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Thursday, May 17, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR

I miss the old Kanye

As my Black Twitter time-

line blew up with Bill Cosby 

memes and “now this” videos 

about yet another act of violence 

against someone Black, my heart 

dropped to see Kanye West. I 

had recently seen a picture of 

him wearing a MAGA hat posing 

with two other politicians and I 

feared for anything he might say 

to make things worse. Neverthe-

less, I opened the video and tried 

to brace myself for whatever he 

might say. What followed were 

feelings of shame and disap-

pointment. Kanye had done 

the unthinkable, claiming that 

slavery was a “choice” for 400 

years. This was something that I 

may have expected from Stacey 

Dash but coming from the same 

man who released “The Col-

lege Dropout” I was devastated. 

It’s no secret that Kanye has 

long been on the bad side of the 

Black community, but this was 

something that even the biggest 

Kanye critic would have never 

seen coming.

The video spread like wild-

fire, instantly creating a war on 

two fronts. On one side there 

were the people who felt deeply 

offended and disappointed by 

Kanye’s remarks. For them this 

was the last straw, Kanye had 

not just fallen from grace — he 

crashed and burned. On the 

other side were the “stans” who 

tried to rationalize his remarks 

and look for the deeper meaning 

in his poorly worded statement. 

Many made posts about how 

they felt if there were so many 

slaves they should have easily 

overpowered their oppressors. 

While this may seem like a legit-

imate argument at first glance, it 

is very easy to forget the physi-

cal, mental and financial distress 

the people were under. Stripped 

of all resources, only given what 

was provided by a tyrant who 

was considered your owner. 

Over 150 years later, it is easy to 

look at sheer numbers and say 

what “should’ve” been done, not 

to mention how easy it is to over-

look the numerous revolts and 

uprisings that did occur during 

this time. We will never be able 

to put ourselves in the shoes of 

our ancestors and for that rea-

son alone it is not and will never 

be our place to speak on what 

should have and could have been 

done. As my mind filled with 

thoughts and emotions concern-

ing the remarks and how we got 

here, what came to the forefront 

of my mind were not the words 

of Kanye, but those of my broth-

er many years prior.

“When he lost the bear, he lost 

me.” These were my brother’s 

final words on his relationship 

with Kanye West. Following 

the release of the 2007 album 

“Graduation” (the final piece 

of the college-themed trilogy 

that also featured “The College 

Dropout” in 2004 and “Late 

Registration” in 2005), Kanye 

no longer incorporated the griz-

zly who came to be known as 

“Dropout Bear” in his music vid-

eos and cover art. After losing 

Dropout Bear, Kanye released 

“808s and Heartbreaks” in 2008 

which proved to show a more 

emotional side of Kanye and 

then “My Beautiful Dark Twist-

ed Fantasy” in 2010, the album 

that many consider the best of 

Kanye’s career. From there he 

released popular albums like 

“Watch the Throne” made with 

Jay-Z in 2011; however, Kanye 

would also release more contro-

versial albums such as “Yeezus” 

in 2013 (believed to be his worst 

album by many fans) and “The 

Life of Pablo” in 2016. No mat-

ter the project, for me and many 

other fans of early Kanye, no 

sound would be as honest and 

true as those during his tenure 

with Dropout Bear.

However, through his good 

and bad, nothing could seem 

to deter Kanye West fans. We 

were in a musical marriage of 

sorts, standing by Kanye for bet-

ter or for worse. We struggled 

with Kanye, continued to make 

excuses for whatever misun-

derstood actions he made and 

overanalyzed every lyric to cre-

ate even more reason to believe 

in his musical genius. However, 

over time, one by one, fans began 

to lose hope that we would ever 

get “the old Kanye” back. Many 

left in silence, some openly 

expressed 
their 
disappoint-

ment but no criticism would be 

more shocking to me than that 

of J. Cole. Releasing the song 

“False Prophets” in 2016, he 

spoke on his former apprecia-

tion of Kanye that bordered on 

allegiance, only to now be lim-

ited to reminiscing about the 

times when he could appreciate 

Kanye’s music. Now two years 

later J. Cole’s words seem to 

have aged like fine wine, a rather 

apt coincidence considering my 

sudden need for a drink after 

hearing Kanye’s remarks.

In the end, it had a good run. 

My relationship with Kanye was 

once that of an adult and baby. 

The adult is amazed by anything 

the baby does no matter how big 

or small and is seldom upset — 

if so, the anger lasts no longer 

than a few minutes. Kanye was 

the musical genius that could 

do no wrong, a beacon of hope 

for hip-hop and a role model 

for the next generation of eager 

MCs. Almost any aspiring MC, 

including myself, had studied 

“Graduation” and could likely 

rap a verse in every song. Now, 

my relationship with Kanye 

has turned into a cycle of disap-

pointment and forgiveness with 

the hope of a return to grace. 

Similar to the way you watch 

“Saturday Night Live” knowing 

that it will never be as funny as 

it was when they had Will Fer-

rell and Jimmy Fallon.

 May. Not only is it the 
time 
for 
Asian 
Pacific 
American Heritage Month 
(APAHM), but the first Mon-
day of this month signifies, 
essentially, the fashion Super 
Bowl formally known as the 
Met Gala. And per usual, in 
addition to other self-pro-
claimed fashion aficionados, 
I sat with both my cellphone 
in hand and Macbook on lap 
perusing Twitter timelines, 
the Vogue magazine website 
and Getty images— review-
ing each celebrity outfit as if 
we are in the New York City 
front lines as esteemed crit-
ics and not regular people on 
comfy sofas.
(My personal favorites, 
but definitely not all of the 
highlights, included SZA, 
Janelle Monáe, Solange, and 
Zendaya. Rihanna is obvi-
ously one of the best dressed 
as one of three co-chairs 
of the Met Gala adorned in 
custom John Galliano with 
Christian Louboutin heels. 
Shoutout to Chadwick Bose-
man for doing THAT for 
menswear.)
This year’s theme for 
the Met Gala was “Heav-
enly Bodies: Fashion and the 

Catholic Imagination”. This 
theme really spoke to me. 
It brings attention to some-
thing quite prevalent to my 
Filipino American upbring-
ing — religion and specifi-
cally Catholicism.
I grew up Catholic like 
many other Filipinx Ameri-
cans, which makes sense 
because the Philippines is 
super Catholic — 85 percent 
of the Philippines is Chris-
tian. I thought nothing of 
how my Filipino roots were 
related to Catholicism before 
coming to college. These 
important aspects of my life 
seemed rather separate. But 
after learning about Phil-
ippine history and culture 
in college, I realized they 
were not mutually exclu-
sive. Though there is a lot to 
say about Christianity in the 
Philippines, and while I am 
definitely not an expert in 
the matter, what I will say is 
that Catholicism was used 
by the Spanish as a tool with 
the ill intention of colonizing 
the Philippines. In succeed-
ing, interestingly enough, 
Catholicism as a whole? was 
transformed in the Phil-
ippines. 
Filipinx 
claimed 
Catholicism in many ways; 
pre-colonial practices were 
mixed with the religion to 

form Folk Catholicism. In 
times of hardship, like the 
People Powers Revolution 
to overthrow former dicta-
tor Ferdinand Marcos, many 
activists used the figure of 
Mother Mary to empower 
themselves. 

I think because of such 
rich context, I have a spe-
cial connection to this year’s 
Met Gala theme. Where 
many of the looks took to 
European art as reference, 
once I caught word of the 
theme, my mind immedi-
ately shifted to the Catholic 
imagery that situates itself in 

many Filipinx and Filipinx 
American 
communities. 
There is the Santo Niño— 
an icon of baby Jesus who is 
often depicted in a beautiful, 
embellished cape. There is 
also Maria Clara — a fictional 
character of the famous Phil-

ippine hero, José Rizal. She 
is the depiction of controver-
sial Filipina beauty based on 
purity in parallel to the Vir-
gin Mary that inspired a new 
sect of fashion. Moreover, I 
am reminded of the subtle 
moments from my life: See-
ing Santo Niño figures along 
with Catholic symbols on 

shelves in my own family’s 
and my extended families’ 
houses, the different pamay-
pays or fans that many would 
use in churches in the Philip-
pines to combat the intense 
heat. Though fashion can 
be thought of something 
superficial, it can be a his-
torical, artistic vehicle for 
social commentary. As I said 
before, there are many com-
plex implications of Catholi-
cism as it exists in Philippine 
culture that I can’t do justice 
in this musing of the Met 
Gala. There is a lot to say 
about how the conversion 
tactics of the Spanish speak 
to a greater conversation sur-
rounding colonialism. Not 
to mention that the effects 
of colonial mentality con-
tinue to perpetuate harm-
ful beauty standards, such 
as colorism and body image, 
in Filipinx and Filipinx 
American 
communities. 
On a slightly different note, 
there is a lot to talk about in 
terms of how some elements 
of Philippine culture before 
colonial rule have endured 
time and transformed Cath-
olic practices to make them 
unique to the Philippines 
and its many regions. Aes-
thetics here can play more 
sacred roles beyond appear-

ance. I myself frequently 
think about how Christian-
ity has influenced the experi-
ences of Filipinx families in 
the United States. But maybe 
those are even more the rea-
sons why I am so fixated with 
the Met Gala’s theme. I feel 
like “Catholic Imagination” 
fits perfectly in how Filipinx, 
and Filipinx Americans by 
consequence, have histori-
cally transformed practice 
while keeping core beliefs 
intact for the most part. It’s 
always fun to chit-chat with 
friends about which celeb-
rities we loved and which 
celebrities we could not be 
bothered with on that. That 
said, this first Monday of 
May had me thinking about 
myself: the fashion lover, the 
Filipino American, and my 
roots. It would have been so 
interesting to see more of 
how Catholicism has meta-
phorized from cultures that 
have experienced oppression 
from conversion like with the 
Philippines, perhaps even 
from a Filipinx designer.
Now, who would I want to 
style for the Met Gala? A cou-
ple of names come to mind. 
Probably 
eternal 
Filipina 
icon Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, 
the former Miss Universe. 
Either her or Bretman Rock.

By CHRISTIAN PANEDA

MiC Senior Editor 

By ANGELO MCKOY

MiC Editor 

PHOTO COURTESY OF PDAVID PHOTOGRAPHY