Uptown Notes

For some reason, the recent incidents in Hamtramck have not been largely publicized, to my knowledge. On Wednesday, a African-American student was beaten by Arab-American students in a racial conflict that apparently has been brewing since the beginning of the school year. On Friday, the school held a closed meeting to discuss the racial tensions between African-Americans and Arab-American students. Note: I am referring to Arab-American students as a group because the incident has become racialized. The impetus for the latest clash was over Ramadan, which is Islamic, not practiced by all people of Arab descent.