MANY FACES OF HATE:

THE DISTINCT FORMS OF ANTI-ARAB

BIGOTRY AND VIOLENCE

Khaled A. Beydoun

White Paper Series, No. 1 | April 2015 www.takeonhate.org

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction 2

II. Arab Americans: A Snapshot 4

III. Forms of Discrimination Endured By Arab Americans 6

1. Arab American and Poor: Discrimination at the Bottom 7

2. Hating Newcomers: Arab Immigrant Communities 9

3. Black and Arab: Racism Within and Without 11

4. Religion: When Anti-Arab Bigotry and Islamophobia Intersect 13

5. When Racism and Gender-Based Hate Intersect 15

IV. Conclusion 17

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 2

“It is not our differences that divide us.

It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

- Audre Lourde

PART I | INTRODUCTION

___________________________________

Discrimination toward Arab Americans is still rising. Nearly fourteen years

after the September 11th terrorist attacks, which ushered in a rising tide of anti-Arab

and anti-Muslim animus, state-sponsored and society bigotry toward Arab

Americans is reaching even higher proportions. Although Arabs have been part of

the American milieu since the mid-nineteenth Century, state policy and embedded

stereotypes have jointly perpetuated an understanding of Arabs as un-American,

inassimilable, and justifiable targets of violence.

Anti-Arab sentiment and stereotypes that drive modern hate are anything but

novel. In fact, centuries old misrepresentations of Arab culture and identity seed the

discrimination and violence rising today.1 The old tropes that caricature Arabs as

“violent” and “savage,” “primitive” and “foreign,” permeate popular film and news

media,2 were endorsed by longstanding immigration laws,3 and re-deployed with

prevailing domestic and foreign policy.4 Indeed, anti-Arab animus and violence is

hardly a new phenomenon. But rather, a still live, dynamic and exacerbating phobia

1 Edward Said, ORIENTALISM (1979). 2 Jack Shaheen, REEL BAD ARABS: HOW HOLLYWOOD VILIFIES A PEOPLE (2001) 3 Khaled A. Beydoun, Between Muslim and White: The Legal Construction of Arab

American Identity, NYU ANNUAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN LAW (2014), available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2529506.

4 Leti Volpp, The Citizen and the Terrorist, CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW (2002), available at http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1514&context=facpubs.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 3

that is deeply connected with long-entrenched tropes and stereotypes, and actively

bolstered through modern law and policy.

Recent tragedies highlight the surge in anti-Arab hate. The attack on the

Islamic School of Rhode Island,5 the targeted arson of a mosque in Houston,6 and

most notably, the execution of three Arab American students in Chapel Hill,7 point

to an alarming growth in anti-Arab bigotry and violence. These incidents also point

to the conflation of Arab with Muslim identity – blending anti-Arab bigotry with

Islamophobia8 – making anyone and everyone associated with either classification

vulnerable to discrimination and violence.

In fact, during a one-week span in mid-February, there were seven separate

violent incidents targeting Arab and/or Muslim victims in North America.

Indicating that hate crimes, or (racially or religiously motivated) violent acts,

targeting Arabs and/or Muslims are not aberrational. But rather, symptomatic of

entrenched and still rising anti-Arab psychosis and Islamophobia.9

Grassroots and organizational vigilance against anti-Arab bigotry developed

after 9/11 to counter the spike in state-sponsored discrimination and societal

5 Jennifer Bogdan, Islamic School of Rhode Island Vandalized, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL,

February 15, 2015, available at http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150215/News/150219457.

6 Wilson Dizard, Arson Eyed in Houston-Area Mosque Fire, AL-JAZEERA AMERICA, February 13, 2015, available at http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/13/arson-eyed-in-houston-area-mosque-torching.html.

7 Terrence McCoy, Chapel Hill Killings: Why Hate Crimes Are So Hard to Prove, WASHINGTON POST, Feburary 12, 2015, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/12/chapel-hill-murders-why-hate-crimes-are-so-hard-to-prove/.

8 Wajahat Ali et al., Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, CENTER

FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS (2011), available at http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf

9 Mehdi Semati, Islamophobia, Culture and Race in the Age of Empire, CULTURAL STUDIES

JOURNAL (2010), available at http://www.mehdisemati.com/Dr._Mehdi_Semati_website/Research_files/Islamophobia,%20Culture%20and%20Race%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Empire.pdf.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 4

animus. 10 The Campaign to Take On Hate extends this vigilance beyond the

immediate alarm of the post-9/11 moment, as the U.S. transitions toward a

subsequent phase where anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia is not declining, but

rather, intensifying.

This paper highlights the resurgence in anti-Arab bigotry. 11 But more

notably, it deconstructs the myth that anti-Arab discrimination is monolithic. In line

with the reality that Arab America is diverse along a number of tracks,

discrimination is thus experienced differently and disparately along these stratified

tracks. Therefore, anti-Arab bigotry takes on a range of forms – and hate, as

evidenced through recent and past tragedies, has many faces. This paper aims to

provide a snapshot of the most prominent ways anti-Arab discrimination and

violence is experienced in America; and second, launch a series of subsequent

papers that examine these divergent forms of hate, discrimination and violence

more closely.

PART II | ARAB AMERICANS: A SNAPSHOT

___________________________________

Arab Americans have been defined as citizens who derive their ancestry from

the (region known as the) “Arab World.”12 Immigration from the Arab World

commenced in the mid-nineteenth century. The vast majority of immigrants from

the Arab World, before racially restrictive immigration laws were lifted in 1965,

10 Susan M. Akram & Kevin R. Johnson, Race, Civil Rights, and Immigration Law After

September 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, NYU ANNUAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN

LAW (2002), available at http://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1150&context=law_fac_pubs.

11 Nancy Leong, The Rights Cast: The Legal Construction of Arab-American Identity (interview with Khaled A. Beydoun), February 19, 2015, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T0Sj9kD7A4#t=486.

12 Randa A. Kayyali, THE ARAB AMERICANS 49 (2006).

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 5

were overwhelmingly Christian and Levantine. However, racially neutral

immigration laws spurred the entry of Arabs immigrants from throughout the

region, and facilitated the entry of more Arab Muslim newcomers.

A shifting racial and political construction, the emergence of Pan-Arabism in

the mid-twentieth Century shaped the contemporary contours of both Arab and

Arab American identity.13 Pan-Arabism was a political ideology formed in Syria

during the early 1930’s, while the Ottoman province was under French rule. Pan-

Arabism framed a new brand of Arab identity along linguistic, cultural, political,

and economic lines. Today, Pan-Arabism still ranks as a salient baseline of Arab

American identity, in addition to shared language, culture, history, and perhaps

most critically, a kindred experience within America.

The U.S. Census places the population of Arab Americans today at 3,665,789 –

a figure believed to be much smaller than the actual number of citizens of Arab

heritage living in the U.S. today.14 Although stereotypically understood to be a

Muslim-majority community, 63% of Arab Americans today identify as Christians.15

In fact, since the first immigrant waves from the region came to the U.S. in the mid-

nineteenth century, Christians have always been a considerable majority of the Arab

American population.

Arab Muslims, on the other hand, began to migrate to the U.S. in large

numbers after 1965, and perpetually held the position of minority of the Arab

American population. Today, immigration from Muslim-majority Arab states

13 HASAN KAYALI, ARABS AND YOUNG TURKS: OTTOMANISM, ARABISM, AND ISLAMISM

IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1908-1918 (1997). 14 National Arab American Demographics, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOUNDATION

(2012), available at http://b.3cdn.net/aai/44b17815d8b386bf16_v0m6iv4b5.pdf. “The population who identified as having Arabic-speaking ancestry in the U.S. Census grew by more than 72% between 2000 and 2010.”

15 Arab Americans: An Integral Part of American Society, ARAB AMERICAN NATIONAL

MUSEUM (2012), available at

http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/umages/pdfs/resource_booklets/AANM-ArabAmericansBooklet-web.pdf.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 6

including Iraq, Egypt and Morocco, is further diversifying the religious, phenotypic,

and cultural makeup of Arab American. In short, Arab America is hardly a

homogenous population, but a richly diverse and eclectic tapestry tied by culture,

language, and history.

The broadening diversity of Arab America – along a range of existential lines

– is, in turn, broadening the types of hate targeting the population. The following

section addresses prominent forms of discrimination endured by Arab Americans,

which provides a foundation – not an exhaustive typology – for better

understanding, and subsequently shaping, more responsive and comprehensive

advocacy strategies for addressing hate.

PART III | FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION ENDURED BY ARAB

AMERICANS ___________________________________

Arab America is not a monolith. As highlighted above, the population is

diverse along nationality, phenotypic, socioeconomic, and generational lines. This

heterogeneity, therefore, disparately situates Arab American individuals and

communities. In turn, since Arab Americans are situated differently, that also

means that discrimination is also experienced differently across distinct

circumstances.

The recent onslaught on Arab and Muslim Americans illustrates that hate is

not only rising, but also takes many forms. The murder of the three young students

in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on February 10, 2015, highlighted the urgency of

anti-Arab discrimination and violence.16 In addition, the subsequent attacks on a

16 Nadia Tonova and Khaled A. Beydoun, Why Muslim Lives Don’t Matter, AL-

JAZEERA ENGLISH, February 12, 2015, available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/muslim-lives-don-matter-150212052018920.html.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 7

Houston, Texas mosque, the Islamic Academy of Rhode Island, and a Dearborn,

Michigan father illustrate that the Chapel Hill executions were by no means an

isolated incident.17 But rather, another tragedy stemming from a rising underbelly

of anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia. Anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia must

be understood as a system that permeates every sphere of society and hall of power.

1. ARAB AMERICAN AND POOR: DISCRIMINATION AT THE BOTTOM

Poverty exacerbates discrimination endured by indigent Arab Americans.

Surveillance of Arabs and Muslims centers on concentrated, working class communities. Working class Arab Americans concerned with adequate housing, employment

opportunities and better schooling for children.

____________________________

Considerable segments of the aggregate Arab American population are either

poor or working class. One study held that 17% of Arab Americans were at or

below the poverty line – 5% more than the number of the total population.18 The

numbers for recent immigrants are higher – including the Iraqi American

community, which stands at 25% at or below the poverty line. Furthermore,

communities concentrated in cities, including Detroit, New York City, Chicago,

Minneapolis, and the Bay Area, are disparately indigent and working class. In

addition to hosting sizeable indigent and working class communities, these cities are

17 Niraj Warikoo, Dearborn Woman: I Saw Muslim Man Attacked at Kroger, DETROIT

FREE PRESS, Feburary 13, 2015, available at http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2015/02/13/dearborn-muslim-attack/23388379/.

18 Angela Brittinham and G. Patricia de la Cruz, We the People of Arab Ancestry in the United States, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (2005).

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 8

also sites for Arab chain migration. In short, attracting immigrants to familiar

spaces that provide cultural comfort, community, and readily available

employment.

Indigent and working-class Arab Americans must also face the principal

challenges confronted by other communities within their socioeconomic strata.

Adequate housing, for instance, becomes less accessible when discriminatory

landlords refuse to rent property to Arab Americans. This brand of racial

discrimination also extends into the workspace, where employers may refuse hiring

a skilled or competent Arab American on account of race or ethnicity. The inability

to procure adequate housing, or employment, perpetuates the cycle of poverty for

indigent Arab Americans – making discrimination endured along these intersecting

tracks acutely debilitating.

Indigent and working class Arab Americans also face an under-examined

form of employment discrimination. During the post-9/11 period, scholars and

practitioners have focused on employment discrimination suffered by professional

and educated, middle class and affluent Arab and Muslim Americans.19 However,

scarce attention was dedicated to the plight of indigent and working class Arab

Americans. Particularly discrimination faced by medium-wage workers,

undocumented Arab residents, Arab American men and women with felonies, and

blue-collar workers. Federal laws, like Title VII, functionally extend lesser

protection to low-skill workers; and arguably, no protection to workers paid under

the table. Therefore, placing indigent and working-class Arab American

communities with narrower forms of redress against discrimination at the

workplace.

19 Sahar F. Aziz, Sticks and Stones, The Words That Hurt: Entrenched Stereotypes Eight

Years After 9/11, NEW YORK CITY LAW REVIEW (2009) available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1648306.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 9

Government Counter-Extremism efforts disparately center on concentrated,

working class Arab and Muslim American communities.20 Indeed, enclaves and

cities with sizable Arab and Muslim-American presences are demographical

hotspots for federal government surveillance and monitoring, Suspicious Activity

Reporting (SAR Program),21 and conventional street profiling. The alignment of

robust federal and local policing programming descending on Arab and Muslim

American communities, like Dearborn, Michigan or Brooklyn, New York, endanger

poor and working-class Arab Americans to enhanced threat. 22 And in many

instances, collateral and collective guilt.23

Arab Americans are stereotyped as a socioeconomically, similarly situated

population. This further obfuscates the distinct experiences of poor and working-

class Arab American communities, which are underserved by advocacy

organizations, and under-examined by scholars and practitioners. As a result, the

distinct forms of discrimination they experience are also neglected – and an area of

primary concern for the Campaign to Take On Hate.

20 A February 2015 summit convened by the White House addressed counter-

extremism, popularly referred to as “CVE,” or countering violent extremism; White House Press Release, February 18, 2015, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/18/remarks-president-closing-summit-countering-violent-extremism.

21 The SAR Program falls under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something).

22 Dearborn, MI and New York City have the most people on the federal terrorism watch-list – Khaled A. Beydoun, US’ Top Terror Cities: Old Practice, New Discourse, AL-JAZEERA ENGLISH, August 18, 2014, available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/us-top-terror-cities-old-practi-201481875322766485.html.

23 Unlike middle-class or affluent Arab Americans, poor and working class Arab Americans generally cannot access adequate legal counsel.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 10

2. HATING NEWCOMERS: ARAB IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES

Recent Arab immigrants and non-citizens are targets of greater governmental

surveillance.

Recent Arab immigrants endure pronounced xenophobia and nativism. Government policies may restrict recent immigrants from sending remittances to families

in native countries.

____________________________

Arab America is a fluid and dynamic community. While the first generation

of Arab American immigrants generally hailed from the Levant, new communities

are being pushed and pulled to the U.S. from various sections of the Arab World. In

addition to diversifying, Arab America is also a rapidly growing segment of the

broader American milieu. According to an Arab American Institute Foundation study,

“The population who identified as having Arabic-speaking ancestry in the U.S.

Census Bureau grew by more than 72% between 2000 and 2010.”24

Fluid and rising immigration from the Arab World is the primary catalyst of

the growing Arab American population. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the

largest numbers of new Arab immigrants hail from Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon.25

However, sizeable Diasporas also come from Morocco, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, and

other nations stricken by war. As a result, an Arab American population once

dominated by an overwhelming Levantine presence is rapidly shifting into a far

more eclectic and representative sampling of the entire Arab World.

Arab identity is frequently linked to foreignness, outsider, and alien status.

This is true for longstanding residents and citizens. However, these tropes are

24 Arab-American Demographics, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOUNDATION (2012). 25 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (2010).

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 11

inextricably linked to newcomers. Therefore, Arab newcomers must contend with

anti-Arab racism, in addition to xenophobic attitudes and violence inflicted on

recent immigrants. It is important to note that xenophobia, like others forms of

animus, molds according to the subject.

Arab-specific xenophobia, unlike forms targeting Latino or Asian Americans

for instance, links foreignness directly to terrorist affiliation and threat. As a result,

Arab newcomers face a more pronounced presumption of terrorist involvement

based on not only race or ethnicity, but also legal status. This invites a barrage of

discrimination within colleges and university spaces, places of employment, ports of

travel, and on the street. Indeed, this distinct brand of hate is of particular concern

because the vast majority of Arab newcomers are not citizens, and thus, not afforded

the constitutional protections (generally) extended to Arab American citizens.

Furthermore, as highlighted by the recent remittances crisis faced by Somalis

in America, many immigrant communities in the U.S. for temporary employment

purposes are prohibited from sending resources back to their families. OxFam

America, combined with Somali American organizations, has highlighted the dire

impact remittances restrictions has on newcomers.26 But most direly, the impact

these prohibitions have on their families back home. This crisis vividly reveals an

issue acutely experienced by newcomers, which deserves greater awareness.

Indeed, as immigrants from the Arab World are continually pushed and

pulled from their native states, the forms of discrimination faced by this

demographic will continue to broaden and grow more acute. Immigration status is

also intimately tied with generational divisions, which differentiates how Arab

Americans identify politically, ethnically and existentially; which, in turn, effects

their experiences with discrimination.

26 Manuel Orozco and Julia Yansura, Keeping the Lifeline Open: Remittances and

Markets in Somalia, OXFAM AMERICA (2013), available at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/somalia-remittance-report-web.pdf.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 12

3. BLACK OR ARAB: RACISM WITHIN AND WITHOUT

Black men and women from Arab states simultaneously face anti-Black and anti-Arab racism.

State policies that profile Black and Arab Americans target Arab Americans that identify as both Arab and Black.

Black Arab communities face intra-racism and marginalization.

____________________________

Black and Arab identity, in America, are standalone racial constructions.

Thus, they are seldom – if ever- integrated by law, policy, or even public discourse.

However, a segment of the Arab American population identify as both Black and

Arab. This is particularly true for individuals from North and Sub-Saharan African

states including Egypt, Sudan and Somalia,27 and also, communities in the Levant

and Gulf regions of the Arab World.28

Americans that identify as both Black and Arab are subject to both broad

societal racism, as well as intra-racism. With regard to the former, Arab and Black-

Americans face state-sponsored and societal forms of racism targeting both

dimensions of their identity. In addition, this demographic also faces acute anti-

Black racism from within the broader Arab American community. In turn, exposing

this strand of the Arab American milieu to compounded racism that marginalizes

27 Take on Hate’s mother organization, the National Network for Arab American

Communities, includes several Somali-American organizations, including: the Somali Family Service of San Diego (http://www.somalifamilyservice.org/); and the Somali Acton Alliance Education Fund of Minnesota (http://saaef.org/).

28 Khaled A. Beydoun, Color Me Bad: An Indigenous and Pluralist Reclamation of Arab-American Identity (2008), available at http://works.bepress.com/khaled_beydoun/1/.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 13

from within and without. The Muslim Anti-Racism Collective (Muslim ARC),29 an

organization allied with Take On Hate, has been a leading voice on issues linked to

intra-Muslim and Arab American racism.

It is crucial to note that the first Muslims in the U.S. were Black. Enslaved

African Muslims comprised 15% to 20% of the aggregate slave population the

Antebellum South. 30 Furthermore, nearly one-fourth of the Muslim American

population is Black, with a non-negligible segment of this population claiming both

Arab and Black identity.31 However, despite both presence and prominence within

both Arab and Muslim America, a recent killing of a Somali Canadian highlights the

marginalization of Black lives within, and without Arab American boundaries:

“While #MuslimLivesMatter trended for Deah, Yusor and Razan, there were sporadic tweets linked to [Mustafa] Mattan's story, and few questions as to why Mattan's death received little attention. The Chapel Hill shootings have inspired a broad, diverse and lurid chorus of support and solidarity; Mattan's name, however, has been met with relative silence.”32

Addressing the parallel, and oft intersecting, racism experienced by

Americans that doubly identify as Arab and Black is a neglected brand of

(compounded) racism Take On Hate ranks high.

In line with this commitment, Take On Hate convened two simultaneous

events in Detroit and New York City in December 2014, seeking to address the

divides and prospective coalition between the emergent Black Lives Matter Movement

and Arab American civil rights efforts. The two events brought together hundreds

29 Muslim ARC’s website: http://www.muslimarc.org/. 30 Khaled A. Beydoun, Antebellum Islam, HOWARD LAW JOURNAL (2015), available at

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2536258. 31 A Portrait of Muslim Americans, PEW RESEARCH CENTER (2011). 32 Margari Hill and Khaled A. Beydoun, The Colour of Muslim Mourning, AL-JAZEERA

ENGLISH, January 15, 2015, available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/colour-muslim-mourning-150215065825362.html.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 14

of participants from the Arab and African American communities, setting a key

precedent for prospective bridge-building, candid communication, and for

Americans that identify as both Arab and Black, an invaluable space.

4. RELIGION: WHEN ISLAMOPHOBIA AND ANTI-ARAB BIGOTRY INTERSECT

Arab and Muslim identity are conflated, and viewed as one in the same

Rising Islamophobia endangers both Arab American Muslims and Christians

Islamophobia is carried forward by state policy and civil society actors

____________________________

Discrimination oftentimes overlaps with others forms of animus, and

therefore, intensifies the hate experienced by the target. This is especially true

today, as rising Islamophobia is reaching unparalleled and frightening degrees.

As discussed above, Arab and Muslim identity are pervasively conflated and

viewed synonymously. Although there are more Arab American Christians than

there are Muslims, embedded tropes assigned to Arab identity are identical to those

ascribed to Muslim identity. Therefore, anti-Arab bigotry threatens non-Arab

Muslim communities, while Islamophobia indiscriminately exposes non-Muslim

Arabs to religious-based hate. Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry, in short, are

two sides of the same discriminatory coin.

While anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia are part and parcel of the same

hate, Arab Americans that conspicuously express Muslim identity are exposed to

greater violence. The headscarf, most notably, identifies Arab American Muslim

women as not only Muslims, but also individuals with strong ties to a faith tied to

terrorism and threat. In turn, attracted an integrated mode of race and religious-

based violence. Law scholar Sahar Aziz observes:

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 15

“In the post-9/11 era, Muslim [and Arab] women donning a headscarf in America find themselves caught at the intersection of bias against Islam, the racialized Muslim, and women. In contrast to their male counterparts, Muslim [and Arab] women face unique forms of discrimination not adequately addressed by Muslim civil rights advocacy organizations, women's rights organizations, or civil liberties advocates.”33

Arab American men who don beards, traditional attire, or visible markers

associated with Islamic piety are also targets of a combined brand of religious and

race-based hate. Expressions of religious observance and piety, in the U.S. today,

signal prima face evidence of “radicalization” of Muslim-Americans, according to

state actors.34 The nexus between Islamic identity and threat, both domestically and

internationally, drives the infliction of violence on Arab and/or Muslim-American

bodies.

Indeed, the gravity of this violence in America is alarming, leading Take On

Hate representatives Nadia El-Zein Tonova and Khaled A. Beydoun to comment:

“Between media misrepresentation and neglect, and systematic state surveillance

and suppression of Muslims, the facts in the US lead to the undeniable conclusion

that Muslim lives don't matter.”35 Without question, the conflation of Arab with

Muslim identity makes both strands of discrimination nearly identical, particularly

with regard to motive.

The alarming spike in Islamophobia, therefore, will concomitantly ignite anti-

Arab bigotry. Consequently, making this brand of hate, and its ancillary forms, a

leading concern for Take On Hate programming, interventions, and advocacy. Take

33 Sahar F. Aziz, From the Oppressed to the Terrorist: Muslim American Women in the

Crosshairs of Intersectionality, HASTINGS RACE & POVERTY LAW JOURNAL (2012), available at file:///Users/KhaledBey/Downloads/SSRN-id1981777.pdf.

34 Amna Akbar, Policing “Radicalization,” UC IRVINE LAW REVIEW (2013), available at http://www.law.uci.edu/lawreview/vol3/no4/Akbar.pdf.

35 Nadia El-Zein Tonova and Khaled A. Beydoun, Why Muslim Lives Don’t Matter, AL-JAZEERA ENGLISH, February 12, 2015, available at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/muslim-lives-don-matter-150212052018920.html.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 16

On Hate works with leading religious organizations, a coalitional strategy vital for

combating Islamophobia and anti-Arab animus.

5. WHEN RACISM AND GENDER-BASED HATE INTERSECT

Intersecting racial and gender discrimination victimize Arab American women.

Arab American Muslim women who don the headscarf are most common targets of Islamophobic violence.

Anti-discrimination strategies must be framed to address the distinct forms of hate

endured by Arab American women.

____________________________

Arab American women face intersecting discrimination along racial and

gender lines. Indeed, stereotypes attached to Arab American women spur distinct

forms of gender-based discrimination and violence. Which, in turn, makes Arab

American women vulnerable to forms of discrimination exclusively set aside for this

demographic.

An “intersectional analysis,” which closely considers how racial

marginalization combined with gender-based discrimination places women in a

more vulnerable position than men, is in order.36 As discussed above with regard to

conspicuous expression of Muslim identity, women who wear the headscarf are

exposed to a distinct brand of hate that not only targets race and religion, but also

gender. This animus comes from private citizens, as illustrated by the Chapel Hill

executions. In addition, it also manifests itself in workplace discrimination, as

illustrated in the recent Abercrombie & Fitch case (involving a young lady donning

36 Kimberle Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and

Violence Against Women of Color, STANFORD LAW REVIEW (1991), available at http://socialdifference.columbia.edu/files/socialdiff/projects/Article__Mapping_the_Margins_by_Kimblere_Crenshaw.pdf).

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 17

a headscarf).37 Labor participation and exclusion of Arab American women is also

sharper across religious lines: “In contrast to men, the labor force participation rate

among women aged 16 and older was lower for Arabs than for the total population

(46% compared with 58%).”38

In addition to the gendered dimensions of religious expression, Arab

American women also face pronounced sexism and patriarchy. Gender suppression

and misogyny arise from both broad societal sources, but also distinct Arab

American norms. With regard to the former, Arab American women face lower

glass ceilings with regard to employment opportunities and professional upward

mobility; and oftentimes within their families and communities, relatively less

opportunity than their male counterparts. Moreover, assessing the impact of

patriarchy and sexism within the broader context of anti-Arab bigotry and

Islamophobia is a critical first step toward framing responsive advocacy and

organizing strategies.

In addition to addressing the distinct forms of Arab American female

victimhood, Take On Hate also keys on empowerment strategies. Empowerment of

young Arab American women, single mothers, indigent women, and other

marginalized strands of the Arab American female population, is an essential means

toward preventing and redressing victimhood. Take On Hate’s public awareness and

education efforts will center on empowering Arab American girls and women, and

additionally, advocacy efforts that bring the distinct forms of hate experienced by

Arab American women to the fore.

37 Mark Sherman, Supreme Court Justices Appear to Favor Muslim Woman Denied Job at

Abercrombie and Fitch, HUFFINGTON POST, February 25, 2015, available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/supreme-court-muslim-abercrombie_n_6752938.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000051.

38 Angela Brittinham and G. Patricia de la Cruz, We the People of Arab Ancestry in the United States, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (2005).

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 18

PART IV | CONCLUSION

"Progress lies not in enhancing what is –

But in advancing toward what will be."

- Khalil Gibran

___________________________________

Anti-Arab sentiment in America is a centuries’ old phenomenon. It emanates

from a system of misrepresentation and misunderstanding that predates the creation

of the U.S. Commencing before racially restrictive immigration laws, and stretching

to the state-sponsored and societal forms of hate prevailing today – discrimination

toward Arab Americans is not only embedded, but also, fluidly developing and

mutating. Today in America, anti-Arab bigotry – and its ancillary forms of animus –

is rising.

Anti-Arab hate, which overlaps with Islamophobia, manifests itself in a range

of forms. Therefore, it is also experienced in a range of ways – as highlighted in this

paper. Furthermore, it is essential to understand that anti-Arab bigotry enforced by

government agencies is not wholly separate from the hate carried forth by civil

society actors and private actors. There is a symbiotic relationship between the

public and private spheres that legitimizes foundational stereotypes, which then fuel

nefarious policies that endorse and embolden on-the-ground violence.

This “rage shared by law” evidences that anti-Arab bigotry is neither

monolithic nor static.39 But rather, a complex system that inflicts Arabs and Arab

Americans in a myriad of hateful ways. Developing an understanding of the range

of faces, and intimate spaces, harmed by anti-Arab bigotry will enhance organizing

39 Muneer I. Ahmed, A Rage Shared By Law: Post-September 11 Racial Violence as Crimes

of Passion, CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW (2004), available at http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1321&context=californialawreview.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 19

Many Faces of Hate: The Distinct Forms of Anti-Arab Bigotry and Violence

www.takeonhate.org

and advocacy strategies against systems that perpetuate the hate. This is

particularly true amid a landscape that formally considers Arab Americans as white

by law, but “other” by practice. Arab Americans are not only white without

privilege, but othered by state policy and societal animus.40

Take On Hate is committed to educating the broader public about the several

forms of hate endured by Arab Americans, as an essential step toward combating

and curbing it. The many faces of anti-Arab hate and violence must be met with a

myriad of awareness and advocacy strategies.

40 Hisham Aidi, Middle Eastern Americans Push For Census Change, AL-AJAZEERA

AMERICA, February 2, 2015, available at http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/middle-eastern-americans-push-census-change.html.

TAKE ON HATE | White Paper Series, Paper No. 1 20

NATIONAL NETWORK FOR ARAB AMERICAN COMMUNITIES (NNAAC) | © 2015

Khaled A. Beydoun – a Professor of Law and native of Detroit, Michigan – authored this report. The Campaign to Take On Hate provided the resources vital for completion of this report. Professor Beydoun serves as a consultant for the Campaign, and sits on its Leadership Council. Any questions about the report can be directed to info@takeonhate.org.