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22-05-2025
- Entertainment
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U-M Dearborn's Black Celebratory honors students who've achieved so much
What's in a name? In most cases, simply replying 'a lot' would suffice. But in the case of an annual event held at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a name represents more than I could ever have known. Since 2012, U-M Dearborn's annual Black Celebratory has been held on the last Thursday of April, a few days ahead of the university's commencement ceremony. This event is the highlight of my year, and as a U-M Dearborn alum, I've had the privilege to either host or co-host the Black Celebratory each year since its inception. The Black Celebratory is unique and sacred, and it accomplishes three things: 1) Recognizes and celebrates the academic success of African American students, 2) Provides an opportunity for campus faculty, staff, family and friends to honor graduating seniors. 3) Serves as a reunion-like reminder that upholding black excellence is a collective responsibility. Minutes after the program is over, especially in the early years, I'll often be asked by students' parents why I want to host or be part of this event every year. I smile, and tell them the simple answer: It's fun, and it's not about me, it's about the students. As host or co-host, it's my job to read each student's name and accomplishments with enthusiasm ― and this comes easily and naturally to me, simply because of what each name represents. Many students also add notes about their academic accomplishments, post-graduation plans, or details about their lives. The students each make their way down the illustrious red carpet, then onto the stage where they are greeted by a faculty member from the African and African American Studies department and given an authentic Kente stole, made in Ghana, that officially becomes part of their graduation attire. More from Freep Opinion: DEI isn't about hiring quotas. It's about opportunity. U-M Dearborn has the same high academic standards as the Ann Arbor campus, but it attracts a different student body. Students at U-M Dearborn may be making their families proud by being the first to graduate college. Others are nontraditional students who began their education, and then returned years later to finish and receive their degrees. Or they may be working professionals seeking degrees to advance career or personal goals. As a commuter campus, it's a good fit for students who are juggling life and college. Many, if not all, of the graduates worked and went to school while maintaining academic scholarships, their standing on the dean's list and other academic honors, and participated in clubs or other campus groups. Some accomplished this in addition to being husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. In the early years of the event, the students being recognized were primarily receiving undergraduate degrees. But, over the years, those receiving their master's and doctoral degrees have participated in the celebratory. I have had the honor to read their names, too, totaling well over 500 individuals since 2012. Black excellence, indeed. More from Freep Opinion: Detroit principal teaches students about character, opportunity — and college But this year was extra special. There's the underlying current of diversity, equity and inclusion being challenged by the current presidential administration. In fact, in weeks prior to the Black Celebratory, the University of Michigan announced the closure of its DEI office, leaving students faculty, staff and alums, including myself, stunned. Monies absorbed within DEI efforts were shifted to the Go Blue Guarantee and the Wolverine Pathways program to help low-income students. I was momentarily concerned about the effects this DEI decision might have on programming such as the Black Celebratory. But the university raised no objections to holding the Black Celebratory, and, as the saying goes, the show must go on. Everyone involved with the event remains committed to celebrating the students who worked so hard to get to this moment. We decided to let the value of the celebratory speak for itself, woven, like Kente, in the words and speeches of students and guest speakers that night. And I'd argue the 10-year anniversary of the unexpected passing of the professor who was the brainchild of this event could not have been timed more perfectly. During this year's celebratory, the video of Dr. Ahmad Rahman, a professor of African and African American studies, was played. The video showed Rahman at the first-ever Black Celebratory in April 2012, giving a speech to explain the significance of Kente. He encouraged graduating seniors to 'remain tight' like Kente, and that all of us should 'lift as we climb.' Timely advice then, and certainly timely advice now. The celebratory has proven its worth and importance on its own. All I literally must do each year is show up, ready to celebrate and honor the latest group of African American students to cross the stage at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I opened this year's celebratory with this African proverb: 'The river may dry up, but she keeps her name.' Changing circumstances and challenges are inevitable, but a name and its meaning never change ― and that alone will always be worth celebrating. Leah Olajide is the newsletter editor for the Detroit Free Press and a university lecturer. Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U-M Dearborn's Black Celebratory recognizes achievement | Opinion
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
With 2027 NFL draft set for DC, will Trump push league to abandon diversity rule?
As Trump attacks diversity and seeks to dismantle organizations that promote it, I ask one simple question. Will Trump require the NFL to abandon the Rooney Rule if they want the draft in the D.C. area? (Editor's note: The NFL's Rooney Rule, adopted in 2003, requires teams to interview one minority candidate for the QB coach position, and at least two minority candidates for vacant head coach, GM and coordinator positions.) Paul Sherzer Livonia More from Freep Opinion: Trump's crypto, the Qatar jet ― will supporters finally admit something's wrong? It is incredibly disappointing to see Republicans in Congress negotiating legislation that would cut Medicaid for millions of Americans while seeking to expand funding for the inhumane immigration policies of this presidency. We do not need to spend billions of dollars to tear immigrants, the vast majority of whom have committed no civil or violent crimes, from our communities and send them to a foreign gulag, all while shredding the U.S. Constitution in the process. By choosing to cut Medicaid to spend billions on harmful mass deportations, our politicians issue a terrible double blow to our healthcare infrastructure — families will lose health coverage and we will lose immigrant health workers. Medicaid finances 41% of births in this country and helps many working Michiganders pay for nursing care and elder care and allows rural hospitals to stay afloat. These cruel policies will harm thousands of Michiganders, and make our communities more vulnerable. Cassandra Williams Farmington More from Freep Opinion: Ghost of Brooks Patterson and specter of Donald Trump collide in Oakland County If you have been searching for some of that $1.89 gas the president has been bragging about — forget it. Per GasBuddy, statewide it is a mirage. Anyone who drives a car knows those numbers are wildly wrong. How is it that this man thinks we can't read gas pump signs? His deviations from reality are not new — factcheckers have found that President Donald Trump has made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims in his first and second terms. The Washington Post documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first presidential term. One theory proposed is that by rapidly flooding us with distorted facts and figures, we won't be able to keep up, and will not be alarmed by any one event. The one event may be heavy cuts to Medicaid. We did not vote for these kind of mind games. We must continue to implore the U.S. Congress to intervene and return sanity to our government. Randy Parmec Redford Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. If you have a differing view from a letter writer, please feel free to submit a letter of your own in response. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump, price of gas, Medicaid cuts, NFL draft, Rooney Rule | Letters
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's crypto, the Qatar jet ― will supporters finally admit something's wrong?
emolument noun /ɪˈmɒl.jə.mənt/ payment for work in the form of money or something else of value. In February, I wrote a column for the Free Press wondering at the 'all-inness' of many of President Donald Trump's supporters. For them, it seems the president can do no wrong, a kind of blanket certainty I've never felt toward any politician in my lifetime. (In fact, that's too limiting; point to any leader in American history and rest assured I've got a gripe or two.) The reactions to my column were fairly revealing. I'm happy to say a large majority of those who got in touch found the column to be on the money. Even some Trump voters thanked me for giving them something to think about. There were also those who took (occasionally profane) issue with my thoughts. They, of course, unwittingly helped make my point. I chose two things that troubled me about Trump 2.0, and for them that was two things too many. At the heart of my column was a challenge to the president's ardent supporters to call out bad behavior when they see it. Friends, such a moment has arrived. More from Freep Opinion: Devin Scillian: I'm mystified by the blind allegiance of Trump supporters In that original dispatch, I described the Emoluments Clause ― the section of the Constitution that prohibits presidents from profiting from the office ― as 'a rancid, rotting carcass in the road.' I was speaking of the president's cryptocurrency money play ― and by the way, not a single one of those who wrote to disparage my column even tried to defend the Trump meme coin. The crypto scheme has only grown in its ugliness. Trump and his family have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars — we'll probably never know from whom — and because surely there was a little more money to be wrung from this morass, the president launched a pay-for-play competition to offer a private dinner with him to the top 220 holders of the coin. ('You can't win if you don't play!') It's worth noting the value of the coin had fallen almost 90% from its high until Trump announced the dinner competition. Voila! The price jumped 58% almost immediately. It's also worth noting that many Americans have lost collective billions trying to jump in and play this shell game that so defines the crypto world. But ahh, the beauty of this thing; while the coin value can bounce around like a neutron, the transaction fees remain a certainty. (Fans of the 1983 film 'Trading Places' may recall this simple explanation of Wall Street largesse: 'No matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke and Duke get the commissions.') The president's sons, meanwhile, are traveling all over the world pushing something called World Liberty Financial. That's the Trump family's crypto exchange launched just before the 2024 election. From Bitcoin mining to releasing meme coins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA, a new study reckons crypto has pushed a breathtaking $2.9 billion into the Trump family vaults. (It adds up quickly when an Abu Dhabi-backed firm announces it's buying $2 billion worth of World Liberty Financial goods.) It leaves us with the nation's chief policymaker on cryptocurrency standing right at the corner of Conflict and Interest. More from Freep Opinion: Ghost of Brooks Patterson and specter of Donald Trump collide in Oakland County All of this makes it all the more stunning when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes to the podium and somehow manages to say, 'I think it's frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service ... This is a president who has actually lost money for being president of the United States.' Ms. Leavitt, a lot of people lose money in crypto, but the president isn't one of them. That was going to be the sum total of this column. But then ... I'm not actually sure what happens when 'a rancid, rotting carcass' decays even further. But whatever is left of the emoluments clause in the Constitution is being slapped in the mouth by the offer of Qatar to give the president a luxury jet to be used as Air Force One. Now, I'll set aside the seeming impossibility of this offer. (That plane would have to be torn apart down to the bolts for it to be scrutinized and likely overhauled for security measures.) But a $400 million gift (a term the president has used himself, helpfully cross-referencing it for legal scholars) clearly flies in the face of the straightforward guardrails laid down by the Founding Fathers. The emoluments clause says that a president cannot accept money or gifts from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. (Congress is, by the way, still a functioning government body. I Googled it to check.) Trump said you'd have to be 'stupid' to turn down the Qatari offer. But I tend to think James Madison and company were onto something. The irony here is that big piles of money and lavish gifts passing back and forth with a wink and a nod are the hallmarks of the swamp that so riled and motivated Trump voters a decade ago. I'm not arguing about tariffs, immigration, inflation, or anything that can be considered a matter of policy debate. I'm talking about deep, dark money, dark money being passed in broad daylight. So, as I did in my first column, I'm wondering aloud if the president's supporters can be the ones to tell the commander-in-chief he's wrong. Some card players have what is known as 'a tell.' I detected a pretty strong tell from the president when he announced that he had reached a trade agreement with the United Kingdom. As he outlined the importance of the deal, he noted, 'We have a lot of investment over there,' and then started talking about golf courses and hotels. It took me a moment to realize he wasn't talking about the United States. In the middle of praising an American trade pact, the president's mind was clearly on Trump Inc. Are you good with that? Devin Scillian is a veteran journalist, author and former Detroit news anchor, serving Detroit viewers for 30 years on WDIV-TV (Channel 4). Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Qatari 747, Trump meme coin: The emoluments clause is dead | Opinion
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pope Leo XIV to succeed Francis as the first American. Tell us what you think.
There's a new pope ... and he's American! Just after 6 p.m. Italian time, white smoke appeared above the Sistine Chapel, indicating that a new pope had been chosen. Little more than 24 hours after the papal conclave began, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago, became the first American pope, taking the name Leo XIV. Leo succeeds Pope Francis as leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Pope Francis died last month. What do you think about the new pope? We'd love to hear from you. Submit a letter to the editor at with "first American pope" in the subject line, and we may publish it online and in print. More from Freep Opinion: As a Jesuit, losing Pope Francis felt a lot like losing my dad More from Freep Opinion: Will papal conclave veer from Pope Francis' legacy of inclusion? This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Leo XIV is first American pope. Tell us what you think | Letters
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump deportations are testing the constitution. We have to fight for our rights.
When times are tough, I like to remind myself that I live in a country where I'm protected by an ironclad constitution from arrest without charge. Whatever hardships arise, at least I cannot be snatched up by government henchmen or hooded goons because of something I said, or wrote. Not without redress. Not without lawsuits, news coverage, protests, firings or prosecution for abuses of power ― the guardrails of American freedom. That assurance is simply not available in much of the world. And the certainty of those protections, right here in the land of the free, seems to be fading in and out like the photograph of Marty McFly's siblings in 'Back to the Future.' More from Freep Opinion: How much of Project 2025 has been implemented? Enough to break us beyond repair. My parents were not born in a place where they were free to have their say. Political imprisonment and suppression of dissent were common where they grew up in Syria, much like many countries from which families emigrate to the U.S. I'd be lying if I said that was the reason my parents immigrated. Their motivations were more about economic opportunity ― the chance to raise children in a place where their futures would be secure. But freedom of speech, due process rights and the unequivocal rule of law aren't just added perks. They are the foundations on which the world's strongest economy was built. So I have a certain duty to deeply appreciate and make the best of what my parents did for me: leaving their families behind, walking away from everyone and everything they knew and traveling to the opposite end of the world to give me a life of freedom and opportunity. But over the last two months, images of hooded and masked agents of the United States government stalking and arresting students ― apparently for their political views ― has thrown every notion of American comfort and security I've ever had into question. Meanwhile, there's strange new leadership back in Syria, too. It's a mess. Decades of dictatorship have finally given way to a fledging new government that is trying to dismantle and rebuild myriad government institutions from the ground up. The country is several years away from its next election. Arrests with ambiguous justification that may be political in nature are still common. And the country's new leaders are struggling to build and hold the trust of the populace every step of the way. Sounds familiar. Far too familiar. More from Freep Opinion: How much of Project 2025 has been implemented? Enough to break us beyond repair. It was a silly, lighthearted joke, I thought. 'Guys, there are ICE agents outside the building asking about me. What do I do? Hide me!' It was April Fools' Day. I was in the mood for some pranking, and a little social experimentation. I'm a Michigan-born U.S. citizen. Most of my friends and co-workers ― certainly my family members ― know that. It would be absurd, previously, to imagine Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to be on the hunt for little old me. But the prank was fairly consistently met with genuine horror. Some were angry with me afterward. And then the reality set in. This is no joke. In addition to seeking comfort in the Constitution, I cope with calamity by turning to humor, and I make no apologies for the prank. But the joke didn't land, for good reason. Our president has sought to end birthright citizenship and has expressed interest in sending 'homegrowns' ― whatever that means ― to a prison in El Salvador. Citizens being targeted by U.S. immigration agents is no longer such a farfetched possibility. It started with Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump Administration's inaugural political detainee, a legal permanent resident married to a U.S. citizen who was arrested because he organized and participated in protests at Columbia University. The U.S. Secretary of State, under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, can trigger the deportation of any non-citizen if their presence is deemed harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests ― a provision the Trump Administration is interpreting very loosely. The case is making its way through the courts, but Khalil, who's never been charged with a crime, is still behind bars, more than 50 days after his March 9 warrantless arrest. He missed the birth of his first child during his inexplicably lengthy detention. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a memo seeking to make Khalil deportable despite his permanent resident status, declared 'I have determined that the activities and presence of these aliens in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.' The memo accused Khalil of 'condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States.' The government has not elaborated on its characterization of antisemitic conduct. The 1952 law that grants Rubio the authority to make such a determination was once declared unconstitutional, back in 1996. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, under President Bill Clinton, was seeking to extradite Mario Ruiz Massieu to Mexico, despite multiple court rulings that prosecutors lacked probable cause to suggest Massieu had engaged in criminal activity. 'Absent a meaningful opportunity to be heard, the Secretary of State's unreviewable and concededly 'unfettered discretion' to deprive an alien, who lawfully entered this country, of his or her liberty to the extent exemplified by this case is, in this court's view, unconstitutional,' wrote U.S. District Judge U.S. District Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. Yes, that's President Donald Trump's late sister. Barry's ruling was overturned months later by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in an opinion written by Samuel Alito, now a U.S. Supreme Court justice, who found that the district court lacked jurisdiction on the matter: 'If plaintiff wished to challenge the efforts to deport him, he was required to exhaust available administrative remedies (in immigration court) and then petition for review in this court.' In 1999, after four years of awaiting a resolution while under house arrest, Ruiz Massieu killed himself. Another heartbreaking historic court ruling seems relevant to the abhorrent trend of indefinitely detaining immigrants. In the 1944 case Korematsu v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Dissenting Justice Frank Murphy, a former Detroit mayor and Michigan governor, found the ruling abhorrent. 'This exclusion of 'all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien,' from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought not to be approved. Such exclusion goes over 'the very brink of constitutional power,' and falls into the ugly abyss of racism,' Murphy wrote in his dissent. 'To infer that examples of individual disloyalty prove group disloyalty and justify discriminatory action against the entire group is to deny that, under our system of law, individual guilt is the sole basis for deprivation of rights. Moreover, this inference, which is at the very heart of the evacuation orders, has been used in support of the abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy. 'To give constitutional sanction to that inference in this case, however well-intentioned may have been the military command on the Pacific Coast, is to adopt one of the cruelest of the rationales used by our enemies to destroy the dignity of the individual and to encourage and open the door to discriminatory actions against other minority groups in the passions of tomorrow.' Since Khalil's March arrest, more immigrants with legal status have been snatched from their communities and face indefinite detention pending potential deportation. Rumeysa Ozturk, an international student from Turkey who co-wrote an op-ed for the school newspaper at Tuft's University, was arrested March 25 by plainclothes agents while walking in a Boston suburb. 'We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses,' Rubio told reporters after the arrest. Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian international student who took part in protests last year at Columbia University, was taken into custody at a Vermont immigration office after being summoned for what he initially hoped would be a final interview before gaining U.S. citizenship. And Rubio moved to revoke the visas of at least 1,000 international students, including students at least five colleges in Michigan. In the face of numerous lawsuits filed by students, with courts showing signs of losing patience with the administration, the administration reversed course on those revocations last week. But the damage has been done. Some of the students whose visas were threatened have already left the country. And the images of three foreign students being handcuffed and hauled away to immigration detention centers, where they remain, are sure to discourage families across the world from sending their children to study in the U.S. As the administration explores how far it can go, many, like my co-workers on April Fools' Day, are fearfully anticipating word that a rabble-rousing U.S. citizen has been plucked from their community and threatened with deportation. Amir Makled got a taste of what that might be like earlier this month. The Detroit-born civil rights attorney, who is representing a University of Michigan student charged with resisting arrest during student protests last year, was detained for nearly two hours at Detroit Metro Airport on April 6 as he returned from a family trip to the Dominican Republic. 'I was targeted because of the work I was engaged in,' Makled told me. '… It could not have been a routine search. They were waiting for me. They knew I was an attorney. They knew my client list. They were telling me about me.' Federal agents demanded, without warrant, to search Makled's cellphone. He refused, but ultimately allowed the agents to view his contacts, leading to his release. He regrets making that concession. 'In hindsight, now I know a lot more about how far they can go,' Makled said. He believes the government needs an actual indication of a real national security threat to confiscate a traveler's phone. Makled wears the experience like a badge of honor, proud to be in a position to fight for upholding civil rights. 'I'm not going to be intimidated in this setting," he said. "This is not something that puts me in a position of being scared." He is, however, afraid for the future of constitutional civil rights in the U.S. 'This is the death of democracy and due process,' he said. 'The message they're sending is: 'Stay quiet, or else.' This is exactly how free speech gets killed.' There are those who are indeed choosing to stay quiet, to store away their soapboxes and protest signs and wait for safer times. And there are those, like Makled, who are only getting more fired up to fight. It's the latter who'll keep our constitutional rights from fading out of the picture. It'll be the lawyers with the courage to fight for their own rights and those of their clients in the face of unprecedented federal retaliation against opposing attorneys. It'll be the preachers, educators and block club leaders who are willing to go out on a limb to inform and warn their communities of the threats coming from the White House. It'll be the local elected officials who manage to find balance between fighting back and making compromises to protect municipal budgets from federal cuts. It'll be the remaining federal workers who risk their jobs to document everything they possibly can. And yes, it will be those protest activists, of all sorts and stripes and causes, of varying degrees of righteousness and courage, who demonstrate despite being monitored and targeted like never before. Because we are the guardrails. Our laws, it seems, can't stand alone. We the people, who believe in the Constitution, need to be the ones who keep our rights intact. Those of us who cannot afford to take our constitutional rights for granted, because they're being pressed to their limits, those who actively cherish and are willing to work to protect free speech and due process ― we must be the guardrails. Khalil AlHajal is deputy editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: kalhajal@ Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online and in print. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: In Trump's U.S., deportations show fragility of guardrails | Opinion
