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September 23, 2019 - Image 3

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily

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As a freshman at the
University of Michigan in
2011, Carlina Duan didn’t
know what the term “person
of color” meant.
“I wasn’t keyed into that
way of speaking as much.
I’m not sure the campus was
either.”
Campus
was
pre-2016
election,
and
Michigan
in Color, the section of
The Michigan Daily that
Duan
would
eventually
manage, had just started
as a column housed under
the Opinion section. Maybe
in part due to the political
climate of the time, Duan
said the conversations on
campus about race felt more
muted then compared to
today. Those conversations
also lacked a centralized
platform –– a signal that

there
was
a
space
for
Michigan in Color to fill.
“I think there was a
hunger for narratives that
people had overlooked ––
prior there was really no
space for people to think
about storytelling from that
perspective.”
Soon after Michigan in
Color’s founding, the term
“person of color” became a
part of Duan’s daily lexicon,
as she helped grow Michigan
in Color from a column to a
full-fledged section of The
Michigan Daily while also
becoming
of
the
Daily’s
most prolific writers. Her
piece “Our sacrifice, our
shame,” which was written
in 2014, remains the most-
read MiC piece in its history.
The piece garnered over 150
positive comments online
––
a
rarity
for
writers
publishing
radical
words
about race.

Her writing career was
only beginning. Since her
graduation in 2015, Duan
has
written
a
book
of
poetry, received her MFA
from
Vanderbilt,
and
is
now teaching an English
125 class at the University
while pursuing her PhD
–– successes she attributes
largely to the community
she created at the Daily.
“I
think
that
I
was
really excited about the
possibilities
that
MiC
showed me –– that writing
can kind of transform others
and myself.”
Duan’s research concerns
pedagogical strategies for
using creative writing as
activism –– a topic that
in turn examines the role
people of color play in
teaching an audience about
identity. While Duan said
she hopes she can instill
a sense of activism in her

students, she knows there is
no way for them to embody
her own lived experiences, a
limit to teaching impossible
to cross.
Coupled
with
the
complexity of being one of
the few Asian Americans
in
the
creative
writing
PhD
program,
identity
has become one of the
more salient aspects of her
teaching career thus far.
“I think a lot about how
there
are
experiences
my
students
will
never
understand. But I think
about
the
classroom
as
a space in which I can
incorporate
different
questions in literature that
many students might have
never encountered,” Duan
said. “We think a lot about
language as ideology and
language as action. I try and
introduce text and writers
and
thinkers
into
their

world that might ask
certain questions that
can help them think
about activism.”
But
in
teaching
her
lived
experiences became
a
vulnerability
to
tokenizing as well as
a partial release in
ownership of her own
personal experiences.
As a minority in the
English department,
Duan
said
it
is
important for herself
to balance her desire
to teach about identity
with the protection of
her own experiences.
Though she is now a
teacher, it is not her
responsibility to use
her
experiences
to
teach people about
race.
“It
can
be
frustrating
to
be
looked at as the only
one of the experts in
the room, but I feel
very strongly about
kind of keeping for
myself a certain set
of experiences to protect
myself from feeling used and
tokenized,” Duan said. “It’s
not my personal obligation
educate everyone on specific
lived experience.”
Being
a
PoC
writer
doesn’t only run the risk of
tokenization, Duan said. It
can also take a toll on mental
health. The process of first
exploring and then sharing
deeply personal experiences
can be draining and difficult,
so much so that it’s a “radical
and
super
revolutionary
act,” Duan said. But she
stressed that to help remedy
these difficulties, a sense
of community is important.
By
actively
remembering
the women who paved the
way for her to be able to
write about race, Duan said
the sense of solidarity she
feels helps her remember
the radical importance of
writing.

“I try and keep a kernel of
why I began to write in the
first place,” Duan said. “So
much of that for me is about
community
and
I
think
there are a lot of narratives
that come from the fairly
westernized and fairly white
cannon of literature that
writers should be solitary
figures who exist to produce
and produce. I feel really
accountable to writing with
other people.”
Despite these practices,
the act of writing about
race continues to be very
difficult,
especially
for
those who choose to make
writing their career in a
society that doesn’t reward
writers in the same way it
rewards other professions.
This stigma is one of the
main reasons Duan decided
to become a teacher –– she
entered the field through
empowering teachers and
she wants to do the same for
others.
“Our
society
doesn’t
really believe in writers as
being able to make it and be
“productive” –– whatever
that means. Yet, writing
exists as a way for me to
chisel
away
at
different
questions
that
have
to
do with how I want to be
generative and generous and
productive.”
And
for
the
current
students
who
also
want
writing
to
be
their
mechanism for productivity
and generosity?
“Know your stories don’t
exist in a vacuum. What MiC
is doing is building its own
cannon and letting people
write alongside a lineage
to which they can feel a
sense of duty and gratitude.
Each story is a part of a
community.”
Maybe this story is a part
of that community, too.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, September 23, 2019— 3A

Earthly bodies ravage
moon
cakes and warm their
bellies
with salted suns —
evidence
that the universe is eating
itself.

Outside, the trees strip raw.
Children bruised with
sidewalk
clamor for pieces of red-
orange
luck. Sticky hands close
around stickier air.

And then there are the
stars,
the aunts and their -ologies
to explain away my future.
What an auspicious match
you’ll make! I tongue the
carcass
of a persimmon, yearning
for youth left behind in
hot summer haze.

ELIZABETH LE
MiC Columnist

Festival

CARLY RYAN
Managing MiC Editor

No matter your age or how
you identify, you’re likely a
huge Beyonce fan. This year
she released her documentary,
“Homecoming”
on
Netflix
that followed her rehearsals
and ultimate performance at
Coachella (renamed Beychella
by the Hive) in April of
2018 as the headliner. She
released her “Homecoming”
album, which featured the
remake of Maze and Frankie
Beverley’s famous “Before I
Let Go”, which was added to
everyone’s playlists for family
barbeques. Fast forward to
now, there seems to be an
obsession with picking apart
celebrities’ Instagram photos,
in particular Beyonce’s, to
decide if she is “expecting”
or not. The internet is pretty
quick to turn little things into
trending topics on Twitter,
and
recently,
Beyonce’s

“weight gain” has caused
speculation.
Another Black woman that
has once again taken over
the
industry
is
Rihanna.
Her
“Fenty
Beauty”
line
continues
to
fly
off
the
shelves of cosmetic stores
and her fashion-line “Fenty”
is growing. As she is busy
building
an
empire,
she
recently hosted her charity
Diamond Ball, and the talk
surrounding her success this
year was unmatched with
the Internet’s rave about the
appearance of her stomach.
Once again, the question of
if Rihanna was expecting
became
a
worldwide
conversation on social media.
But, there was not much
talk around how both of
these women’s privacy was
being invaded, considering
that much of the pregnancy
rumors were due to both
women appearing to have
gained
weight.
These
reactions
made
me
think

about
the
motherhood
mandate,
specifically
in
Rihanna’s case. The mandate
consists of the idea that
bearing children is essential
to a female’s life; not having
children would challenge her
womanhood, thus feeling less
like a woman. Motherhood is
special to those who choose to
and are able to bear children,
but it can limit those who
do not want children due to
societal pressures through
social media, for instance.
Both Rihanna and Beyonce
have surpassed the peak of
their
careers,
but
people
still questioned the ultimate
thing that would make their
lives (or the lives of fans)
complete: having a child. It’s
almost as if society wants to
see celebrities have children
for their pleasure and for
the aesthetic, but it isn’t that
simple, nor should it be.
With the rise of the trend
of posting pictures of babies
online and the struggles new

moms go through, it can be
a virtual support system for
aspiring mothers. But simply
using a “woman’s instinct”
to claim that a woman is
pregnant is close-minded and
dangerous; this is an example
of a reaction on social media to
both Rihanna and Beyonce’s
recent photos. Women can
experience miscarriages and
difficult
pregnancies
that
affects their mind, body, and
soul mentally and physically,
which is why they often
do
not
announce
they’re
expecting until months into
their pregnancy.
Additionally,
why
is
weight
gain
automatically
correlated with pregnancy?
Experiencing weight gain can
come from numerous reasons,
and it does not have to be
explained to anyone. It isn’t
fair to expect any woman to
look a certain way their entire
life. Pictures do not give away
all the answers. Celebrities
are in the spotlight all the

time, but society should be
careful not to assume that
any woman is pregnant (or
ask) due to weight gain and
deceiving photos that can be
manipulated.
I appreciate all mothers;
my own mother has balanced
work life with raising my
brother and I in ways I still
don’t fully understand, but
will
forever
be
grateful
for. But, it is important to
recognize that those who are
not mothers are visible in
society, and are not mothers
for
personal
reasons
like
focusing on their career.
Let’s
celebrate
mothers
and non-mothers and not
put down one over the other
for the decisions they make.
Recognize the beauty in both
lives. Be careful when picking
apart
photos,
or
simply
making assumptions about
one’s body because words can
be harmful.

Okay, I’m gonna be honest
here: I used to be such a
Disney fangirl. I think most
girls were. I lived for Disney
Princess movies more than
anything, though. And when
The Princess and The Frog
came out, I was ecstatic.
A
Black
Disney
Princess.
Finally. And though Disney
has entered a new phase of
princess movies with the
goal of making them fleshed-
out,
independent
female
characters
(actually
make
them the heroines of their
own story), I’ll always love

the older ones. And Disney
knows I’m not the only one,
so they’re remaking them in
live-action knowing people
will come out to watch them.
Which brings me to the point
of this piece: The new live-
action Ariel is going to be
Black.
Not
gonna
lie,
my
first
reaction
was
more
exasperation than anything.
At that time, I’d been a little
tired of the idea of making an
originally white character,
seemingly on a whim, a
different ethnicity. It just
looked like a money grab to
me, which it probably is to an
extent. They know that Black

people will come out to see
this movie for the single fact

that the lead is going to be
Black. Yes, it’s representation,
but it didn’t feel right to me.
I could understand why some
people were upset by it. You

grew up with this character
and this image of them that

you hold in your mind. And
now they’re changing things
about this character.
But after thinking about
it and its implications as

well as asking people for
their opinions, I came to
the conclusion that it really
wasn’t what I was making
it out to be. In the Tale of
the Little Mermaid, her race
has absolutely nothing to do
with the story. It would be
one thing to make Merida
from “Brave” Black, because
she’s a Scottish princess. Not
to say there aren’t Scottish
Black people now, there are,
but I doubt there were in the
time period Brave took place
in, so it would be completely
inaccurate and offensive at
that point. Being Scottish is
essential to Merida’s story
and the way it’s told. From

the accents to the way people
dress, Brave is a story that can
only be told the way it is.
Ariel’s story, on the other
hand, is not tied to the color
of her skin nor is the plot tied
to a specific period in time
the way Brave is. It’s about
her curiosity and desire to be
human. Once people can get
past their initial reactions
to the race change, they’ll be
able to enjoy the new take on
the old tale and the positive
impact another Black princess
will have on young Black girls
everywhere.

MICHAELA MINNIS
MiC Columnist

CHINWEOKE EZEOKOLI
MiC Columnist

The danger of the motherhood mandate

So Ariel is Black

In the Tale of the Little Mermaid,
her race has absolutely nothing to do
with the story.

Learning
from our
lineage: In
conversation
with Carlina
Duan

PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTHOR

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