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Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Subjects
Minorities -- United States -- Social conditions, United States -- Ethnic relations, Arab Americans -- Ethnic identity, Arab Americans -- Race identity
Advisor
Rebecca Summer
Student Level
Undergraduate
Abstract
My oral presentation will discuss the categorization of Arab Americans as white in the U.S. census and examine evidence that demonstrates that contrary to the current designation, many Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans within the United States do not view Arab Americans as white. I will contextualize general concepts of race and ethnicity as they relate to Arab American identity; examine the history of Arab American census designation and look at how and why Arabs came to be known as white in the United States; review the treatment of Arab Americans, pre and post 9/11 and within the context of racialized political shock; discuss ways in which Arab Americans face discrimination; and consider some of the challenges that have prevented change in the past. Finally, I propose adding a new category in the census that would allow Arab Americans to self-identify ethnically, without being counted as white statistically, and explain how this new category would address some of the harms caused by discrimination against Arab Americans today.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35433
Captions
Transcript of Symposium Speech_Leila Piazza.docx (19 kB)
Transcript
Arab Americans and Census Reclassification: Recognition is Due
My oral presentation will discuss the categorization of Arab Americans as white in the U.S. census and examine evidence that demonstrates that contrary to the current designation, many Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans within the United States do not view Arab Americans as white. I will contextualize general concepts of race and ethnicity as they relate to Arab American identity; examine the history of Arab American census designation and look at how and why Arabs came to be known as white in the United States; review the treatment of Arab Americans, pre and post 9/11 and within the context of racialized political shock; discuss ways in which Arab Americans face discrimination; and consider some of the challenges that have prevented change in the past. Finally, I propose adding a new category in the census that would allow Arab Americans to self-identify ethnically, without being counted as white statistically, and explain how this new category would address some of the harms caused by discrimination against Arab Americans today.