From: bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Basil Hamdan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Arab identity vs. Arab bashing
Date: 15 Apr 92 20:56:56 GMT
Reply-To: bh437292@longs.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Basil Hamdan)
Organization: Colorado State U. Center for Computer Assisted Engineering.


In article <1992Apr14.141557.9244@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>,
sylvie@ncrcol.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM (Sylvie Feghali Ext. 6525) writes:
 
>     Anyway, back to the point here's the message I was wanted to give: 
> 
>           Just because you don't agree with someone's opinion,
>           that does not make it right for you to start bashing
>           them.
> 
>    And of course this was not aimed at you, but rather to all these people
>    who started a verbal war because they disagreed with each other's ethnic
>    perspectives.  
>    Just as Elie Wardini said, the only answer is pluralism and tolerance.
>     
>                                     Sylvie

I should say here that I agree with Sylvie, we should have tolerance
of others regardless of how they choose to identify themselves.
Let's lay this discussion of Arab vs. Phoenician to rest, it is not
productive and we seem to all agree that anyone can call himself
whatever he wishes, since as Elie and Bassem observed, it is not your exact
genetic make up that counts but rather what you perceive yourself to be.
It is impossible to agree on a common definition of what constitutes
an ethnic identity among contributors to scl who hold quite divergent 
opinions on the issue.
Many on this newsgroup for various reasons choose not to identify themselves
as Arab, I never quarelled with their right to do so.  A totally different
issue is the question of defaming Arabs.  This is not acceptable, not in
this newsgroup, or in any other forum.  I only responded to those that
blatantly attacked what I consider to be my heritage.  I would be equally
vocal(and I have been in the past) if someone, for no reason, attacks any
other group whether that group is a religious sect in Lebanon, an ethnic
group here in the States, or any minority that has been targeted and
discriminated against.
The Arab people have been the subject of much stereotyping in the Western
media, and these negative images of Arabs have been pervasive in the last
50 years or so.
I would have hoped, along with Youssef, that once I pointed out what was
offensive in the language, the jokes, the press articles, that were posted
lately to s.c.l the authors or dissiminators of the offensive material 
would come out and apologize for their lack of judgement, honest mistake 
in choosing terms, or whatever the reason was they posted what they did.
Instead my calls were met by muted silence, denial of any wrong doing, 
or, even worse, attempts at justifying the validity of the material that
was posted based on our indignant reaction.
It is time for these people to realize that  you cannot ask the victims
of discrimination, to fight it by questioning what they did to deserve
being discriminated against.  That would be equivalent to asking a rape
victim to question the way she was dressed, in the event of a rape,
since her way of dressing was inviting for rape.  Now such cases do
happen in the US but that does not make them right.
Finally, I am disappointed to see that some people whom I respect did
not come out and condemn racism on the net, regardless of whose "side"
the author of the offensive material was on.  If we cannot break the
trust barrier among intellectuals on the net, how could we expect
the "average" Lebanese to do so ?  Then again, it could be that we are
too elitist on the net, and we should allow for the reconciliation 
to start with the "man on the street".

For examples of how the media (in the US) treats Arabs I will include a
to the editor that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal
as a response to a biased article.
_______________________________________________________________________

            ADC PROTESTS WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE:

         UNIDENTIFIED DEMOCRATS TARGET ARAB-AMERICANS AS

                        POLITICAL OUTCASTS

     The April 10, 1992 Wall Street Journal article on
Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH) provoked significant
indignation from the Arab-American community. Albert Mokhiber,
President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
fired off a letter to the Editor of one of the nation's most
influential newspapers.

     In a by-line story, Jill Abramson reported claims that Rep.
Oakar's views "on some key issues are at odds with some national
party leaders: she is a foe of abortion for instance, and has ties
to several Arab-American organizations."

     Mokhiber expressed the community's disgust on Abramson's
dependence on unidentified sources to denigrate Americans of Arab
descent.

     Mokhiber wrote, "After twelve years of fighting negative
stereotyping and discrimination against the Arab-American
community, we were shocked and appalled by the article written by
Jill Abramson on Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar. Surely, the Wall
Street Journal would refuse to print such a statement reviling any
other public figure on the basis of his or her ethnic heritage.

     "This double standard must stop. Certainly, had the ethnic
group been of African, Hispanic or Israeli descent such innuendoes
would have been viewed, and rightfully so, as racist. There should
be no exception in this case.

     "Arab-Americans like all other Americans are, and should be
proud of their ancestry, culture and institutions. They should not
be blocked from full participation and political enfranchisement
either by overt actions or clandestine means."

     Mokhiber also called for the identities of the alleged
"national party leaders" of the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) to be exposed if Abramson is accurate. He further demanded
apologies from the Wall Street Journal to Congresswoman Oakar and
the Arab-American community. ADC believes this to be another
example of bigoted standards being employed against the Arab-
American community.


     (Note to Editors: ADC is the largest Arab-American
organization in the country. It is a non-sectarian, non-partisan
service organization dedicated to the promotion of the civil and
legal rights of people of Arab descent, including resistance to
racism, discrimination, and stereotyping of Arab-Americans. ADC
has over 25,000 members organized into 70 chapters throughout
North America.)
__________________________________________________________________

If we work together we can make a difference.

Basil

The ultimate Techie AND PC dude; damn proud of it ;)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon