Fight the US Census: Don't be sedated by hallucinogenic rhetoric

Fight the US Census: Don't be sedated by hallucinogenic rhetoric
By Ray Hanania

For 30 years, the US Government has been telling the American Arab community, through paid American Arab surrogates, that if we would just go along and stop protesting and write in our name as "ARAB" on the OTHER line at the bottom of the form, we'll get our share.

The truth is American Arabs continue to be denied their share not because they are not listed on the Census and not counted, but because the US Government and many in American refuse to give us our rights.

Just going along with the Census and NOT complaining, and not pushing back is a mistake. Simply following the lead of the paid activists in American Arab community -- who are the ONLY ones benefiting from the Census -- will do nothing. 

When the US Census says "roll over," instead of rolling over for the first time in 30 years, American Arabs should tell them to "TAKE THAT CENSUS FORM AND SHOVE IT."

They can do all the celebrity comedy shows with great comics that they want, but it doesn't change the reality of how our American Arab leadership has failed us over the years because they are afraid to take on the Census fearing they will be pushed away from their tiny tot seat at the "table." American Arabs are being thrown crumbs, not the pie, and we are told to be happy with that.

They came to us in 1980, in 1990 and 2000 with the same failed message. Rollover. Fill out the Census. Don't complain. Do what your "leaders" are telling you to do. Feeding us medication to sooth our inner-feelings that we are being cheated. Drugged up with phony rhetoric, and misled by our failed leadership, American Arabs went along and did what they asked.

And each decade, the results are the SAME. It doesn't work. It doesn't work in part because American Arabs demand equality and fairness and fair treatment. They want to be respected.

The Government does do that when faced with a community that has a strong leadership. There are 29 Ethnic and Racial groups listed on the Census. Those 29 have empowered themselves not by rolling over and having comedy and entertainment shows, but rather by recognizing the reality fo what is happening.

I know young American Arabs are easily misled by the leadership. they are too young to know how corrupt the national American Arab leadership really is. And eventually as they get older, they will see the mistake and watch as the only people getting jobs are a handful connected to those who held the government's hand and led our people to the Census reservation where they hope to keep us trained like Pavlov's Dogs, happy as lemmings, and drugged up with the narcotic-like rhetoric.

I volunteered (for free) to help the Census in 1980, 1990 and 2000, and I refuse to volunteer this time.

And all the BS rhetoric from some people who find it easier to attack me personally than to address the real issues won't change a thing.

American Arabs will only be empowered when they stand up and fight for their rights. Not when they submissively bow their heads and pretend they have achieved something that is little more than the same old same old.

The tragedy is that while everyone is entering the 21st Century, American Arabs are still living in the past. Living in the past when it comes to solving the Palestine Tragedy, and living in the Past when it comes to empowerment.

We won’t be empowered until we stand up and fight for our rights, not rollover submissively when the US Government throws a few bones.

All you have to do is ask the simple question: What have American Arabs really gotten in terms of public jobs, public contracts, grants for their cultural activities and more, as compared to what the other 29 favored ethnic groups have received? 

The answer is simple. Although we HAVE done our part as Americans, paying taxes, working hard, participating in the system and EVEN filling out the Census in the past three 10-year census counts, we have not even received a sliver of our fair share.

Click here to read more and wake up from your Sedation!

Click here to listen to Radio Show interviews on the Census scam!

Click here to read "Take this Census and Shove it!"

Click here to read about the 29 Favored ethnic communities who fought the Census and won, and who were not misled by the leaders!

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

www.RadioBaladi.com

American Arabs should resist the Census and demand their rights

American Arab rights jeopardized in Census 2010

By Ray Hanania

There is a big push by the US Census targeting the American Arab community to participate, but it’s not new.

They have been saying the same thing now for 30 years: if American Arabs would just fill out the Census form and “right in” the word “Arab” in the “Other” category at the bottom of the form, American Arabs will benefit immensely.

And every decade, the same thing happens. American Arabs participate and they get absolutely no benefits. No benefits, that is, except the American Arab organizations and activists hired and paid by the census to treat the American Arab community like mindless lemmings.

American Arabs are so disrespected that the Census isn’t evenly shameful about the exploitation, insisting against the facts that American Arabs will benefit.

Benefit? How? Will we get jobs for American Arabs? No. The only jobs that come from the Census go to the muscle minority communities like the African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and the others that make up the 29 racial and ethnic groups identified by name on the Census form.

Will be get local municipal, regional, state or federal contracts? No. The contracts will go to the 29 ethnic and racial groups named on the Census forms.

The fact is not one of the American Arab activists can identify one specific benefit that American Arabs have received since we first began supporting the Census campaigns back in the 1980s.

Yes, the 1980s. I was there writing for a community newspaper when the government reached out to American Arabs and I did my part, writing columns and essays urging American Arabs to participate.

In 1990, again, the government came to the American Arab community and hired members of our community and bought advertising and even awarded grants to groups that promoted the Census. I did my part then too, never asking for a penny, believing the BS that somehow things would change and American Arabs would benefit from being “counted.”

In 2000, we did the same thing. We participated. I wrote more columns. We lobbied the community and urged them to participate.

And you know what? Nothing happened. Even though American Arabs participated, we were excluded from major contract awards, employment and more importantly in political empowerment.

It’s no secret that the majority of American Arabs in Chicagoland live on the Southwest Suburbs in District 230, the high school district that includes three high schools. No one from the state suggested that a legislative district be drawn to encompass the Arab community and “empower” us by consolidating our voter strength.

Sound implausible. It’s not. The State of Illinois has done that very thing to create Hispanic Districts and Black Districts. They’ve given jobs to Hispanics, Blacks and Asians.

They’ve awarded contracts to those communities and awarded huge grants to fund arts and culture.

But not for American Arabs.

And you know why?

Because for the past 30 years, American Arabs have been taken for granted. Instead of fighting for what is ours – we pay taxes like everyone else in this country – we just went along trying to be “good citizens,” filling out the forms and writing in our names.

Now suddenly a group of high-profile selfish American Arab leaders who are paid by the Census – the only people getting jobs in our community – are telling us if we don’t fill out the Census forms “the American Arab community will lose.”

Lose what?

Lose jobs? We’re not getting even a sliver of what we deserve. There are 38,000 employees in the City of Chicago and we account for 250,000 of the city’s 3 million residents. That means we should get 7.5 percent of the 38,000 jobs.  That would be almost 2,400 jobs. We have barely 300 total jobs, or 2,100 jobs short of what we should get but don’t.

And it’s worse at the state level were $19 million are disbursed every year to fund cultural and arts projects for various ethnic and racial community groups. The American Arabs get about $200,000 and half of that goes to non-Arab groups identified as “Middle Eastern” including Iranians and Israelis and Jews, the latter group also get even more from the state of Illinois.

This pattern is repeated in nearly every state in the union. We’re 4.5 million American Arabs and what do we have to show for it? Harassment, neglect, abuse, denial and one of the highest job loss rates in the country.

We have a handful of teachers in Chicago, and even less in the suburbs. We have a handful of elected officials, and not one district carved out for American Arab empowerment.

Now you can continue to do what we have always done, bent over without as much as a whimper and listen to the paid American activist flaks who are telling us to support the Census – to protect their jobs.

Or, for the first time in 30 years, we can stand up and make a statement against being exploited by a country that routinely abuses and denies our rights while targeting us for terrorist profiling.

We can make a statement in a powerful way or we can allow ourselves to be marginalized by American Arab leaders who benefit from the blood-money they are paid to lead us into national weakness.

Sometimes, it is easier to pick up crumbs than to fight for the cake.

I say, let’s fight for our rights and tell the Census and their mercenaries to “take that Census form and Shove it!”

END