Moustafa Bayoumi, professor at Brooklyn College, published a book this year called How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. It follows the stories of seven young Arab-Americans living in Brooklyn in the wake of 9/11 to illustrate their conflicted relationships with their country of residence. It was excerpted in New York Magazine last month; the story of Rasha and her family, jailed for three months on immigration charges, is upsetting at the very least. I haven't yet read the book, but it comes highly recommended. (Thanks to Ebtihal for that).
Bayoumi's explicit parallel between his work and W.E.B. Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk has been a minor sensation, as books go – you can, for example, join the Facebook group. Clearly it has resonance for a group beyond its subjects; the consequences for America will likely be far-reaching as well. In an interview at Salon.com, Bayoumi points out the following:
The Gulf as a whole and Dubai in particular have an allure to this younger generation for many complicated reasons. One of which is there seems to be a growing hostility to all things Muslim in the United States. They think if they go to the Gulf they can escape a lot of that. Then there's the role of globalization. Dubai is now seen as a hot spot — it's where the action is. It's interesting to me because this earlier generation, his father's generation, believed that about the United States. They could come to the United States and fulfill all of their potential. Now, in a lot of ways, their children feel that way about a place like Dubai.
On this blog, I try to point out the cultural and business news coming out of the Gulf because it isn't just Arab-Americans that see the Gulf as an emerging cultural and business center. It's a fascinating area of growth that provides a sort of counter-point to other Middle East news about wars and terrorism. The combination of that growth and America's conflicted relationship with globalization and … other politics will have interesting consequences. It would be nice to hear a little more about these ideas from the Presidential candidates. Unfortunately, they are too busy quibbling over cliches.
