Special
 The
Arab American National Museum
Immigrants in NJ
Freezing Charity
Survey:
Arab and Jewish Americans
Human Rights in
the US
|
The Cultural Misrepresentations Among Us
Yousef Munayyer, Special to AAF, 12-06-2005
Every time I walk into a so-called "Arab" themed establishment in the United
States the same question comes to mind. What ideas are we in the Arab-American
community exporting about our culture and ourselves?
I am sure many of us have ventured into some of these places. The experience
that prompted this article was something like this: I walked into an "Arab"
themed restaurant. The outside glass was adorned with a picture of a large water
pipe. Inside, across the hall in the back was the bar. In between were tables
packed with patrons and a small dance floor.
As the evening went on it was your typical show. The band played some watered
down music with what I could faintly recognize as a traditional Arab melody and
the occasional Arabic word could be heard if you focused closely. A Belly
dancer, with far more than her belly exposed, would soon grab the attention of
many. And of course we cannot forget the water pipe that has become the symbol
of this so-called "Arab" culture in the United States.
I took in all that surrounded me and tried to understand how it had come to
this. How did a culture as rich in tradition and high art become a watered-down
fornicated stereotypical display I was seeing tonight? At first I thought that
the answer was simply consumerism but in actuality it was an inveterate problem
that reached far beyond simple market demands.
I tried to trace the origins of these displays and understand their rise to
preeminence. It was hard to imagine a 16th century Arab family in the Middle
East watching a belly dancer or smoking a water pipe. Some of these things may
have been enjoyed at the Imperial Courts of the Sultan in Istanbul but I doubt
that the average Arab family was busy or even concerned with some of the trivial
aspects of the culture we see today. Yet somewhere along the line it came to
fruition. A demand for this type of culture had to come from somewhere. Then an
image came into my mind.
I pictured a room somewhere in Alexandria in the late 19th century. French or
British officers occupy the tables and much more of course. Were they there to
discuss the emerging Arab renaissance or even the topics being debated in the
neighboring coffee shops? Not exactly. Rather they were sitting in a smoke
filled room sampling the east’s imitations of the western culture they longed
for. And so a market was born.
Is this precisely what had happened? Probably not. Yet there is no denying the
impact western culture has had on Arab culture and Arab values. The
intermingling has produced, among other things, byproducts of Arab culture that
are of value in the west. The water pipe, (or shisha or argileh or nargileh or
whatever) like so many other things, reached the west via the cultural
crossroads of the Middle East. Originally Indian the pipe has now become the
trademark of many an Arab establishment. We have carried it, exported it and
then welcomed it as our own.
Does the pipe have no place in Arab culture? That would be a stretch but the
fact that it passes for the main attraction of Arab culture here in the United
States speaks to the sorry state of authentic Arab culture and the efforts to
advocate for it.
We are prepared to stand in resistance against the stereotypes that plague Arab
Americans. We do not want to be lumped into a group of fanatical, angry,
terrorists that represent Arabs on the big screen. Yet we have raised little
objection to the cultural stereotypes here in the United States and often we
propagate them. The water pipe is as accurate a representation of Arabs and the
Arab people as the Marlboro Man is of Americans. In a search for an accurate
depiction are we trading one set of stereotypes for another? I will not even
speak of the belly dancer. Even popular cultural music in the Arab world is
suffering a similar fate.
A traditionalist would probably be hesitant to listen to music produced with the
technological innovations that have replaced the Oud , Daf and Qanun but every
Arab should be disappointed with what has been passing as Arabic lyrics. Much of
the music today is straying far from anything that resembles Arabic. Often
English, the new French in the Middle East, dominates songs. Some artists even
fail to pronounce the Arabic they do use correctly. This is the culture being
produced for a particular market.
Culture cannot be a market driven export. Yet here in the U.S. that is what it
has become. Too often the only representation of Arab culture is what
westerners, or westernized Arabs, will pay for. So here one must ask why. Why
are the Arabs in the United States dropping the ball on preserving an Arab
culture untainted by the west?
First let me say that some efforts have been made by Arab-Americans to hang on
to what we are loosing. Unfortunately what we see as representations of Arab
culture make it clear that these efforts, though noble, have proven
insufficient. What is required is a community wide discussion on the status of
Arab culture in the United States. We the Arabs in America today, not
consumerism, colonialism or globalization, must decided how we want to be
represented in this country. Are we the shisha-smoking generation of Joe Camels
that we all grew sick and tired of decades ago? This is for us to decide.
It is time for a community discussion, reflection and reevaluation of who we are
as Arabs. The problem of cultural misrepresentation is not even our biggest
problem. I fear that the greatest danger to the Arab-American community, and
perhaps at the root of our cultural problem, is the failure to preserve our
language through the generations in the United States.
Some may look at other ethnic minorities in the U.S. and think that they have
maintained a distinct and rich community while still abandoning their mother
tongue a generation or two after arrival. Yet we Arabs cannot afford this. Our
common identity is not necessarily tied to any one particular geographic
location. Our common identity is the Arabic language. If we gradually loose this
how we will remain a distinct community? The so-called Arab culture here in the
United States is not even Arab. If this continues to rapidly conform to the
demands of western consumerism and our language simultaneously disappears like
ascending shisha smoke, how long will it be before the Arab in America ceases to
exist?
|
|
The autumn/winter edition of
Banipal Magazine is dedicated to the
memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud
Darwish.
Click here for more... 
