Analysis, Narratives, Stories, Poetry, & Art The publication of The Michigan Student Power Network
Intro This is the first issue of Michigan Rises, the new publication of the Michigan Student Power Network. Michigan Rises is a space for students and young folks in Michigan to share their perspectives, experiences, and analysis regarding current issues and events, progressive activism, and intersectionality and identity politics with each other to build a stronger statewide culture and community. The Michigan Rises team has been working hard for the last few months to put this issue together. We want to thank all the amazing folks who contributed their work, time and energy to the project. We will be publishing issues regularly, while also releasing pieces online at: mspnpublication.tumblr.com. If you’re interested in working with us as an editor, artist, graphic designer, or writer, let us know! We’re looking for awesome folks to work with us and make sure Michigan Rises becomes a strong voice. The Michigan Student Power Network is a statewide organization working to connect student activists across issues, campuses and identities. We see our struggles as connected, and recognize the common enemies and obstacles we face both on our campuses and within our government. We currently work with students on 8 different campuses and are always looking for more amazing folks! For a full list of organizations and campuses check out the Michigan Rises Tumblr! *** Michigan Rises was created for the use of forming a new platform for the discourse of different perspectives. The opinions, ideas, and thoughts are those of the writers/artists/organizers themselves and do not necessarily represent the views, goals and politics of MSPN as an organization. Submissions, questions and concerns can be directed to our editor team Valeriya Epshteyn: epshteyn@umich.edu Aiko Fukuchi: aikofuku@umich.edu Jessica Ware: wareje@mail.gvsu.edu
Cover Artwork by: Cydney Camp ccamp221@gmail.com portfolio: repunxxel.tumblr.com
Dear Black People Kassidy Wiley Senior, Grand Valley State University Dear Black People, I wish we didn’t have to see each other die on camera. Keep going on tweets How many times do we have to watch Facebook videos of us dying before it turns into an episode of cops. I wish we could stop being targeted by the police system, and being disenfranchised by the system of white supremacy. As many of us are going to jail and being imprisoned for decades at a time. We lose out on a chance to help fight for each other. Especially when some of us are opting out to voting because of the refusal to participate in white supremacy. I wish we would retaliate against the police. A lot of black people are so afraid of standing up for each other. We watch along side our own people be beaten and brutalized with fear and silence. That fear you feel in your chest when a cop is looking at you to long is called oppression. That fear in your eyes when you see them at the corner frisking your brothers is called oppression. That gulp in your throat when they speak to you is called oppression. What are you afraid of? Are you scared of them killing you? Little black boy do you think you are next? Little black girl, is suicide on your mind? Yes, you are next. Maybe if you escape the cops, the KKK, the diabetes will kill you. The cancer will kill you. The prison will kill you. The excessive labor will kill you. The mental distress will kill you. The bills will kill you. The drugs will kill you; The alcohol, too. They found a way to kill us off some type of way. Making peace and begging for white supremacy to accept us won’t work. Praying and marching won’t make them listen. Buying them out won’t get you respect nor humility. We must fight back and claim our freedom. If we don’t, who will? So I say again, what are you afraid of?
The Double Gringa Eliza Cadouix Senior, University of Michigan Ann Arbor I am wearing short shorts At the Saturday morning market. Papas y botanas David, antojitos mexicanos cada color posible And my legs Boston cream white GRINGA GRINGA mis piernas shout LOUD “No estoy de aqui” No, no soy tan tonta Everyone has come to the market and I am wearing shorts I wish in this moment that I had a twin Who could wear a red blouse and white hot pants and l o u n g e At the other end of the lot That way, no one would look At me And my gumbi flesh twizzlers Today is Mexico City pride But no one here cares My hair is knotted with pride ribbon bows But today on Pride Day Of all days I am hoping that the market-goers Don’t know what that means The glorious catastrophe of it La gringa lesbiana con las piernas blancas The fabulous strangeness
of the meat market to my back My rainbow ribbons facing chopped skin And my naked knees toward las bebidas Drinking in embarrassment I am wearing short shorts at Emiliano Zapata market waiting for a bus to take me to the Pride March No tengo ningun interes in the person whistling wheezing to get my attention In fact I am prone to treat that person Badly Shaming them for their eyes and the way they castigate and admire me The way that they say nothing about the way I work or write And everything about my skin Its palidity Its power I am doubling my gringa It’s a dance, in a shuffle step Of complete discomfort Set to the tune of colonies I never built And market fresh skin
Administration needs to take students seriously Student leaders at Central Michigan University Central Michigan University often prides itself with having strong core values that define its community. According to the university, CMU believes in integrity, respect, compassion, inclusiveness, social responsibility, excellence and innovation. Ironically, the administration rarely upholds any of these values, especially when honoring these values could be considered controversial. The administration as a whole remains neutral on almost every issue. On March 25 student leaders had lunch with President Ross to find out why the administration remains stagnant in regard to student issues. These leaders represented groups such as Divest CMU, the Black Lives Matter Movement, Take Back the Tap and Students Advocating Medical and Responsible use of Cannabis. These students were welcomed by Ross to an elaborate, three-course lunch. They greatly appreciated his time to hear them out on their inquiries. The five students requested this meeting to gather his advice on what the next best steps to take for their various campaigns would be. To this day, these issues have been gathering momentum, increasing awareness on campus, and even received Student Government Association support. These students have tried to work directly with administration to accomplish their goals. Despite these efforts, no administrative action has been seen around any of these issues. The students discussed with Ross what other tactics would be most effective to further student campaigns. This was not regarding one specific campaign, but student causes in general. The students were surprised at Ross’s casual disregard for their passions throughout the meeting. He talked to the students as if they could not comprehend how complex the world is and checked his watch often because he had important places to be. They wondered, after every avenue of the system provided has been exhausted, and support for a campaign has been continuous for several years, what then is the next step? Ross responded with how slow of a process making change can be, and that the students either needed “sustained support” spanning many years, or to take direct action in order to see change on campus. President Ross said the only recent example of successful student change was back when CMU students did not get classes off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day until they occupied a building and their demands were met. He continued on to make other excuses for why change takes so long, instead of realizing that the long drawn out process of incremental change and making excuses is part of the problem. Ross rounded out his narrative by stating that student involvement only exists for “the college experience.”
The president of CMU made it overwhelmingly clear that soon after graduation, these students’ passions for ending racism, improving public health, and empowering communities would fade with time as they “evolved,� as he put it. Ross kept reassuring that he was not trying to dishearten them, but in reality his condescending demeanor spoke for itself. Instead of discouraging these leaders, it only fired them up more. It is disappointing that the president of an institution of higher education would send this message of apathy to students. However, this only shows the need for louder student voices. Ross and every other administrator that thinks like him devalues the intelligence and passion of all students at this university. The truth is, CMU is not the only university that wants its students to remain apathetic. This is the same narrative of universities all over this nation. This is because informed and engaged students challenge the very foundation of what has made higher education one of the most profitable business models ever conceived. Unfortunately, universities have become a microcosm of everything that is wrong with our world. If we get anything out of this experience it should be the understanding of what our administration truly is and what they represent. The university projects the image of fostering intellectual stimulation and discovery, when in reality it is just interested in getting their $20,000 or more a year from each student. In return we get a piece of paper that says we sufficiently were able to regurgitate information for four years. Then, if we are lucky, we move on to a job that may not contribute positively to the world, but will pay the bills. Next, find a husband or wife, donate back to the university and feed the cycle. All of this without ever having taught us to critically think for ourselves or comprehend our situation, and definitely not to care about or create social change when we leave. Universities have become for-profit institutions that no longer value objective thinking or deep questioning, but instead churn out drones that unknowingly contribute to an endless system of corruption and greed. We are paying more each year and in turn receiving less. No matter what you are passionate about, this traditionally static administration affects you because they are disregarding all student issues. We are living in a pivotal time; our land and seas have been poisoned, mass genocide is still taking place in the world, Wall Street controls our politics, workers are still not given the rights they deserve and higher education has become a business. While these Continued on next page
issues may seem overwhelming we should not shy away from them, but face them with a strong moral conscience and motivation to make a change. We are the last generation that can turn this situation around. Universities have historically been a place where positive change started and was pushed forward by the students. Currently there is a group of intelligent and motivated people on this campus who want to make progress but they can’t do it alone. They need your help. Together we can change this, but it will only happen with the voices and actions of students like you. Look at our administration and ask yourself if you really believe they have our best interest at heart. To them each one of us is just another number. Let us take this opportunity to show our complacent administration how we will make change. Get fired up and do something; the time is now. **If this article spoke to you contact CMU.RISE.UP@gmail.com
An Activist Abroad Lindsey Disler Junior, Grand Valley State University Recently, I returned from my study abroad in Thailand. When I left for Thailand, my thoughts were to not get involved in activism because I did not want to engage in a white savor complex. I thought it would be doable to stay away from all forms of activism in Thailand. Little did I know that I was going to a university that had a reputation for its activism. I started classes the week of June 29th, 2015. On my first day of class, I learned that in 2014 there was a military coup and we were living in a military junta dictatorship overseen by the king. I also learned that speaking badly about the royal family is illegal, to the point of being sent to prison for ripping Thai currency because the king’s face is on it. My professor told our class that fourteen Thai student activists had been arrested for reading Orwell’s 1984 in public. These students were going to be tried in a military court and were facing 15 years in prison. Two days later, I ran into some activists who had not been arrested and had set up a mock cage on campus to protest and collect money for their friend’s defense funds. I walked by, dropped some money into the box, wrote a little note, and began walking back to class. I figured at the time that me donating to the activists and writing “what you have done is incredibly brave” did not fit the parameters being a white savior because I was not coming in and telling them what to do or not to do.
Shortly after, a friend I was walking with asked if I could go to jail for donating to the activists. I rushed to class and pulled my professor aside to ask if I would be in any sort of legal trouble. My professor, who I later found out was involved with the activist movement on campus, encouraged me to donate and talk to the activists about working together, but not to participate in the protests. His reason for discouraging me from protesting was that if I or my classmates participated in any form of activism and got killed or injured, most forms of insurance would not cover us getting hurt or killed because we made the decision to go to a country operating under martial law. My reason was to avoid engaging in white saviorism. During my lunch break, I went back to the activists to talk to them and make connections abroad because I found their activism to be inspiring and wanted to offer any help I could provide. I asked them about what was going on. They explained that they were sick of living under a military dictatorship that was driving down the standard of living of the rural and urban poor. They wanted a constitutional democracy back. I learned the activists who had been arrested were leaders of the student movement and that the government was hoping to destroy the movement by destroying the leaders. While I was talking to the activists, I started to notice news cameras filming our conversation. I tried to back up, thinking that I was blocking the shots the press was trying to get of the activist, but the cameras followed me and the activist I was talking to. I tried to cover my face, as I did not want their efforts to be directed onto some random Westerner. and I also did not really want to go to prison. We exchanged information with plans to share the news with each other to on social media so we could at least support each other’s activist efforts from abroad in some way. The following day, my professor walked in and singled me out in front of the class, saying that I was on the news. He told the class that the news was saying titled “the West supports students who were arrested.” I was pissed. I do not speak for the entire Western world, let alone anyone else for that matter, and my intention was not to become too focused on the news, but to learn and connect with fellow activists. My professor then had our whole class make the Hunger Games symbol with our hands, which I have very mixed feelings about. Around the same time as that all was happening in class, the European Union and the United Nations encouraged the Thai government to release the student activists. The next day in class, our professor walked into class and announced that “we” did it. The Thai student activists were no longer facing a prison sentence, but were instead under house arrest for a significantly shorter period of time. Our class cheered and thought that they did a great job. Of course this made me outraged at both myself and my classmates. I was angry because my intention in talking to the activists was to build connections and to help make what they Continued on next page
were doing stronger. My aim was at collective liberation, not for my Western class mates to engage in a Western savior complex and feel good about themselves for doing practically nothing.
The focus should be on the amazingly brave Thai activists. Not only were they facing a government that threatened to imprison them for 15 years, but also because the Thai government has a history of killing hundreds of student activists from Thammasat University. In 1973 and 1976, the Thai government lynched student activists and hung them from the trees on and around campus. They also beat student activists to death and shot them as they marched. According to my professors, the official reports about the Thammasat University massacres had less than 100 students die, but eye witness reports claim the body count was in the hundreds. However, the students I met were also following in the history of student victory the 1973 and 1976 massacres lead to the students overthrowing the military dictatorship at the time. Out of my entire study abroad trip, meeting these activists and talking to them speaking with them and seeing what they are doing, despite the history of what has happened to those before them, gives me courage to continue organizing in student movements, regardless of the obstacles of fighting against exhaustion or fear, having to fight administration, of having to fight against an oppressive state. These student activists are truly inspiring.
Perfect, Good Ellen Loubert and Valeriya Epshteyn University of Michigan Ann Arbor We organize around a fossil fuel divestment campaign at a university that has over twelve billion dollars in its endowment. Twelve. Billion. Dollars. The immensity of our infrastructure too often stymies student activism, gagging grassroots efforts with red tape and administrators that wait out the graduation of adept activists. For this reason, operating within the institution’s status quo can feel like a natural, respectable, perhaps even optimal modus operandi. We do not civilly dissent and we await bureaucratic change. We work for three years to get just one meeting with our university president. But one day a graduate student leader on our campaign leadership told us to focus on divestment and not stretch ourselves to contextualize our work in a broader understanding of environmental justice, to “…not let the perfect become the enemy of the good.” Coupled with the stultifying inertia of our campus’ administration, it really hurt hearing an overworked leader on our campaign silo our work to just an immediate goal. Our older colleague’s stressed-out resistance to looking at the broader picture is warranted. The Socratic paradox of social justice organizing is that we know we do not know. We’re not talking about not knowing how a campaign slogan will be received or how well - if at all - a petition will succeed. Rather, we face the ambiguous concern that we still have so much left to learn. There are a lot of 1:1s to have, a lot of conference calls to organize, a lot of critical theories to learn about and contextualize our divestment work in. However, we cannot outsource our responsibility to building a more just and accountable world because of our overworked schedules and ignorance. A more just and accountable world is an achievable ideal, not a Red Herring pulling our attention away from actionable and tangible, albeit smaller steps. What message are we sending each other and ourselves when we reflect on our temporarily youthful inexperience and conclude that we cannot accomplish the immensity of what we idealize? Do we sacrifice accountability to our core, radical values by not pursuing the most ambitious visions and instead pursuing smaller goals, by pursuing the good instead of the perfect? Because environmental justice is the complex and evolving system that we can so easily balk at, it is destabilizing to hear our campaign’s mentor figure settle for the “good,” rather than the “perfect.” What do we do when even the most tenured organizer in our campaign prioritizes a win over a systemic, societally contextualized change? How do we balance respect for a founding organizer’s Continued on next page
vision with an upgraded vision for how our divestment work can grow and synergize with other social justice campaigns? We cannot stage a leadership coup and jettison a myopic graduate student, but we also cannot yet describe our school’s divestment campaign as social justice work. Divestment for the sake of divestment, sans a transparent discussion about the societal context of the ideal divestment win, is just another tragic case of the bystander effect. It’s been a campaign led by primarily cisgendered, white, ablebodied folk that distinguishes itself from and ignores the voices of other identity groups. Our school’s brand of divestment so far has been like addressing a group of people in a room with “Hey, guys,” even though the people identify with various genders. Divestment needs a welcoming and equally-valued and democratic team in order to operate effectively. When we bring attention to the absence of social justice rhetoric and question the resistance of fellow organizers exploring divestment’s place in this change, we must not be dismissed as a nuisance for bringing these issues to the table. If we are at odds with team members about our paradigm regarding the problem and solution, we need to avoid derailment from the majority group; we need to avoid outsourcing our ignorance and our busy schedules to, “but we don’t do that, an environmental justice club does that;” and we need to trust each other as people enough to not have our perspectives dismissed. One actionable mechanism to do that is to dig into, learn from and grow with the Michigan Student Power Network. Solidarity.
Yardstick deep in society Kelsey May Senior, Grand Valley State University yardstick deep a submarine sinks on verge of the trench of warfare and bunniesheil the regime of Obama, of NASCORP, of the Mutant Registration Act, the FBI, and baseball. Monsanto will sell you love for $3 a bushel. And Christmas jewelry hangs like stalactites. Visa credit cards start speakeasies in Victoria’s Secret fitting rooms. The black market lusts after cattle organs, dildos, all the meat we could ever need. The worker bees feed the queen. We fuck our hearts on Valentine’s Day and cocaine – everything in between is a swimming pool of nails. Flee wicked alien – America has only broken beer bottles for feet and an Eraser for a brain.
Open the framework:
Discussing gender oppression outside of the binary Kai Niezgoda Senior, Central Michigan University Why did we accept such a ciscentric view of privilege? Why did we take it at face value and repeat it as if it actually applied to all (or even most) of our lived experiences? Why did we repeat it until we all believed it worked for us? We could have constructed a view on privilege that recognized trans women experience transmisogyny (period) without accepting the dichotomy of “all male/ masculine identified people benefit from male privilege and do not experience gender oppression” and “all female/feminine identified people are harmed by misogyny i.e. experience gender oppression.” We could have acknowledged the truth in the second half without accepting the whole binary package outright. We could have questioned where nonbinary (and perhaps even some gender non-conforming binary trans folks) fall into this picture. We could have recognized quickly there was no space for nonbinary folks within this construction of privilege and oppression and used that as a tool to deconstruct our understandings of it. As a nonbinary person, currently, regardless of my presentation, regardless of how others typically read me, I am assumed to experience neither women’s oppression or men’s privilege. While I am neither a man nor a woman, saying I don’t experience gender oppression fails to describe the material reality of my lived experience. Because our current understandings of gendered privilege and oppression fail to account for people who aren’t transmasculine or transfeminine, we often times default to the idea that anyone who doesn’t experience women’s oppression automatically benefits from male privilege. This belief is clearly androcentric and assumes masculinity/manhood is the norm, a neutral state. In addition, we do not have a word to describe gender oppression for people who do not experience male privilege but are also not women. This has caused harm, in that female assigned at birth trans folks trying to describe their experiences have sometimes appropriated the word misogyny, reinforcing transmisogyny against our trans sisters. I think the reason so many of us have avoided questioning our current understanding of privilege is because so often any divergence from the cut and dry narrative of the privilege binary is used to disenfranchise trans women. Typi-
cally, it is not trans people themselves critiquing a binary view of gender oppression – it is cis people who wish to erase trans women’s voices and experiences. When trans women examine their lived experiences through a feminist lens, using a dichotomous model of privilege, they are often met with scorn by those who wish to dismiss the fundamental truth that they are women, and that their experiences are women’s experiences. I argue that this is not the only manner in which a challenge to the privilege binary can be employed. I argue that we can come to a better understanding of privilege and oppression among trans people without invalidating the very real misogyny trans women face. I argue we can open the framework of privilege and oppression to non binary people without silencing women’s voices within our community. Perhaps cis allies might not welcome it with such open arms after all, it entails demolishing part of the framework they’ve imposed on our self understandings - but I argue it’s much more important we have a thorough understanding of the ways gendered privilege and oppression affect our lives than to cater to cis perspectives on gender.
Valeriya Epshteyn University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Organization Directory Central Michigan University Student Environmental Alliance: cmu.sea@gmail.com
Students Advocating Gender Equity CMUSAGE@gmail.com The Black Student Union brown1pk@cmich.edu
Detroit
People’s Water Board Coalition facebook.com/peopleswaterboard
Eastern Michigan University:
Students for an Ethical and Participatory Education sepe.emu@gmail.com
Grand Rapids:
Black Lives Matter Grand Rapids blmgrandrapids@gmail.com
Grand Valley State University
United Students Against Sweatshops
usasgvsu@gmail.com Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo College Climate Action Network https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kalamazoo-College-Climate-Action-Network
Kalamazoo
Black Lives Matter Kalamazoo blmkalamazoo@gmail.com
Marygrove College
Democracy Matters denzelwashington18@gmail.com
Michigan State University The Black Student Alliance bsaemail1@gmail.com
Greenpeace msugreenpeace@gmail.com MSU Students United facebook.com/msustudentsunited
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor Divest and Invest Campaign https://www.facebook.com/divestandinvest The Fight for 15 rebeccaewren@gmail.com Student Socialist Union jpompilius96@gmail.com
The University of Michigan Dearborn Social Justice League sarbab@umich.edu
Students for Justice in Palestine sjpumdearborn@gmail.com
Statewide
Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands facebook.com/michigancats
Don’t see your school or organization listed? Send us an email at mspn414@gmail.com We’re always looking for new amazing organizations/ folks to connect with!
Statewide Briefing Legislative updates Senate Bill 250: a new bill that has moved out of committee in the State Senate would allow businesses to pay less than the minimum wage to anyone under 20. House Bill 4188-4190: This bill allows adoption agencies to discrimination against LGBTQ couples on religious grounds. Recently signed into law by Governor Snyder. HB 4041: This bill cuts welfare payments to families who’s children are persistently late or absent from school. Signed into law in June by Governor Snyder. HB 4609: State House Republicans are supporting a road funding bill that would eliminate the earned income tax credit. The EITC is a small but important fund that helps roughly 780,000 people in Michigan by giving low income working families a break on their taxes. Still in process HB 4297 A “renewable” energy bill that would “protect” consumers with a reregulated energy market and also would allow for the incineration of municipal waste to be classified as renewable energy
Upcoming Events Pipe Out Paddle Protest and Mackinaw Bridge Walk: Join Idle No More Michigan, Food and Water Watch, and MICATS to call for the decommission of Enbridge’s Line 5 at the Mackinac Straits September 6th: Kayak Flotilla 9 a.m. September 7th: Bridge Walk 8 a.m./ 9:30 a.m./ 11 a.m. March for Bernie: Metro Detroit Labor Day Parade: UAW-Ford National Programs Center, Detroit, Michigan September 7th: 9:00am March for Justice: Detroit Join Detroit community groups for a march against racial, economic, environmental and gender oppression. October 3rd: Michigan Central Station Detroit, Michigan Free College Now- #MillionStudentMarch November 12th Your Campus http://studentmarch.org/