28
Jun
2007
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Networking Arab Journalists around the world

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Back in 1999, a group of Arab American journalists working in mainstream media jobs or in the Arab ethnic media, launched an organization called the National Arab American Journalists Association (NAAJA.) Our web page is www.NAAJA-US.com. We continue to try to bring Arab journalists together on a professional level. Networking is so important to success. By networking, we can help each other find jobs, protect ourselves to keep our jobs and fight discrimination; racism is a rampant disease in the United States and the main targets these days are Arabs and non-Arab Muslims. Most Americans can’t tell the difference between Arabs and non-Arabs and they often use the terms Muslim and Arab interchangeably. (Americans are the most educated people in the world but the least educated about the world. I love to use that in my comedy routine — by the way, there is a nice story in the Baltimore Sun on the comedy tour www.IPComedyTour.com.)

It hasn’t been easy, as you can imagine. We think of ourselves as “Arabs” but oftentimes Arabs tend to break down into small groups based on other considerations like nationality, ethnicity, of course politics and religion. But the word Arab reflects a cultural and national bond constantly tested by local national needs. The biggest challenge is the rise of Islamic political activism. Arabs do not distinguish themselves as being Christian or Muslim. There are also many Jewish Arabs that no one wants to talk much about, but they do exist. But many Muslim Arabs are being drawn into the growing power circle of Muslims, most of whom are not Arab at all.

This may not seem like an issue in the Middle East, where Islam defines the day-to-day lifestyle, but it is a growing issue in the United States where the majority of Arabs are Muslim. There are anout 7.5 million Muslims in the United States but only 22 percent are Arab. The largest group of “Black Muslims” or members of the Nation of Islam. There are about 4.5 million Arabs in the United States, and the majority are Christian (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant).

We don’t have precise data because one way to oppress people is to not recognize them. The US Census does not include “Arabs” as a racial category. Only those Arabs who check “Other” and then write in “Arab” are actually counted as Arab, so the numbers are very low.

Not being recognized is how Americans tend to discriminate against people based on race and religion. It is a subtle form of discrimination but I think a more sinister form of discrimination. In the old days, people would tell you to your face that they hate you. Racism was obvious and open. But these days, Americans are more subtle in their racism. They say hi and smile, but deep down they hate you. That kind of disguised racism is more sisnister and destructive to a society. You can’t deal with it, especially when the society doesn’t deal with racism and diversity issues correctly.

In the American media, the big issue is “diversity.” But the racial minority groups that champion this call are also very discriminatory. African Americans and Hispanics have found themselves ina rivalry competing for jobs, power and influence in America. Now, Asians and Native Americans have come knocking at the door of diversity. As a result, mainstream Americans address “diversity” in a very narrow context, speaking only about Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.

Excluded are Arab Americans. We live in a limbo. We’re considered Caucasian (White), but we are treated worse than other minorities of color. It’s like an American purgatory, being hated and rejected or excluded by all sides. And then, of course, we have our own internal problems. Arabs hate each othe rmore than they are hated by others.

There’s an old saying I like to repeat about Arab culture: The Devil was giving a tour of Hell to an Arab, an American and a Jew. The Devil stopped at the first Cave and everyone looked in and they saw a big vat of boiling oil with “bad” Jews in it. The Devil’s disciples were standing on the edge of the Vat pushing the bad peopel back down with their pitchforks. They went to the next cave (it is very hot in Hell) and they saw the same situation with the Americans. When they got to the Arab Cave, there was a vat of boiling oil filled with “bad” Arabs but there were no disciples on the edge of the vat with pitchforks. The Arab turned to the Devil and said, “We must be special, right?” To which the Devil responded, “You sure are. I don’t need to waste my disciples on you. Whenever an Arab tries to lift himself up out of the vat of boiling oil, the other Arabs underneath grab him and pull him back down. You can always depend on an Arab to do that to his own kind.”

NAAJA has petitioned the “UNITY: Journalists of Color” to include Arab Americans in their member organizations (African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.) They have a big convention in Chicago next summer (2008). Either we will be apart of UNITY, or we will be outside. Hopefully, we won’t be pulling ourselves back down.

There are several Arab American journalism organizations. Why are we not surprised none of them will work together?

– Ray Hanania