On June 30, 2020, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, Arab American National Museum (AANM), and National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) launched “Creating a Culture of Change: A Series of Conversations on Race and Community Building.”
The first conversation was on Race and Youth Education with guest presenters Dr. Krystal Strong – scholar, activist, and Assistant Professor at UPenn’s Graduate School of Education, Dr. Debbie Almontaser – educator and founder of Bridging Cultures Group, and hip-hop artist Omar Offendum.
A full recording of the event can be viewed below:
Director of AANM Dr. Diana Abouali opened the event opened with introductions and a land acknowledgement. She emphasized the urgency with which the Arab American community, itself “a community that has been targets of racism as well as perpetrators of racism,” must reckon with its biases and prejudices. She also recognized that, of course, Arabs are not a monolithic group – the Arab/Arab-American community is one that is linguistically, racially, and religiously diverse. While there are many Black Arabs, there are anti-Black sentiments amongst Arabs. That this is a moment for the community to grapple with its racial biases underpins development of this conversation series.
Dr. Krystal Strong clarified the need to be specific when talking about “racial injustice.” “We need to name anti-Blackness and white supremacy and we need to use that language specifically,” she said. She clarified that white supremacy is not a fringe movement of a far-right few but rather centuries-old systems and attitudes existing on a global scale that are designed to keep white people in positions of power and Black and Brown people in positions of subjugation. Strong said, “Naming anti-Blackness as a very particular kind of racialized violence is also important…There is something very specific about anti-Black violence and anti-Black systems that also operate within communities of color that we have to be very clear about.” Turning to the topic at hand, Race and Youth Education, Dr. Strong emphasized the extent to which young people not only understand what is going on in the world but often have insights into anti-Blackness and white supremacy that elude adults. Adults and young people must be partners in ongoing learning and self-education about race, upending the assumption that adults “teach” and children “learn.”
Dr. Debbie Almontaser urged the audience to see this as a moment to support and listen closely to Black Americans. She spoke of her own experience as a Yemeni/Muslim American directly impacted by Trump’s travel ban and drew a parallel to the current moment. In 2017, as a member of a community directly impacted by the Trump administration’s Islamophobia and Xenophobia, she remembered feeling as though her community’s cause had been usurped by those who were not directly impacted. She referenced this in order to bring up the need for the Arab American community to not, in this moment of national outrage and pain, lump their own pain with the struggles of Black Americans; rather to listen, understand, and support their fellow Black community members. Dr. Almonstaser spoke to several examples of allyship that she has taken part in since the protests began, at the center of all of which was the question, “How can I support you?”
Omar Offendum, the last speaker in the panel and a quiet force, also addressed anti-Blackness within the Arab community and the need to treat this moment as an opportunity to grapple with our own biases and prejudices. “This moment is forcing us to reckon with and name what this really is at the end of the day, and this is white supremacy and anti-Blackness.” Offendum strongly recognizes his privilege, conveying “I note that I am an immigrant, came here when I was 4 years old. I was raised, thankfully, with an understanding and appreciation for all the different manifestations of race and ethnicity, within the Arabic speaking context, Arabic speaking communities, and in America with nothing but respect and love for our fellow men. I’d be lying if I didn’t mention the deep soul searching when it came to the reality that any success that my family or the families of the Arabic speaking communities around us were able to achieve here in the America, wasn’t really rooted in the reality that we were able to achieve the success was because the system was built so unjustly”. He urged action on the part of his fellow Arab Americans, saying, “You are not observers, but participants in America.” Offendum closed with a spoken word piece, one he had written several years ago, but which has taken on new meaning since the protests, as in this excerpt:
We push & shove / We poke & prod / But Mother Earth she still survives / Yes Mother Earth she will survive / Our Mother Earth / She will survive
Dr. Strong concluded the conversation with an urgent action:
Now is the time for deepening our solidarities, now is the time for deepening our analysis, now is the time for deepening our collaborations!
Key references mentioned by the presenters:
- Activism Beyond The Classroom website designed and developed by students in Dr. Strong’s course at UPenn GSE
- The Black Lives Matter Philadelphia Chapter mentioned by Dr. Strong
- Historic Protest Marker mentioned by Dr. Strong
- Yemenis for Black Lives Matter mentioned by Dr. Debbie Almontaser
- Yemeni Corner-Store Protests mentioned by Dr. Almontaser
- Yemeni American Merchants Association mentioned by Dr. Almontaser
- American Promise Documentary mentioned by Dr. Almontaser
- Intercity Muslim Action Network mentioned by Omar Offendum
- Arabs for Black Lives, mentioned by Omar Offendum
- Open Letter to Thomas Jefferson mentioned by Omar Offendum
