Being Arab American
As I was reading the blog, I was suprised to notice that my last post had received 30 comments. I was most surprised to find that people involved with this project were telling me things like:
If you are an Arab American, a person who holds an American citizenship, you are an American first and whatever is next. Your homeland is America not somewhere in the Middle East. If you think your homeland is something else while holding the American citizenship, get the fuck out of there and go back to your freaking “homeland” is.
and
This sentence sounds like it was written by someone who honestly wants more to be Arab than American. ‘Total assimilation’ is not a bad thing, at all. Patriotism is not a bad thing either, and it doesn’t demand subordinance. If you are an American, and you do not accept American values, than why not seek another nationality?
Of course I am American. That is why I wrote a post about an issue that is uniquely and specifically an Arab American issue.
It bothers me that Jina, someone affiliated with this project, would tell me to “get the fuck out of [America] and go back to your freaking “homeland” is.” This is the same thing that racist anti-Arab and anti-Muslim Americans write to me on the daily. And let me be clear; these people who hate Arabs and Muslims don’t differentiate between those of us who are American and those of us who are not. They don’t even differentiate between Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, Desi, “Arab-looking,” etc.
I don’t “want” to be more Arab than American. I don’t have to want this, or try to do this, because I am both. I was born in the US. I am still Arab. Patriotism in fact does demand subordinance when the country you are supposed to pledge your allegiance to was built on a foundation of white European supremacy. Acceptance in American society has always depended on full assimilation at the expense of immigrants and resulting in the loss of culture. I’m confused as to why the loss of culture and so many of the things that make people special and different could be seen as a good thing; even American mythology (not necessarily practice) says that our nation is great because of all these diverse and beautiful cultural influences.
It bothers me that people who aren’t Arab American, and who have no idea what it is like to be Arab American, feel qualified to spout such hateful rhetoric at me, on a site dedicated to free speech and positive change. Yes, you have your freedom to say hateful things to me, but is this conducive to free speech and positive change?
When I was invited to become a part of this project, it was never mentioned to me that my American citizenship made me not Arab enough to be here.
Middle Eastern people in the US experience discrimination that is directly connected to conquest and wars overseas. I don’t think that we should fight wars against our cousins to benefit a government that continues to oppress us, and I can’t put it any more simply than that.
On September 11th, I was in my high school English classroom, with people who I had known and gone to school with for years. As we watched the planes flying into the towers over and over again, a white boy in my class who came from a military family and was planning on enlisting upon graduation shouted, “We need to blow up the entire Middle East.” I asked him, “Do you know what you’re saying? I AM Arab. You want to blow up my grandmother, my little cousins and my entire family?” His response: “You’re American now.”
Being American is supposed to negate my familial connections? Being American should negate all the influences I grew up with? Being American means not only should I be okay with the slaughter of my family members, but I should enlist to be the one perpetrating it, in the name of patriotism?
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[…] Being Arab American […]
Please don’t play victim. I;m not sure who told you that you weren’t Arab enough to be here, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t anyone on your last post. I disagree with the premise that assimilation is a bad thing, and I guess we’ll continue to disagree. I made the point that serving your country as an American, whether your Arab American or of any other background, should not be discouraged. The other guy who posted comments, Lou K or something, he said that Arab Americans were fighting their homelands, and I personally don’t agree with that.
Please don’t think your the only person who has dual citizenship, or can call both the West and East their home. I was just disagreeing with your post, which happens here.
I never said this either, neither did anyone else. My opinion is that you don’t need to enlist if you don’t want to, however it isn’t the travesty that your last post conveyed that Arab Americans are being recruited and/or are voluntarily signing up for the U.S army. We may disagree on this, but that’s it. I have my opinion and you have yours.
Also, I happen to write posts for this site, but many others do too. My opinions and comments are in no way a reflection of the people who work hard to keep this site up, which I am not one of. But I also didn’t say anything I’d take back, and the majority of my comments were not directed at you, but the other guy who was commenting as well.
I wrote this…:
…in response to this:
So we disagree, difference of opinion, no big deal.
Nadia,
On behalf of the members here I apologize that your post was met with such disrespect. It’s even more embarrassing that it was being caused by members of this very website.
I’m really sorry.
While disagreements happen here, I expect our own members to grow up and learn how to respect the authors of this website, regardless of how much they disagree. If people insist on expressing their anger by being rude and unthoughtful they should just buy a punching bag instead of ruining our atmosphere and reputation.
As I said in the original post, it’s a really good question but not a new one. Both American wars of independence were fought against our “homeland” of Great Briton. The Civil War also divided families and friends. Both World Wars involved enemy nations that many American families had emigrated from.
That sounds perfectly reasonable, but where does it lead you? Should you renounce your US Citizenship and join your cousins to fight against an oppressive US? That makes just as much sense. Should you refuse to participate on either side, like not interfering in an argument between your father and your uncle?
Could I go to war against my cousins? Probably not. Could I go to war against my country? Probably not.
I’m afraid that you and other Arab-Americans are caught in the middle. The theoretically correct textbook answer is that when you become an American you are supposed to give up all foreign ties, but blood ties aren’t that easily broken. I have an Iranian-American co-worker who hasn’t seen his homeland since he was 7 years old but still has lots of family there. What should he tell his children, all born and raised in the USA, if here’s an armed conflict between the US and the IRI? Does it make a difference if the government of the “old country” is also oppressive? Maybe his Aunt in Tehran is in jail for being a human rights activist or his cousin is a cop arresting women if their elbows show in public: does that make a difference?
Frankly, Nadia, I have no idea what I’d do in that situation. I’d probably try to see it without the personal element: this is a conflict between nations. Which nation’s methods and goals do I support, US or IRI?
As an Arab/African American who has served in the military, I can see both sides of the argument that arose in the comment section of your last post. I can understand your distress at the marketing plans used by the U.S. Military to recruit Arab Americans, but the Military has targeted marketing plans for man ethnic groups. The great thing about living in America and being American is that unless the draft is activated, no one is being forced to enlist into the National Guard or Army, or what have you.
This statement I have to raise issue with. I know that this website focuses on issues affecting the Middle East and members of the Middle Eastern diaspora, but the above statement pushes the discussion into a vacuum - which is to say that only Arab-Americans are discriminated against in America, and only Arab-Americans are subject to tailored marketing plans developed by the U.S. Military. As we all (should) know, this is false.
For instance, during WWII, Japanese-Americans on the West Coast were interned, while many on the East Coast served honorably and proudly in the U.S. Military. Where they oppressed? Yes. Where they (the Japanese) discriminated against in the past, and did they continue to face oppression and racist after the end of WWII? Yes.
The same could be said for the African American community. It is an established fact (don’t have the stats, will get them) that African Americans make up a large part of the U.S. Military, which is important to consider since they make up a minority in the general U.S. population. Now I know I don’t have to give a history lesson to all of the injustices suffered by African Americans over the past 300+ years. I don’t even have mention that blacks fought in American wars as long as there was an America, and yet during WWII many were limited to segregated units that performed the most menial of jobs. And yet, there are 2.5 million African American veterans as of 2005 – more than any other minority group.
You mention in that quote that “I don’t think that we should fight wars against our cousins to benefit a government that continues to oppress us.” How oppressed are Arab Americans really? More oppressed than women living in Afghanistan under the former Taliban? When put into context, Arab Americans aren’t “oppressed.” Yes, we experience discrimination and racism, etc., but we are not oppressed; the fact that you have a choice of joining the military or not (minus an activation of the draft), proves my point. And if the United States government “continues to oppress us” can you explain to me why Arab Americans continue to immigrate into this country?
Hmm.. For several reasons..
- The American Dream.. While many of these Arab Americans who do migrate have less knowledge about the U.S. Political stand, they go there in search of money and prosperity under the Red, White and Blue.. How i see it, anyone enlisting in the american forces, or even consider migration there under their new protocols and “war against terror” joke, or even in the reign of the GWB Reich, then they’re traitors.. Not in the whole, burn them in the village square kind of traitors, but traitors for the sense that they should’ve seen more TV and knew better.. Money is all over the place, Capitalist continents are not the only source, and not the only destination.. Especially when that money on Display is all blood money, and will be used to carry more war and raids under the name of freedom, sponsored by oil..
- The American media is mostly dedicated to form that image about the arab nations, and how their piece of dirt and water is better than any place on god’s earth.. Having that in mind, and the ease of getting a green card, creates the trap of joining a fake dream..
Can you explain why would the American government would need even more diverse citizens?
The many other reasons are just too legal in form to mention :P.. I’ll consult a lawyer before i post them..
Nothing wrong with seeking prosperity, especially if you have children. We do have a few other attractions, to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
Grumpy,
Thank you for proving/supporting my point. America is by no means perfect, but I really disagree with Nadia’s assertion that Arab Americans are “oppressed.” And I guess at the end of the day, those Arab Americans who are immigrating here are more concerned about prosperity and a better life for themselves or their children than being victims of oppression in America.
Chickpea, I don’t know about you, but my uncle left to the USA about 9 years ago to escape certain political issues. I’m not saying he represents all Arabs within the US, but he and his kids definitely hate it there and don’t feel accepted within the overall society especially after 9/11. It’s much easier to say “get the hell out if you don’t like it,” but they’re there as a last resort and simply can’t afford to go anywhere else.
I never went to the USA and quite frankly I take pride in that. Last time my family visited, they underwent gross humiliation and were detained for over 12 hours with no food or water, being called “fucking stupid” for not speaking English properly. Ever since our entire family has been traumatized and fearful of that country. We have too much self-respect to go through that shit.
At college the American kids think it’s hilarious to refer to us as “camel jockies” and “towel heads,” so I mean, what image do you think I have right now of America and how do you expect me to believe that there is no real oppression after all of these personal experiences?
It may be great for you, but for many others it’s also a nightmare. A lot of Arab students returned home after 9/11 due to feelings of “oppression.” And yes, many didn’t. But those who did return came back for valid reasons. The amount of hatred was incredible and Arabs all over the world had to face it, not just Arab Americans. I just simply don’t believe that it’s as innocent as you made it seem. People go there not because of its perfection and because they’re treated like royalty, they go there for opportunities. The reasons are economic. I mean South Asian migrant workers are treated like slaves in the Gulf, do you see me saying “no they’re treated fine, if it was so bad can you tell me why they continue to come, millions each year?”
People run out of options. They need to live. And they’ll grab any opportunity that arises. As much as my uncle hates it in the US he simply can’t leave his work behind and come to a country where he can be even more endangered.
Again, I’ve never been to the US so I personally don’t know, but all of these stories do reflect my own opinion about America. These are my friends and family many of whom went through horrid experiences in the name of the Patriot Act or other nationalist bullshit. There are many Arabs and Pakistanis who went to the USA for college and ended up in Gitmo, without trial.
Look, defending one’s country is noble and it’s great. But it doesn’t mean that you should abuse powers and spit on other people’s values, religion, and culture. And that’s exactly what I see done by American college students where I am as we as the media in general.
By the way, I know that may seem anti-American. I admire America as a country and its history taught us much about liberty and civil rights, and I think Americans in general are very charitable people.
But these things, they do represent America in one way or another, and it hurts. Why do you forget stories like these?
&
(Source)
I don’t know about you, but that spells “oppression” to me.
I think both Nadia and Esra’a have good points, and I want to throw out some more ideas to explore.
First, it is impossible not to talk both about oppression and prejudice in the U.S., but we have to recognize that they occur in different ways and at different levels, and not necessarily consistently. One one hand, you might have the FBI busting down your door and raiding your home or office because they think you are involved in some illegal activity, or have ties to some “terrorist” organizations, or at least fund them, as has happened recently in Dearborn, Michigan with the Goodwill Charitable Organization and Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization. While I wouldn’t consider this a clear case of political oppression, it’s very close, and is definitely a form of targeted discrimination. But you also have cases of people in the U.S. disappearing or being tortured, either via the fed. government (Gitmo, CIA secret jails) or local law enforcement, and that is most definitely oppression. There are thousands of examples like this, of people of various races, religions and creeds, even including native born “whites,” who are discriminated against or face some form of prejudice for their beliefs or actions from other people or the state.
Just because the U.S. claims to be a democracy in practice does not mean anything in reality.The gap between democratic reality and democratic rhetoric in the U.S. is so huge in this country it’s amazing and profoundly frightening. That’s one of the reasons that all of this talk about nationalism bothers me, or frustrates me, depending on the context. Nadia’s comments really raise this issue, where she is wrestling with identifying as Arab and American. My question is why do we need to identify with a nation at all, much less promote ideas like patriotism or nationalism, as other have suggested in their comments?
I believe in real and direct political participation and liberation, so I don’t believe that governments should exist at all, at least not in the form they exist currently. If Nadia and others didn’t have to contend with an imagined community called the U.S. or Palestine or X, I am convinced there would not be the same dynamics of discrimination on a daily basis simply because she did not fit into the ideal of what is a “real” citizen. Imagine what the current political dynamics might be like if there was no Palestine or Israel or Lebanon or USA or Britain to fight for geographic and ideological control of land?
I think this gets particularly complex in dealing with something like Arab American identity. America is both a massive continent and an artificially constructed identity of one nation-state. Arab is both (at least originally) a geographic region (Arabia) as well as an artificially constructed identity, just like American. So what happens when they try to fit together? We end up having two imagined identities which are vying for power or hegemony within our own minds, as well as of others, (i.e., Benedict Anderson’s thesis). I think that’s where some of the comments to Nadia about going back to her homeland or being more Arab or American have their theoretical roots. They only make sense if you are defending a predefined notion of what is or is not X or Y.
I’ve been looking at this phenomenon for the last 2 years while finishing my master’s thesis, but focusing on Mexican immigrants (rather than Arab immigrants) in the U.S., for the last two years, and in that case, there’s basically 3 different main identity forms, which function more like a gradient than an absolute scale:
1. Immigrate to the U.S. and adopt the culture, values, etc there - i.e. assimilation
2. Immigrate to the U.S. and adopt some of the culture, values, etc but reject others -i.e hybridization or acculturation
3. Immigrate to the U.S. and reject the host culture largely or completely in favor of your native culture - i.e isolation or rejection
The problem is that not all host country people (”Americans” or wherever) accept #2 or #3. In fact, many see these as fundamental challenges to the very foundations of U.S./western civilization and therefore immigrants–in my studies especially the Mexican immigrant–then becomes a threat, both physically and existentially, and must be fought to protect the nation or culture of a country. All of this goes back to an ideological struggle over identity construction and definitions of who is or is not a “real” member of a community. Anyone deemed as a threat to that imagined community, be they a race traitor, a religious exile or an immigrant, is then treated with contempt and seen as a threat. It’s this mentality that calls for bombing the ME back to the stone age and supported locking up Japanese during WWII.
It seems to me that our real challenge, regardless of where we live, is to work to forge stronger bonds of solidarity between people–not institutions–to work for radical change and control by the people–not administrative bureaucrats–in shaping our world and our future…or what Paulo Freire calls conscientizaçao, the development of the awakening of critical awareness in the people. My worry is that discussions about our identity as American, or Arab American or any nation-ality only serves to block this process and keeps us divided…
H
You are so cute, did I address this to you or the person I quoted before when I wrote what I wrote?
Learn to differentiate the difference between a racist telling you to get out because you are of a certain ethnicity and a person telling you to get out because you refuse to show your loyalty to the country you hold your citizenship.
If you want to live for them, then so be it, you are falling into their bullshit, and you are doign exactly what they want you to do. By doing this, you justify their reasonings regarding Arab-Americans.
Work to fix the system, rather then complain or play blame games like you are doing right now. American constitution, you have to fight for that, because it’s truly a marvelous piece of writing that deserves defense. But you don’t want to do that, you want to fight the extremeists who doesn’t value this peice of writing by rejecting what America stands for.
If Bush or the racist American’s are twisting it’s meanings, kind of like how the Usama is twisting the meaning of the Quran, you defend for what it really stands for, not what these corrupt bastards want it to stand for.
Stop being the tools of these assholes.
PS: I am no longer part of this meh…
Nadia, you said:
Nothing could be further from the truth than what you say here. It seems to me that you either totally made that up or have based your account on an extreme lack of information. Have you ever been to Chinatown in San Francisco? The street signs are in Chinese. Come to L.A. and read the public billboards in Spanish and Korean. Take your driver’s test in a variety of languages. Our federal institutions accommodate many different cultural norms specifically for American citizens.
Do you live in a large urban center, Nadia? If you do, you’ll notice that people practice their cultures, speak their languages, and openly identify themselves ethnically throughout the USA without questions of their patriotism. In L.A. we have:
Chinatown
Little Tokyo
Koreatown
Little Armenia
and plenty of other officially identified ethnic communities, not to mention areas that are generally known for their ethnic/cultural aspects:
Pico-Fairfax is largely Jewish
Pico-Union is largely El Salvadoran
Pacoima is largely Mexican
Gardena is the equivalent of Little Vietnam
Beverly Hills is 25% Persian and just elected a mayor originally from Iran.
NONE of these are population centers that are considered un-American because they have communities that have not been totally assimilated.
Do you have any idea how many of our politicians speak with accents? Perhaps you should meet someone named Ferial Masry — a Saudi Arabian-American woman who recently ran for California State Assembly on the Democratic ticket. The way you lecture, you make it sound like she’d have to run as an independent, rather than as a member of an established party, if she were to be accepted as (a not-fully-assimilated) Arab-American, according to your definition, by the political establishment. Yet, once you hear her speak, you’d know how wrong you are.
In L.A. we have the largest populations of:
Pakistanis
Cambodians
Iranians
Armenians
Belizeans
Bulgarians
Ethiopians
Filipinos
Guatemalans
Hungarians
Koreans
Israelis
Mexicans
Nicaraguans
Salvadorans
Thais
Indians
and Pacific Islanders outside their homelands.
Is it really your contention that they come here and feel hard pressed to fully assimilate, at the expense and loss of their culture, in order to be accepted as Americans? If so, why can people choose to vote in a variety of languages other than English?
I don’t know why we keep having to point out the obvious here. All countries have multinational roots and mini-cities. Even in the Gulf you find a lot of cultural practices from all over South Asia, from India to Nepal to Indonesia. We oppress the hell out of these people even though their cultures have made a huge presence in ours.
Look at Germany and its Turkish immigrants. Look at London and its Pakistani immigrants. Look at Bahrain and its Indian population. Does it mean we don’t oppress these people? Hell no. They just practice their culture and beliefs anyways, it’s HARDLY unique to the USA. We have many villages that are practically Indian now, you go there you won’t for a second consider yourself in an Arab country. Yet we oppress them, silence them, abuse them on a daily basis. Over and over again. What you said hardly refutes Nadia’s arguments.
Well, Esra’a, I think you answered the original question about military service. If someone (not referring specifically to your uncle) hates the place and is just here for the money then no: it doesn’t make sense to join the military. I guess a safe haven from being jailed or stoned or hung — and a really good job — isn’t enough to inspire loyalty in the face of discrimination. Logically, of course, America shouldn’t be admitting people who hate us and have no desire to become Americans but we do (especially if they come from countries even more oppressive than the US, and most especially if they’re in danger from their own government).
What do you call it when someone does the morally correct thing even though it works against their own self-interest? Like offering safety to victims of political or religious persecution even though they’re never going to assimilate and will add to the problems of diversity rather than contribute to the benefits of diversity?
“…all of these stories do reflect my own opinion about America…” “..these things, they do represent America in one way or another…” Wait a second. If I form an “opinion” about a ME country based on its government’s actions like repression of free speech, public floggings, etc., if I claim a ME country is “represented” by its people rioting and murdering over a perceived insult, then I get called a racist. How many times have you yourself told me I’m wrong to consider Islam violent and dangerous because its violent and dangerous leaders don’t represent “true Islam”? Well, Gitmo and Bush and discrimination don’t represent true democracy, either.
Horatio: “The gap between democratic reality and democratic rhetoric in the U.S. is so huge…” You are right. Now name me a country where the gap is less than that in the US, please. Here’s a hint: think about countries where an organization such as CAIR not only exists, but is a powerful political force.
Yeah, but Nadia said:
This is not true. And that is the point I was making, not whether discrimination exists in the USA.
The US has a strange attitude towards immigrants. Even though the entire country is populated by immigrants the attitude is essentially — fine, come over here, work, prosper, but shut the fuck up. You want to change anything here? Get the out. Leave. We’re the pinnacle of what a nation-state could be.
Think how America could be made better. That’s what matters. Making America better.
Anyone can make it in America. But immigrants aren’t allowed to help, or to even suggest, that America could be better.
Sorry, this doesnt hack it at all. Have responded on my blog
http://dailysalty.blogspot.com/2007/08/immigrants-and-participation-in-host.html