Research Guides: Diversity Initiatives in the Library: April- National Arab American Heritage Month

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Events and Websites

Syrians in New York
An interactive project developed by NC State University
Arab American Stories
A 13-part series presented by Detroit Public Television that explores the diversity of the Arab-American experience.
Turath: An Exhibition of Early Arab American Culture
A virtual exhibit of early Arab American culture

Articles of Interest

FROM 1967 TO OPERATION BOULDER: THE EROSION OF ARAB AMERICANS' CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE 1970s This article examines the US government's targeting of Arab Americans for surveillance and harassment in the wake of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the Palestinian terrorist group Black September's murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In the late 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) included Arabs as targets of its COINTELPRO surveillance program, and in 1972 the Nixon administration created the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism and the visa check system Operation Boulder to monitor Arab residents and Arab Americans. The federal government overstepped its constitutional boundaries and used its powers to repress Arab American activism on behalf of Palestine. The article explores Arab Americans' responses and resistance to government violations of their civil liberties. Ironically, the government's attempt to divide and intimidate Arab Americans actually served to heighten their unity and advance their activism.
On the Brink: Identity and Language in the Poetry of Arab-American Women In his semi-autobiographical text, Monolingualism of the Other; or, the Prosthesis of Origin Jacques Derrida proclaims, “I have only one language; it is not mine", a refrain he echoes throughout the rest of this work. At the heart of this contradictory statement stands the question of possessing language. As the foreigner, i.e. colonial subject, who speaks only the master’s (or the host’s) language, Derrida’s dilemma of possessing language becomes a question of bestowing belonging through language, of being allowed access to a group, like a cardholder whose card proclaims membership in a certain society. For Derrida, language only grants one an identity as a speaker of that language because of language’s homogeneity with regards to itself: it is always open to assimilating the other. Taking Derrida’s text as a starting point for thinking about questions of identity vis-à-vis language, this paper examines the works of three Arab-American women writers within the context of an ambivalent relationship to language embodied through a particular practice of translation. As a foundation for approaching questions of identity, Derrida’s text poses the question of translatability, both as a means and mode of understanding the integral problem of identity through and in language. This question of possessing a language—within its connection to an ethnic identity and the ability to translate both the language and an identity associated with that language—is the central metaphor in the poems below by Naomi Shehab Nye, Dima Hilal, and Suheir Hamad.
ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM This article provides a first-hand account of Arab American activism from the 1967 war to the present. It focuses on the development and activities of Arab Americans in the metropolitan Chicago area, with particular emphasis on the activities of Arab American and Arab students in the decades after the '67 war. It also describes the alliances forged between African Americans and Arab Americans during those tumultuous decades, as well as offering suggestions for what Arab American activists should do in the future.
April is Arab American Heritage Month, the State Department declares

National Arab American Heritage Month (NAAHM)

Other Resources

Films & Videos

Why We Need Arab American Heritage Month in 2020
We’re kicking off Arab American Heritage Month by breaking down what it means to be Arab in 2020.

Alexander the Great: Myth and Reality by Akamati, Maria
Call Number: DF 234 .A44 Discs 1-3
ISBN: 9780769778433
Publication Date: 2004
Through ancient writings, world renowned historians and archaeologists present the story of Alexander the Great.
Benghazi in Crisis ; Yemen Under Siege by PBS
Call Number: DT 239 .B46 F76 2016
ISBN: 9781627897464
Publication Date: 2016
Destination The Middle East by Escapi New Media Studios
Call Number: DS 49.7 .M53 2003
ISBN: 9781932702026
Publication Date: 2003
Encounter Point by Avni, Ronit
Call Number: DS 119.76 .E53 2007
Publication Date: 2007
A story of 2 Israelis and 2 Palestinians who risk their safety and public standing to press for an end to the conflict.
The Fight for Yemen by PBS
Call Number: DS 247 .Y48 F76 2015
ISBN: 9781627894067
Publication Date: 2015
With Yemen in chaos, a gripping report from the heart of the escalating conflict.