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Southland Digest
The Southland Digest is a weekly summary of highlights gleaned from a myriad of ethnic press based in Southern California, arguably the largest ethnic media market in the country. The aim is to provide a glimpse of the lives, the conversations, and the perspectives of this multicultural population vis a vis national, state, and local issues. Occasionally the writer might venture beyond the borders of SoCal to other territories and topics. The digest is produced by NAM Southern California Director Julian Do.
[ filed under: foreign-policy politics ] Ever wondering why Arab Americans are indifferent and invisible in presidential elections? According to Rashad Al-Dabbagh who writes for The Independent Monitor, the reason is Americans of Arab descent usually feel alienated from these events since “most candidates prefer to distance themselves from Arabs.” In post 9/11, Arab Americans have become “infamously” a visible group. There was a paranoid about having “Arabs in our midst” in America since the 19 terrorists were all Arab Muslims. They are singled out at airports, schools, and public gathering events. Ironically, the U.S. Census categorizes Arabs as “white,” as supposed to a separate check box for other ethnic groups like Vietnamese, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. Of the estimated 3.5 million Arabs in the U.S., most are actually native-born Americans whose original homelands included 22 Arab countries. The majority, however, came from Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. The largest communities of Arab Americans currently reside in Los Angeles, Orange County, Detroit, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Furthermore, Arab Americans are largely Christians, which is consistent with the fact that only 12% of the world’s Muslims are Arabs. The largest Muslim population in the world is in Asia, not the Middle East and North Africa. Barack Obama’s background of having a Muslim father and spending part of his childhood in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, has been a connection point with many American Muslims. But not necessary all Arabs since the majority are actually Christians. To Arab Americans, their top issues are the situation in the Middle East (i.e., Iraq, Palestine-Israeli conflict, Lebanon) and their civil liberties since the tragedy of 9/11. When Obama recently remarked his supporting of President Bush’s position against holding talks with Hamas, the political party elected by Palestinians in 2006, many Arab Americans saw their hope for “change” from the candidate—whom once shared a table with their icon, the late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said—vanished once again. But Al-Dabbagh argues that he would be pleased if Obama wins the presidency. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel may have sympathetic stance favorable to Arab Americans, but the reality is these candidates don’t have a shot. He has hope with Obama; he credits him for speaking out against the Iraq invasion since the beginning and has announced that he would “call for a summit meeting with the Arab and Muslim countries to improve America’s relationship with the Muslim world.” “The case for Obama The Independent Monitor, based in Orange County, is a national English monthly covering Arab American affairs and the Middle East. comments |
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A Message to Black America
By Roger Thomas · Posted on Mar 9, 07:12 PMHere it is, plain and simple. All Democrats know that racism is still the deepest wound in America, and there’s a lot of work to be done to reach true equality of freedom and opportunity. This is not surface work, simple work, or obvious work—it’s hard and difficult work that gets down to the real problems and makes the kind of difference that will embrace the families, the schools, the streets and the money. It has to be woven with the problems of illegal immigration and jobs going overseas. It’s about drugs, disease, hope, frustration, pathways; the doors that are open and closed.
Until recently, the people who appeared to be helping the most toward this end, not counting the more radical elements and some lesser known, were Martin Luther King, Lyndon Johnson, and the Kennedys to some extent, Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Bill Clinton. Now the emphasis appears to be on Barack Obama, with some consideration for Hillary Clinton carrying the mantle of Bill Clinton.
Who has obstructed progress for the Black Americans? It’s pretty clear that the Republicans try to include a token Black here and there, while diligently guarding against any real progress. They claim the same values in the church, but we all know that the Christian Coalition is not much more than today’s version of the Klan. So if you want to know who the enemy is, it’s pretty clear; it the Republicans. The Republicans have also managed to control the mind, heart and money of the media to keep Black Americans from achieving their rightful place in the American culture and economy. I guess we’ve all heard the expression, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. There’s nobody who’s been attacked more by the Republicans and the media than the Clintons. The Clintons, then, are our friends—make no mistake about it. So Hillary is our friend as we know Obama is our friend.
There are many Black Americans who understood that Bill Clinton was “The first Black President”, so to speak, until this presidential campaign. Has Bill Clinton suddenly changed from of a lifetime of brotherhood to become our enemy? I don’t think so. It is called politics, you know. The Clintons have always been great politicians, but they do slip up sometimes, and those who oppose them, our enemies, attack like a pack of wild dogs when they get the chance. In this case, our enemies have been successful. They’ve managed to convince Black America that the Clintons are the bad guys. We know that’s not true, but then again, there is that chance to have a real Black president. Why not jump at that chance?
Here are the powerful reasons that Hillary Clinton MUST be the Democratic nominee. She is strong, experienced, tough, and a fighter for the people. She’s the only one who can take on the demons that have controlled this country: the super-rich, corporate elite who have successfully increased their wealth while devastating the middle class and the poor. Obama, unfortunately, at this time is inexperienced enough and weak enough that we risk the prospect of failure in the first real Black president, which would do serious damage to our cause for a long time. Hopefully, Obama can become the Vice Presidential nominee on the Dream Team winning ticket that would be a successful rejuvenation of America and lead to President Obama in the following administration. I personally would like to see Senator Clinton be president for the next four years with Obama for the following eight, but that’s usually not the way it works. Sixteen years with a Democrat in the White House, though, sounds pretty good as well.
The important objective to keep in mind is changing the course of America. We have to keep the rich from robbing the poor and the middle class; we have to stop imperialist international policies and work toward world peace and prosperity. When the Clinton’s were last in the White house, we were making progress in with these objectives, and we need desperately to return to that direction.