Arab in America, Os/bama in Houston

By Jim | June 12th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Just finished the graphic novel cum coming-of-age memoir by Toufic El Rassi, “Arab in America.” Man, is it good. El Rassi gives us a sense of the social and political binds faced by Arabs living in America, giving special attention to the era post 9/11, but making clear that there was plenty wrong leading up to that event, within government policy and within society. The story covers his life–focusing on issues of identity politics, social prejudices, and so forth) until adulthood, ending with a departure to Lebanon, the country of his birth. I especially appreciated El Rassi’s colorful, insightful digressions into topics like the representation of Arabs in Hollywood history. I am already thinking of ways to get it into the college writing classroom this fall or next spring. I did a short review of the book on amazon.com that should be up soon.

El Rassi’s treatment of race and social attitudes in this book presents a society where racism operates systemically, often unchecked and unquestioned, against Arabs and Muslims. This racism manifests itself differently among people on the left and right politically, but it’s there at every level. Which makes me wonder about Barack Obama. His middle name and African/Muslim heritage will surely come up over and over again in the course of the next five months. A few days ago, passing through a newstand in the Houston Airport, I was struck by something creepy that I overheard. (sidenote–since when did George H.W. Bush get to have an airport named after him? Last I heard the guy was still jumping out of airplanes…). “Overheard” might not quite be getting the spirit of the scene. A very loud woman was stomping about the newstand talking to a girl, perhaps her teenaged daughter. She must have come across a picture of the democratic presidential candidate on a magazine cover. Poor the rest of us after that. “I hate that Osama. Or Obama. Or whatever the heck he’s called.”

Okay, so it’s Texas, the home state of the sitting Republican president, albeit a rather tarnished one. Still, it has me wondering how much race will matter and how it will matter this November. And how much the same tired old invisible assumptions about fear that rises from the Arab/Muslim East will subtly inform the vote people make…