Perfection Personified: Derrick Duren

Name: Derrick A. Duren

Age: 19

Hometown: Tara Hills, CA. East SF Bay Area.

Major: Communication and Film & Media Studies Double Major 

Year: Second

Relationship Status: Contently single

Favorite Music Genres: Chillwave, R&B

Secret Talent: I can walk out the door in a trash bag and still ooze self-confidence. This is partly because the only opinion I’m worried about is my own and partly because I’ve always been intrigued by the waxy texture of heavy duty trash bags.

What’s the first thing you notice about someone? The first thing I notice about someone is their eyes. A person’s eyes are the only part of their physical body that will inevitably spill the truth tea about who that person is, what drives them, and whether or not their intentions are positive. It’s like Tupac says: Real eyes, realize, real lies.

Pet Peeves? The sound of styrofoam on styrofoam friction, when they run out of mac & cheese at the Soul Food Spot, pretentious music junkies, people who mock what they don’t understand, people at concerts who are only there to boost their social media presence, hypermasculine barbers and the infamous “I don’t see color. We’re all just people” ideology.

What do you look for in an ideal partner? I look for someone who has an amazing sense of humor, confidence, ambition, social awareness, mad explosive spontaneity, realness and someone who can expose me to new ideas and experiences. I wanna feel like you’re interested in getting to know me from the inside out. 

What sort of extracurriculars are you involved in on campus? I’m the RA of the Santa Rosa Wellness Floor, the Co-Chair of Black Quare (a safe space for people who identify as black & LGBTQIAP), a member of the Photography Club & Modeling Association, a pupil in an Afro-Brazilian Dance Class. I also like to work on mini creative projects involving writing, performance art and social justice issues. 

If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? I would have to go with the reformation of our education system. It is oppressive for low-income students (primarily students of color) to have a third of the resources, class options, opportunities, professional networks, etc. that privileged students have at their disposal. Without an adequate education, these forgotten students are ill-equipped to elevate themselves and achieve a better life. We need education reform in order to stop this oppression from progressing through generations of minority communities. I would create a more complex education system that meets the specific needs of individual students, rather than using disciplinary action and restriction of resources as a means of shoveling students of color into unemployment lines, low-paying jobs, and prisons.