Day 12: #BE LIKE RALPH by Rhonda Roumani
(I Wanna) Be Like Ralph
Last week, Democratic Senator Cory Booker made headlines when spoke on the Senate floor for 25 hours and five minutes non-stop, in an act of protest.
“Tonight, I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble,” he said in his opening remarks. “ I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able. I rise tonight because I believe, sincerely, that our country is in crisis.”
Booker was not trying to stop legislation. This was an act of protest. So, what did Booker say? That’s the problem. Most people can’t tell you. They can tell you that he didn’t use the bathroom. And that his record broke the record held by Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1957 filibuster against civil rights. But that’s about it.
That’s because Booker neglected to talk about maybe one of the most troublesome developments since Trump took office: the arrests and deportation of student activists.
To be exact, in 25 hours and 5 minutes, he mentioned it only once. In 74 pages of Congressional records, he mentioned Rumeysa Ozturk’s name– the Tufts University graduate student who was taken off the street by ICE– one time. And that was it. No one else was named. Not Mahmoud Khalil, or Alireza Daroudi, or Yunseoh Chung, or Rasha Alawieh, or Badar Khan Suri, or Ranjani Srinivasan, or Momodou Tal, or the dozens of others who have had their student visas revoked for merely protesting.
Another topic he failed to mention: Gaza. Twenty-five hours and 5 minutes and Gaza didn’t make the cut.
Maybe that’s because in December, Booker welcomed Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli Defense Minister, who has been indicted by the ICC for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
A few days after the talk-a-thon, we watched crowds of people turn up across the country for the HANDS OFF protest. I walked with the crowd in New York City for a few blocks. I looked for signs, but spotted few. Where were the signs for Rumeysa? For Mahmoud? For Gaza? For an end to wars?
What exactly is this protest about? Hands off WHAT? If we can’t say hands off our students, hands off our freedoms, then what were we doing there?
The arrest of Rumeysa and Mahmoud and Yunseoh and Rasha and Ranjani has been devastating for so many Arab and Muslim Americans in particular. In Rumeysa and Mahmoud and the rest, we see our community. We see our friends. Our families.
So, this week I’ve been wondering, what do we need to hear at this moment? What should protest look like now? I’ve been thinking about how these students have paid a high price for speaking their truth. Real protest usually has repercussions. There’s so much we need to learn from them. We should all know each of their stories. Booker could have told us more about them. I mean, he had the time.
The truth is Arab Americans have few politicians who we truly admire. For a few years, many of us looked up to Bernie Sanders. Amo (Uncle) Bernie. We even had t-shirts. His voice was clear. Unwavering. He spoke up for the working class, and against capitalistic greed. He accepted us into the political fold.
But then Israel unleashed havoc on the people of Gaza, and he failed to call for a cease-fire. In any other conflict, politicians would have demanded a ceasefire. They would have asked for an end to the killing. But not for Palestine. Palestinian lives do not matter. He called for a ceasefire eleven months too late.
Arab Americans exist on the outskirts of this country’s political dialogue. What does it mean when your group is shunned by both parties? Maybe it means we lack the real power to effect real change. Maybe it means that we are put in positions where we have to explain ourselves. (SEE LAST YEAR’S POST ABOUT HOW I’M NOT DOING THAT ANYMORE.) Maybe we are amongst the most vulnerable.
But, maybe, it also means that because we are not beholden to any group, we might have a different take on things. A different outlook, a birds-eye view of what is happening around us. When you don’t belong, maybe you can see more clearly what’s wrong.
Some of the people I admire the most are Arab Americans. I admire these individuals because they consistently speak truth to power, or tell our stories, even at their own detriment. Many have spent their life in service–to a greater community and/or a greater cause. Some of them understand the meaning of freedom viscerally because they grew up in countries where freedom wasn’t a given. Others understand that corruption flourishes more easily in unfree societies.
Booker is right. Our country is in crisis. But we need more than showmanship. We need depth. We need people with values, who are consistent and don’t waver in the face of political or financial pressure. We need leaders and activists who don’t only speak. They do. Leaders whose actions are consistent with their words. For me, these are some Arab Americans I admire. I think we can learn a lot from them.
Maher Hathout – This one isn’t fair because most people won’t be able to grab a book and learn about Maher Hathout. He was a Muslim leader in Los Angeles who was ahead of his time. He knew the value of freedom because he had spent time in Egypt’s prisons in his youth. He worked and led from his values. He believed in freedom deeply– for everyone. And he spoke his truth, whether in the presence of presidents or regular people. And, maybe most importantly, he believed in the power of new generations to lead. Few Muslim leaders tell younger people they know what they’re doing. But he did just that.
Helen Thomas – As a journalist, I’ve always admired the Arab American journalist who covered ten US administrations. She spoke openly on the topic of Palestine. An article in the Christian Science Monitor described her as “outspoken, blunt, demanding, forceful and unrelenting. Not only does she command respect from the highest power in the US, her reputation is known worldwide. Nothing speaks to her legend more than when USA Today Founder Al Neuharth had an interview with Cuba’s Fidel Castro. He asked the Cuban leader what the difference was between Cuba’s democracy and the U.S.’s democracy. Castro responded, ‘ I don’t have to answer questions from Helen Thomas.’”
Mona Hanna-Atisha – A pediatrician and public health advocate whose research exposed the Flint Water Crisis. She single-handedly used her research to prove that the water in Flint, Michigan was poisoning children. She faced a brutal backlash for her findings.
Edward Said’s book Orientalism was life-changing for me. As an academic, he synthesized the way the West “othered” the Arab and the Muslim world. And he spoke on the topic of Palestine with such force and clarity. I wanted to attend Columbia because of him.
Maysoun Zayed, a comedian and disability activist. I first saw Maysoun in a comedy show after September 11, 2001. Ever since, she has used comedy to make people laugh and speak truth to power. She is fierce and funny and just a bad-ass Palestinian woman.
Noura Erakat is a dogged lawyer and civil rights activist. She’s smart and just impressive. When I want to understand a legal matter, I always say, what does Noura say about this?
Mo Amer healed us this year with season two of Mo. In an industry that has not been kind to Arabs, Muslims, and especially Palestinians, he created one of the most honest and real shows I’ve ever seen on television. I laughed and cried and laughed again and cried. But, most of all, I felt completely seen. He told the story of Palestinian and Arab Americans in all our beauty and pain.
Ayman Mohyeldin is an American journalist, anchor and political commentator based in New York for MSNBC. Many people don’t understand the limitations placed on journalists in news organizations– the words you have to use because of the organization’s style guide. He’s doing an amazing job as an Arab American in a mainstream news outlet, bringing out stories that would normally not be covered.
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, a Palestinian poet who won the National Book Award last year. Her poetry is powerful and her speech was everything.
Ralph Nader…ahhh, what can I say about Ralph Nader. I think we need to start a hashtag. #I want to be like Ralph…
I want to end with Ralph Nader because few people have a resume like Ralph’s. Many people know that he was a presidential candidate for the Green Party. Last November, many Arab Americans voted for Jill Stein. I don’t blame them. We didn’t have good options. And Jill Stein was saying all the right things when it came to Gaza.
But Stein is no Ralph. Running for president is not what makes someone great. What they do before and after is what makes them great. Ralph’s accomplishments are too numerous to list. He is most known for his 1964 book Unsafe at Any Speed, which criticized the automotive industry and helped lead to the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. He set up a band of law students that the press dubbed “Nader’s Raiders” to evaluate and revamp the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In 1971, he founded the watchdog group Public Citizen in order to engage in public interest lobbying and activism.
But my favorite fact about Nader is that when he was a law student at Harvard, he would often skip out on his classes and “hitchhike across the U.S. to engage in field research on Native American issues and migrant worker rights.” He has a curiosity and interest in regular people and the underserved. And then he did something about it.
Now, at the age of 91, he has been feverishly writing on his blog, asking people to wake up, to speak up, to do something, with the same urgency he’s had his entire his life. Check it his blog here.
For Arab American Heritage Month, I say we should all try to #BELIKERALPH