Anti-Arab Racism in the USA

Steven Salaita

Description

Today is a difficult time to be both Arab and American. Since 9/11 there has been a lot of criticism of America’s involvement in the middle east. Yet there has been little analysis of how America treats citizens of Arab or middle eastern origin within its own borders.



Steven Salaita explores the reality of Anti-Arab racism in America. He blends personal narrative, theory and polemics to show how this deep-rooted racism affects everything from legislation to cultural life, shining a light on the consequences of Anti-Arab racism both at home and abroad.



The book shows how ingrained racist attitudes can be found within the progressive movements on the political left, as well as the right. Salaita argues that, under the guise of patriotism, Anti-Arab racism fuels support for policies such as the Patriot Act.
Introduction: The Evolution of White Supremacy

1. The Perilous World of Savages and Barbarians

2. Ethnic Identity and Imperative Patriotism: Arab Americans Before and After 9/11

3. Observations on a New Fifth Column: Anti-Arab Racism in the American University

4. Is Zionism Racism?

5. Why God Hates Me

6. Re-Dressing Abu Ghraib: The Racism of Denial

Conclusion: Stories of a Different Kind

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Minority Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• United States of America
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783715954
• Langue: English

Extrait

Anti-Arab Racism in the USA
“Steven Salaita’s Anti-Arab Racism in the USA is an important and welcome contribution to the growing body of scholarship on the post 9/11 Arab-American experience.”— Hussein Ibish , Vice-Chair, Progressive Muslim Union and Senior Fellow, American Task Force On Palestine
“A sobering analysis of anti-Arab racism, from neo-conservative to liberal, rooted in America’s settler colonial past and seeping into every corner of our lives, especially in the universities. Steven Salaita takes the reader into the crisis of Arab-American communities in the wake of 9/11 and the emergence of what he calls the culture of imperative patriotism. Written with passion, this lucid account of the dangers of American imperialism paints a dark picture of the agenda of the Bush administration not only in the Arab world but also for people of color at home.”— Miriam Cooke , Professor, Duke University
“Anti-Arab Racism in the USA offers an impassioned and deeply compelling look at the origins, evolution, manifestations and implications of anti-Arab racism today. In prose that is both scathing and theoretically and historically informed, Salaita traces anti-Arab racism from founding U.S. doctrines of manifest destiny, exceptionalism and expansionism through nineteenth-century European colonialism to contemporary political, cultural and religious discourse, both in the U.S. and internationally. A tour de force which makes it impossible to avoid grappling with the seriousness of anti-Arab racism and its implications for our times.”— Lisa Suhair Majaj , co-editor, Etel Adnan: Critical Reflections on the Arab-American Writer and Artist and Intersections: Gender, Nation, and Community in Arab Women’s Novels
“Steven Salaita dives head first into the heart of racism in America and uses his personal experiences to help readers understand the mechanics of racism as it applies to Arabs, Muslims and people who look Middle Eastern in the post-September 11 world.”— Ray Hanania , journalist and filmmaker, author of I’m Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing up Arab in America and Arabs of Chicagoland
“Anti-Arab Racism in the USA is a highly recommended read, not only for students of Middle East history and affairs, but for the average American who simply longs to know how we have become so intimately and yet so bitterly entwined with the people of the Middle East. Salaita does a great job of incorporating light-hearted stories of personal experience with meaty and profound concepts of great consequence. He articulates how institutions from the media to upper level government to the American people in general have been steeped in the noxious teachings of anti-Arab racism, and how those notions have readied us and dulled our sense of humanity in the face of grave injustices committed against Arabs and Muslims worldwide. Salaita has thoughtfully articulated a very regretful era of unabashed racism in American history.”— Ramzy Baroud , Editor, Palestine Chronicle and author of Searching Jenin
Anti-Arab Racism in the USA
Where It Comes from and What It Means for Politics Today
STEVEN SALAITA
First published 2006 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Steven Salaita 2006
The right of Steven Salaita to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2517 3 hardback ISBN 0 7453 2516 5 paperback ISBN 978 1 7837 1595 4 ePub ISBN 978 1 7837 1596 1 Mobi
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing
Contents Acknowledgements
  Introduction: The Evolution of White Supremacy 1    The Perilous World of Savages and Barbarians 2    Ethnic Identity and Imperative Patriotism: Arab Americans Before and After 9/11 3    Observations on a New Fifth Column: Anti-Arab Racism in the American University 4    Is Zionism Racism? 5    Why God Hates Me 6    Redressing Abu Ghraib: the Racism of Denial Conclusion: Stories of a Different Kind
  Notes Index
To all victims of racism, everywhere
Acknowledgements
Although this book was written primarily during the summer of 2004, it has been in formation for many years. During the time that I have been contemplating anti-Arab racism and its effects on the cultures and politics of the United States, I have been aided invaluably by numerous people.
I would like to thank very deeply the close group of friends with whom I was lucky enough to become involved while a doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma: Mohammad Al-Ramahi, Tariq Alzoubi, Rania Dughman, Nadim Ferzli, Ghada Janbey, Heather Janbay, Rima Najjar Kapitan, Fadi Shadfan, and Nimer Shadfan. In many ways I view this project as a collective effort between myself and these dear friends, because most of the arguments I present in Anti-Arab Racism in the USA grew out of our seemingly infinite conversations, our shared commitment to peace and justice in the Near East, and the work many of us did in re-forming and developing the OU Arab Student Association. The endless generosity and hospitality of this community of friends also enabled me to navigate whatever impediments arose in bringing this book into production.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to the colleagues who have supported me either by reading and commenting on the manuscript or by aiding me in my professional development: Etel Adnan, Barbara Nimri Aziz, Ramzy Baroud, Miriam Cooke, Ray Hanania, Hussein Ibish, Catherine John, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Geneva Moore, Timothy Poland, Rita Sizemore Riddle, Howard Ross, and George Savage. Roger van Zwanenberg’s enthusiasm and professionalism have been integral to the publication of Anti-Arab Racism in the USA .
Thanks also are due to Douglas Kiel, Joseph Lubasz, and Angela Miller for extending to me an open invitation into their sweat lodge and to Luis Monterrosa for the beautiful music that often accompanied the transcription of the manuscript.
A slightly modified version of Chapter Two appeared originally in College Literature 32 (2005) and the section “Eulogizing Edward Said” in Chapter Three appeared in a slightly modified form in Minnesota Review 61–62 (2004). I thank the editors for allowing me to reprint those articles here.
I have been blessed with a continually supportive, sometimes rambunctious, always interesting, and, above all, loving family. I have learned much about the world outside of textbooks from Amami George, Ghaleb, Suleiman, and the late Saleem, who remains daily in my thoughts; Amati Fadwa, Loris, Zoyee, Zakia, and the late Cathy, who likewise is missed greatly. The same holds true for mis tíos Richard, Salvador, and the late Jorge, a constant inspiration; mi tía Marta and mi abuelita ; and my late abuelito , who still visits in times of need.
For putting up with my frequent neurosis and occasional unpleasantness, I wish to offer profound appreciation to my nuclear family, which has provided me more joy than any amount of money or material possessions ever could: Nasr, Miriam, Nasri, Delia, Michael, Danya, John, and Peter—and especially my wife, Diana, who always believes in me even when I don’t deserve her tremendous energy and ambition.
Introduction: The Evolution of White Supremacy
I had always pictured my paternal grandfather as a desert warrior. He was a Bedouin sheikh riding across the bronzed landscape atop a one-hump camel, his red and white kuffiyeh tied to his head with a black rope, the back folds flying outward as he gained speed. I would reach out to touch the golden dagger inlaid with mother-of-pearl strapped to his waist with papyrus rope. My fingers could only graze the bottom of his gray robe as he swept past, the king of the desert on a secret mission.
Yes, this was my grandfather, of the Balqa region, a Christian Bedouin of the Ma’aia tribe. (“No Whites converted us,” my dad would tell me as a child. “The Salaita were baptized by Jesus.”) He lived into his nineties, passing away before meeting the last of his grandchildren, with whom he could never communicate and who lived two continents away.
Yet I knew my grandfather when I was a small boy. I saw him when I went to the movies; he had his own program on television. At 6:00 pm each evening, he was on the screen, in Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Iraq, flyting and preaching hate. He had ten or eleven starring roles in Lawrence of Arabia . My grandfather was a terrorist, a romance, an obedient servant.
In fact, everybody in my family, I learned at a young age, was afflicted with innately violent tendencies. The nicer ones were, TV taught me, merely irrational or voraciously promiscuous. I grew up as a first-generation Arab American hating, as do so many minority children in the United States, the essence of my very existence. That hatred has since been transformed into an intense pride. I have waited years to do whatever I can to dismantle the system that encourages Arab American children to be scared of their own names, their parents’ accents, and their families’ skin tones.
Unfortunately, childhood self-hatred wasn’t simply reinforced in popular culture. I grew up inundated with racism. It would be dishonest for me to claim that my childhood experiences somehow represent all first-generation Arab Americans. I grew up in a different time than today’s youngsters and doubtless in a much different place. In the Appalachian corridor, on the Virginia/West Virginia border, I battled an anti-Arab racism expressed with vicious sincerity. I couldn’t wait to get to college, where I thought I would