Dirty, Dirty A-rabs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202158_pf.html

I want you to check out this article from the Washington Post. I've met Jack Shaheen, and I've seen his short film. The film is interesting, but only if you aren't an Arab. If you are, it's old news. I've often wondered to myself why the PC police never seem to get to Arab-bashing? I suppose if another minority group was flying planes into buildings, we might not be as ready to give them equal time, but the sad truth of the matter is that long before there were hijackers and 9/11 there were tons of rather productive Arab immigrants already living in this country. The closest depiction I can come up with for my family and the way that the behave and have contributed to American society is the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", and it's about Greeks. To be sure, Arabs are all over the airwaves, and in positive ways, but you don't know that they are Arabs. Jamie Farr in MASH, Casey Kasem and his Top 40, Danny Thomas and Father Knows Best, Tony Shalhoub and Monk... all great performers, and not a single one of them performing as an Arab. Which is not to say that they are denying their identity- Tony Shalhoub does a lot of independent pro-Arab filmmaking- it's that they are performing just as people, and that's what Arab immigrants have been doing, for the most part, since they started coming to this country. More than I would say many cultural groups Arabs understand the need for community, and when you live have a world away from your born community, well, you have to build one here. That's how my grandparents, both from Ramallah, Palestine, came to live in and be beloved by literally the most German town in the United States, New Ulm, MN. That's how my uncle Adel introduces himself as Joe. That's how all my cousins living in Birmingham, AL speak Arabic with a southern accent.... They realized that it was possible to assimilate and become "American" without sacrificing the "Arab" parts of themselves. When those men perform their roles they don't have to telegraph their ethnicity... they know who they are, both Arab and American, and they can be both simultaneously.

Perhaps that is a mistake. Perhaps we need to have more actively vocal members of the community coming out and being identifiably "Arab". The problem with that is that to be identified as Arab by the majority of Americans, you have to do just what Jack Shaheen implies- be a belly dancer, a bomber, or a billionaire. And what about the thousands of Arabs who aren't any of those things? What about fathers and mothers, grocery store owners, lawyers, doctors, nurses, any other thing that anyone else in this country does? There is a small movement starting, led by some comics who call themselves the Axis of Evil (Check them out on Comedy Central). They are fucking hilarious, but my fear is that it doesn't translate. There are a thousand things that are funny to people in the community (which is true of most communities, I know), but when you say it to outsiders sometimes they are horrified, sometimes they are confused, and sometimes they just don't think it's funny. So is it enough that we are performing for ourselves? Is it enough to just be present agains the stereotypes, or should we be actively fighting those stereotypes? It's as though our desire to assimilate prevents us from defending ourselves. Or maybe it's that we've become so assimilated, we don't recognize that it is us they are making fun of. I just don't want to end up like Tony Shalhoub's character in Sum of All Fears, where he realizes that all this time he's been an FBI agent and a translator don't stack up against the fact that he is ultimately an Arab. As he's put into the detention facility that has been created for all Arab men in New York, he turns to Denzel Washington and says " I won't be your sand n*gger" anymore. It's a horrible thought, and a visceral line, but one that I think hit's close to home for any Arab post 9/11. At what point will our Arab-ness outweight our American-ness.... and what happens then?