W

hen I walk Down the streets 
of this

College-town I see 

Hands smashing beer bottles
Friends only of one-another
Screaming chants alien
To my covered ears

I began my freshman year at the 

University of Michigan bright-eyed 
and ready to learn. As the years went 
on, however, I started to realize how 
diversity, equity and inclusion are just 
empty words in a University campaign 
slogan. This was also the first time 
I really felt unsafe as a Muslim in 
America, with incidents of hate only 
getting closer to home, when walking 
home late at night posed real dangers. 
I watched as students, professors and 
administrators dismissed acts of hate 
toward Muslims and other minorities on 
campus, instead of holding one another 
to a higher standard.

I have learned
To be wary
Strain to see
Three streets ahead of me
To see if I feel anyone Is a danger to me
My head covered In a scarf
That tells you I don’t belong here

I 
now 
anticipate 
discriminatory 

actions and hate crimes as if they are 
inevitable. Unfortunately, in my four 
years on campus, I have yet to be proven 
wrong. I quickly learned that students 
of color at the University have to work 
together to create a collective voice for 
there to be any change. I watched as 
students and faculty around me ignored 
the repercussions of such hate. I first 
realized this when major news outlets 
blamed Muslim students for trying to 
“infringe on freedom of speech” over 
the movie “American Sniper” and the 
University failed to protect its students. 
I then began to realize that the story of 
being unheard was interlinked among 
all underrepresented communities on 
campus, and sought to change this.

Posters plastered with DIVERSITY 

EQUITY and INCLUSION ALL FOR YOU

Empty slogans I have yet to see 

become a part of this city.

Though students at the University 

are required to take a class that fulfills 
the Race and Ethnicity requirement, 
the courses are often broad and loosely 
related to race and ethnicity.

I noticed that, although I tried to 

share my own stories as well as the 
experiences of other students of color 
on campus in The Michigan Daily, 
it simply was not enough to create a 
change in the student body.

It is too easy to stay self-segregated 

by race, class and ideology on a campus 
this large. It is much too late to be 
teaching students about diversity if 
they have never learned about it in 
a meaningful way in earlier their 
education.

Every incident of hate may have 

brought me down, but it also taught 
me to self-advocate as a Muslim 
student and as a reporter and writer 
of others’ stories. As I saw these 
incidents unravel around me, I started 

to develop an eye for cases of inequity 
everywhere I went — in and outside of 
Ann Arbor. I started to write, which 
gave me the ability to be articulate 
in writing, especially when voicing 
my opinions was difficult for me. I 
cannot stop talking about inequity, 
and because I believe that issues of 
diversity and equity should be taught 
much earlier, I decided to enter the 
School of Education for secondary 
teaching.

What I found in education, however, 

was even more shocking. As I interned 
in different middle and high schools, 
I saw the stark contrast between 
resources in low-income areas and 
the other schools in my rotation. 
Education, regardless of what level, 
is not equitable across America, and 
without an equitable allocation of 
resources, teaching about these issues 
can feel hypocritical.

As a student-teacher, I live a double-

life, trying to balance teaching with 
learning at the University, and I can 

see how the education system is flawed 
in ways that creates inequalities 
in education, often heavily based 
on demographics. The more I learn 
about students and their perspectives 
on the world, the more important I 
realize it is to both teach and practice 
equity across America. And the first 
step in doing this is to stop being 
afraid to try to make changes for a 
better future.

As I move on to becoming a teacher 

and leaving the University, I am 
grateful for what I have learned from 
others because I chose to seek people 
who 
have 
different 
perspectives 

than me, and I hope that I can make 
change, one class at a time.

And I am getting worn from speaking 

into a void, while trying to hold myself 
together in this peculiar world.

But I am trying to ignite that fire inside 

of me.

I am trying to ignite that fire inside of 

me.

2B

Managing Statement Editor:

Brian Kuang

Deputy Editors:

Colin Beresford

Jennifer Meer

Rebecca Tarnopol

Photo Editor:

Amelia Cacchione

Editor in Chief:

Alexa St. John

Managing Editor:

Dayton Hare

Copy Editors:

Elise Laarman

Finntan Storer

Cover Illustrator:

Betsy Stubbs

Wednesday, March 21, 2018// The Statement 

Let’s Talk About It: One class at a time
statement

THE MICHIGAN DAILY | MARCH 21, 2018

BY RABAB JAFRI, COLUMNIST

ILLUSTRATION BY RABAB JAFRI

