At Michigan in Color, we have the privilege to share many important narratives of students of color on campus. One of my favorite parts of my job is working with these individuals — listening to their unique voices. But one of my other favorite parts of working at MiC is listening to the wild banter among me and my fellow editors about all things pop culture.
Some topics include:
- Critiques about the MET gala and celebrity fashion choices
- Live Grammy commentary
- Our embarrassing pasts on Tumblr
- The social justice implications of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times”
Yeah, some conversations are obviously not at all serious, but they’ve been fun and important nonetheless. And a lot of the time, these conversations have prompted me to think more about my position as a person of color navigating through pop culture that is constantly evolving in our digital age.
Off the Record comes from former MiC managing editors DeMario Longmire and Toni Wang. They’re honestly some of the funniest people I’ve ever met, while at the same time some of the smartest people in a room. While I was a first-year student, they wanted to start a podcast that revolved around their reactions of events on campus and pop culture at large. The podcast never took off, but the concept was so enticing to me.
And so, this is a start to a new direction to MiC. As MiC is expanding, we wanted to give way to more lighthearted, yet critical content, as well as opportunities for multimedia. Off the Record is a blog-esque platform for exactly that. We publish many serious, important articles, and we recognize a need to publish the interesting pop culture rants and reactions too.
From all the praise to PoC-friendly brands to the unpacking of your problematic fav and things that fall in-between, those will be Off the Record.
If you’re a student of color and interested in writing this sort of content, please feel free to reach out by emailing us at michiganincolor@umich.edu.
Michigan in Color looks forward to all the rants, roasts and reacts.