Wednesday, February 7, 2018 // The Statement
6B
Dear future Michigan in Color editors
T
he Michigan in Color of today
is not the same as the one of
yesterday, or even the one
of tomorrow. From radical
column to bona fide Daily section, MiC
continues to grow to meet the needs of
communities of color across campus.
Along with sharing the narratives of the
lives of students of color, we are expand-
ing to focus on lighter content with com-
mentary on pop culture and a new blog
and podcast. In honor of MiC’s four-year
anniversary, we wanted to pay tribute
to the amazing women who founded this
space, the editors who helped us grow and
the future we have left to create.
*****
Written in 2014
D
ear Future Michigan in
Color Editors,
We are so excited to
welcome you to the MiC
family. We know that you are going to
have an amazing time with this magi-
cal space, and we have no doubt that you
will be overwhelmed with the amount
of love, affirmation and knowledge that
you will gain from your experience.
Before you start serving those who will
interact with our space, we want the
opportunity to first serve you by telling
you MiC’s story…
We created MiC because we believe
wholeheartedly in the power narrative
has to facilitate social change, so we feel
it is appropriate and necessary to include
the MiC (hi)story in this constitution:
Rima: The week before my senior year
began I was at my apartment on Thomp-
son street talking to my mom on the
phone. My mom is an avid novel reader,
and she was telling me about how eth-
nocentric the novels she reads are and
how she would love for someone to start
a publication that was devoted to publi-
cizing the narratives of people of color
to make readers aware of the multi-
tude of experiences that fall under this
umbrella. She said: “Take us for exam-
ple. Someone could write a book about
being an Arab American from Dearborn
and just walk us through their every-day
lives. It doesn’t even have to be heavy! It
could simply be about the food the char-
acter eats, or the way she interacts with
her family. My point is, I’ve been read-
ing the same perspective and I just want
something different! People should be
aware of other experiences and people
of color should be the ones writing about
their own lives.”
This idea, that the dominant nar-
rative excludes and silences people of
color’s voices, should sound very famil-
iar because it is the premise of Michigan
in Color. Its truth was the reason we
approached the Daily with our vision
for the column. But MiC didn’t come
with the snap of our fingers, and as your
founding editors, we want you to keep
MiC’s history in mind as you invest in its
future.
R
ima: I grew up in Dear-
born, Michigan — home to
the largest concentration
of Arabs in one city outside
of the Middle East. Ironically, I didn’t
realize how “Arab” I was until I came
to Michigan, a school that is 72 percent
white. I spent my first three years trying
to understand why I felt uncomfortable,
and realized really early on that I wasn’t
alone in feeling this way, that most peo-
ple of color do not feel represented or
welcome on Michigan’s campus. Plac-
es like the Michigan Daily, a publica-
tion even whiter than U of M, made me
especially uncomfortable, but I really
believed in the necessity of a column
where people of color could share their
stories. I felt that my campus’s publica-
tion should make room for a space like
this if it was going to claim to be rep-
resentative of all students on campus.
I first approached the Daily expressing
interest in one of their columnist posi-
tions because I love to share my opin-
ions (who knew?) and I felt the position
could help me make connections within
the Daily.
I e-mailed the Daily a few times over
the summer about the application and
received no response. When I got to
campus early that Fall, I approached a
[white] Daily staffer about the oppor-
tunity and he responded pretty conde-
scendingly: “We’re no longer accepting
applications for that position and, no
offense, but we usually only offer those
positions to really important people.
Like students who are really heavily
involved on campus. You can still join
edit-board though if you’re interested
in writing for Opinion.” I was extremely
confused by this man’s response con-
sidering he didn’t even know my name,
but I thanked him anyway and decided
I would join edit-board because it was
the only way I could be involved with
the Daily and possibly forge relation-
ships with people who might believe in
my vision.
After the first few edit-board meet-
ings, I realized that biting my tongue
was something I would have to get used
to doing while in the student publication
building. After all, that’s what the other
two POCs in the room did — even when
[white] people on edit-board said crazy
things like: “Race isn’t a thing — it’s a
social construct. Because it’s not biologi-
cally a thing, I’m not going to treat it like
it’s a thing,” or “Detroit is useless. We
should just burn the whole city down,”
or “What the hell is the point of diversity
education and why do we talk so much
about it? There’s no point in educating
people about diversity,” and lastly, “Why
do we keep blaming Israel for every-
thing! There are horrible things going
on everywhere in the world - why do
we keep picking on Israel!? (*cries and
shoves gummy bears in her mouth*)”
It made me sick to my stomach to hear
the “leaders and best” saying such igno-
rant, silencing and offensive things. If I
wasn’t already convinced walking into
the Publication Building, my few weeks
with edit-board furthered my convic-
tion in starting our column. I couldn’t
keep my mouth shut for long though.
O
ne day, a staffer sent out an
e-mail to the entire Daily
staff likening an annual
Michigan
Daily
football
match to, in his careless words, a “Shi-
ite vs. Sunni rivalry.” At this point, I was
tired of having to bite my tongue when
it didn’t seem anyone else around me
felt accountable for theirs. I emailed
then Editor in Chief, Andrew Weiner,
because I got a pleasant and friendly
vibe from him; still, I didn’t expect
much, but I hoped he would be respon-
sive to my concerns at the very least.
Sure enough, Andrew set up a meeting
with me and included Zeinab Khalil —
a fierce Daily columnist who was also
extremely triggered by the malicious
email — and the [white] asshole (we’ll
refer to him as WA) who wrote the
email.
The only thing that came out of that
meeting was Zeinab and I realizing
more and more how silencing white
privilege can be, and Andrew recogniz-
ing that the Daily may have a serious
problem with diversity and inclusion.
WA refused to apologize even after
Andrew asked him to several times.
Instead, he raised his voice to try to
intimidate Zeinab and I because he was
very uncomfortable with two women
of color putting him on the defensive.
By the end of the meeting, Andrew still
by the Michigan in Color Founders
One day, a staffer sent out an e-mail
to the entire Daily staff likening an
annual Michigan Daily football match
to, in his careless words, a “Shiite vs.
Sunni rivalry.” At this point, I was tired
of having to bite my tongue when it
didn’t seem anyone else around me felt
accountable for theirs.