DETROIT: 12 November 2007

Congratulations to Jackie Salloum! Her new film Slingshot Hip Hop, a documentary about Palestinian hip hop artists, made it into the Sundance Film Festival! Check Ibn Bint Jbeil for more clips of her films and commentary, and visit Zapagringo to learn how you can help support post-production neccessities for the film.

DETROIT: 24 September 2007

In May of this year, news from Jena, Lousiana spread throughout the African American and "of color" blogospheres. After black high school students enjoyed the shade of a typically "whites-only" tree on campus (on the permission of school authority figures), white students hung nooses from the tree and were given the sort of punishment that, at least when I was in school, is considered more of a vacation than a reprimand.

In this context, those nooses speak very clearly. They say: We will kill you.

Yet in the ensuing series of fights between black and white students, the white students received little to no repercussions, while six black students were charged with attempted second degree murder.

Last week the blog-based activism around this case culminated in a huge grassroots protest in Jena, attended by mainstream black activists and performers, which garnered significant mainstream media attention. I was searching for the Arab American response.

As Arab Americans, we recognize and have first hand experience receiving unfair legal punishment. We have experiential knowledge of a racist American legal system. What obligation do we have to speak out in support of the Jena 6? The ADC provided me with this statement (emphasis mine) when I inquired:

 

I'm disturbed by the gratuitous National Guard solicitation targeted to Arab Americans that I have been seeing in places like The Arab American News and Dearborn's Arab International Festival. I am bombarded with these misleading, exploitative ads on TV, in the movie theater, and now in my Arab American media? Am I the only one who thinks it's abusive and unfair for Arabs to advocate service in the American military to other Arabs? Are our lives worth so little that we should sacrifice them in service of a government that has institutionalized discrimination against us, in order to perpetuate the same type of war and imperialism that brought many of our families here?

More importantly, are there so few rich Arab Americans setting up endowments and scholarship funds for low income Arab American youth that our youth feel they have no other choice but to enlist if they want to have any chance at the trifecta (doctor, lawyer, engineer) of Arab American success? With all the pressure put on young Arab Americans, regardless of economic status, to achieve high educational goals, enlisting in the military might seem incredibly appealing to those of us with few other financing options. Why not increase the options? I'm reminded of this quote, from Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's book [Read More]

DETROIT, 29 June 2007, (Arabisto.com):

 

In part 1 of this post, I discussed the scapegoating and oppression of Palestinians within an "antisemitism" framework. I referenced the zine "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of All of Our Movements." I also added the following disclaimer, which applies to this post as well:

I often struggle with finding accurate language in discussions of race and ethnicity, and I’ve heard others say that they desire more sophisticated terms for these discussions. You can take this post as an exploration of options, as well as an attempt to illuminate similarities in experiences, but not as an attempt to quantify or homogenize experience.

While I wrote about Palestinians specifically in Part 1, it was as an Arab American first that some of the ideas explored in the zine resonated most with me.

Upon immigration, Jewish Americans experienced discrimination as a group, but were able to transition into whiteness within one or two generations. In present day, I've read writings by Jewish Americans (none of which I can find online now) lamenting their ancestors' rush to assimilate, often resulting in phantom pains; missing something that one may never have experienced, only heard or read about. Despite the reracialization of European-descended Jews as white, and the visibility and mobilization of Jewish watchdog groups (some of which function less as media justice advocates and more as Zionist thugs bent on c... [Read More]

From ACCESS: 

Scholarships Available for Media Conference

ACCESS is providing 16 scholarships for Arab Americans to join hundreds of independent media-makers and social justice activists from around the country taking part in the 9th Annual Allied Media Conference (AMC), from June 22-24 in Detroit. The AMC provides three days of hands-on media training, accessible discussions and fun gatherings, with the goal of advancing the human right to communication.  The conference combines DIY media, women of color, feminism, youth culture and popular education. It is an exciting opportunity for experienced media makers and those who are just getting started. Learn more at: www.AMC2007.org.  If you are interested in obtaining a scholarship to attend, please contact Rima Meroueh at rima1031@hotmail.com, or 313-283-6559 by the end of the workday on Thursday.

 Arab Americans, you have NO EXCUSE not to attend this conference. We need media justice just as m... [Read More]

DETROIT, 13 June 2007, (Arabisto.com):

Reading and seeing pieces of the various wars being waged on the Palestinian people, I've been thinking a lot lately about the treatment of European Jews prior to the Holocaust. As I said in a comment  to this post: