In Michigan, Arab Americans weigh the power of a vote

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We travel to Dearborn, AKA the "capital of Arab America." The Dearbornites we met said that the war in Gaza is the key issue on their minds as they consider how to cast their ballots. What these voters ultimately decide could have huge consequences for the whole country.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This election season you can expect to hear a lot of news, some of it meaningful, much of it not.
0:05.8	Give the Up First Podcast 15 minutes, sometimes a little less,
0:09.6	and we'll help you sort it out what's going on around the world and at home.
0:13.4	Three stories, 15 minutes, up first every day.
0:17.0	Listen every morning, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.9	Just as up y'all, this episode contains some salty language which means going to be some cousin.
0:27.0	What's good you're listening to Code Switch, I'm Gene Dembe.
0:31.0	So a couple of Tuesdays ago I was at this hookah spot in Dearborn, Michigan.
0:36.3	It's called Mangos on the Hill and it was bright as hell in mango. It was like real odd for a hookabar at night. It wasn't really popping in there, it was mostly empty, which I just chalked it up to it being a Tuesday. But a dozen or so people had gathered at Mangos that night for a watch party.
0:54.7	Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were about to square off in the nationally televised debate.
0:59.8	And we've been looking for a place where people will be watching the debate and mangoes had it playing on their gigantic TV screen.
1:07.0	But it wasn't like anybody at that watch party was really watching.
1:11.0	Both were chattering and eating and looking at their phones, that is until
1:16.1	about 30 or 40 minutes into the debate.
1:20.0	That's when people stop what they were doing and crane their necks toward the TV screens.
1:25.6	This was with the folks at this watch party
1:34.8	had been waiting for.
1:36.2	President Biden has not been able to break through the stalemate.
1:39.2	How would you do it?
1:41.9	Vice President Harris begins her answer by saying that Israel has a right to defend itself
1:46.9	the way the United States would.
1:48.6	Because it is also true, far too many.
	...

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