Below is a brief conversation that took place in Ann Arbor on Thursday, November 9th, 2017, between a former high school student of mine looking for the building where he was supposed to photograph an event at and the parking lot attendant directly across from the building he was looking for.
Student: “Excuse me, I’m looking for 310 South Ashley.”
Parking Lot Attendant: “You mean the weed shop? That’s down the road.”
My student is black and according to him and many of my former students at Ypsilanti Community High School, feeling judged or unwelcome is not an uncommon experience in Ann Arbor. One example of supporting data is from the MLive article released in January of 2019, Low-income, black students see more suspensions at Ann Arbor Schools, which says, “About 16.4 percent of Ann Arbor's high school students in 2015-16 were black, and 43.5 percent of high school students suspended that year were black.” As a result of this and more, many students return to their community schools, in my case Ypsilanti, but after count day, which means AAPS gets the funding and YCS gets the student, furthering opportunity gaps, stereotypes and segregation.
