i am [check box that does not exist]
identifying as arab in the age of an invisible box
Pre-lockdown, I wrote a sketch that entailed a U.S. Census worker arriving at the house of an Arab-American. I believe it ended up in my trash folder, probably because I didn’t have enough good jokes. But I remember why I wrote it: I was indignant that while there are many specific boxes to check on any form, there are often no boxes to identify as anything MENA/SWANA.
I recently “participated” (re: checked a few boxes, ironically) in a survey conducted by The New York Times about Arab and American identities. And what did we learn? “The answers were as diverse as the group of individuals behind them.”
Well, duh.
People with roots in the Middle East and North Africa, often abbreviated as MENA, represent a multitude of cultures, religions and languages. And they all have different viewpoints about how they fit into the American mosaic.
Again — duh!
I’m Egyptian. My father’s entire family is based in Egypt. I (obviously) qualify for Egyptian citizenship. Yallaaaaaaaa!
That said, I’m American. My mother was Irish-German and Catholic. I grew up in Southern California. …something about ska??
And since childhood, I didn’t see myself represented among the race/ethnicity checkboxes on anything. So I just got counted as “white.” Which….I’m not. And yet I am, kinda. And even if I am, I am also…not!
A decades-old federal guideline defines “white” as anyone with origins in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East. In the 2020 census, “Lebanese” and “Egyptian” were offered as examples for the “white” box on the race question. The other categories included “Black or African American,” “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander,” a variety of Asian ancestries and “some other race.”
This is particularly important for The Hell We Currently Live In.
MENA/SWANA identity will be a relevant issue for this year’s 2024 election. Michigan is a swing state where over 100,000 people voted Uncommitted for the president. Did Biden’s support for Israel regarding the war in Gaza hurt him? I would argue…
Curious? Here’s the spreadsheet mentioned.
Anyway, the Biden administration wanted to add this to federal forms:
Doing this would give official recognition to the MENA/SWANA population, which would result in really tangible benefits surrounding education, health care, political representation, and more.
And while there’s no agreed-upon set of countries or ethnicities that would fall under a MENA category, shouldn’t we take some kind of strides towards being seen? How can MENA/SWANA folks be hyper-invisible and also discriminated against?
Part of the “white” thing comes from the early 1900s:
Arab immigrants — who were mostly Levantine Christians — fought to be classified as “white” to circumvent rules that allowed only white immigrants to become U.S. citizens.
The matter became the subject of several court cases — and set in place a legal precedent that would last for decades.
The federal government issued guidelines in 1977 that defined people from the Middle East and North Africa as white. A box for this population was on the agenda when the race and ethnicity guidelines were updated in 1997, but there was not enough consensus to implement change.
When my father immigrated, he faced all kinds of insanely racist discrimination. And he already spoke English! Imagine coming into a new country and you do not exist according to the government.
So, why the shift? Perhaps what’s changed most is that people now don’t want to be seen as the enemy. There is no shame in our identity. There is no reason to hide.
I think Rita below said it best for me: I’m both. I contain multitudes. “My name….is Bella Hadid.”
I’m all of it, baby. I’m all the things.
Speaking of boxes, here’s one that’s easy to check: donating to provide relief to Palestinian refugees. Please give if you can!