Every now and then, there 
is an increase in awareness of 
mental health and wellness 
issues. 
These 
spikes 
in 
attention occur after events 
such as World Mental Health 
Day or a highly publicized 
incident 
of 
suicide. 
Thus, 
it’s extremely important to 
advocate for mental health but 
there are times when people 
fail to be compassionate or 
understanding.
On 
Nov. 
12, 
writer 
and 
singer 
Summer 
Walker canceled most of her 
North 
American 
tour 
due 
to her struggles with social 
anxiety. 
The 23 year old had been 
receiving 
backlash 
from 
some fans who had criticized 
her for not interacting with 
them 
during 
the 
concert 
meet and greets. She has 
a 
strict 
no 
hugging 
or 
touching policy when fans 
meet her which left some 
feeling unappreciated and like 
they were not getting what 
they paid for.
Walker defended herself on 
Instagram and said she avoids 
contact with others due to 
her experience as an empath. 
Being 
an 
empath 
means 

absorbing 
other 
people’s 
energies and feelings, so if 
someone is stressed, she gets 
stressed, and if someone has 
negative energy, she can feel it 
too. Despite this explanation, 
people are still saying that she 
is “scamming” or invalidating 
her mental health issues and 
telling her to do her job.
Some 
fans 
may 
not 
completely 
understand 
her 
reasonings for cancelling the 
tour, but this situation brings 
up an important dialogue 
about the pressures artists, 
especially Black women in 
the 
music 
industry, 
face. 
Black 
women 
in 
America 
are often not taken seriously 
in so many aspects of life, 
especially considering artists 
like Selena Gomez and Ariana 
Grande have canceled tours 
and 
meet 
and 
greets 
for 
mental health reasons and 
were met with understanding, 
not anger. Similarly to the 
terrifying discrimination we 
face when going to the doctor’s 
office and being told our pain 
is just an over exaggeration, 
the dismissal of our struggles 
with mental health is summed 
up to being a ‘scam.’ 
Why can’t other people 
trust us when we say enough 
is enough? Why is it that we 
have to prove our pain and 

struggles for other people to 
sympathize? I want to know, 
would they feel the same way 
if she cancelled her tour due 
to a broken leg or a bad case 
of the flu? I doubt it, because 
as a society, we do not look 
at health holistically. Taking 
care of yourself is more than 
drinking water and eating 
vegetables. It’s also knowing 
your limits and taking a step 
back when things become 
overwhelming.
There 
needs 
to 
be 
an 
understanding 
of 
personal 
boundaries 
that 
people 
create to protect themselves. 
Although being a celebrity 
is known as a position of 
privilege, and in many ways 
it definitely is, there is a lot 
of pressure to open your life 
to the world and accept any 
criticism that comes your way. 
Personally, I’m very proud 
of Summer for knowing when 
enough is enough and making 
changes in her life to protect 
her own mental health. What 
is the point of anything in life 
if you’re not doing it for your 
own growth and happiness? 
Many people can take a play 
from her book and reevaluate 
what you can cut out of your 
life to make it better for you.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, November 25, 2019 — 3A

Summer Walker and 
Black mental health

CAMILLE MOORE
MiC Blogger

Hey Black child 

Hey Black Child, 
The one that still lingers in 
the body of a twenty-one-year-
old young woman, struggling 
to find her place, do you know 
who you are? To the nine-year-
old girl who struggles with her 
natural hair, do you know who 
you want to be? And to the one-
year-old little girl, still fresh 
and innocent, do you know who 
you can be? 
If you’re listening, I want to 
share something with you. 
My mom made me read a 
book called The DNA Field 
and The Law of Resonance, 
and from viewing the title of 
the book my initial reaction 
was disappointment. The title 
screamed pretentious scientific 
theory, which decreased my 
level of interest. Ever since I 
was young, I never really liked 
science. For me, learning the 
concepts always seemed too 
complicated and I always ended 
up feeling dumb afterward. I’ve 
felt like this for a long time, 
until I gave the book a chance. 
To my surprise, I learned 
something I did understand. I 
learned about the heart. 
I learned that the heart is 
the most powerful generator of 
energy in the human body. The 
heart has an electromagnetic 
field that is 60 times stronger 
than the brain. So corny cliche 
sayings 
like, 
“follow 
your 
heart,” are actually valuable, 
and not just filler lines for the 
endings of Disney movies. The 
book says the power of your 
heart is so strong that if you 
really trust your heart, if you 
really wish with your heart, 
then the things you deeply 
want to manifest are not so far 
behind or out of reach. 
Initially I thought this was 
so cool, but then reality settled 
in. The soft voice that grew up 
but remained tied to my being, 
asked me a question. The Black 
child within me asked, “Why 
did we stop trusting our heart?” 
That was a valid question and 

called for a moment of self 
reflection. Black child, we grew 
up. We started trusting our 
brain over our heart. 
But that’s not all we did. 
We were forced to grow up. 
Black child, we were forced 
to recognize our place in the 
world. And by place, I mean 
the place in which society has 
tried to keep us stagnant. We 
had to learn how to conduct 
ourselves in a society that 
continuously 
monitors 
and 
judges our behavior. We had to 
learn how to breathe in a world 
where the air is so heavy and 
polluted with stereotypes. We 
had to learn that no matter the 
complexion of our pigment, we 
were still beautiful, no matter 
what the world said. We were 
so preoccupied with learning 
how to heal the wounds that cut 
through our melanin, we forgot 
about our heart. We were so 
busy growing up and learning, 
we simply began relying on 
our mind. We forgot about our 
heart.
But Black child, it’s okay. 
Self-reflection 
is 
good 
and 
leads us into a moment of self 
enlightenment. 
I told you in the beginning I 
was going to share something 
with you. 
Black child, I want you to 
know your heart is so strong. 
I hope you never forget that. 
We become so consumed in 
growing up and trying to 
become what we want to be, 
we’ve settled with the power 
of our minds. But the same way 
your mind can help you finish 
an exam and write a paper, your 
heart can help you manifest 
anything you want. 
Black child, remember the 
cliche disney lines that tell you 
to be true to your heart, because 
this world is tough. Sometimes 
remembering 
to 
love 
your 
melanin is tough and that’s not 
something the mind can teach. 
Keep your heart close because 
it’s been scientifically proven 
that its the strongest force in 
your body. Black child, your 
heart can help you manifest 

who you want to be. 
Black child, we were born 
in this skin for a reason. Your 
skin is divine. The way your 
hair kinks, coils, and curls in 
its own order is divine. The way 
your skin glistens boldly under 
the sun, is divine. The way you 
rise like the sun time and time 
again, is the heart of a divine 
child. 
You’re going to learn that 
there are stereotypes about you 
that aren’t true. You’re going to 
learn to navigate this world that 
feels like it loves the aesthetic 
of your culture, but couldn’t 
care less about you. But Black 
child, as you learn with your 
mind I want you to remember 
that your heart is your greatest 
power. 
 When they call you ghetto 
for dancing the way you dance, 
it’s easy to let those words 
marinate in your mind. But 
remember the sacred rhythm 
between you and your heart. 
No one hears it but you, so keep 
dancing. Let that remind you 
of who you are. When they tell 
you you’re too loud and you find 
yourself trying to be quieter, 
don’t let it consume you. Don’t 
let it marinate your mind. Sing 
your song from the roof to the 
mountain tops. You are not 
loud, you are not ghetto, your 
heart is just creating a world 
where you can be who you want 
to be. You are your own order 
and you are divine. 
Don’t think what you can be, 
feel what you can be. 
Black child, it’s okay to 
grow, 
it’s 
okay 
to 
flaunt 
your 
intelligent 
mind, 
but 
please remember your roots. 
Remember your heart and that 
it is full of life and nutritious 
like fruit. 
Hey Black child, one last 
thing,
In the words of Countee 
Cullen, “Hey Black child, do 
you know who you are? Do 
you know who you really are? 
Do you know you can be what 
you want to be?” Just ask your 
heart, not your mind, and your 
manifestations will come easily.

With the release of Marvel 
and DC movies, superheroes 
have experienced a meteoric 
rise in popularity. Since the 
reintroduction of comics into 
mainstream pop culture, the 
superhero 
genre 
has 
been 
subject to all the usual questions 
of diversity. (Notably, it wasn’t 
until 2018 that Marvel finally 
introduced its first film to star a 
non-white superhero.)
Comics 
giant 
Marvel 
attempted to address this issue, 
with new, diverse characters 
taking on the names of iconic 
heroes. After Carol Danvers 
took on the moniker Captain 
Marvel, a Pakistani American 
teen becomes the new Ms. 
Marvel. When Bruce Banner lies 
dying from radiation poisoning, 
a 
Korean 
American 
named 
Amadeus Cho turns into the 
next Hulk.
However, all this progress 
seemed doomed to come to 
a grinding halt. Marvel had 
been 
accused 
of 
pandering 
in 
their 
creation 
of 
these 
new superheroes. In a 2017 
interview with ICv2, Marvel 
sales executive David Gabriel 
said, “What we heard was that 
people didn’t want any more 
diversity. They did not want 
female characters out there. 
That is what we heard, whether 
we believe that or not. I do not 
know that that is really true, but 
that’s what we saw in sales.”
“We saw the sales of any 

character that was diverse, any 
character that was new, our 
female 
characters, 
anything 
that was not a core Marvel 
character, people were turning 
their nose up against. That was 
difficult for us because we had 
a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas 
that we were trying to get out 
and nothing new really worked,” 
Gabriel said 
Gabriel’s statements sparked 
much backlash, and it seems, 
two years after the interview, 
that Marvel has reversed its 
stance. As part of a storyline 
event, Marvel released a series 
called The New Agents of Atlas. 
The comics star an unlikely team 
of Asian and Asian American 
heroes who team up across 
several Asian metropolises to 
save the world.
Agents of Atlas demonstrates 
what representation can be: 
Their identity is an important 
part of their character, but is 
not the only thing that defines 
them and often presents subtly. 
The team challenges the myth 
of the monolithic Asian and 
combats the oft-cited criticism 
that casting a person of color is 
merely a cosmetic choice. Their 
individual ethnic identities can 
be essential to their character. In 
the case of White Fox, her name 
isn’t just a colorful moniker: 
she is a kumiho, a magical 
nine-tailed fox straight out of 
Korean mythology. Meanwhile, 
Shang Chi and Crescent are 
masters in martial arts from 
their respective countries. And 
Luna Snow is a double threat, 
working as both a K-pop singer 

and a superhero.
As a Chinese American, I was 
thrilled to finally be able to see 
parts of myself and my friends, 
especially 
in 
the 
smallest 
things. From mentions of lack of 
fluency in the “mother tongue” 
to popular dishes, the comics 
serve up an authentic depiction 
of Asian and Asian American 
culture. One great example is 
when the team goes into hiding, 
all they have to eat is spam. 
They eagerly make good use 
of it, making spam fried rice, 
spamsilog, and spam musubi – 
dishes that are popular in the 
Philippines and Hawaii.
After New Agents of Atlas, 
Marvel brought the heroes back 
in a five-part series Agents of 
Atlas. Now, we’re nearly at the 
close of that series. (Issue #4 
was released on November 13.) 
So, what’s next? 
I’m 
hoping 
that 
Marvel 
will make Agents of Atlas a 
permanent part of their lineup. 
It’d be a good opportunity to 
explore the new characters 
it’s created, like Wave, its first 
Filipina hero. And these two 
series have already successfully 
brought niche characters – like 
White Fox, who was created for 
Marvel’s foray into webtoons, 
Korean webcomics – into the 
main Marvel universe. 
Most importantly, Agents of 
Atlas has proven that a win for 
representation can be a win for 
Marvel, too.

Agents of Atlas as 
Agents of Change

YASMEEN LUDY
MiC Blogger

ELIZA HO
MiC Blogger

Yasuke

Black 
history 
does 
not 
begin 
with 
commodification.It has existed and thrived in 
many parts of the world before the Trans-Atlantic 
Slave trade. This is more evident with people 

such as “Yasuke,” otherwise known as the first 
Black Japanese Samurai. Arriving from Kyoto, 
Japan in the year 1579 as a servant for European 
missionaries, Yasuke gained the attention from the 
Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga. The warlord was 
so impressed by his charcoal skin, beautiful features 
and physique that Yasuke became Oda Nobunaga’s 
Samurai uniting Japan until 1582.

KEVIN MOORE
Featured Artist

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF KEVIN MOORE

