For the past two decades, American Arabs have been told that if they don’t participate in the U.S. Census, conducted every 10 years, they will be denied all kinds of government services and benefits.

And for the past two decades, the American Arab community has been routinely and consistently denied all kinds of government services and benefits.

Here we are again, U.S. Census time, and the government and some American Arab groups and activists are telling us that if we don’t fill out the census, it will be “disastrous,” as one southern California American Arab argued recently.

Disastrous? I’d say what they have been telling us to do for the past 20 years has been disastrous. I’d say the people who take money from the government and then shill for the government have been the cause of many of our problems with the U.S. Census. They’re being paid, people, to tell us not to protest. They print up fancy Arabic brochures to mislead us into believing the government cares, but the activists are getting the contracts for the print jobs.

The Census is Important and the message from the American Arab activists and organizations who are on the government dole is that we should just accept the status quo.

Why is the Census so important?

Well, first of all, if you happen to be one of the ethnic and racial groups identified in the U.S. Census form – they are actually listed on the form – you receive government grants, funding and program support based on your community’s regional concentration and its size or percentage of the local population.

But Arabs are NOT listed on the Census forms at all. The excuse is that “Arabs are not a race.”

We’re discriminated against like a race. We are singled out in airport and government security like a race of terrorists, in fact. We are denied jobs because of racial reasons, excluded from government programs specifically because of how we look, and discriminated against because of our religion, too.

We’re not a “race?”

The fact is half the groups who ARE listed on the U.S. Census forms are not a race, either. Some are just ethnic groups that happen to have better and more honest leaders who fought hard to have them included.

Instead of fighting hard to be included on the census, American Arab activists who are on the government payroll, are telling us, “Don’t worry. You can be identified if you write in your race on the form. Arab. Just write it in.”

That’s how they have been compromised. The government refuses to identify us as a race or ethnic group on the census, and to keep their contracts and government funding that they get to organize campaigns to push American Arabs to complete the once-every-ten-years form, they tell us that instead of fighting, we should just “submit.” Write our name “ARAB” on the little insulting, undignified line at the bottom of the form where it asks other Americans to identify their race.

There are some 4.5 million Arabs and 7 million Muslims in America. The majority of the Muslims, 78 percent, are not Arab at all. We think. We don’t have a census to prove that number, but hey, any number will do when you are Arab. We don’t count. Hey. Why not just say we are 30 million people in America? That sounds so much more prestigious?

Because we are NOT listed on the census and because the American Arab shills working for the government are not standing up for our rights so they don’t jeopardize “their contracts,” American Arabs are being denied jobs, money and most importantly, protection from racist policies and actions.

We are not “measured” in terms of government actions and therefore when we are discriminated against that act of discrimination goes unrecorded as a community index.

For example, when a police officer stops a motorist for a traffic ticket, the police officer is required by Federal law to list the “Race” of the person being stopped.

Why is that important? Well, in some communities, we are discovering that police are stopping racial groups because of their race in larger proportions in their community.

But they are only required to list those races and ethnic groups that are listed on the U.S. Census forms, not Arabs that are written in at the bottom of the form.

Because Hispanics and Blacks are listed on the U.S. Census, for example, Hispanics and Blacks can protest when statistics kept by police agencies show they are being “targeted” for traffic stops.

In suburban communities throughout America, American Arabs are being stopped at an outrageous number. It is proof of discrimination and other issues like the failure of police departments to hire American Arabs as police officers.

The U.S. Census doesn’t recognize us as “ARABS,” and therefore the police departments around the country don’t recognize us or list us, either.

That’s disastrous! That’s the crime taking place in cities across America.

We can’t even ask school districts or police departments or fire departments or any government agency this simple question that is the foundation of social empowerment in America: “How many Arabs are working in your agency?”

The answer is usually none, but the response is “We don’t identify Arabs because it is not recognized by the U.S. Census.”

Maybe our bought and paid-for activists can ask the police officers and government agencies to “write us in?”

Click here to read my last column on this topic?

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and Chicago Radio Talk Show Host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com.)