Editor's Note: Kayla Ricardo reported this story, and Jaden Davis created the accompanying artwork as part of the Spring 2025 Kalamazoo Voices of Youth Program. The program is a collaboration between Southwest Michigan Second Wave and KYD Network in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo, funded by the Stryker Johnston Foundation. The Voices of Youth Program is led by Earlene McMichael. VOY mentors were Al Jones (writing) and Taylor Scamehorn (art). 

KALAMAZOO, MI — “Some people say my dad must be a builder,” says 14-year-old Analia Avila-Mendiola. Others assume he’s a farm worker. Strangers have even told her, “You’re going to get deported because you’re illegal,” she says. 

As a Mexican-American, Avila-Mendiola says she has heard plenty of racist remarks throughout her life. That includes some of what she hears in the hallways at her own high school, Loy Norrix, in Kalamazoo. 

What’s the worst she’s heard?

“This was like a few years ago. It was really popular for people to be calling Hispanics ‘taco munchers’ or ‘border hoppers,’ ” she says.

While she interacts with a diverse group of friends and other students each school day, she says, “I feel that it has impacted me.”

“A lot of my friends are Hispanic so they also get similar comments,” she says. “… A lot of Hispanics can all relate when jokes like that are passed around.”

Are the comments hateful? Are the people who are saying such things trying to insult or provoke others? Several Kalamazoo area young people who were asked about it say usually it is not hateful. It’s just how some people talk to try to be cool or fit into their group of friends, the students say. But those on the receiving end of such words say it is uncomfortable and usually makes them feel unsure or unwelcome.

“It’s always mean,” says Mattie Jordan-Woods, the retired executive director of the Northside Association for Community Development. And racial slurs should never be tolerated, she says.

Speaking of people who call one another names and use racially-charged language, Jordan-Woods, who is African-American, says: “People can say what they want about, ‘Well, my friends say it and we just do it among ourselves,’ or ‘We only say it with people we’re already friends with.’ ”

But she says that “the definition of that word (any racial slur) is ignorant. So, are you saying your friend is ignorant?”

Who does racism hurt?

Delilah Reynolds, a white 14-year-old freshman at Loy Norrix High School, says racism has not impacted her directly, but it has affected the people around her. Most students talk among people of their same race just to fit in, she says. But people have said things to her like, “Don’t touch that white girl,” while she was just walking down the hallway, keeping to herself.

Braylon Youker, a sophomore at Kalamazoo Central High School and the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center (KAMSC), says he has been impacted by racism. He is of South Korean and Caucasian descent and says he gets the most stereotypical racist comments, like, “You must be good at math.” But he also hears, “How much rice do you eat?”

In severe situations, he says he tries to put a stop to it by sometimes saying, “Hey, that’s not OK to say.” But most of the time, he says, “It’s  just ignorance, and it’s going to happen either way.”

Plamedie Ekumbaki, a sophomore at Kalamazoo Central whose family is of African descent, says she hears people make insulting comments about people’s hair and other things. She has been asked what kind of animals they have in “their country.”

“I remember when I moved to the U.S., I would hear many nasty comments (within groups of Black and minority students), not even just towards different kids with different ethnicities,” she says.

It ranged from people calling kids who had Hispanic backgrounds stereotypical names like “Hector,” to people asking ignorant questions to her and other African kids, like, “Do you have water in Africa?” or “Did you live in a hut or mud house growing up?”

“They would even mimic animal sounds,” Ekumbaki says. “The insults about Black people’s hair, especially, I think, were directed towards Black girls.”

But she says insults also came from Black men and women.

“At school, you would hear things like, ’She’s bald. That’s why she always has those wigs on,'” Ekumbaki says. “Or, ‘She uses weaves to hide her nappy hair or because her hair is so short.’ ”

Respond or not?

Reynolds says she has a diverse group of friends and most of them are of mixed racial heritage. Some get upset when people ask questions about their race and ask things like, “Do you say the N-word?” 

She is among students who say they have heard the N-word used casually by one or more students in class. In some cases, they say, teachers chastise the person who said it. In other cases, they ignore it. Reynolds says she believes teachers need to step up and not just stand around hoping for the students to stop.

“I feel like a lot of times they’ll turn the other way if they hear something,” Reynolds says, “and since they’re not of that race, they’re like, ‘It’s not my place to step in.’”

Regarding the casual use of racial slurs such as the N-word in music or on the street, Jordan-Woods is clear: “The word is still the word. There is no changing it (just) because they’re saying it.”

Asked if young people have complained about it to her, Jordan-Woods says, “What kids have said is they’ve heard it in the classroom and the teacher did nothing.” 

Her suggestion: “My response to them was that you need to go and let the principal know.”
Her recommendation is to NOT respond to racial slurs. Don’t react by calling other people names, and try not to be confrontational. Those situations can lead to violence and everyone being in trouble.

Avila-Mendiola, who is soft-spoken, does not react to racist comments. “I kind of like just ignored it because I didn’t want to say anything rude back.”

She says she and her friends sometimes get weird looks when they speak Spanish in school. She thinks some people think they’re secretly talking about them.

In school hallways, there are times when distant friends or acquaintances tell racist jokes. Youker says he thinks that, since a handful of students are already being racist just to fit in, others are following in their footsteps to fit in and be in a “popular group.” He says that at KAMSC, he is part of a very diverse group, but they sometimes hear bad things.

Youker says that some teachers may feel powerless and unable to say something about racist language because they’re white. But he’s seen other teachers try to stop it before it happens and try to encourage it not to happen. 

Do young people think racism in this generation is worse than it was for past generations? 

Reynolds says she is hopeful that this generation will end racism once and for all and will not be so casual about throwing around slurs and being racist in general.

Ekumbaki says she doesn’t know if young people who make slurs and insults to be funny or make themselves seem cool to other young people realize that for some, it’s actually very insulting.

“Hearing these comments really irritates me because of how ignorant people sound,” Ekumbaki says. “It definitely doesn’t make you look cool. It’s overrated and childish. I think we need to do better as a society because you could really be hurting someone’s feelings, whether it’s intentional or not.

Youker says he thinks this generation has gotten better, but it has gotten worse in some ways, with politics becoming more popular and social media amplifying politics. He says it mainly focuses on the differences in people. 

Avila-Mendiola says she thinks it has gotten worse over time, but people don’t want to open up about it since it’s such a hard topic to just put out there. 

“I feel like it did (get worse),” Avila-Mendiola says. “But it’s not as loud as it used to be. People are more quiet about it. And like in the past, people would actually speak up and protest about it. But now they have kind of like just calmed down and they’re kind of like trying to push it down and hide it in a way.”


Kayla Ricardo



Kayla Ricardo is a freshman at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She likes to cook, bake, listen to music, and play basketball. She hopes to attend Western Michigan University and study culinary arts.












Jaden Davis’ Artist Statement:

My topic is student-to-student racism, the way that students call each other racial slurs or tell them things like 'Go back to your country.”  I chose this subject because I believe (comments like these) are becoming too common, and people are getting too comfortable acting in these ways. My piece goes to show that many people with different backgrounds all belong to the same place. You might have a background, but also call the place you were born your country because it is. In my art piece, on one side, I put different races that make up America. I put this to show that just because they are different races and ethnicities, they can still be American. On the other side, someone is telling them to “Go back to your country.” The other side tells them it is their country. 

Jaden DavisThe media that I picked was a magazine collage with paint marker illustration. The choices I made were to show the diversity that America has — the different cultures and ethnicities that people have that shape America. America is to unite people so that people are proud to be a part of this country.

America is to unify our differences, not to push us back in time for the rights we have fought to earn. I believe unity is what America was intended to be like, to strengthen the people as a whole. I will never understand how people can joke about something as serious as racism. It is very degrading, and the history of it is no joking matter. Everyone deserves to be treated equally, and with kindness, joking or not.