Ray Hanania's Syndicated Columns
NOVEMBER 2004
MY ANNUAL ARAB HERITAGE MONTH LAMENT
BY RAY HANANIA
November is Arab Heritage month. I
wouldn't fault you if you didn't know that, though. It doesn't get much
media coverage and the activities are often very low-key.
The tradition began in Chicago but
quickly spread to the state of Illinois. Several other communities have
latched on to November as a unity Arab Heritage Month, too, and their
successes vary.
So
what is Arab Heritage Month? In my comedy routine, it's just another
silly joke.
"Yea, the airports are offering two-for
one cavity searches during the month of November as a part of the
celebration. The U.S. Postal Service is providing Commemorative Most
Wanted Poster Frames to go around your pictures, but only for those
first-time wanted terrorists. Bin Laden, you're out of luck. And the FBI
is offering a no fee squeal telephone number for those who wish to turn
in one of their relatives."
But seriously, folks. Arab Heritage
Month is about an important culture that has received enormous coverage
in the past few years since Sept. 11th. Not better coverage,
just more negative coverage.
Arab Americans have been taking a
beating especially in the American media since time immemorial in this country.
And, the news media excludes Arab Americans from
participation making their biased, one-sided bigoted attacks against us
worse. This started before and has continued after Sept. 11th. The only
difference today is that the criticism occurs more frequently.
Some argue that the media gives Arab
Americans more than enough coverage. But that's only if you include the
news reports of Middle East terrorism and violence in that category.
Outside of that, there are no profiles
of prominent Arab Americans. No Arab American role models are showcased.
There are fewer than 60 Arab Americans who work in the mainstream media
in various positions around the country. In Chicago, where I live, Arabs
have been a part of this city's history for more than 125 years. Yet, we
don't have one street, one building, one monument, one statue, one
holiday or one festival honoring our many contributions to the city.
Most television stations that provide
on-air time to other ethnic groups do not offer the same opportunities
to Arab American talent. Radio stations, with a few exceptions, totally
ignore the good side of Arab culture and focus only on the hot-button
controversies of terrorism and Middle East violence. As a result,
extremists promote religious-based programming that excludes moderates
and bastardizes the term "Arab" into some religious-based definition.
So what's an Arab to do?
In the Middle East when you are
isolated, consumed by persecution, frustration and have no opportunity
to vent in positive ways, some people strap themselves with dynamite and blow
themselves and some other, poor innocent people up, claiming to be doing it
for a "good cause." Right!
Part of the problem is that it is very
easy for the system to exclude Arab Americans. We are easy targets both
as a result of exclusion (an indirect form of racism), and as a result
of outright racism by people
who, to put it simply, hate us. They hate our politics. They hate our religion.
And they hate our culture. They may also hate felafel and other Arabian
foods that are popular these days.
It's easy to exclude Arab Americans
because Arab Americans are not very good about being included. Inclusion
not only means being invited to participate. It means working hard to
become a part of the process. Arab Americans are not good at
participating and many of the Arab American organizations work to help
themselves exploiting the suffering of the people.
Too many Arab Americans are wrapped up
in the hysteria of extremist religious beliefs that often go far beyond
the limits of religious practice in the Middle East. That is, some Arab
Americans are more conservative than Arabs living in the Middle East.
Things like belly dancing, sheesha pipes, singing, dancing, and
contemporary lifestyles are more common in the Middle East than they are here among Arab
American communities. Arabs in the Middle East are actually more
tolerant of different cultures and beliefs than are Arabs who live in
America.
It's a fascinating development.
Arab American organizations are built
upon individual personalities and personality cults. (We have many
organizations that are led by "presidents-for-life.) Arab Americans have
difficulty participating in organizations that are built on principles
of Democracy that involve the election rather than the appointment of leaders based on talent and skills rather
than on old-fashioned Arab World traditions of age, family heritage,
or political affiliations.
That may be why the first thing Arab
Americans do when they come together around a cause is to worry about
who is going to be president and who is going to be on the board.
Oftentimes the battle for leadership positions consumes 99 percent of
the effort and little is done to achieve measurable results in
addressing causes
like the many social problems that increasingly plague our community.
We have so many senior citizens who
don't get support. We have single parents and abused wives and families
with histories of domestic violence that don't get addressed. Some of
our children are involved in street gangs and in drugs. Many of our
businessmen who among community leaders profess abstinence from alcohol
sell alcohol at their stores in minority communities. Sexual harassment
is a common ailment of our community. But we are afraid to address these
issues.
In fact, in some cases, some religious
leaders have used their power to organize community wide boycotts of
certain businesses that are deemed "haram" or unapproved by religious
conviction. Ironically, these hypocrite imams and religious leaders have relatives who own liquor stores
where the owners have many
wives and many girlfriends. They exploit the African American community
and give our entire community a bad name.
It's wrong for us to blame American society
for all of our problems. Certainly, racism does exist and it needs to be
addressed and corrected.
But oftentimes, Arab Americans fail to do enough to combat these
challenges. We don't forge
alliances with other ethnic leaders to build strong networks of support.
For sure, we have many organizations so
fearful of losing what little that they have in terms of grants, public
recognition and public identity that they work harder to undermine
supposed rivals rather than on the goals of their organizations. And the
American leaders are so naive that they actually end up providing funds
to organizations that indirectly support the extremism that creates an
atmosphere that foments terrorist acts.
Arab Heritage Month?
Yea, right. It's just another way for
Arab Americans to be reminded how terribly unsuccessful this community
has been in American society.
We need to change this. Recognizing our
shortcomings and our problems is an important first step. But we must
work together to improve our situation and stop acting like victims. We
need to do more to improve our lives and not blame everything on
everyone else.
# # #
For more information on Arab
Heritage Month, to to
Chicago's Arab Community Information Page.
(Ray Hanania is a Palestinian-American author. Reach him by e-mail at
rayhanania@aol.com. He is the winner of the Society of
Professional Journalists Lisagor Award for Column Writing. His columns
are archived at www.hanania.com)
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