Although other U.S. cities boast high numbers of Arab-Americans, those cities also are in the likes of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago — all cities with populations reaching numbers from 2.6 million to 8.2 million.

Dearborn has less than 100,000 citizens; it’s different.

It’s different from every other city in the country.

You won’t go anywhere else in the U.S. and see every fourth girl wearing a hijab. You won’t travel to the east side of your city and see Arabic writing adorning storefront windows. It just won’t happen.

Now, after reading my blurb of background information about my city, you are either intrigued or cringing at the thought of Dearborn. And if you’re the latter, don’t deny it. There are all too many people just like you.

This country has not hidden its perception of Arab-Americans. We know what the country thinks of Arab-Americans, and they know what the country thinks of them.

They are the extremists from the Middle East, descendants of Osama bin Laden and — let me guess — supporters of the tragedy of Sept. 11.

I can’t forget to mention Arab-Americans’ lack of conformation to our culture and their resistance to going back to “their country.”
Does any of that sound familiar? If not, you’re either damn lucky to be surrounded by entirely open-minded people or lacking conversations regarding Arab-Americans because during half of the conversations somebody has about Arab-Americans, a racial comment is made.

And it hurts.

It pains me knowing they are talking about my former classmates, high school teachers and best friends. How could my soft-spoken Arabic friends be connected to wars, bombings and terrorist threats?

I see the looks on people’s faces when I mention my friends Omar, Yousif and Amir. I can tell what they’re thinking. To put it lightly, it’s unjust.

Sept. 11 hurt the U.S., and it’s still hurting the U.S. today. But 10 years after the tragedy, Arab-Americans are living with stereotypes stamped on their foreheads every single day because radicals in the Middle East had a bone to pick with our country.
Does my being Italian connect me to the Mafia? I’d say it does just as much as it connects my friends to al Qaeda, yet I don’t have to hear about it on a day-to-day basis.

How about Germans being descendents of Adolf Hitler?

Any Irish people have relatives that were in the Irish Republican Army?

Yeah, it stings a little, doesn’t it?

Let me state that some Arabs are bad people — Osama bin Laden was a bad person. Saddam Hussein was a bad person. Members of al Qaeda are bad people. I believe this, most Americans believe this and most Arab-Americans believe this.

But too many times I’ve witnessed my friends being called out for simply being Arabs.

I’ve had people ask me how things are back in “Dearbornistan” after spending a weekend back home. Florida pastor Terry Jones rallied less than a mile from my house, marketing his International Burn a Koran Day.

Arab-Americans are Americans. They mourned with us when others tried to tear our country down, and they stand by our soldiers fighting for our freedom as much as anyone.

They are so much more than the slurs they endure. They are defined by what extremists in the Middle East do, and an entire city slowly is being defined by the wrongful image of what a great portion of the U.S. thinks Arab-Americans are.

Alyssa Girardi is a State News staff writer. Reach her at girardi5@msu.edu.