In 1999, former Kansas State University professor Michael Suleiman published a book titled “Arabs in America: Building a New Future,” in which he explores, among other topics, identity and the Arab American experience. Suleiman writes: “Today, the constituency known as Arab American is situated at an interesting social crossroads, where issues of minority and majority affiliation demand more attention.” Salient to Suleiman’s analysis of Arab American racial classification is the notion that we constantly “[straddle our] technical white identity with [our] practical affinity to ‘people of color.’” Though his book was penned before 9/11, a tragedy that would alter the trajectory of Arab American lives and identities, Suleiman’s ideas remain valid to this day.
Per the United States Census Bureau, a person who is “white” has “origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.” As Arab-Americans, we are counted as whites without the privileges associated with whiteness. We are subject to profiling at airports as well as other instances of public hostility. We have grown up in the shadow of 9/11, implicated with militants and terrorists. Our parents have had to explain to us that we can expect discrimination at school and in the workplace because of the way we look. We are not afforded the social benefits of being white, the “invisible package of unearned assets” as described by Peggy McIntosh, the activist who popularized the concept of white privilege.
Why, then, should we be absorbed by the white category? Our current classification only makes us invisible to the rest of the population. It is not unreasonable for Arab Americans to seek a unique census category which better represents us.
Consider the profound political effects of census data. Funding for educational programs, voter language assistance and health initiatives specific to individuals from particular backgrounds is determined in part by census data. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimate that “census data directly impacts how more than $400 billion in federal funding is allocated across the country.”
Moreover, it is necessary to understand that whiteness in the United States is an ever-evolving concept. It is a fluid social construction tied to social status, as all concepts of race are. Since its birth, the United States has struggled to reconcile its northern European settler identity with each influx of immigrants, resulting in a constant adjustment of our Anglocentric understanding of what it means to be an American. Irish immigrants from the mid-19th century, mired in poverty, faced significant barriers to acceptance as white Americans. Jimmy Rabbitte, the central figure in “The Commitments,” a 1991 comedy-drama film, best captures early American attitudes towards Irish immigration when he says, “Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe.”
The racial status of other immigrants such as Italians and Greeks also remained a point of contention for much of American history. They walked the line between black and white with their darker skin and low social status; like the Irish, they were not quite white. In the 1920s and 1930s, the United States Census Bureau counted South Asians as Hindus. By the 1970s, they became white, and it was not until 1980 that the Asian Indian category was created. Notions of whiteness in America are not static.
Last year, the Arab American Institute sent a letter signed by 30 advocacy groups asking the Census Bureau and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to establish a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) category. “The Census Bureau is being extremely open to discuss this issue,” said Hassan Jaber, executive director of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, Michigan. “It is going to open up all kinds of possibilities for small populations to have more reliable information on them.” Other countries such as the United Kingdom currently classify Arabs as a racial group distinct from whites.
At the University level, a look at our student profile reveals 71.6 percent of undergraduate students are white, a statistic which encompasses Arab students. Such a category is problematic in that it makes it harder for Arab students to be visible on Grounds. We are able to identify issues with black and Hispanic underrepresentation because the data are publicly accessible. The number of black and Hispanic students here is astonishingly low given their state and national populations. We cannot easily access the data for Arab students, and as a result, we cannot target possible problems with Arab representation. Even if the Arab student population is consistent with state and national percentages, there are well less than two million Arabs in the United States, so an equally representative Arab student population is still a small population. Overrepresentation might be the answer, but we cannot begin to approach the issue unless the data are available.
“White” is a label to which many of us feel we cannot lay claim. National Arab American organizations are beginning to address the issue with the OMB and Census Bureau, and their efforts appear auspicious. On Grounds, however, the University must take greater steps to effectively report its Arab student population. Otherwise, we will remain a less visible minority.
Nazar Aljassar is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at n.aljassar@cavalierdaily.com.
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