How To Fight Discrimination in Your Own Backyard

Discrimination and prejudice in general have always been prominent topics, but recently they have been brought into the light even more.  The dangerous and unfortunate consequences they bring have become more and more evident. Being a Muslim American myself, I have felt the ramifications directly.  Since this topic hits so close to home, I took it upon myself to develop a survey and ask the Kalamazoo community their opinion on how we can, collectively, target discrimination.  The answers I received were substantial, thoughtful, and extremely useful. I picked out a couple that I think we can easily implement and get one, hopefully more, steps closer to achieving a more just society. Concepts like these are so abstract and ingrained that it seems almost impossible to diminish them.  As we all know, the journey to change is not meant to be easy; it is hard, it is tough, and it requires time and patience. Change begins from one person, from one community, and it slowly inspires others to do the same.

So here are some ways to fight discrimination in your own backyard!

  1. “Hold small, local events with diverse groups of the population. Allow time to celebrate the amazing, interesting differences between cultures instead of emphasizing our differences.”
  2. “Encouraging desegregation and intermingling of class, race, religion, and gender/sex.”
  3. “Normalizing minorities in the media, equal treatment and portrayal in our generation will normalize it for generations to come. We also need to continue to speak up and challenge the abuse that is in our culture today. Resisting hate as we see it today will never be a vain battle, although it often feels thankless.”
  4. “This work takes a generation or two of intentional community building through shared meals, worship, creation, music, schooling and grieving.”
  5. “Educating our children on the cultures and religions of the world.”

I urge all of you to take these into consideration because when we are all empowered, we succeed.

This article was written by Tashifa Fayyaz who is a freshman at Western Michigan University studying Public Health.  Her project as an intern was creating a survey for constituents within the Kalamazoo area with an emphasis on discrimination and microaggressions.  

Expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act

Voting Rights in Michigan

Equal access to voting is perhaps the most quintessential element of a democracy. The ability for every citizen to have an equal say in the formation of their government, regardless of social standing, is a right that was foundational to our Constitution. Given the enormous importance of this ability, one would expect there to be explicit constitutional protections at the state level as well as the federal. Unfortunately, this is far from the case. This is particularly true in Michigan, where recent measures by the state congress have actually seen attempts at enacting new restrictions on voting.

Read more

The Affordable Care Act and Michigan

A recent move by members of Congress to vote on repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has left millions of U.S citizens at risk of losing healthcare coverage. While the issue has largely become a political talking point on both sides of the aisle, what often gets lost in the debate is the true level of impact, both positive and negative, this legislation has actually had. These numbers become especially important when considering where Michigan and other states should stand in the debate.

Read more


Suppose you are applying for the position of CEO at a company. As part of the interview process, you must meet with ten of the company's shareholders for a Q&A session. Prior to the interview, you are given a list of every shareholder along with who their preferred applicant is for the position. You are then told you can select seven of the ten shareholders who will be present for your interview. Naturally, you pick seven shareholders who favor you and you get the job. The seven you selected, however, were out of a pool of 100 shareholders, only 40 of which thought you were the best candidate for the position. This means that despite only 40% of the company favoring you, you still got the job. In effect, this is what gerrymandering does to elections.

Read more

The Gay Purge in Chechnya


100. That’s the number of gay men that are estimated to have been abused, tortured, beaten, or killed by police forces in Chechnya since December of 2016, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, an independent advocacy group. Though these abuses first occurred in 2016, reports of them were not widely publicized until April of 2017, when a Russian opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, published the story. Since then, news of the attacks has gained international attention with foreign leaders and advocacy groups calling on Chechnya and Russian president Vladimir Putin to conduct an investigation into the allegations. Despite the numerous reports filed by victims of the attacks, however, there have yet to be any convictions or even arrests of those responsible. The Russian Federal government insists this is because only anonymous reports have been made.

Read more

The Problem with Chechnya