SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

On Saturday, my boyfriend and I went out with some friends to a local Hooka lounge located on Grand Ave. Upon my arrival, I was introduced to an Arab-American poet, writer and educator, Ibtisam Barakat. I had been following her career for quite a while and respect her work immensely. She travels the world discussing the Arab-Israeli issue and has been a major advocate for the under-privileged. Needless to say, I was uber-excited when she joined us for some tea with sage.

Arabs have suffered from perpetual stereotyping and yet minimal effort has been invested in disseminating these images. It is important to invest effort in helping filter out the “we-they” dichotomy. This will allow the West to feel comfortable enough to politically align themselves with the Arabs and embrace them in their culture.

Arabs should offer positive alternatives by having spokespeople, like Barakat, who highlight the great attributes of Arabs and dissuade the homogenization of the Arab populace. Thus far, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been seen as the representatives of the entire Arab region. In order to debunk that, Arabs need to join together in order to promote some of the great leaders and thinkers in their community. Arabs have produced some of the most renowned Nobel Prize winners in Literature (Nagib Mahfooz), Peace (Anwar Al Sadat, Shirin Ebadi), Chemistry (Abdel Zewali) and Physics (Abdus Salam).

There are some organizations that have resorted to violence to defend their country. But the true path to international empathy and assistance is that of verbalizing our knowledge and experiences, and engaging in peaceful discussions with the world about our struggles. Barakat has definitely invested a great portion of her time in educating the world about the Palestinians’ struggle. She regularly appears on NPR, gives lectures at various universities worldwide, and authored a book, “Tasting the sky: A Palestinian Childhood” and is currently working on her second. Although many Arabs don’t have the time or the resources to spend on publicly explaining the Palestinian side of the story, all they need to do is to have conversations with those who aren’t intimately aware, or talk to others because it creates the opportunity to teach and to learn.

Technorati Tags: Ibtisam Barakat, Arab-Israeli Conflict, NPR, Arab Stereotypes, politics