This article is part of Concentrate's Voices of Youth series, which features content created by Washtenaw County youth in partnership with Concentrate staff mentors. This story was created as part of Voices of Youth's partnership with Washtenaw My Brother's Keeper and the Washtenaw Intermediate School District's summer Freedom School program. In this installment, Freedom School project editor Aaron Foley reflects on what he learned about how Freedom School students perceive the Ypsilanti community.

Some things about Ypsilanti never change. At the same time, Ypsi's changing faster than some can keep up with.

As one of several mentors working with the Washtenaw Intermediate School District and Washtenaw My Brother’s Keeper’s summer Freedom School program, I spent two afternoons a week for six weeks in Ypsi, where the majority of my father’s family has lived for generations. Over the course of the program, I gleaned several insights as to how the next generation perceives what Ypsi was, is, and is evolving into.

I grew up in Detroit with my mother’s side of the family and live in New York City now. Folks in the former city think Ypsi is the country; folks in the latter don’t even know it all. But here’s what I know: It’s a place where everybody knows each other in two degrees or less. 

One of my fellow mentors this summer played youth basketball with one of my cousins. One of the kids in my class told me his dad played basketball with one of my uncles. These conversations aren’t new to me, and since most of the males in my family favor each other, I’m sometimes mistaken for all of the above. 

I taught journalism to a group of students, but a recurring theme of the curriculum was knowledge and understanding of place. Sure, it may be trivial that a lot of people in Ypsi are related to each other — by blood, or by multiple marriages. But when it comes to dissemination of information, understanding each other’s cultures and backgrounds, and debunking misinformation, having awareness of how Ypsilanti residents interact with each other can go a long way.

Look no further than an incident a few years ago, when a former employee of Pho House on Washtenaw Avenue shot and wounded a 6-year-old boy in Ypsilanti Township. Misinformation spread that the shooter owned Pho House, although he hadn’t worked there in years, and the actual restaurant owner was subjected to harassment and calls for a boycott. The incident was grounds for discussion on Asian-Black relations, gun ownership, Asian stereotypes, Black stereotypes, social media rumors, and a newer small business struggling to gain traction.

Better understanding of Ypsilanti can ultimately move the entire population forward in the long run, in my opinion — especially as we see in real time lately what harmful rumors and stereotypes, as well as a lack of understanding of diasporic differences, can do in similarly sized Midwest cities.

There were some topics in particular that the students realized about their hometown after some observation and critical thinking, and put into their own words after days of discussion:

1. Some schools within Washtenaw County have more resources than others. This was particularly a concern for student-athletes in the group, who noted that some schools in Ann Arbor, and especially in Lincoln Consolidated Schools, had better athletic equipment and facilities than others in the county. Some kids shuddered — albeit playfully, in that school rivalry type of way — at the mention of some schools, and even expressed some envy about those who were going to certain high schools. All seemed to be aware that Willow Run was once its own school district, though it dissolved long before some of them were even born. They didn’t know, however, why it did — which is a good segue into the next topic. 

2. Kids realized that the more people of color there are in a place, the more systemic challenges can exist. One asked: why is it that the schools with more Black kids seemed to be a little bit more “ghetto” than other schools? I defy anyone in my position to try to break down to 12- and 13-year-olds how public school districts are funded, how people of color have been systemically disenfranchised no matter where they are, and how the simple mathematics of class sizes, teacher hiring and retention, and other factors in education all tie together without boring the young people into taking a nap on their desks.

3. The students knew Ypsilanti was more of a town, and Detroit was more of a city — but they were also aware of the attitudes that come with the differentiation between the two. And no, not specifically the differences between Detroit culture and Ypsilanti culture, but moreso the surface-level differences — and stereotypes — of a smaller place versus a bigger place. Several kids, in their own words, described feeling put down by kids from bigger cities — be it Detroit or even Ann Arbor — because Ypsilanti is seen as “country.” I explained that this has long been the stereotype that bigger-city denizens hold against any place that doesn’t immediately give off a suburban vibe. In many respects, Ypsilanti is suburban, but kids better understood the stereotype by tying it back to how closely Ypsilantians are connected to each other. The folksy feeling around town can be negatively perceived by outsiders. 

4. That folksy “small-town” feel can also be traced to Ypsilanti’s southern roots. One generational difference between younger kids and myself is the term “Ypsitucky,” a sometimes honorific, but usually derogatory, moniker that, of course, stems from many Ypsilantians having roots in the South — especially Kentucky. Be it white working-class migrants from the Appalachians or Black residents who came north during the Great Migration, there’s a reason why it seems like everyone knows each other, or makes it a point to know each other.

5. Going to the University of Michigan is still the dream. Listen, I grew up with a mom, a brother, and a grandfather who all went to the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, and I was obligated since birth to do the same. I broke the covenant and went to the dreaded Michigan State instead, knowing full well that I’d get funny looks and questions if I brought this up in a room full of Washtenaw County residents. And sure enough, on the first day of the Freedom School program, one student asked, “So why did you choose to go to Michigan State instead of U of M?” And so it goes, as always…

To learn more about Concentrate's Voices of Youth project and read other installments in the series, click here.

Aaron Foley is the managing editor of Model D and the project editor for Concentrate's Voices of Youth Freedom school project.

Photo courtesy of Jamall Bufford.