Michigamua Scrutinized at Michigan

Although in general the memory of the 2000 Michigamua Tower Occupation is fading at Michigan, I have been encouraged by a new crop of activists who have sought to bring attention to the organization. Jamie Shenk is one of those students. The president of M-agination films, a unit of the University Activity Center, he became interested in Michigamua and has been working on an objective documentary about the organization and the 2000 protest. I have provided him with what informational materials I have and consented to be interviewed later this month for the film. The film will premiere at the Michigan Theater in April 2006. I just discovered this link to a preview of the film he has released:

> Fight Like Hell Trailer (3.5 mb)

Another group of students engaging in public debate about the organization is Sara Burke, Trent Busakowski, Margaret Czerwiensk, Clara Hardie and Ashwini Hardikar. The group put together an exhibit in the Michigan League Underground about the organization. They have posted a number of photos (including the one to the left) on the web. Check them out here. In an email to friends, Clara explains the show:

This art show was an attempt to counter the hostile environment Michigamua’s existence has created at U of M. We wanted to show solidarity with those directly effected by the Michigamua’s racism, to make it visible that outrage continues. Pieces in the show that profiled current Gamua members are attempts to raise questions and break down the power of the affiliated student leaders in order to deconstruct the foundation of racism and elitism that Michigamua stands on. …

Ill be making a radio segment on Michigamua for the indy media Black Box Radio show in Ann Arbor next semester. Check out past segments and shows.

U-M Classes for Honors Freshman

Libby is teaching this class for freshman at U-M:

Winter 2006
Honors Program
HONORS 135 - Ideas in Honors
Section 005: Women in Politics: From Susan B. Anthony to Sen. Hillary Clinton

Undergraduate Credits: 1
Advisory Prerequisites: First-year standing in the Honors Program.
Eligibility: Honors
Grading: Mandatory credit/no credit.
Primary Instructor: Benton,Elizabeth Patricia

How far have women in politics come since Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and how far do they still have to go? This course will explore women in politics from the speeches and struggles of early women’s rights activists to the possibilities of America electing its first female president in the near future. We will look at the role of women as voters, activists, and politicians over the time period. This course will explore several questions relating to the issue: Why do women in politics matter? How do women act as a voting bloc? Are they a
voting bloc? Has the “glass ceiling� been broken? How is the role of women of color different or unique? The course will feature first hand knowledge of women in politics through special visits from current or former female elected officials. Course requirements will include weekly readings, in depth in class discussion and a final project.

My friend Emily Squires is also teaching a section which sounds interesting:

Winter 2006
Honors Program
HONORS 135 - Ideas in Honors
Section 003: Creativity and Consciousness
Undergraduate Credits: 1
Advisory Prerequisites: First-year standing in the Honors Program.
Eligibility: Honors
Grading: Mandatory credit/no credit.
Primary Instructor: Squires, Emily Jeanne

This class will explore ways in which communities and individuals use creative arts as resources and vehicles for social change. Examples from multiple art traditions and cultural contexts will be established, including, but not limited to, visual arts movements and meanings in South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle; the practice of US printmakers during the Depression; and the influence of the Mexican muralist movement on future generations and goals of mural-makers. We will analyze the complex and shifting relationships between personal voice, community expression, and political movements in both historical and contemporary contexts. Class requirements include weekly course pack readings and a written response, as well as a final journal reflection. This class will be highly participatory with an emphasis on using the entire Michigan campus as our classroom.

> See all 135 sections

Checking Out The Failures of Integration

I just finished Sheryll Cashin’s book The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream. Although I won’t attempt a proper book review I will offer a few thoughts. A longtime resident of Washington, D.C. (Cashin clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, served in the Clinton White House, and now works as a law professor at Georgetown University) she makes extensive use of the Washington, D.C. area for examples as she makes her argument about patterns of economic and racial segregation in housing and public schools. A reluctant intergrationist, Cashin argues after taking a hard look at census data she has concluded that not only is the country’s neighborhoods and schools quickly becoming re-segregated, the new separatist order only serves the interests of few.

Evaluating black suburbanization she argues that black suburbanites cannot make the same assumptions as their white counterparts about the neighborhoods they move to. Evaluating the experience based on five assumptions that whites expect and generally receive, ranging from an assumption they can escape poverty to the availability of good public schools, low crime, reasonable property taxes, good government services, and convenient options for shopping and dining out. Assessing well known black suburbs including Washington, D.C.’s Prince George’s County, she concludes that although majority-minority suburbs can provide a physiological salve in a world where blacks may face hostile work environments, ultimately the choice comes with heavy costs and cannot measure up to white, middle class suburbs.

She also describes white families’ scramble to buy their way into the privileged communities arguing whites must pay upwards of $300,000 above market prices to find housing in desirable communities. She also repeats arguments made elsewhere by the polarizing impact of residential segregation on political debate, and how the isolation of both communities feeds distrust and public policy choices based on racialized stereotypes. She ultimately concludes “everyone’s quality of life is degraded by separatism. Worse, through separation and segregation we are institutionalizing and perpetuating inequality, to our national detriment,” (p. 298) arguing “The idea that society would be ordered so as to benefit the lucky few rather than the diverse masses, and the missed opportunity of a rich mixing of people from various cultures and classes, could seem just as backward to future generations as slavery does to us today.” (p. 304)

In the course of her argument she pays close attention to the handful of communities which have bucked the national trend of increasing residential segregation observing the communities that have been most successful are either vibrant commercial districts (Such as some parts of Portland, Oregon or Adams Morgan in Washington, D.C.) or instead communities where residents deliberately sought to bridge divides and preserve a racial mix.

Interestingly, Cashin identifies one census tract from Washington’s 2000 census “that came close to bring a true melding of the races.” The tract, number 50, includes the “rapidly gentrifying Logan Circle neighborhood” was 26 percent white, 36 percent black, and 29.5 percent Latino. It turns out my house where I rent now is located in Census tract 49.01, is about 12% white, 78% black, and 5% Hispanic.

By comparison, when I lived in the Glover Park neighborhood I lived in Tract 3 was 89% white, 3% black, and 7% Asian. Cashin herself has chosen to live in Shepherd Park, a middle class majority-black neighborhood in Northwest she was “surprised” to discover was 72 percent black and 21 percent white (she had thought it was closer to 60-40).

She also profiles extensively people who she calls “accidental” or “ardent” integrationists who either intentionally or unintentionally find themselves straddling social divides but decide to make the best of it, going against the grain of American society. After describing in sweeping terms the collective costs of separatism, what is her proscription for change? What visionary ideas are contained in her penultimate chapter, titled simply “What to Do About It” Community coalitions.

Say what?

Yes, she calls for grassroots coalition building “based on actual self-interest is the only possible path to a truly inclusive society” to build a constituency for “revolutionary” change in our laws and society. As someone who walks a fine line between pessimism and optimism I found her prescription a bit hard to swallow, however found I warmed up to the argument when I was again reminded of the limited successes of metropolitan regions who have begun to address problems of housing, education, and quality of life from a metropolitan perspective. Her thinking here is influenced by Myron Orfield whose innovative scholarship has focused on how aging, inner-ring suburbs can create political majorities if they align themselves with the city instead of the urban fringes.

Revealing herself to be not too far removed from the eminently inspirational yet pragmatic Bill Clinton (for whom she reserves plenty or criticism elsewhere in the book) her analysis contains elements of two strands of thinking I have seen elsewhere and find useful. The first is a decidedly geographic orientation to analyzing society. Such an orientation can quickly dissolve the mythology of meritocracy. How can we believe if hard data shows most jobs are way out in the lilly-white suburbs like Fairfax where poor blacks are concentrated in ghetto conditions? This precise fact is why I think many ideologically adrift modern-day liberals find themselves drawn to metropolitan thinking and the discipline of urban planning, and why citizen organizations (precisely of the type she calls for) have sprung up across the country advocating for “smart growth,” inclusionary zoning, better public transit, and other policies which would address geographic logic which fails to serve the needs of both the working class and also the affluent, who find their aggressive pursuit of suburban purity has priced out many of the people they depend on to teach their kids, pump their gas, and work in the stores they like to visit.

Second, Cashin discusses potential solutions from the perspective of increased choices for all people. Although she is a good deal more pragmatic in her analysis of school vouchers (they really aren’t sound public policy if they provide opportunity for a few at the expense of all) she does embrace the broader ideology of school choice, so long as it provides opportunity for all. This type of thinking can be extremely useful when paired against an analysis that says the current approach provides little opportunities for the majority of people except the most wealthy.

Will Cashin’s book spark the sort of sea change in our society she so strongly desires, or contain any revolutionary public policy proscriptions? Probably not. However, I think the book plays a key role in the evolving public debate about how metropolitan regions should approach persistent inequality and segregation. I also strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region from the perspective of someone who isn’t afraid to ask hard questions and delve deep into the logic of the area’s white and black residents.

> Listen to an NPR story about Cashin’s book
> Read Sheryll Cashin’s Op-Ed “A Tale of Two Schools” on AlterNet
> Amazon.com: The Failures Of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream

Save Christmas!

I enjoyed John Dingell’s little ditty about the topic.

Reading The Power of Many … One Year Later

Last weekend I read Christian Crumlish’s The Power of Many: How the Living Web is Transforming Politics, Business, and Everyday Life. Instead of learning any major revelations, I mostly discovered just how much of a geek I have become, but luckily I know who to blame.

While I won’t say much about the content of the book (It provides an entry-level summary of what Crumlish defines as the “living web� — innovative applications that fully utilize the web’s unique power to allow users to interact and contribute information. He discusses Meetup, Upcoming, Flickr, and blogs in general. Interesting, there’s not much here about online citizen journalism, for that see Dan Gillmore’s We The Media. Crumlish is an unapologetic Deaniac and draws heavily of the successes of the Howard Dean presidential campaign to briefly achieve front runner status by using the web to mobilize volunteers and raise money.), I will say that one of the most interesting parts is exactly how much the book shows its age in just over one year. (It was published September 28, 2004) Most notably in the last year MySpace, Upcoming, and Flickr have all been purchased, and Crumlish’s “Living Web� has been at the core of another internet goldrush. Also, his commentary about social networking talks a lot about Orkut, a social network started by a Google engineer that had lots of buzz in 2004, but doesn’t mention current powerhouses MySpace and TheFaceBook, due no doubt in part to those services’ meteoric growth in the past year.

Alas, such is the nature of writing a book about cutting edge technology. It turns out that Crumlish is still maintaining the book website over at ThePowerOfMany.com, where most recently he posted about being sought out as an expert on Wikipedia for a segment on Canadian TV about the recent scandal about a Wikipedia prank gone awry. Should you read it? Only if you want to feel like you’re back in September 2004, or you’d like someone to explain to you the significance of RSS.

Affirmative Action Off 2006 Michigan Ballot?

One United Michigan is reporting in an email that the Michigan Board of Canvassers voted not to add a controversial ballot initiative to the 2006 ballot that would eliminate affirmative action by the government, including at public universities. The board cited concerns about the validity of the signatures collected. Like in many BAM-N controversies, it’s difficult to untangle the politics from the tactics. Here’s one part of the email alert just sent:

In comments to reporters, David Waymire said that while One United Michigan did not support the BAMN tactics, we agreed with its members that there was substantial fraud used to collect the petitions, and that it is unfortunate Michigan law appears to allow fraud in the collection of signatures for a constitutional amendment.

Write For the Michigan Daily

Got a beef with the Daily? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em:

As the incoming editorial page editors for The Michigan Daily, we’re looking for opinion columnists and cartoonists for the winter term. Columnists publish a roughly 800-word piece on political or social issues once every two weeks, and cartoonists typically draw one editorial cartoon a week. Opinion columns and cartoons are open to both undergraduate and graduate UM students and are by no means reserved for current Daily staff members.

For columnists, we are especially interested in people who can write intelligently and passionately about local issues, whether here at the University or on city and state levels. We are also looking for people who will go out and do reporting for some columns by attending events or interviewing. Columns are more informative and more fun to read when the columnist offers something readers can’t just find by Googling.

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