funimate or Dubsmash.

While important, many writers who aim to bring attention to this issue tell the story from a solely technological angle. TikTok doesn’t include a system for crediting choreographers which, while problematic, does not tell the whole story. Occasionally a more thorough commentary will discuss the “Renegade” issue in the historical context of white people co-opting hip-hop music and dance, but the reality goes deeper than one genre.

At a recent symposium with The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, activist and former ballet dancer Theresa Ruth Howard gave a presentation about Black history in American ballet, telling a story remarkably similar to Harmon’s “Renegade.” Specifically, Howard talked about George Balanchine, who founded the School of American Ballet in 1934 and the New York City Ballet in 1948. Backed by the success of these institutions, Balanchine became the most influential dancemaker of the 20th century. He choreographed 465 ballets in his lifetime and with them forged a completely new aesthetic with which America now approaches the art form.

Howard quoted historian Brenda Dixon Gottschild in saying that Balanchine’s

technique is marked by “angular arms, turned-in legs, bent knees, pelvic and chest articulation and displacement, leg kicks, heightened speed (and) densely layered phrases.” Today, it’s these characteristics that are revered as genius innovation but, as Gottschild noted, “these same elements are basic syllables of Africanist dance languages.”

Howard’s talk elaborated on this last point: She pointed to the similarities between Balanchine’s emphasis of plié and the bent-knees of jazz and Balanchine’s focus on creating the rhythm of the step before the actual movement, a process similar to tap dancing. Howard also noted Balanchine’s famous intention to create an integrated black-white ballet company as early as the 1940s, but clarified this overly moralistic history with racist quotes that suggest his intentions lay more in wanting to acquire access to Black musicality than actually wanting different skin colors onstage.

The presentation also included several clips of Arthur Mitchell, who became the first Black dancer at NYCB in 1955 and later founded Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Howard’s 1997 clip shows Mitchell telling his audience “many people did not realize…

(Balanchine) told us ‘if you want beautiful hands go take Spanish dancing,’ he said ‘if you want to use the back take Dunham.’ He always used all the different techniques at that particular time.” In the clip, Mitchell perks up from his seat to demonstrate each of his examples, his eyes brightening at the prospect of such collaboration. He tells his audience about a love of Fred Astaire and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, bouncing out of his chair to reenact photos of Balanchine, affectionately nicknamed Mr. B: “You never never see him (just standing), he’s always like this! or that! Utilizing the form of jazz, what we call jazz today.”

Thus, Balanchine’s ballet is a diverse meld of people and places, and according to Mitchell he wanted his dancers to know the source of each. As Howard puts it, it’s the product of “organic cultural intersectionality influence and cross-pollination that is life.” If this is true, why are we not teaching our dance students such history?

Why are we not writing it in our programs?

Why are we not making sure that every generation after Balanchine also understands where this technique comes from and how to value the communities that supported it?

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Matching strides, we inch forward and we stagger back. We readjust and begin again. We are followers of the person in front of us and leaders of those behind.

The uninterrupted balance of bodies bustling close to each other reminds me of poetry, the kind written for moments like these. There is rhythm behind the pain in our steps. There are rhymes in the chants we shout. I see the symbolism in the fists raised: a sign of solidarity and support; a salute to express the united resistance.

It’s an enduring salutation. The united resistance around me thumps like a beating heart. Underneath us it pulses. The heartbeat has revived from a movement long ago. In 1935, poet and renowned figure of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Let America Be America Again.” He focuses on the American dream and the near impossibility of many to attain it and protests the American slogan of freedom that excludes him and many others: “There’s never been equality for me / Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’” He identifies with all the oppressed peoples that built America and ignites the urge for them all to rise up: a united resistance. The repetition in his cries for his land and people signifies that this fight is far from over; that this heart is still beating.

I stand in the heart of a thousandperson crowd on one of the busiest interstates in Michigan. It’s June 6, 2020, and we’re marching for the Black Lives Matter movement. I’m close behind a young Black woman with a megaphone. In it, she shouts “When your feet hurt, remember why you’re walking! When your arms hurt from holding your sign, think of how many of us have died holding our hands

up!”

Maya Angelou wrote the poem “Still I Rise” in 1978. The defiant message of the poem takes me back to the protest, to the speaker in front of me. In the poem, Angelou refuses to succumb to the oppressor’s hate: “You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt, / But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” Angelou uses anaphora, the repetition of the phrase “you may” in the beginning of several verses. It reiterates the never-ending attempts of the oppressor to keep her down, and serves to amplify the inevitability of her defeat over this adversity. Both Angelou and the protest speaker remind me who we are fighting for.

The arrangement of the individuals is like the syntax of a poem; we are each unique bodies but the organization of us all brings us together. As we march entangled together the enjambment of our rows signifies that the fight is neverending. There is no time for rest. We have to keep moving.

The police at this protest watch from their cars. They are parked to block the road from the other side of the highway.

Whenever I spot their vehicles I hear Harryette Mullen’s “We Are Not Responsible.” Written in 2002, Mullen narrates the dehumanization of the language of authority officials in this poem. The language she uses is balanced with nearly every line having the same amount of syllables. It juxtaposes the threat beneath the lines, and emphasizes the final violent line that fails to fall in order: “Please remain calm, or we can’t be held responsible / for what happens to you.” She protests the misuse of power and degrading standards of these officials.

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8 MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Resentment: the Pride Month meets the politici ation of emotion to Black Liberation movement liberate the coloni ed JENNY CHONG

GABRIJELA SKOKO MiC Managing Edtior

The revolutionary nature of Glen Sean Coulthard’s book, “Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition,” serves as a salute to radical scholar Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial work through its exposure of Canada’s systematic marginalisation of the Native population. In like manner, the piece introduces an uncomfortable notion of the indoctrinated white values, instilled to naturalise the corruption of Indigenous culture and self-value which persist today in relation to the Aboriginals who suffer from psycho-affective attachments to colonialism and an internalised justification of their own subjugation. Coulthard proposes that this subconscious surrendering of the Aboriginal people creates a stable environment for the Canadians’ perpetual, yet subtle, reproduction of colonialism today.

However, at some point, the colonised becomes “aware” of the coloniser, birthing resentment within the colonised, and forcing progress toward proper recognition and reco nciliation from the coloniser.

Coulthard expresses modern society’s colonial persistence as straddled between the coloniser’s denial of the oppressive structure and the indoctrinated submission of the colonised. He does this by probing the non-Native’s refusal to decolonise through the implementation of “transitional justice” in a non-transitional structure and an ignorance regarding resentment’s political value. However, he goes on to challenge this “unchangeable” system, making use of Fanon’s embracement of resentment as an essential instrument in the resurgence of self and cultural affirmation.

Attempts to reconcile injustices against Canada’s Indigenous people have taken form of reparative commissions and elaborate promises to rectify the unbalanced system, yet the implementation of these reparations have failed as result of the non-Natives Contradictory denial of colonial history, and a palpable refusal to practice their own proposed processes.

Meant to guide the Canadian State through a somewhat seamless process of reconciliation, the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples details a productive practice of “transitional justice”: an approach to justice which must take place after the injustice has ceased and there is a clear distinction between the time of injustice and the time following. In Canada, society has perpetuated a “non-transitional” loop that maintains the settler-colonial relationship and erases any distinction between that of the past, present and future. Coulthard explains that regardless, Canada wields the

proposal of this transitional system to disassociate past colonialism with their modernday cultural hierarchy: “Where there is no period marking a clear or formal transition from an authoritarian past to a democratic present— state-sanctioned approaches must ideologically manufacture such a transition by allocating the abuses of settler colonisation to the dustbins of history.”

Canada relies on the internalised system and manipulative policy enforcement which they exhaust to restrict the rights of Indigenous people. The enforcement of extinguishment, the Modified Rights Approach, the non-assertion approach and the Jobs and Growth Bill Act all served as mediums of institutionalised outlets for Indigenous subjugation.

Coulthard explains that decorative language such as “restorative justice” creates an environment in which reconciliation becomes fixated on the “legacy of past abuse, not the abusive colonial structure itself.”

When colonial corruption is categorized as historical, it liberates the coloniser from responsibility in today’s disparate relationship, assuming blame to the colonised who must have an inability to move on. This way, the coloniser can maintain their systematic superiority by disguising the current settler-colonial structure as an invalid, negative emotion harboured by the Natives toward the non-Natives which prevents the advancement of their mutual relationship.

In embracing the standpoint of transitional justice, the coloniser assumes the Natives’ resentment to be irrational and it is framed as the primal perpetuator of the social and political instability at hand. This common misunderstanding of resentment confuses the emotion for the subjectively less productive french term: ressentiment. Ressentiment is “portrayed as a reactive, backward, and passive orientation to the world;” under this definition, the once subjugated has been liberated in a literal sense but fosters this subjugation in a conscious refusal to move on from the past, ultimately subjugating themselves.

The difference is resentment’s politicised nature, making it a powerful foundation for reconciliation. Resentment is formed against a recognized “enemy of injustice;” recognizing this “colonial enemy” frees the colonized from their internalized subjugation and compels them to revalidate their individual and cultural worth. Coulthard defines this Fanon-inspired process as, “a purging, if you will, of the so-called ‘inferiority complex’ of the colonized subject … In such a context, the formation of a colonial ‘enemy’ … signifies a collapse of this internalized psychic...

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MiC Staff Writer

June 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ+ Pride traditions, which annually celebrate freedom of sexual identity and commemorate the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

Now more than ever, June is the intersection point for Pride Month and the Black Liberation movement. There have been many unofficial intersections between historical Black Liberation movements and LGBTQ+ progress and vice versa, however the amplification of the LGBTQ+ Black community is reaching a possibly unprecedented level of recognition and support worldwide. Since the end of May, protesters from all 50 states and at least 40 other countries in six continents have taken to the streets to demand an end to systemic racism and police brutality.

Tony McDade, a Black transgender man, was shot and killed by a police officer in Tallahasee, Fla., on May 27. As a being whose identity is dually-oppressed, McDade is among the many Black transgender people who have been a victim to anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Black violence. Less than two weeks after his death, two Black transgender women, Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’Mie” Fells, were killed on the same day. In 2020 alone, there have been at least 15 violent deaths of transgender or gender nonconforming people in the United States — the majority of which were women of color, particularly Black transgender women.

The names George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have been plastered across hundreds of headlines and memorialized by anti-racist allies over the past few weeks. As always, the energy put towards supporting the Black transgender community pales in comparison. Black transgender people are disproportionately discriminated against in housing, employment, healthcare and policing systems. Nonetheless, main-

stream media and political leaders are complicit in this discrimination and perpetuate the racist, sexist and transphobic harrasment they face on a daily basis.

The Trump administration announced it will eradicate protections for transgender patients from sex discrimination two weeks into Pride month. The announcement occured on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting and during the current COVID-19 pandemic, when the Black LGBTQ+ community is being exposed at large. Healthcare is a fundamental right all humans should have access to, yet 1 out of 5 transgender or non-conforming people have reported being denied healthcare on the basis of their gender. The ruling is not only a direct attack against trans rights but is also one which disproportionately affects Black transgender people. Over 20 percent of Black transgender people reported to be HIV-positive compared to 2.64 percent of transgender people of all races. Black transgender people are also affected by HIV in far greater numbers compared to the general Black population and the general U.S. population, 2.4 percent and 0.60 percent, respectively.

Removing protections against discrimination in healthcare worsens the health crisis of Black transgender people. Their access to medication would become more limited if denied treatment by medical professionals, and they would have to resort to using illegal or non-prescription drugs, which can put their physical and mental well-being at a higher risk, while forcing them to practice criminalized survival.

We must fight for Black LGBTQ+ lives and LGBTQ+ lives must fight for Black lives.

In order to dismantle systemic racism in all degrees of civic life, we must not pick which battles are worth fighting for. All Black lives matter: It can not be exclusive...

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Graphic by Hibah ChughtaiI

Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MICHIGAN IN COLOR 9

A brief history of Black Muslims in America NOOR MOUGHNI MiC Staff Writer

The American stigma around Islam often recognizes Muslim Americans as a recent addition to the nation, failing to recognize Black Muslims arrived with the first slave ship to reach Virginia’s coast in 1619.

The first large influx of Muslim Americans were Black Muslims captured from Africa and enslaved upon arrival to America. An estimated 30 percent of the African slaves brought to the U.S. from West and Central African countries were Muslim. The conditions of slavery were not only physically inhumane, these people were targeted for their faith and forcefully oppressed into different belief systems. Many enslaved people were forced to convert to Christianity in an attempt to “civilize” them. In an effort to reject the assimilation of American culture forced upon them, enslaved Muslims turned to creative outlets such as music to preserve their religion and culture.

SHAY SZABO

MiC Staff Writer

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is an Obama-era implemented policy which grants temporary protection to undocumented children who have been brought to and raised in the United States. For many, this is the only country they know. 700,000 DACA recipients feel as if America is their home. DACA recipients are allowed to obtain a renewable two-year period of protection against deportation which gives children across the United States the opportunity to go to work, attend school and live a somewhat normal life. All DACA recipients have been here for at least thirteen years — per USCIS requirement for the DACA application — so to many recipients, this executive protection is a form of acceptance from a country they consider home.

Across the United States, there are over 200,000 DACA recipients

https://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=0qmO8XouJ2U&feature=yo utu.be Following the legal abolition of slavery in 1865, many Black Americans experienced sentiments of displacement and lack of identity and culture, seeing as their enslavers had also stripped them of their heritages. Historian Sally Howell explains how the 1920s were essential to the reshaping of the Black American identity. Howell claims, “ [Black Americans] began to embrace Islam in the 1920s and 30s partially in response to the radical dislocations and racism they experienced prior to and during the Great Migration (the movement of disenfranchised southerners to industrial regions in the North).”

This American embracement of Islam initiated a movement that would advocate for Islam as one of the lost elements of African heritage.

The link between Pan-Africanism and Islam is first shown in Marcus Garvey’s Negro World. In conjunction with the popularity of this newspaper, other Black-Ameri-

can Muslim organizations began to form. Arguably, the most notable of these organizations is The Nation of Islam. The NOI was founded in Detroit in 1930 by Wallace fard Muhammad, and helped lay the groundwork for Islam’s influential role in the Black Power movement and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

The NOI, along with other Black Nationalist Muslim movements at the time, centralized the belief that Christianity was a “white man’s religion.” In this sense, Islam was acknowledged as a liberating ideology that could separate Black America from their Christian slaveowners. The NOI is currently led

by Louis Farrakhan, but does not have nearly as much influence in Black American communities as it once did.

The encouragement of Black racial superiority was later denounced by some former leaders of the NOI, such as Malcolm X, but the impact of these movements were monumental in the spread of Islam throughout Black communities in the 50s and 60s.

working as essential workers protecting the health of Americans, among other jobs, and contributing to the well-being of the younger generation as educators. Currently, estimated 29,000 health care workers are DACA recipients. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been on the frontline putting their own lives at risk for their communities. Some DACA recipients are also teachers who uplift young students by setting them up for success. They are an intricate part of our society that contribute to many aspects of our social structure and community development.

The DACA program has not only positively impacted their surrounding communities, but it has also demonstrated that it can ameliorate mental health outcomes for DACA-eligible individuals. It has even alleviated poverty in immigrant households, according to a study executed by Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes. It is an extraordinary executive policy that inherently

stands for inclusivity, empathy and acceptance.

Unfortunately, the current Trump administration is against the implementation of the DACA program. The current renewal process for DACA recipients is still available; however, no new applications are being accepted.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has sided with the Trump administration to abolish the program, while the liberal justices acknowledge the urgency of maintaining such an essential program.

This is a plight for humanity and survival that is affecting millions nationwide.

The Supreme Court has until the end of June this year to release their decision regarding the preservation of the DACA program.

As the court decision looms over the whole country, it is salient that allies continue protesting, spreading awareness and, most importantly, plan to vote to fight for the DACA recipients in our country.

Following the spread of Islam in Black communities, more and more Black Muslims began overtaking key roles in American politics and society. The two first Muslim Americans sworn into Congress also happened to be Black American Muslims—Keith Ellison and Andre Carson. Muhammad Ali was a Black Muslim American who is regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time. Ibtihaj Muhammad is a professional fencer who was the first Muslim woman to win an Olympic medal competing for the United States. As a result of Muhammad’s numerous accolades and awards in her field, she was honored by Mattel with a Barbie doll in her likeness —the first Barbie doll to wear a hijab. Halima Aden is an American Fashion model who has also had many firsts as a Black visibly-Muslim woman in the fashion industry. Aden was the first Muslim woman to appear on a cover of Sports Illustrated magazine wearing a burkini and among many other accomplishments, Aden was recently named this year’s Daily Front Row “Break-

Defending DACA

through Model.”

The far-reaching spread of Islam in Black communities is also heavily reflected in hip-hop and rap music. Prominent artists such as Rakim, Busta Rhymes and Mos Def reference Islam throughout many of their songs. The teachings of the Five Percent Nation are also shown throughout these two genres. One of the most recent examples being Jay Electronica’s “A Written Testimony.” This album, similar to work from other Black Muslim musicians, is evidence of the early influence Islamic groups such as the NOI had on Black Americans.

As for the current demographics of Muslim Americans, Sulayman Nyang, Howard University African studies professor, claimed in 2005 that of the five million Muslims in America, Black Americans make up the largest percentage of that group — about 25 percent.

This column does not encapsulate the entire complex history of Black Muslim Americans...

Read more at michigandaily.com

Graphic by Hibah ChughtaiI

10 SPORTS Eastern transfer halted by admissions Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Editor

For the Michigan men’s basketball team, Wednesday delivered yet another hiccup in an already bumpy offseason.

Just a month after his surprise commitment to the Wolverines, Purdue transfer guard Nojel Eastern announced that he will no longer be heading to Ann Arbor.

“I was not admitted to the University because of many credits that weren’t transferable because of my major,” Eastern said in a statement released via Twitter on Wednesday.

“That is the only reason why I was not accepted. I say this to say that I will be reopening my recruitment process as a transfer. I want (to) thank Michigan and the entire staff and organization for trying to do everything in (their) power

THEO MACKIE

On March 13, when the NCAA announced a freeze on recruiting visits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan held just two commitments for its 2021 class. By contrast, Ohio State — holders of the year’s topranked class — already held nine, including a trio of five stars.

And stripped of the ability to host recruits for their Spring Game or travel for in-home visits, the Wolverines’ late start to 2021 proceedings had suddenly turned from intriguing to dire.

Three months later, Michigan’s situation is vastly different.

Buoyed by 15 commitments since late March, its 2021 class now ranks sixth in the nation — a mark, should it hold, that would be the second best of the Harbaugh era.

To get there, the Wolverines needed to adapt their recruiting tenets of honesty and persistence to a fully-digitized world. In the absence of in-person recruiting, schools around the country have upped their creativity, giving recruits a virtual look at life on

woes have prevented him from taking the next step as a college player, Eastern was effective as a ball handler in screen sets during his time at Purdue.

The Boilermakers didn’t run a screen-heavy offense like Michigan, but it would’ve been interesting to see how Eastern’s limited effectiveness translated to a new system.

The Wolverines will still welcome two additional backcourt transfers in Columbia’s Mike Smith and Wake Forest’s Chaundee Brown.

The latter is still going through the admissions process, and a decision has not yet been reached on his eligibility status for next season.

With Eastern no longer in the fold, the Wolverines have one remaining scholarship available for 2020-21. Howard can now pursue a high school reclassification candidate, turn back to the transfer portal or pocket the extra scholarship for now in order to spend it on a 2021 recruit.

provides — is what allowed the Wolverines to build their 2021 class.

For Bounds, that ‘everything else’ meant seeing four Michigan offensive lineman drafted last month. For Hood, it meant the coaching staff’s ability to mold him after Devin Bush and Cam McGrone. “Those are two players I watch and try to mimic my game off anyways,” Hood said. “So just compared to them speaks of how highly they think of me and the level of play that I want to play and what they see me playing.”

Three months ago, neither

player was close to committing to the Wolverines. Both planned to use the spring to see all their top schools. A commitment without a visit would have been unthinkable.

Instead, that’s the reality for the vast majority of Michigan’s 2021 class.

But it’s a reality that was only made possible by the commitment that the Wolverines were able to show their top targets during the recruiting dead period.

Without that?

“My decision would’ve been different,” Hood said. “It definitely would’ve been.”

to get into the University of in high regard, his offensive game has never reached such Michigan.”

The program never heights. He averaged just 4.9 acknowledged his initial points and 4.0 rebounds as a transfer announcement, and junior last season, which was a Eastern clarified that it fell through due to academic reasons. At Purdue, he was working toward a major in selling and sales management.

Michigan will no longer be welcoming one of the Big Ten’s best perimeter defenders to its roster. He originally intended to join coach Juwan Howard for his final remaining year of eligibility, but whether or not he’d be immediately eligible was unclear. He did not enter the transfer portal as a graduate transfer, meaning he would’ve had to sit out the 2020-21 season unless the NCAA granted him a waiver.

The Evanston, Ill. native was the 84th-ranked recruit coming out of high school in 2017 and ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily while Eastern’s defense is held Purdue guard Nojel Eastern is not transferring to Michigan after acceptance hiccup.

‘M’ turns around recruiting in Spring Managing Sports Editor

step back from his 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds as a sophomore.

After the graduation of Zavier Simpson, the Wolverines could’ve turned to Eastern to help fill the void at point guard this coming year if he was ruled eligible. Though his shooting

campus. Notably, Michigan State created a series of online visits dubbed The Festival.

But while other schools have revolutionized their recruiting process, Michigan has stuck to the basics. According to recruits, players can see the campus on a YouTube video that the program sends out, while academic advisors are available to video chat. If players want, they’re linked up with assistant coaches to show them around the team’s facilities.

“You’re finding all creative ways (to recruit),” offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said in a teleconference on May 14.

“Whether it’s virtual visits, whether it’s virtual meetings, FaceTimes, you’ve got to be as creative as possible to be able to showcase your university and program in these times when they currently can’t come visit.”

None of that, though, is why Michigan’s class turned from barren to loaded in the span of three socially-distanced months. “(The virtual visits) all accomplished the same thing,” three-star offensive lineman Tristan Bounds told The Daily

this week. “I think Michigan just has so much to show and it’s so impressive, that’s what separates it. It isn’t like they did something different really per se, it’s just like it’s Michigan. So that’s what’s different.”

But to showcase that, Michigan had to take advantage of the benefits offered by the pandemic. In place of spring practices and recruiting visits, the Wolverines’ coaching staff was left with one critical benefit over a typical spring: time.

On the recruiting trail, that meant the ability to talk to recruits everyday, something they wouldn’t have been able to do without the pandemic.

“They were constantly talking to me, constantly showing me things they had, the benefits of going there,” four-star linebacker Jaydon Hood told The Daily. “Just the things they had, the tangibles they had to get me to the next level and that could make me a better football player, man, academic student, everything.”

In the end, that level of communication — along with everything else Michigan

RUCHITA IYER/Daily

Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis is finding success recruiting virtually.

Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SPORTS 11

Jackson fronts dynamic special teams Michigan opens up for DANIEL DASH

Daily Sports Writer

When considering Giles Jackson’s game-breaking speed, a few plays come to mind.

Sure, there’s the reverse handoff he took 22 yards for a touchdown against Ohio State. Or the 40-yard reception off a wheel route against Alabama in the Citrus Bowl. But when examining Jackson’s full body of work as a freshman last fall, one image stands out most.

On a sunny November afternoon in College Park, against Maryland, Jackson only needed one juke to take the opening kickoff to the house. As he trotted across the goal line for a 97-yard touchdown, 11 Terrapins helplessly lagged behind him.

Jackson’s tone-setting touchdown against Maryland paved the way for a 38-7 win while simultaneously showcasing his value in the grand scheme of things. Beyond his increased offensive responsibilities as the season progressed, the 5-foot9 speedster averaged nearly 26 yards across 24 returns as Michigan’s primary option last season en route to an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection.

“Giles is a real ascending player,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said after the Citrus Bowl. “... He’s a true freshman, so I didn’t know exactly what you’re going to have in a true freshman, but he has really produced and had a heck of a year.”

What, exactly, did Michigan have

in Jackson? Last fall, he became just the second player in program history to score a touchdown by rushing, receiving and kick returning in the same season. And he did it at 17 years old.

Heading into his sophomore season, Jackson is set to spearhead arguably the deepest group of special teams returners the Wolverines have carried in the Harbaugh era. And as special of a freshman season as Jackson might’ve had, the Wolverines’ running backs coach and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh still sees untapped potential in Jackson’s return game. “(Jackson) is crazy fast, super talented,” Jay said in a teleconference Friday. “He even left some yards out there last year that I think this year he’s gonna be able to take advantage of as he continues to improve the way he understands our system, seeing the blocking scheme develop.

Expecting a huge year from him.”

Behind Jackson, Harbaugh identified presumed VIPER Mike Barrett, receivers Ronnie Bell and Mike Sainristil, running back Blake Corum and cornerback Andre Seldon as others who could see action as kick returners. Barrett, in particular, has proven himself as a blocker in the role of off-returner, while safety Daxton Hill and running back Chris Evans have also seen time as returners. “(Jackson) has a great group of guys who are going to be able to compete with him, make him better and be back there with him,” Jay

said. “… We feel great about the quality of guys back there, which is really necessary because as soon as a returner becomes a big-play threat, that’s when you see that guy doesn’t get the ball that much anymore, so it’s important to have someone else back there that is a legit big-play threat.”

As for returning punts, Michigan will be forced to adjust to life without Donovan Peoples-Jones, who left for the NFL during the winter following his junior campaign. In his three seasons returning punts, he racked up 743 yards across 89 attempts and scored a pair of touchdowns.

With Peoples-Jones now gone, the Wolverines could hand the keys to Bell, who returned eight punts last season. Michigan could also turn to Jackson or Barrett, while Harbaugh also touted the “electric” potential of incoming freshman receivers Roman Wilson and AJ Henning.

“I’m confident (Wilson and Henning) will at least be able to compete and push those guys,” Jay said. “If they can get to the point where they can catch it with confidence at some point during the year, they could be legit dudes as well.”

Regardless of which direction the Wolverines go, there’s no shortage of viable options within the group.

And in the event multiple candidates prove themselves, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a plateau system.

But for now, it seems pretty like one option stands above the rest.

“We love Giles back there,” Jay said. “I think everybody does.”

MILES MACKLIN/Daily

Sophomore receiver Giles Jackson is preparing for a season with more responsibility on special teams and offense.

some athletes to return ETHAN SEARS

Managing Sports Editor

Michigan will join the schools that have allowed some athletes back on campus for voluntary workouts this week, the school announced in a press release Monday.

Football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball athletes will be allowed on campus for voluntary strength and conditioning workouts, returning in four phases. That includes a 14-day pre-report risk assessment, a sixday resocialization period back to campus and daily risk assessments.

All athletes will be tested for COVID-19 and antibodies.

There will also be team physicals, concussion testing, sleep surveys, fitness testing, mobility screening, body composition, nutrition evaluations and regular medical testing.

Athletes in other fall sports will return to campus after the successful reintroduction of football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball, per the release.

“We are pleased to start the process of welcoming studentathletes back to our campus through a medical and public health-informed protocol and plan,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in the release. “We continue to take the utmost care to ensure that all student-athletes and staff return to a safe and healthy environment.

“Our protocols and plans have

been developed by medical experts from across U-M’s campus, who have collaborated with officials at the local, state and national levels.

I appreciate the contributions and comprehensive efforts across so many groups and in coordination with the Big Ten conference and peers across the NCAA.” Athletes and coaches will be screened daily before being allowed into facilities, where high-risk areas will be sanitized daily. Those who test positive for COVID-19 will enter a quarantine.

“I am so grateful we are able to make our way back to Ann Arbor after all these months,” men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard said in a release. “It has been a very unusual time to say the least. What has been so impressive is to watch, read and have zoom calls to better understand all the efforts and new procedures being made — so many talented and caring doctors and administrators — to ensure we are safe. Make no mistake about it, the COVID-19 pandemic is so much bigger than basketball and we do not take that lightly. We have challenges ahead, but we know taking this first step is key to returning to a normal routine.”

Though the University has not yet announced plans to reopen for students in the fall, allowing some athletes back could be a natural first step towards that end. University President Mark Schlissel has said that if students are not on campus, there will be no sports.

Now, with some athletes back, everyone else will wait.

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily

Football along with men’s and women’s basketball will return to campus.

12 SPORTS

Thursday, June 18, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Oakland Athletics select Jeff Criswell with 58th pick of MLB draft JACOB COHEN

Daily Sports Writer

In the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft Thursday, the Oakland Athletics used the 58th pick to select junior right-hander Jeff Criswell.

In Criswell, the Athletics gain a pitcher who is a proven reliever and starter at the collegiate level.

Criswell established himself as a reliever in his freshman season, posting a 2.23 earned-run average while striking out 32 batters in 32.1 innings of work, before transitioning to the starting rotation prior to the 2019 season.

The six-foot-four right-hander from Portage, Michigan accrued a 7-1 record as a starter, improving with each outing, en route to an AllBig Ten First Team selection. In the midst of the Wolverines’ postseason run last season, Bakich retained the confidence to stick Criswell back in the bullpen, and Criswell

showed no letdown after a year away from being a reliever, proving his versatility.

It is likely, though, that Criswell’s development over his three years in Ann Arbor leads to the Athletics viewing him as a starting pitching prospect.

“He was very valuable for us last year,” Michigan coach Erik Bakich said in a press conference before the 2020 season. “He has gone from being maybe more of a thrower as a freshman, to a true pitcher with three-plus pitches, to a guy who’s regarded as one of the best amongst his peers. We’re glad to have him, and we’re sure glad he’s pitching for us on Fridays.”

Criswell’s stature provides him with the prototypical size that MLB organizations look for in potential workhorse-type arms, and his ability to hold his mid-90’s fastball velocity into the later innings suggests his strength matches his

size.

The right-hander throws a steadily improving changeup and slider along with his plus fastball, but his greatest asset, perhaps, lies in his head rather than his arm.

Despite his extensive physical development, Criswell is most proud of the significant progress he has made in his mental game while playing for Michigan by staying cool in high-pressure situations.

“Just being able to recognize where you’re at in the game and having that self-awareness is really important,” Criswell told The Daily after the season. “And it’s a very big help for me.”

Regardless of whether the Athletics decide to develop Criswell as a starter or a reliever, they will certainly be counting on him to use the same composure that allowed him to post a 2.88 career ERA with the Wolverines in order to pitch out of jams against professional hitters.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Jeff Criswell was the first Wolverine selected in the MLB draft Thursday.

Jordan Nwogu picked 88th by Cubs Rockies draft Blomgren JACK WHITTEN Daily Sports Writer

The Chicago Cubs used the 88th overall pick to draft junior outfielder Jordan Nwogu Thursday night.

If Nwogu chooses to sign, which he plans to, the Cubs’ gain might just be bigger than the Wolverines’ loss. He capitalized on the 15-game sliver of 2020, posting a cumulative .353 batting average, .389 on-base percentage and .456 slugging against exclusively NCAA-Regional level competition, despite the lack of top-of-the-order protection in the season’s opening weekends.

Michigan’s offense ran through Nwogu in 2020, and the pressure to be ‘the man’ is evident in his metrics.

His on-base to batting average differential is slim, and three steals in seven attempts yields an ugly percentage. His aggressiveness at the plate and on the basepaths showed Michigan coach Erik Bakich’s reliance on Nwogu to reach base and score. And with the rest of the lineup’s struggles to drive in or advance Nwogu, Bakich’s decision to put all of the chips on an extremely capable player in Nwogu was understandable.

As other bats began to heat up and the Wolverines started nonconference play against weaker competition, it’s safe to assume that Nwogu would have become more conservative and efficient on the basepaths, similar to his improvement in baserunning from last season. In addition to experiencing upward trends in on-base and slugging percentages, he put up a .992 OPS last season when he was surrounded by Jordan Brewer and Jimmy Kerr.

On defense this season, Nwogu was thrust into a starting outfielder role due to the departure of Jordon Brewer and the injury to Jesse Franklin. He handled only 24

chances in 2019, a small sample size to predict future performance, but practiced diligently in the offseason after being a designated hitter for most of 2019.

“He took a million fly balls out there in left field,” Bakich said of his offseason.

In 2020, as a result from offseason practice, Nwogu handled 28 errorless chances and led the team in outfield assists.

The Wolverines won’t get the chance to see just how good Nwogu can become in the outfield. That privilege belongs to the Cubs, who know his offensive floor is high and who can help him reach his defensive ceiling.

ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily

Junior Outfielder Jordan Nwogu was selected by the Cubs Thursday.

JACOB COHEN

Daily Sports Writer

In the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft Thursday, the Colorado Rockies selected junior shortstop Jack Blomgren with the 140th overall pick.

The Rockies acquired a twoway shortstop with a knack for getting on-base and dynamic infielding capabilities. Blomgren started almost as soon as his freshman campaign began and though he struggled offensively his freshman season, Blomgren’s career .276 batting average, .399 on-base percentage, and .956 fielding percentage signal the sort of consistency that professional teams seek in prospective captains of their infields.

Blomgren did not attract draft attention out of high school, but his characteristic work-ethic and competitive fire drove him to make the developments necessary to hear his name called in this year’s shortened draft.

“My mindset going into every at-bat is putting the team first and competing for my teammates behind me that are cheering me on,” Blomgren told The

Daily during the 2020 season.

“Everything I’ve put in, prepared for, is for the guys behind me, and that’s what’s so important for this whole team and for me especially.”

The fact that Blomgren speaks of setting up for the guys behind him makes sense given his tendency to hit singles, but his growing ability to drive in runs himself is perhaps his most interesting development during his time in Ann Arbor.

While Blomgren notched only 13 extra-base hits in 2019, he drove in 47 runs, which put him only 17 runs batted in behind the team’s leader Jimmy Kerr. Kerr accrued 31 extra-base hits, but the lack of distance between the two players’ RBI numbers suggests that Blomgren can provide teams with clutch hits, a valuable commodity for MLB teams.

With Blomgren’s timely hitting and stellar defense harking back to age-old pillars of a good baseball player, combined with his propensity to get on base meshing with the modern style of the game, the Rockies used their fifth round pick to select a shortstop built for success.