Owners of apartment building complex accuse Oak Lawn village officials of racism and discrimination

The owners of three large apartment buildings in Oak Lawn off of 95th and Harlem Avenue accused the Village Manager of Oak Lawn, Larry Deetjen, of discriminatory practices and harassment. The owners charged at a public meeting of the Oak Lawn Village Board Tuesday Sept. 22, 2009, that the village began cracking down on them right after Deetjen became village manager. They said the issue was the  population of their buildings which are 40 percent Black, 20 percent Arab, 20 percent Hispanic and 20 percent White. Oak lawn is a predominantly White community and the apartment complex represents the heart of the suburban village's minority concentration.

Deetjen sat through the public session at the beginning of the board meeting without comment, but he was defended by Village Trustee Robert Streit who launched into a tirade against the two owners telling them that their tenants -- 84 families -- have drawn police calls 366 times over the last two years involving everything from drug abuse, domestic violence, gang fights and a long laundry list of crimes.

I was shocked to hear Streit's attack, mainly because:

1 -- the owners said the village was upset with them and cited them with numerous building code violations (that are not even listed on the village code books by the way) because the minority population has increased significantly at the buildings since they purchased them almost four years ago.

2 -- Streit did not address the alleged code violations which INVOLVE THE BUILDING but instead focused on the type of people who live in their buildings, outlining the alleged misconduct of the tenants (which the owners of the building have no control over) and saying people like that are unwanted in Oak Lawn.

Yikes!

I will have a story in next week's Southwest News-Herald column and will post a transcript of the verbal back-and-forth.

Streit also denounced the owners who live in Countryside as "absentee landlords" (does Streit do all of his business in Oak lawn or is he an absentee business owner?) And Streit denounced them for waiting 18 months to complain about the alleged verbal altercation that took place with Deetjen.

In an interview before the meeting, the owners said they were moved to come forward after reading about instances of racial discrimination against American Arab grocery store owner Naim Massad at 103rd and Central Avenue, whose store was harassed for two years by the village and was shut down including on July 15 when he was falsely accused of operating his store under a village order to be shut. It was falsely alleged that Massad had a sign on his window in Arabic that told Arab customers the store was closed and they should go to the back of the store to buy store items.

Massad was arrested -- not for the violation of the closing order but for allegedly putting food in an unsanitary vacant store next door -- and so was his wife and son. Massad accused the police who arrested him of denouncing his Arab heritage in vulgar terms.

Police have since reported that the evidence in the case, including the alleged sign in Arabic, was throw out and is no longer in police custody. Police took the sign as evidence but later discovered that the sign in Arabic only said that his store was "closed."

And during the dispatching of police to the store -- because of the Arabic sign and complaint -- the police officer told the dispatcher they were going to "shut down an Arab store owner."

I'll have more on the latest incident of discrimination in my next column in the Southwest News-Herald newspaper (www.SWNewsHerald.com.)

Those pimping for the U.S. Census should be honest, its about their money not our community empowerment

The U.S. Government has done a great job hiring Arabs in our community to shill for their cause, to continue to oppress our community. The focus on the effort is the U.S. Census.

I want you to notice something. Everyone one pimping and pushing for the American Arab community to "participate" in the U.S. Census are all PAID by the U.S. Government to tell us to fill out the census form.

They lie that filling out the census form and "writing in our race" Arab in the little line at the bottom of the form is a way for us to be empowered. And when someone questions their lies, they slam and slander Arabs who argue that we have been misled by lazy, do-nothing Arab activists who have taken the short and easy route to money instead of fighting the long term challenge.

What is the long term challenge? Arabs should be listed officially on the census.

Here is who are now listed on the U.S. Census:

The census form asks for your Race, listing Hispanic, Latino or Spanish Origin. And they ask if you are Mexican, Mexican American (I didn’t know there were two categories of Mexicans), or Chicano? What kind of race is “Chicano?” What country do “Chicanos” come from? “Chicano-stan?”

They ask the same question again on the long form: Are you White? Black, African American or Negro? Are you American Indian or Alaskan Native and they even give you a place to write in your tribe name.

That’s not all. The form asks are you Asian Indian? Japanese, Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Korean, Guamanian or Chamorro, Filipino, Vietnamese, Samoan or Other Asian where they give you a space so you can print your “race” like Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian “and so on.”

Oh, they don’t stop there. They ask are you “Pacific Islander” and ask you to print your race like Fijian, Tongan “and so on.”

Way at the bottom, in case they missed someone, someone not so important, they have the throw away line, to check here if you are “Some Other Race – Print Race.”

That is where I have to hand-write that I am “Arab.” And proud of it too, by the way.

Read the full original column that has Rashad al-Dabbagh, who works for the census, and some members of the Arab American Institute targeting me because I don't agree with their laid-back lack of activism against this problem. Click here to read the column?

The fact is that while these activists are cashing their checks and telling American Arabs, "Don't worry. You don't have to be listed on the census form, you can write it in so the AAI can complete their list," government agencies across America are discriminating against American Arabs specifically and directly because the U.S. Census DOES NOT list Arabs as "Arab" on the Census form.

The federal government requires police officers who pull people over for traffic stops to list the race of the person being stopped. But, they are required only to list those races AND ethnicities listed on the U.S. Census form.

Why is that important? If the race is listed on statistics, communities can easily see if they are being targeted for discrimination by police officers and then use that as "EMPOWERMENT" to demand that the police department hire American Arabs.

But American Arabs are NOT listed and police are not required to list us at all.

In every instance of EMPOWERMENT, not being listed on the U.S. Census means we are denied the ability to confront and stop discrimination, discrimination that is holding our community back.

And all that the activists who are PAID by the U.S. Census can do is attack me ands my argument and tell us little American Arab Sheep to "write your race on the form."

Well, writing your name on the form does not stop the discrimination and it DOES NOT force government agencies from the top of the Federal Government to the bottom of the local suburban government to recognize the rights of Americans Arabs.

When we ask school districts how many Arabs have they hired, the answer is "We are not required to list employees based on the race 'Arabs' and we only list race and ethnicity based on those identified in the U.S. Census."

I know what the problem is. It's easier for some in our community to take the handout from the government and keep the American Arabs in a stupor than to find the courage to stand up and change a system that needs to be change.

Arabs should and MUST be listed on the U.S. Census form and until we are, we will continue to be discriminated against, denied government grants, denied government jobs and marginalized in our society.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com