Why we need to talk about anti-Arab racism
Someone unfriended me on Facebook recently. A friend, a real life friend with whom I’ve always enjoyed a warm and intelligent friendship. This person unfriended me over a conversation about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn.
The gist of the argument was that I didn’t think that it was fair to compare Theresa May’s obvious racism around the Windrush scandal which she had instigated when Home Secretary, with Corbyn’s alleged disinterest in the stories of anti-Semitic behaviour in the Labour Party — the implication being they were both racists. I’m familiar with this kind of argument made by anti-Corbyn Labourites who wish to retain their anti-Tory credentials while attacking Corbyn. They claim that before Corbyn, the Labour Party were not racist.
There’s a couple of things about that which I need to say. Firstly, that initially I thought that the accusations of anti-Semitism were ridiculous and a way to shut down the pro-Palestinian voices who felt they finally had a sympathetic ear. In other words, an unfounded slur. I’ve learned that is not the case. I was wrong. The anti-capitalist ‘hard Left’ do indeed often fall into the unfortunate trap of promoting the idea of a Zionist conspiracy, an economic cabal of super-rich Jews who want to control the world etc. etc. This, of course, does not preclude that it is also possible that the accusations of anti-Semitism ARE being used to discredit Corbyn because he has spoken out against the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. The two can co-exist.
The second thing though, is the issue which caused all the discord. I don’t believe that the Labour Party were not racist before, under Blair. The type of racism, though, is one which is largely invisible because it bound up with settler colonialism which is a blind spot for most British people. The invasion of Iraq, the military interference in Libya and Syria and the abandonment of the Palestinian people are all racist actions founded in the bias against Arabs (unless they are royal, rich and British educated). I can hear the voices against this unpopular view. “There were many good reasons to (insert military action). It wasn’t about racism”’ I simply don’t believe that. Whatever ‘good reason’ it might have been, from overthrowing evil dictators to protecting state interests in fossil fuels, the underlying factor which is ignored is that the West was empowered by racism. To do what the West has been doing for decades in the Middle East requires a set of views about Arabs which present them as unruly, barbaric, childlike, undeserving, undisciplined, primitive, and irresponsible.
It’s uncomfortable to reflect on this because most people are not aware of the way colonialism still permeates the British consciousness. We are familiar with the African and Indian stories because there we had full colonial power as part of the Empire. We have left those countries, we’ve freed slaves and atoned for our misdeeds. The problem isn’t that we are still settler colonialists in the physical sense, but that the mindset still exists. It would have been easier for the Middle East if they had been fully part of the British Empire. Instead, they were part of the Ottoman Empire and then ‘protected’ by the British and other Europeans. You don’t protect strong, independent people, you protect weak, incapable, vulnerable people. The Middle East is the one that got away — all that wealth and those resources nearly in our grasp, wrenched away by pesky Arab nationalism. We feel entitled to it. It’s echoed in the acceptance of the nonsense that the Palestinians didn’t know how to farm their land and the Israelis had to show them how.
Most people in the UK have a completely distorted view of what being Arab means. Rather than viewing Arabs on their own terms, with their own cultures and habits, the West has continually worked on a series of romantic or stereotypical views. I doubt very much that the majority of people could even name the Arab countries. They certainly wouldn’t know how different Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Qataris are from each other. Worse than that, though is the way in which Arab cultures have been destroyed over the past fifty years until they have been ground down into a brown paste that can be smeared over the Western media to show how stupid, brutish and violent those Arabs are, having conveniently omitted mention of the many military invasions and proxy wars which have brutalised and decimated the populations. Blair and Bush could not have gone into Iraq if they had not believed the Iraqis were inferior, different and undeserving (of oil, of land, of life). How could anyone see what the Palestinians were suffering and not feel the acute pain of injustice and demand action? That’s easy, it’s the same kind of racism which held apartheid in place in South Africa for years until ordinary people forced governments into action. When the Cold War ended commentators asked who the new bogey-man would be and I said to my friends, ”It’ll be the Arabs. They’ll make us the enemy next.” Most of them laughed or looked puzzled, but it was so obvious to me because I’ve been living with the racism for the whole of my life.
The favourite manifestation of that racism is patronising Arabs. I can’t even recall the many times I’ve been made to feel like a child who understands nothing when I’ve attempted to present an Arab or Palestinian perspective. It’s the kind but mildly pitying tone of the Foreign Office discourse. “But dear girl …” Just a couple of days ago I heard it again from a nice middle class white British man who proceeded to defend British colonialism in Palestine against a panel of Arabs, trying to put them right, put them in their place with the ‘truth’ of the British perspective. “What you don’t realise, dear boy…” The irony was, he was pro-Palestinian, but couldn’t hear his own patronising tones.
We shut up and smile and try to appear ever so reasonable all the time lest passion or justified anger are mistaken for a barbaric underbelly. I’m a privileged ex-public school girl — surely I’ve never faced racism? The thing is, it’s like sexism; invisible until the Me Too movement shed a light on it from just the right angle at the right time. As an individual you can feel racism at work when you shift subtly into a mode which is slightly defensive, giving way politely to views you don’t really agree with, betraying your heritage in a desperate bid to finally fit in and be fully accepted. It never happens though. The choice is always either to remain an exotic oriental or be a benignly tolerated misfit. Like many Palestinians, I’m not very brown, unless I go in the sun. Since my hair went white I look less ‘foreign’. I’m only half Arab anyway. Being ‘reasonable’ is an easy cop out. My Jewish friends know what I mean.
I hate all racism; anti-Semitism, dislike of colour, Islamophobia, denigration of the Irish, Albanians and Kosovans, anti-Gypsy/Traveller — so much ‘othering’. I think that anti-Arab racism is largely invisible and unconscious because of unquestioned beliefs and because it’s not talked about specifically. A lot of people thought they weren’t being anti-Semitic and have now had to face the uncomfortable fact that they are. Anti-Arabism is a different phenomenon than Islamophobia and conflating the two is often part of the problem as it adds to unhelpful tropes about Arab culture, which is much more diverse.
We need a discussion about anti-Arab racism because it is enabling occupation, invasion, destruction, theft and appropriation of resources, maintenance of chaos, illegal detention and killing of children, as well as the subtle silencing of those who attempt to counter the stereotypical narratives. This is why I am sick of being told that the Labour Party wasn’t racist before Corbyn. Of course it was, the difference is that the racism was invisible because most people have no idea of the way Arabs are stereotyped, misrepresented and silenced. They simply don’t see it. The main reason a lot of Arabs like Corbyn is because he is one of the few politicians who has genuinely tried to understand Arab culture and communication. Yes, he used the term ‘friends’ but that is because it is the common form of address in the Arab World. His crime is to give Arabs a chance, to try to understand their concerns and aspirations.
You’ve got ask yourself, in whose interests is it to keep the idea of the Arabs as children of a lesser God? Why don’t we want to admit that we are equal but different? It would certainly make invading their countries a lot harder. Anti-Semitism is a European problem anyway. It wasn’t the Arabs who exterminated Jews or destroyed their homes and livelihoods. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any prejudice ever, or retaliatory expulsions post-‘48, but for the most part, Jews were not persecuted by Arabs in anything like the same way as they were by Europeans. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe, not in the Middle East. Despite the propaganda, most Palestinians want to live in peace with their Jewish neighbours, not be ruled and oppressed by them. What really annoys me is that the source of a lot of the accusations against Corbyn are fuelled by his association with Arabs. Given that anti-Semitism is more of a problem in Europe, this is a really good example of how anti-Arab racism works. If it weren’t the case, then Boris Johnson heartily congratulating Victor Orban’s election would be considered more problematic. But it goes unchecked and unchallenged because Arabs are fair game nowadays. “Of course it’s not racism”. Of course it is.
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