I'm glad to see that a lot of Arabs and Arab Americans here have been discussing the infuriating fact that it was an Arab business which called the cops on George Floyd. I'm especially keen on a good question that's been circling: why do so many Arabs in the US trust cops?

This is baffling to many of my friends and mutuals, who accurately note that Arabs in the US, regardless of political orientation/views on their home country, overwhelming tend to understand the simultaneous inefficacy and danger of the police throughout the region.

I've never met a defender of the Egyptian regime who denies police brutality. They'll downplay its severity, diffuse blame between institutions & victims but never argue the police were ever a just, let alone effective institution in Egypt. So why believe otherwise re: the US?

I've seen a lot of folks explain this as a product of Arabs' feverish desire to assimilate into whiteness, and that is absolutely a central part of our communities' constant failings at true racial solidarity. But I think there is something else, equally sinister, happening here.

Too many Arabs in America still subscribe to the myth that this country is noble, built on life/liberty/the pursuit of happiness & not one of the most devastating settler colonial projects in history. Even passively, they perpetuate the American Dream, refusing to see its failure

No ideology acts in isolation. If you believe "hard" work will get you anywhere in America, then you believe it's an inherently just country, hence its state and institutions are fair, hence the murder of unarmed Black people by cops is, at best, a myth, at worst, justifiable.

As many young Arabs in the US once again ask how we can educate our communities better, I bring this up in the hopes that it may provide a productive framework for folks to intervene in their family, friends and communities' rhetoric and understanding of justice in the US

If you can, the most urgently productive action item rn is to donate to orgs like http://minnesotafreedomfund.org  who're helping bail out protesters. As for the long run, I encourage fellow Arabs in the US to counteract these, literally dangerous, myths that still grip our communities.

I will never forget how the first time I talked to my mother about private prisons in the US, she literally thought I was joking, she literally could not consolidate such a monstrously cruel reality w/ everything she believed about life and mobility in America before immigrating

She understood that racism, specifically anitblackness, was "bad" but she never comprehended how structural and unrelenting it is, how it seeps into every possible institutional setting

Over the years, these kinds of conversations have helped her understand her responsibility as an educator in an underfunded school w/ a largely Black/Latinx student body, which in turn has better equipped her to intervene in the racist actions of her peers and/or administration.

If we want to hold our communities accountable, I really can't emphasize enough the importance of educating the folks around you, especially since no one will have more mileage for our people than us. Moving beyond liberal buzzwords re: race, like "hate" & "prejudice" is crucial.

Our communities will never do better if we don't give up our toxic dreams of assimilation, but we must also surrender our belief in the efficacy of institutions like the police if we are to refuse participation in white supremacy.