July 25, 2007
Posted by yaman
New Arab youth publication seeking submissions
From a-Rab.net, a project I have been working on with friends:
We are currently preparing for our first issue and to that end we are seeking submissions of all kinds–literature, essays, articles, cartoons, poetry, stories, briefs, photographs, etc–from anybody who is interested in our project. We are currently a volunteer-driven project, and as such it is not possible to compensate contributors for their valuable submissions. However, we hope that the obvious need for an outlet like the a-Rab will encourage people to do what they can as we get started. In addition to this, we are also looking for individuals who are willing to support us on a regular basis: for example, people familiar with layout programs like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. If you’re interested in working with us on this project, your contact point is admin@a-rab.net.
Read the about page for more information:
The a-Rab is everyone recklessly slapped with a criminal label September 12th 2001; the folks who were already suspected and rejected: the dark-skinned and coarse, the multilingual with heavy scorned accents, the Muslims who pray to the East, the Arabs who sip heavily distilled grape alcohol, the Palestinians who forgot how to weep, the politically conscious, those who reject the system and won’t accept its idea of good manners.
We are not talking in terms of citizenship or ethnicity. We are speaking in terms of the cultural mainstream and in terms of what passes as “American.” In this country, they tell you who you need to be, and when you try to suggest your own alternative (that is, to create your own identity), you are abused. They would like you to be the happy Arab immigrant who is subsumed by the system, makes an art out of brown-nosing to beat all of those other foreign medical graduates in the residency programs, and becomes a well-off professional by: abandoning your political beliefs–your political consciousness!, your voice, and your relevance to society. This is what it takes to be an “American” Arab and not an a-Rab.
This castration of identity has been called by many a (European) visionary Assimilation. They heap praise on Assimilation as the way to overcome racial prejudice and discrimination, the way we can become a community with one identity that recognizes everything we hold in common. As attractive as the idea might seem, the truth is that every identity is defined by what it is not, and every community that adopts such an identity will inevitably clash with other identities, and will exclude them.
This is going to be good. Please spread the word. We need your help. Here is a facebook group to join.
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