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Thursday, June , 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN IN COLOR
The Arab/Muslim role
in dismantling Anti-
Black racism
MAYA MOKH
MiC Staff Writer
I address my community not from a place
of guilt, as I, too, have been there and found it
to be unproductive and paralyzing. I address
my community from a place of love and
urgency.
We non-Black Arabs, especially those of
us with proximity to whiteness, have played
an immense role in the anti-Blackness and
colorism which pervades our communities
and contributes to the degradation of Black
people. Those of us who live in Dearborn are
especially separated from Detroit by just a
few miles and a lifetime’s worth of oppres-
sion, subjugation, ignorance and stark differ-
ence in worldviews. We Arabs and Muslims
need to stop playing the “we’re all minori-
ties” card and get to work.
It should not take Black people dying for
us to care about Black lives — anti-Black rac-
ism is what this country was founded upon
and has its roots in every corner, every sys-
tem, every institution and structure. And it
does not start or end with the United States.
The roots of anti-Blackness in Arab com-
munities can be traced to the Arab Slave
Trade. Its effects are still prevalent with
the corrupt system of domestic work in the
Arab world, akin to modern day slavery. The
branches can be seen in the lingering and
ever-present anti-Blackness many of our
communities harbor, which Susan Abulhawa
also details in her article, including the idol-
izing of lighter skin and European beauty
standards.
Another branch is the colorism which
exists in our own communities, reverberat-
ing the harmful message that lighter is bet-
ter. Additionally, especially for Arabs and
Muslims in Dearborn, racism can be seen in
the interactions between us and Black people
in our community, the use of Arabic racial
slurs, the way gas station and store owners
treat their Black customers, the stark divi-
sion drawn between Dearborn and Detroit
and the villainization of Black people begin-
ning with the older generation and trickling
down into ours and the ones below us. It
can be seen how even Black Arabs and Mus-
lims are treated in our very own communi-
ties. There is a certain superiority complex
among lighter skin, Levantine Arabs.
What’s very disheartening is the fact that
many Arabs and Muslims are able to vehe-
mently denounce Israel and the IDF’s abu-
sive treatment of Palestinians, empathizing
with and raising awareness for the Pales-
tinian struggle. Yet they fail to realize that
American police are often trained by the
IDF, adopting their brutal techniques and
A Native perspective on
political resistance and
force
ANA MARÍA SÁNCHEZ-CASTILLO
MiC Staff Writer
With the tribal erasure of the sovereign
Native state we saw the beginning of a long
series of United States law infringing on
the basic human rights of Black and Native
Americans. It is fitting that this conversation
starts from a place of shared resistance. The
concept of civility must be deconstructed
and the illusory security of the American
police force must be illuminated.
Now and in the upcoming weeks, I intend
to frame the police state as a continuation
of Black and Native American genocide and
enslavement. I hope the intertwining histo-
ries can help to tell a story which weakens
the foundation of the white institution and
propels the correct narrative of Black and
brown lives.
Don’t talk of the success of civility in the
same breath as genocide and murder.
The loss of Black lives is an afterthought
second to the vehicles of protest, so since
when was it a priority to take the moral high
ground? Why is it that the oppressed are
expected to be passive at the hands of bru-
tality? When history has only given result
to those who have a greater capacity for vio-
lence than the oppressor.
White institutions continue to run pro-
ductively and efficiently despite nonviolent
resistance. Institutions such as the police
force, prisons, and universities work to dis-
mantle Black power out of fear that the white
grip on enslavement will loosen along with
the position of white supremacy. These insti-
tutions operate under systems that grew
from the colonial history of violence, loot-
ing of sacred objects, ransacking of lives
and the stripping of physical and psycho-
logical dignity. Institutions of the sort must
be destroyed along with all functions that
uphold them. As for people shifting the focus
off of murder and onto the destruction of
goods, understand these goods are symbols
of violence and oppression, the capitalism
which killed and destroyed livelihoods with-
out ramifications. Police stations and luxury
stores have become mocking symbols of the
material interest of the white institution, and
have been protected at the expense of Black
lives and Black and brown liberation and
equity, their destruction holds incredible
political weight.
Don’t talk about the success of nonvio-
lence.
It is few and far between the reckless and
excessive displacement and war on Black and
brown lives.
I come from the Lipan Apache tribe of
Texas. My people died warriors, fighting in
defense of the land and ideals we grew from.
My people were murdered, their country
lazily blundered to build white industries
stained with Black blood on the bones of the
Indeginous.
We are alive today because of the revolu-
tions that came before us and because of the
blood lost fighting for the honor of the land
pillaged by white colonizers or mass mur-
derers. The fact of the matter is the United
States was designed for things to operate
on oppression - the system is working as it
was intended to, it is not broken, the goal is
to break it. Issues we see now have endured
hundreds of years of movements and have
cost the lives of millions upon thousands.
This is obvious and those extreme numbers
must be answered with extreme action.
As consequences to enduring oppression
Benjamin Ginsberg explains how, “looters
deviate from the norms [of white violence]
because they have reached the limits of their
endurance and in giving bent to their nor-
mally suppressed rage strike out indiscrimi-
nately”. It is horrific to see a normalization
of state violence while criminalizing the sup-
pressed anguish of Black and brown commu-
nities, but we must not be deterred.
The battle takes place on the ground and
virtually. Linked are organizations accept-
ing donations to release freedom fighters and
support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Crowdsourcing is being matched by major
companies and has the potential to make a
major impact in continuing the momentum
towards liberation and a just state. Your dol-
lar holds an influence as does your vote and
both are integral efforts. Email the Min-
neapolis Police Department and demand
George Floyds murderers be charged to the
fullest extent. Sign as many petitions as you
find productive, such as the Justice for Floyd
petition. No one is asking for everyone to
take the stance of getting on the front lines
protesting, risking bodily harm, but in order
to avoid scattering the reach of efforts it’s
important to remain unified in resistance.
Validate and uphold the efforts of other free-
dom fighters. Fight whether it be physically,
virtually or both, find a vehicle to join efforts
and press the gas full speed.
As a culmination of the cries of the war-
riors that came before us, we are a million
souls on fire, a fire that courses through our
veins, a fire we must light the streets with -
hopefully this fire burns the path to justice.
Some people may just want to watch the
world burn, some are upset to see their com-
munities destroyed, the bottom line is people
are angry for one reason or another, and
tired of explaining why everyone should be.
Read more at michigandaily.com
militaristic nature. They fail to realize our
struggles are intersecting and how we are
hypocrites if not standing with our Black
brothers and sisters in their fight for jus-
tice. The same government we criticize for
its treatment of us, we must criticize for its
ongoing and inhumane oppression of Black
people since the inception of this country.
The same way we denounce the War on Ter-
ror, we must denounce the War on Drugs and
recognize its role in destabilizing the Black
community, beginning a system of criminal-
ization and subjugation.
I attended a Facebook Live event by Mus-
lim nonprofit Wasat, “The Way of Iblis: Rac-
ist Violence and Capitalist Excess” which is
part of a series called “Breaking the Idols of
Our Time.” Dr. Bilal Ware began by speak-
ing about God’s love for humanity which is
proven throughout the Qur’an. He explains
that in the Qur’an, as well as the Bible, God
creates through speech.
“He has only to say unto a thing: Be, and it
is” but “humanity is made with a caress, and
animated with a kiss, in contradistinction to
other things that are made with speech”
He then goes on to discuss the origins of
racial violence from an Islamic perspective,
beginning with the fall of Satan for refus-
ing to bow down to Adam due to arrogance
and feelings of superiority. This arrogance
was rooted in bodily composition and origin,
as Satan believed he was superior to Adam
because he is made of fire, while Adam is
made of clay. The fact that we as human
beings, all made of the same fragile and fleet-
ing bodily composition have created a hierar-
chical system that ranks some above others
and treats them accordingly is evidence of
sickness of the heart.
But that sickness, whether we are aware
of it or not, lives on in fragments of various
sizes, in our hearts and our communities,
and it is on each and every single one of us
to spend our lives eradicating that sickness
where we see it. This includes but transcends
intrapersonal and interpersonal racism and
goes back to the origins — the laws, poli-
cies and corporations which keep it in place
and how we are contributing to them. The
resources to learn about these origins and
how we can do our part are endless and we
need to be reading and watching relevant
content, not solely relying on social media to
educate us with brief stimuli we are likely to
soon forget.
The other “Satanic force” Dr. Ware refers
to its capitalist excess — America’s insatiable
obsession with greed and wealth.”
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