– Amer Zahr is a comedian, writer, speaker, and associate professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
I have been closely following the process of redistribution in Michigan in relation to Dearborn and the State House. On September 7th, I gave a lecture to the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) on the issue of protecting Arab-American voting rights in Dearborn. While the commission has been considering maps for some time that would protect Dearborn voters, I am extremely concerned about the latest State House maps released by the MICRC as they relate to Dearborn and the Arab-American community.
The latest cards split Dearborn in the middle (actually twice) and heavily water down the Arabic-American voice. I have attached a photo of the current proposed cards. As you can see, the map divides Dearborn into Districts 3, 7, and 15. It divides East Dearborn (the heart of the Arab-American community) between D (District 3 and 7). They drew a line along Greenfield Rd. And Michigan Avenue, all east of Greenfield and north of Michigan in a district with Detroit (District 3), the rest of East Dearborn and Southwest Dearborn in a district with South Dearborn Heights and the rest of West Dearborn to a district with North Dearborn Heights, Warrendale, and more of Detroit.
This split severely dilutes the Arab-American vote, does not issue districts with an Arab-American majority, and puts us in danger of not being able to vote for a candidate of our choice.
When I presented the concerns of the Arab-American community to the Commission on September 7th in Lansing, I expressed my support for the AFL-CIO Fair Maps map related to Dearborn (see map and proposal below). I also cautioned the commission against using raw census figures for suffrage purposes in the Dearborn area, as Arab Americans are still being mistakenly counted as “white” by the Census Bureau, even though we are clearly a marginalized color community.
AFL-CIO’s proposal for Fair Maps State House District 15. Image courtesy of Amer Zahr
The maps now released by the MICRC for the State House do not have districts that are Arab-American majority in the state with the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation. Dearborn is also informally known as the Arab-American capital and is home to the only Arab-American national museum.
The AFL-CIO Fair Maps project proposed a map that accurately reflected Dearborn as a community of interest. This map took into account the concentrated Arab-American community in Dearborn and suggested a district that was entirely within the city, excluding only a few non-Arab neighborhoods in order to meet the required population size.
While we are counted as “white” in the census, a number of legal cases have ultimately recognized the ability of the Arab-American community to sue as a racial minority under federal law. In fact, this principle was established in a 1987 Supreme Court case. In other words, the courts see our community as one who could sue under the suffrage law, even though we are mistakenly counted as “whites”.
We must all urge the MICRC to create a Dearborn State House district that accurately reflects our community. The AFL-CIO Fair Maps project is doing an excellent job here. If the MICRC doesn’t fix this, the Arab-American community in Michigan is unlikely to have a representation in Lansing, a catastrophic result indeed. We need to mobilize all of our community organizations, including AAPAC, ACRL, the Chamber, ADC and beyond.
You can comment on the map at https://michigan.mydistricting.com/legdistricting/comments/plan/228/23
– Amer Zahr is a comedian, writer, speaker, and associate professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
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