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For many Arab Americans in Southeast Michigan, Dearborn is a point of pride. For decades, immigrants from across the Arab world have left an imprint on the suburb bordering Detroit that continues to widen and deepen.

Today, the city, which has an Arab majority, reflects the rich historical, cultural and ethnic diversity of the Arab world.

It is also home to the Arab American National Museum.

A new exhibit at the museum gives us a window into Dearborn’s Southend neighborhood. It is an area that Arab Americans fought to protect amid a zoning battle that lasted from the 1950s to the 70s. They fought against a city plan that would have turned the area into a major industrial hub. 

“Seeing the Southend” includes photographs by Tony Maine depicting Yemeni and Lebanese people living ordinary lives in the Southend neighborhood during the 1960s and 70s. In this way, there is beauty in the mundane, said Rasha Almulaiki, who will moderate a discussion during the show’s opening on March 6. The photos, she said, show Arab American life that is seldom seen but vital to unraveling persistent stereotypes.

Exhibit curator Dean Nessredine and Almulaiki joined the show to discuss what we can learn from these photos of thriving, everyday Arab immigrants and why the exhibit is important to view now.

Use the media player above to hear the conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Donald Trump’s presidency has been marked by confusion and chaos for tens of thousands of federal workers across the country.

Federal departments are under scrutiny by Trump and Elon Musk, under the guise of making the government more efficient. Although Musk wasn’t elected by anyone, he’s been making sweeping changes and massive cuts to federal agencies — many of which regulate his companies.

His so-called Department of Government Efficiency, approved by Trump, has fired 1,000 National Parks Service employees; 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers and 2,400 people at the Veterans Affairs department. 

These moves have frustrated many people and sparked some heated moments across the country. In town halls held this past weekend, Republican lawmakers were confronted by angry voters demanding answers. 

Doug Collins, the Trump-appointed Veterans Affairs Secretary, has said the department isn’t cutting critical health care or benefits. 

To discuss these massive cuts to federal agencies, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joined The Metro. She represents Michigan’s 6th Congressional District and she’s been sounding the alarm about cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

It’s been 60 years since a pivotal moment in the fight for equality in America. 

In March 1965, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led protestors on a three-day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Marchers were met with violence by Alabama State Troopers. The appalling scene was broadcast on live television on what is now called “Bloody Sunday.” 

Images of Alabama state troopers using whips, batons, and tear gas to beat back the peaceful protestors shocked Americans. It was a watershed moment that eventually led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Since then, as years become decades, the struggle for equal rights and freedoms for all Americans has taken many turns. The fight for equal rights today looks very different in some ways. In other ways, it feels the same as it ever was. 

To reflect on what’s changed and what stayed the same, we’re joined by Vice President of the Brennan Center for Justice Kareem Crayton. 

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

“As winter approaches, the horror in Gaza continues to grind on with no end in sight.”

Those are the words of a United Nations official addressing the UN Security Council in November. 

Israel’s war in Gaza, following the attacks last October led by Hamas, has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 44,000 Palestinians and 1,700 Israelis and foreign nationals, the UN reports.

Even before the war, life in Gaza was fragile due to the Israeli blockade and occupation. That blockade deeply affects health care access. 

Recent research in The Lancet found that before the war, 35 hospitals operated at full capacity in Gaza. Those hospitals had roughly 3,400 beds for a population of over two million people.

Now, more than half of Gaza’s hospitals are completely out of service due to Israeli bombardments, according to the United Nations. 

Still, those numbers do not reflect the magnitude of the problem, said Dr. Adam Fahs, a metro Detroit-based orthopedic surgeon and member of Doctors Against Genocide. He said the facilities that are still operating resemble small clinics rather than well-equipped medical facilities.

“These are ‘hospitals’ you can drive by and easily miss,” he said. “I don’t want people to think that these are major Level 1 trauma centers like we have here in the States.”

He said these clinics were already “not fully staffed, not fully functioning…supplies were missing.” 

The Israeli blockade has forced doctors to make impossible decisions: “Now we have to figure out when we’re preparing someone for surgery, do we use sterile gloves for this person, or do we save that for another patient; is this knife blade really needed here? Or can we save this for someone else? These are all things that a hospital trying to take care of maimed and injured people shouldn’t have to be considering,” he said.

Fahs traveled to Gaza last December as the humanitarian crisis unfolded there. During his medical mission in Gaza, Fahs was uncertain he would return to the U.S. alive. 

“I feel that maybe one of the reasons why God did bring me back was that I could share…my account of what happened there, because I don’t think people really appreciate and realize the extent of the destruction that’s happening.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.