Like most cultural months, Arab American Heritage Month is meant to rejoice and acknowledge Arab People, a various group that comes from the 22 Arabic-speaking nations of the Center East and North Africa (MENA) in addition to sub-Saharan Africa. Arabs have been immigrating to the U.S. because the late nineteenth century, when most got here from what was then referred to as “Higher Syria,” which was a part of the Ottoman Empire that features present-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. America Census has not had a MENA class, though it has simply been announced that the 2030 Census may have one. In consequence, it’s exhausting to pinpoint the inhabitants of Arabs within the U.S., however the Arab American Institute estimates it at 3.7 million. Since 2010, most have immigrated from Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.
The month has been gaining steam because of an initiative launched in 2017 by the Arab America Basis. Every April, the inspiration has gathered a whole bunch of acknowledgments from officers equivalent to governors, mayors, and college boards. Final 12 months was the primary time a U.S. president wrote a proclamation recognizing it.
Whereas this was a giant step ahead, I admit that I’ve tended to dismiss celebratory months as problematic, particularly as a result of individuals dwell their identities every single day of the 12 months. I’m not Arab American solely in April, nor am I a girl solely in March throughout Girls’s Herstory Month.
There’s additionally a possible for what journalist S. Mitra Kalita calls “beauty, performative, and perfunctory” actions by firms and organizations who use such months as self-serving advertising and marketing alternatives even when they don’t assist marginalized communities. Postcolonial research scholar R. Benedito Ferrão additionally factors out that “indigeneity is invisibilized when immigrant teams search to heart themselves within the U.S. narrative,” a proven fact that doesn’t go away even when November is Native American Heritage Month. Moreover, Ferrão warns that cultural months can grow to be assimilationist. They often spotlight how underrepresented communities align with the U.S. mainstream narratives as a way to vie for a chunk of the pie moderately than questioning the pie—“the pie” being what Black feminist scholar bell hooks aptly referred to as “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy”—and highlighting people who’ve overcome private obstacles moderately than those that have challenged the established order.
Regardless of these contradictions, maybe cultural months can provide the chance for programming and illustration that will not in any other case be potential. I’ve needed to problem myself to have a look at this 12 months’s Arab American Heritage Month with recent eyes, particularly given the present circumstances by which the U.S. is actively funding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians and has just lately carried out airstrikes in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. College directors throughout the nation have suppressed pro-Palestinian activism, notably on highschool and faculty campuses. Given this local weather, I’ve been questioning whether or not this April would possibly provide a singular alternative for training and advocacy, notably about Palestine.
Warren David, co-founder of the Arab American Basis, which has been the driving pressure behind Arab American Heritage Month, says, “Arab People have been a part of the mosaic of this nation for practically 150 years, however the discourse is the alternative. It paints Arabs, Arab People, and Muslims as terrorists and enemies of the state. Sadly, there are such a lot of points that Arab People must cope with—being continuously demonized by the media and U.S. overseas coverage, for instance.”
To him, Arab American Heritage Month is vital “as a result of individuals want to listen to one thing good about us—that we’re human beings.”
Maybe the actual motive I’ve been so fast to dismiss the month is that it’s exhausting to face that anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are nonetheless so unhealthy at this time that there’s a must remind the remainder of the nation that Arabs are human. Certainly, a lot of the messaging coming from and on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza has been for individuals to acknowledge the humanity of these being massacred, which as of this writing is greater than 32,000—13,000 of whom are kids.
What if we seen Arab American Heritage Month as a leaping off level, a possibility to lean into considerate illustration, training, and advocacy for the complete 12 months, moderately than treating it as a one and completed? And what if this April we used our collective energy to demand justice for Palestinians?
Rana Sharif, a coordinating member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) and school member in gender and ladies’s research at California State College, Northridge, acknowledges the worth of identification politics, together with cultural months, in mobilizing communities to consider larger questions of belonging. She asks, “How will we create a tradition of care and compassion versus overemphasizing competitors, and neoliberal and capitalist economies?” Sharif sees “individuals energy” as the place to begin of such cultural change. “How will we go into areas and train those who 1) they’ve energy, and a pair of) that collectively they’re highly effective?” she asks.
“We’re oversaturated by dangerous photographs of Arabs, Arab People, Muslims, Muslim People, and Palestinians and Palestinian People,” states Sharif. She recommends rigorously making decisions to hunt out, study, and examine these communities from voices inside them, honoring their legacies, traditions, and histories, and doing the work to unlearn assumptions as a way to create an area for one thing new. Sharif additionally hopes that Arab American Heritage Month can grow to be extra significant by “centering the affirmative and generative works of Arab American students, creatives, artists, and poets, for instance.
Make It About Justice for Palestinians
Wherever you’re, with all your networks, it must be potential to rejoice Arab American Heritage Month whereas not trying away from the violence in Gaza. Given the rise in anti-Palestinian hate, we’ve got a possibility to make the month about standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
Sharif emphasizes that the battle on Gaza didn’t begin on Oct. 7, 2023, however did intensify then. “We’re within the midst of an lively genocide, so any of the work we do has to start with that acknowledgement,” she says. “The primary goal is a right away and everlasting cease-fire,” which as of this writing has nonetheless not been achieved.
So, make your calls and ship your emails to your elected officers—and don’t do it alone. Arrange a letter writing or postcards for Palestine get together, the place you encourage individuals of all ages to ask their members of Congress for a cease-fire. Present up and communicate up at their workplaces. Interrupt enterprise as normal.
To get entangled with and assist the Palestinian Feminist Collective, Sharif recommends following her group on social media and utilizing “All Out for Palestine,” a digital motion toolkit that PFC revealed final October.
David means that collective activism can have a ripple impact in the long run. He believes individuals can use the month “to empower and construct correct and highly effective photographs of Arabs and Arab People.” Regardless that individuals might not be in a celebratory temper due to the genocide, the Arab America Basis plans to host an in-person tribute in Washington, D.C., celebrating Palestinian individuals, tradition, and heritage.
Take into account monetary activism. Discover out the place your cash is and transfer it if it’s with a financial institution or in accounts funding Israel’s genocide consistent with calls for from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) motion. The “No Thanks” app is a brand new cellphone software designed by Gazan Ahmed Bashbash that helps you scan barcodes to see whether or not merchandise ought to be boycotted.
Within the spirit of teaching ourselves and others, how about organizing a teach-in in your neighborhood, office, or place of worship? And in your e book membership, how about suggesting a Palestine-related e book? Take into account these studying lists as a superb place to begin: Decolonize Palestine, Palestinian Feminist Studying Listing, and “11 Important Books to Assist You Perceive Palestine.”
A lot of the misinformation about Arabs (and Palestinians specifically) comes from the media, whereby males are portrayed as terrorists and ladies as oppressed and unvoiced. To push again towards this, media literacy is vital, notably with younger individuals. The Arab American Nationwide Museum has in-depth lesson plans to make use of in school rooms or with the younger individuals in your life, which embody assets on learn how to discuss depictions of heroes and villains, and utilizing Disney’s Aladdin as a leaping off place.
Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end result of Ramadan, the holiest month of the 12 months for Muslims, came about on the eve of April 9. Whereas not all Arabs are Muslim, most Gazans are. Fasting this 12 months throughout what the United Nations has referred to as Israel’s “marketing campaign of hunger” was difficult for a lot of. I like to recommend studying Zaina Arafat’s new essay, “Fasting for Ramadan Whereas Gaza Goes Hungry.” Additionally Reckon’s “These Queer Palestinians Are Discovering New Which means in Ramadan” sheds gentle on how LGBTQ Palestinians are discovering distinctive methods to honor household, religion, and the battle for justice.
Uplift and expertise the artwork and cultural expressions of Palestinians. Host a movie screening with the Arab Movie and Media Institute or a movie pageant of Palestinian movies. Watch on repeat the dabke dances by Shadi and his group in Gaza, and the wonderful youth who savor dancing it. Dance helps us keep in mind that it’s good to be alive even in dire circumstances. But when your intention is to be an ally, watch out about cultural appropriation. For instance, don’t take up stomach dancing. And in the event you don’t perceive why from Randa Jarrar’s authentic essay on the subject, then learn her second one as properly. (Though a decade previous, they’re timeless.)
By all of this, lean into your grief. Keep in mind that it’s OK to shed tears whereas pondering and speaking about Gaza. Grief is a necessary a part of therapeutic. It makes room for sharper pondering, extra collaborative strategizing, and the power to assume larger. Supply to hearken to others with out interruption. Convey tissues and take a look at to not speak them out of their emotions. This in itself will probably be a radical act.
On this local weather of intense suppression, even attending on-line conferences with a digital background honoring Arab American Heritage Month might be a strong image of solidarity. I like to recommend this digital background created by St. Jude’s Analysis Hospital not solely as a result of it quotes the Lebanese American writer Khalil Gibran but in addition as a result of my great-aunt Sophie, who emigrated to the U.S. from Higher Syria as a woman, had embroidered and hung this quote on her wall the place it hung till her remaining breath: “He who denies his heritage, has no heritage.”
|
Stephanie Abraham
is a nonfiction author, media critic, and public relations practitioner. Her work has appeared in quite a few publications, and she or he was a part of the editorial collective that based the feminist journal make/shift and the founding editor of the feminist journal LOUDmouth. She is the senior advertising and marketing communications specialist at Cal Poly Pomona. Discover extra data and speak to her through her web site. |
