Celebrating Arab American Heritage Month in April fortuitously comes on the heels of Black History Month and Women’s History Month. It coincides with Art Month, and is followed by Asian-Pacific Islander American Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage Month.
Arab Americans are centered in good company that closely mirrors Arab culture’s mission to gather and reconstitute what the world offers.
The far reaching mission of Arab heritage is to modernize, from two thousand years ago until now. Arab culture, extroverted and expansive, stretched like a broad lattice to trace and network the world. Its roots stretch from the heart of Mother Africa to Mesopotamia, and China to Byzantium.
Arabs have fused ideas and processes to enhance and bring new broad designs for mapping, architecture, social structures and scientific templates. The Arabic language, older than Islam is a conduit, eased by its generosity to establish the first modern urban centers where hospitals and universities functioned and excelled. Baghdad was the largest city in the world and a magnet for change.
Arabs reached out to China to enhance the spatialized character of Arabic calligraphy, which neuroscientists have identified as engaging both sides of the brain. Arabic music wove threads from the rhythm of the Roma, Gregorian chanting, and African beats to create the harmonic scale that Mozart used. Arab people from Arab lands and diasporas literally and metaphorically navigated narrow and improbable pathways in medicine and technology.
Navigation was key for modernism’s philosophical trajectories and the original tools for understanding and navigation were advanced by women. In the fourth century Hypatia of Alexandria Egypt, practiced in the methods of research and philosophy, translated and salvaged Plato’s writings from Greek. Several women preceded and followed Hypatia’s path. Mariam al Astrulabi, a scientist from 10th century Aleppo, Syria expanded and perfected the functionality of the astrolabe, an all-in-one precision gadget to determine the date, a compass, measuring tool, and celestial navigator.
In the 1950s, designer and Palestinian New Yorker, Rajie Cook created universal signage, still in use today, for all public spaces. The 1980-2000s platformed literary theorist, Edward Said who enabled a significant shift in thinking on present day colonialism and the strive for justice. American Iraqi Jewish multidisciplinary artist, Joyce Dallal challenges our views on conflict resolution in her piece “Elevate,” made of paper airplanes printed with Geneva Conventions language at LAX from 2013 to 2016.
We are no longer invisible. We celebrate Arab American accomplishments and pride, but our hearts are broken. Not even for an hour of our day do the cataclysmic war in Gaza, the destruction in Syria, turmoil in the West Bank and past crises and wars escape us.
For decades Arab Americans struggled against wars based on myths. We see the hate, manufactured at home, as an industry within institutions and government. Arab Americans have witnessed Arab cities bombed into the stone age, so often in the last 35 years, we now believe it’s by design to show us living in the rubble as if it is our natural habitat.
But today, we don’t despair because we are not the sole voice of protest anymore. A Gallup public opinion poll shows for the first time a majority of Americans with a favorable view of Palestinians. And Americans are more discerning about what words like “terrorism” really mean.
Thankfully, terrorism’s luster does not stick to Arab Americans so tenaciously anymore. Perhaps that is why the government, media, and various establishments are doubling down on peace advocates and treatment of students such as Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and negotiator. Amazingly, Khalil is now defended by mainstream media.
Arab Americans are openly challenging systems of disinformation. We peel away the cruelty of those systems through our love, actions, and strength to remind all of America’s original aspirations. Arab Americans celebrate their history and culture because it gives us immense joy and cradles us especially during exceedingly horrific times. As we celebrate, we easily find our courage, and share it with many who strive for true peace founded on justice.
Doris Bittar is the California coordinator for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
