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1. We sure as hell don’t get treated as white.
2. Law enforcement doesn’t think we’re white.
3. Airport security doesn’t think we’re white.
4. White people don’t think we’re white.
5. Again, white people VERY passionately do not think we are white...
6. When Rima Fakih won Miss USA, no one thought she was white...or American.
7. OK, Exodus thinks we’re white...but that’s another story.
8. We can actually dance.
9. Can white people do this?
10. How about this?
11. Oh OK.
12. There’s basically a well-established American genre of anti-Arab films, yet we still can’t get a damn box on government forms.
13. We come from 23 different countries, almost all of which have been invaded or colonized at some point to “civilize” our non-white people.
14. We make up hella huge communities in these cities and neighborhoods
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19. Even supermarkets value us more by giving us our own aisle (or half a shelf--we’ll take anything, really).
20. We constantly get otherized with “WHERE ARE YOU FROM?”
21. Our parents and classmates made sure to remind us that we’re not white every day of grade school as we ate our lunches of kofta, zaatar pies, and 3aseed leftovers.
22. It takes on average 19 times before people pronounce our names right.
23. Unless you’ve been given an easy name like “Sarah” or “Adam” or you’ve taken matters into your own hands and turned into a “Mo” or “Mike”
24. But you still probably can’t pass for white because the things white people say and do confuse the hell out of you.
View this video on YouTube
25. There are no official statistics of our population, which makes us invisible as a community and leaves out crucial information on data and resources our community needs to empower ourselves. That’s not cool.
26. ACT NOW!
An exciting opportunity awaits us: the US Census Bureau plans to test a new classification of people from the Middle East and North Africa region for possible inclusion in the 2020 Census.
Before the Bureau can proceed with testing in 2015, a public comment period is required by law. We need at least 5,000 positive comments by Feb. 1, 2015 to support the Census testing for this new classification. Please sign and pass on!
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