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.