From the East River to the Sea

This chapter documents the diversity within Arab-led activism for Palestinians, through detailed case studies of two different activist groups, Adalah-NY and Al-Awda NY. While Al-Awda draws its membership and discourses from the recently-immigrated communities of New York and New Jersey, Adalah-NY is oriented towards international discourses of solidarity and social justice. The different ways that identities (such as Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, American, and Jewish) are used by these organizations represent different responses to the problems of political engagement that Arab Americans and their political allies face.

The Panopticon of Bay Ridge

This chapter explores young women’s experience of leadership in both community organizations and social movement activity. Using the Foucauldian concept of the panopticon, it demonstrates how both non-members of the Arab community and members of it engage in disciplinary tactics towards these young women for their behaviour, asking them to uphold contradictory standards of gendered behaviour. Young women are highly conscious of their position under constant observation, and use a variety of tactics to engage with it.

Conclusion

The conclusion makes two arguments. The first is that the study of the everyday dimensions of politics adds richness and texture to political science, and should become a greater part of our scholarly discourse. The second is that the shifts taking place during the Trump administration represent both an outpouring of overt Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, and the slow growth of an increase in political space for Arab Americans to voice their opinions and frame political problems for themselves. While Arab Americans have not yet achieved robust justice for themselves and their communities, the potential for change and growth is present.

Thawra fii Times Square

This chapter examines how the attempted and successful revolutions of the “Arab Spring” altered political mobilization within Arab communities in New York. New activist and protest groups arose to support the Egyptian and Yemeni revolutions in particular, while a new rise in national-origin based community organizing also occurred. These new organizations and activists relied on a diverse mix of political frames, emphasizing both their links to other Arab communities and calls for justice, and their connections to American values like freedom and democracy.

Mapping Arab New York

This chapter provides an overview of the Arab communities and population of New York in the period between 2009 and 2012. Quantitatively, it analyses demographic statistics for all five boroughs to document the diversity and spread of people of Arab origin. Qualitatively, it documents the lived geography of the three most prominent Arab neighborhoods, Bay Ridge and Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, and Astoria, Queens. In addition, it explores the variety of community organizations and activist groups that work in Arab communities, and introduces the three key fieldsites for the book as a whole: the Arab American Association of New York, Adalah-NY: The New York Coalition for the Boycott of Israel, and Al-Awda NY: The Paletine Right to Return Coalition.

Everyday Politics in Arab New York

This chapter argues that the best way to understand politics in Arab communities is to focus on everyday life and the ways that political engagement and speech is rooted in and supported by everyday contexts. It explores the complexities involved in naming ‘an’ Arab community, and develops the concept of an Arab community in practice as a way of naming social spaces where Arab-identified individuals come together to enact that identity. Finally, this chapter establishes the interpretive ethnographic methodology and normative commitments that drive the book as a whole.

Making ‘Arabiya

This chapter demonstrates the central role that informal educational spaces can play in identity formation and political socialization. Using the example of an adult women’s English as a Second Language program and a summer youth program, it develops the concept of ‘arabiya (Arabness), a shared, diaspora-specific identity that provides recent Arab immigrants and their children with a shared sense of community. The discourses of ‘arabiya are formed dialectically through different engagements with Americaness, as well as through the use of Muslim identities and practices.