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Washington File– June 7, 2005
Arab Americans recount experiences
of growing up in America
By Nino Kader
Washington -- Several young Arab Americans spoke of their experiences growing up in Midwestern America at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee convention May 27-29, 2005.
Noor Najeeb was the first panelist to share her story. Noor, who grew up in Wisconsin, discussed her life as a high school student after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She said that the words “Arab” and “Muslim” have received negative connotations and that it is now important to proactively make every effort to educate her peers in order to breakdown stereotypes.
There is no excuse not to become actively involved, she said. Noor organized a youth interfaith dialogue in Wisconsin, and she started an initiative at her school where students role-played being Arab American in various situations.
Noor was also critical of many of the elements of the Patriot Act, which was adopted after the September 11 attacks. The American Civil Liberties Union awarded Noor the “2005 Youth Civil Libertarian of the Year” in recognition of her many efforts. Noor noted that “every minority group in America has had to go through discrimination” and believes that active involvement in the community will lead to social justice.
The next panelist to speak was Rebecca Abou-Chedid, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, who traces her roots back to Lebanon. Rebecca recounted a story of Thanksgiving in the Abou-Chedid home. The traditional American celebration of Thanksgiving in November is usually marked with the serving of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. Rebecca pointed out that in her family Thanksgiving was exactly the same as everywhere else with the exception that there was also hummus and taboleh on the table as well as Arabic bread.
Rebecca considers herself lucky to have not experienced any bigotry or discrimination growing up in Cleveland. The first time she experienced any sort of ethnic discrimination was when she went off to college at Cornell University in upstate New York. She recounted an experience in the dining hall where people sat in self-identified groups: white, black, Asian, Latino and miscellaneous. It was at this point, she said, that she “thus became an Arab.” She decided to walk over to a table with a Latino friend and sat down to eat, only to have one person ask her friend why she invited a white girl to the table. Her friend replied that Rebecca was an Arab and then it became acceptable to everyone because she was no longer seen as white.
Yet, Rebecca said that, “when I went home to Cleveland, on vacation, everything was fine. Then, after September 11, when she went home she was the Arab everyone knew. Thus, when she was at home she was serving as an ambassador for the Arab world to her community in Cleveland.” She recommends that Arab Americans get involved and says that “we need to reach out to others and let people get to know you.” It is important that Arab Americans engage in dialogue and education with their fellow Americans, says Rebecca. Upon graduating from college she decided to come to Washington and join the Arab American Institute as the government relations and policy analyst.
The next person on the panel to speak was Tarek Ismail, a student at the University of Virginia. Tarek, who was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, talked about how the pronunciation of his name by classroom teachers was always an uncomfortable experience. He recollected how the teacher would go down the list of names and then pause when he or she saw the name Tarek Ismail. His classmates would often come to the rescue by saying Ta-Rick aloud before the teacher would mispronounce it. “My name is actually a gift,” he said, because people immediately ask you where you are from and thus he gets to act as a goodwill ambassador for his heritage.
Tarek illustrated what it is like to be both an Arab American and an American Arab. As an Arab American, he recounted a story from when he played baseball in a Little League game in Ohio. Tarek described his first at bat. While he was getting ready for the first pitch, his father yelled from the stands with a thick Arabic accent, “kick it boy, show them how to do it!” He also recalled opening his school lunch to reveal a kefta sandwich while all the other kids had more traditional American sandwiches like peanut butter and jelly.
Tarek then told a story of when he went to the Middle East and experienced what it was like to be an American Arab. He walked up to a soccer field to join in a game and the kids all started calling him an American by chanting, “Amri-key, Amri-key.”
Tarek, who feels as though he has a foot in both worlds, says, “I have a weird name and weird grandparents, I m Arab and American” and thus he feels that he can be a good representative of both.
The fourth and final panelist was Robert Ina, a Lebanese American from Ohio. He has a large “close-knit” family which he said reminds him of the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” He went to a Catholic high school and recently graduated from college. He said everyone in his hometown of Lyndhurst was predominantly Italian American, and he was often mistaken for Italian, despite the fact that he wore a large cedar tree emblem around his neck. He, like many Arab Americans, has a limited knowledge of Arabic, he said.
Robert became interested in politics as a youth and ran for city council at the age of 20. On Election Day, November 2, 2004, Robert recalled, “it was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in sight,” but he was feeling, “sick and had a sore throat.” Nonetheless, he was upbeat about his chances for winning the election, but he watched his lead slip away as he lost to the incumbent by 40 votes. A few years prior to that, right after September 11, Robert faced a different set of challenges. His family owned several deli restaurants and gas stations. They were starting to receive bomb threats because they were Arab. However, his American friends would often come to his defense even without asking. Robert stressed to the audience, “we must educate people on who we are and stand up without being afraid.” The general public “needs to know that 99.999 percent of Arabs” are not involved in terrorism. He went on to say that “our families never taught us to engage in violence.”
He ended his talk with a quote from Kahlil Gibran, the celebrated Arab-American poet, who wrote, “Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.”
Several panelists noted that immigrants to the United States from different ethnic groups underwent challenging periods of assimilation before being fully accepted. Nonetheless, an underlying theme resonated throughout the experiences of each of the panelists. All of them now feel the need to address the stereotypes and misperceptions about Arabs in the United States. Arab Americans seem to serve indirectly as ambassadors to their fellow Americans who are interested in learning more about the Arab world. It is estimated by the Census Information Center at the Arab American Institute that there are now 3.5 million Arab Americans. The voices of people like Rebecca, Noor, Tarek and Robert resonate among Americans because they too are Americans.
The panel discussion, "Growing Up American," is "usually one of the most popular events" at the annual ADC conventions, according to ADC communications coordinator Siwar Bandar. About 2,000 Arab Americans descended upon the U.S. capital to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the ADC, the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the United States. The ADC is committed to “defending the right of people of Arab descent” and to “promoting their rich cultural heritage.”
http://www.usa.no/usa/policy/article.htmlﾔid=2618&PHPSESSID=9624c052de92710f531eaef2793107c0
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