You will have to forgive my disjointed, fragmented retelling of this experience. It happened four or five years ago, and at the time, I did not yet see travel for the political act that it is. I did not document it. I was just a young black woman—still a girl, in a lot of ways—on…
“If you ever come to Beijing, you should call me.” At the start of June, we were sitting in my classroom, the day after final exams ended. My student, C—, had stopped by one last time to drop off a gift: a beautiful little black wallet, adorned with azure flowers and a velvet tassel. I’d…