Just Curious

Arab Americans

I recently sent out an e-mail to my friends, which addressed the interesting issue of the status of Arab Americans in this country.

It is noteworthy that despite all the anti-Arab hysteria, etc., in the media, no one so far has singled Arab-American politicians like Ralph Nader or John E. Sununu (Republican senator from New Hampshire) out to question their loyalty. To me, this somehow implies that the current discrimination against Arabs really is not directed against their ethnic identity, but rather at their cultural and religious identity.

Most of the said politicians and entertainers (e.g. Salma Hayek) are Christian Arabs, as opposed to Muslim, and most of them don't have Muslim first names. In fact, many Arabs who in fact did have Muslim names sometimes change them to avoid being viewed as "outsiders." Due to cultural pressures, many Arab-Americans had changed names like "Suleyman" to "Solomon," "Yussuf" to "Joseph," "Ibrahim" to "Abraham," or "Daud" to "David." Most of them are also under pressure to give up traditional customs to make themselves more "American." (White American-that is.)

Which reminds me of Henry Ford's English school in his Detroit factories. Workers from Russia, Turkey and other parts of Eastern Europe were forced to take night-classes in English and "American etiquette" and after they had graduated, they were made to participate in a stage-show in which representatives of different "ethnics" would emerge from a large pot, referred to by Ford executives as the "great American melting pot."

Does a country's national identity depends on cultural solidarity? I would like to hear some feedbacks.

posted by James Chang @ 10:49 PM