This is a let­ter from an Arab-American guy to an Arab news­pa­per, very inter­est­ing because it raised a very good issues about racism (Arabs vs Arabs and Arabs vs African-Americans), since I don’t live in the US so I don’t have any idea about the back­ground of the prob­lem but I could see that his argu­ment can fit even here in Europe.

Greet­ings and I hope you are well and in good favor.….….….…Having lived in the U.S. for the past 24 years.….….

Yet in most Arab Amer­i­can cir­cles an observer would note our exces­sive crit­i­cism of Amer­i­can soci­ety as one in which anti Arab racism pre­vails. Our crit­i­cism of Amer­i­can soci­ety as a racist one became par­tic­u­larly evi­dent ever since 9/11, and while it remains a solid fact that Arab Amer­i­cans became feared, hated, accused, harassed, inter­ro­gated, and feared in Amer­i­can soci­ety post 9/11, it also remain a solid ironic fact that the mul­ti­tude of Arab Amer­i­cans still prac­tice covert and overt acts of racism against African Amer­i­cans in par­tic­u­lar despite our bit­ter brush with racism after 9/11.

It is well known to the African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties that Arab Amer­i­cans have the same supe­ri­or­ity com­plex which Euro­pean Amer­i­cans had in the past. We Arab Amer­i­cans choose at free-will not only to dis­as­so­ci­ate from the African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties, but also con­tribute to some great extent to the destruc­tion of these com­mu­ni­ties. Note for exam­ple that the major­ity of the liquor-store small busi­nesses in the eco­nom­i­cally depressed African Amer­i­can neigh­bor­hoods are owned by Arab Amer­i­cans. It is wor­thy of men­tion­ing that most of the Arab Amer­i­can own­ers of these liquor stores view these com­mu­ni­ties with a loathing eye of con­tempt and choose to reside away from these African Amer­i­can neigh­bor­hoods on whose destruc­tion they contribute!

It must be noted for the sake of fair­ness how­ever that it is the Mus­lim Arab Amer­i­cans who adopt and prac­tice racism. It is rather ironic that post 9/11 we as Mus­lim Arab Amer­i­cans became more con­cerned with the var­i­ous ele­ments of big­otry that is directed towards our com­mu­ni­ties with out ever hav­ing the courage to face-up the racism that comes out of our own com­mu­ni­ties in par­tic­u­lar one that is directed towards African Amer­i­cans. Hav­ing lived in the U.S. for a long while now, I can say with accu­racy that I have wit­nessed Amer­i­can soci­ety take very pos­i­tive legal and social mea­sures to do away with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. But I have also wit­nessed that among the very first things Arabs acquire when they come to Amer­ica is racism.

M. K
Berke­ley, CA