Until my freshman year of high school, I hated politics. But when I made my school’s Varsity Debate Team at a time when the 2016 presidential campaign was unfolding, my world started to change. I was captivated by Bernie Sanders and his ability to galvanize young people like me to care about transformative political change and a radical redistribution of wealth. It was also during this time that I began to learn about feminism (which I was originally disdainful of because I thought it was a movement for white girls and women). As I learned about sexism and intersectionality and grappled with my own positionality as a brown Pakistani-American Muslim woman, I started to seriously probe the social conditions that produced inequality and injusticee. I became fiercely outspoken, and my predominantly white and Trumpist classmates were quick to denigrate, cyber-harass, and mock me for my views. In fact, one of my oldest friends took it upon himself to type out the longest text message I have ever received in my life – it was brimming with eugenicist, racist, and anti-Muslim sentiments – a personalized delivery of hate towards me and what I stood for. When I reported the incident to my guidance counselor, she gently blamed me for bringing the hate upon myself because I was so vocal about my own views. As I left her office, I saw The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump on her bookshelf. When I tried to report the student to the Vice Principal, it turned out that he was close with the boy’s parents and chided me for suggesting that many Trump supporters held racist views. I was marginalized and betrayed by the school officials who were supposed to safeguard my well-being. And I never forgot how these people made me feel. 
 

Though I could have, I didn’t let those moments weaken me – when I moved from Pennsylvania to Michigan before my junior year of high school, I learned about Abdul El-Sayed’s progressive campaign for governor and decided to pursue an internship with his gubernatorial campaign. Just as I was inspired by Bernie Sanders, I was inspired by Abdul's vision for a more equitable Michigan. My decision to join his campaign changed my life. The first place I ever canvassed was Flint, Michigan – every unanswered knock and door slam gradually deflated my expectations until I stumbled upon the home of a woman who was actually concerned with what I had to say about my candidate. She expressed the ramifications that her community had faced due to the water crisis and the inaction from the politicians who were supposed to represent her interests. I felt compelled to do more for people like her. Throughout my campaigning efforts, the stark inequalities and social ills in our state became clearer and clearer to me. I walked through dilapidated neighborhoods in Pontiac where most families were struggling to stay above the poverty line as well as extravagant mansions in Bloomfield Hills where most families were away on vacation. I started to think critically about policy as a tool for responding to structural injustice and economic oppression.
I came to the University of Michigan in 2019 with this energy and experience – impassioned and undeterred to make the most of my college experience and make my campus community a more just place. I took a course called “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which deepened my burgeoning interest in anti-capitalist thought. I also took a course through which I co-facilitated a creative writing workshop inside a men’s prison, which exposed me to the brutal indignities of incarceration. My interest in policy, history, and social justice was rapidly growing. As was my anger toward the systems that produced mass suffering.

As I learned more about justice, I became growingly aggrieved by the living and working conditions produced by our hegemonic economic system. In 2020, I learned of the Graduate Employees Organization’s (GEO) strike against unsafe working conditions and decided that I was going to be on the picket lines with them on the first day of their strike at 5am. It was cold and raining, but I was alive and empowered. In 2022, I led a successful Fight For $15 campaign which raised the minimum wage for student workers and temporary workers across the campus community. Improving the material conditions of undergraduate workers was undoubtedly the proudest achievement of my entire college career. Fast forward to today – I have been working as the undergraduate media spokesperson for GEO supporting them in their efforts to win a fair and dignified contract. I am constantly infuriated that working people have to settle for less than what they deserve. It is one thing to be angry and inactive – it is another thing to be angry and organizing. My anger does not breed defeatism – in fact, I have never stopped believing that a more liberated world is possible.

 

This capstone project dives into some formative moments of my college experience. My essays seek to fuse the personal with the political, grappling with so much of what reddens my vision and fills me with indignation. I think of this as a project I can return to if I want to deepen my reflections and write about new experiences. The path ahead of me suggests that my journey in politics and organizing is just getting started. 

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Indeed, the next chapter of my life is about to be written. I will soon be working as a Campaign Researcher for UNITE HERE! Local 25 in Washington D.C., working to confront the exploitative working conditions that hospitality workers face in workplaces like hotels and casinos. I’m fired up and ready to roll up my sleeves once again.