Why We Need Arab American Heritage Month | NowThis

happier American here just month yeah it's a thing we have a month to the month has been around in several states since the early nineties but it only officially became a national Heritage Month in 2017 that's when congresswoman Debbie Big Bob with the help with several American organizing groups issued a resolution proclaiming April to be National American Heritage even in 2020 most people still don't know what it means fear so first things first let's explain according to the arab-american Institute Arabs are people from predominantly Arabic speaking nations like Jordan Lebanon Syria Morocco Palestine Egypt Yemen Algeria Libya Tunisia Sudan Qatar Bahrain Oman Kuwait Somalia Mauritania Djibouti the UAE in Saudi Arabia just to name a few roughly 4 million Arab Americans can trace their roots back to any of these countries we've been in the US since at least the 1870s but we often get diminished to a terrorist or refugee image or just straight-up ignored and it's time to fix it we need to get it right because I'm not white I'm not should really go without saying that not all Arab Americans are Muslim and not almost some Americans are here there are so many different types of Arabs or so many countries that really fall under this umbrella the thing that I hands-down love about the Arab American community is our unwavering support for each other and our strong sense of family and have the emphasis on the family unit I think that's translated and literally everything that we do I think that our parents teach us to be right or dies for our friends and family and loved ones from the get-go so now I have you know 100 billion ruins uncles brothers and sisters because whatever you want to call it that I know have my back especially when I'm going out to lunch with a white person and they give me an itemized receipt of how many french fries I've had when we're trying to split the check really makes me appreciate all the generous aunties out there that constantly give me free food and and trying to feed me even though they're still telling me that I'm getting fat at the same time something that's really special about the urban area is this sense of resilience that we all understand saying that Egyptians have demo home cookies which is like basically that thoroughly is you know laughing and having fun even though they go through some this was to do Jerry long astronomy I don't know what's up with this chocolate hummus going around but traditional hummus is the best spices culture things to talk about on the news called amazing talents like Tony Shalhoub I don't want to live in a world without Tony Shalhoub the hood eats you welcome your lawyers and doctors an engineer is an accountant people like put a copy or Ronnie Malik or Rami Yousef watch mommy that is a hilarious show a job the French Montana premiere dj khaled there's still a lot of heavy discrimination of Arab Americans to the state like we really live in a world right now where minorities including Arabs are under attack and it's kind of a time to educate people to combat ignorant with it education well because people don't even know what being Arab or Middle Eastern even is like I had someone tell me recently they were like oh my god I'm so sorry but what's happening in Syria is their family okay and that's explained to them well actually my family is Palestinian and they live in Alabama so no no they're not okay not even a little bit and listen to the where's your parka time and we're here for a long time we're more than just hummus and pita you know like we have so much more than that we can be so much more than just one type of stereotype we are product in tributes in this country we're proud to be very active citizens and proud to showcase our skills and our knowledge and our stories for everyone in the United States I hope you understand how our culture has been appropriated frankly I want people to understand that I want people to understand where those things came from and I really want people to understand where to get this hummus cousin siga all this all the socks out was crap they'll be don't even know Sawa shout out honestly to all the hard-working immigrants like my parents who came here and started small businesses who really made up the fabric of the society and continued work hard every day with their love and devotion for this country they need to be heard and they need to be seen you

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Keywords: NowThis, NowThisNews, Now This News, NowThis News, Now This Media, NowThis Media, Current Events, news, US news, current events today, arab american, arab american heritage month, arab americans, arab american heritage month 2020, arab representation, arabs in america, arab pride, arab heritage, U.S. politics, world news, Why We Need Arab American Heritage Month in 2020, why arab american heritage month is important, Why We Need Arab American Heritage Month

Id: VujZGldsUFI

Length: 5min 12sec (312 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020