Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream

632 Pages·2000·74.724 MB·English

by  Nabeel Abraham, Andrew Shryock

Arab Detroit
FROM MARGIN TO MAINSTREAM
EDITED BY
NABEEL ABRAHAM AND ANDREW SHRYOCK

Arab
Detroit

Arab
Detroit
FROM MARGIN
TO
MAINSTREAM
Edited by
Nabeel Abraham
and
Andrew Shryock
W
Wayne State University Press Detroit
Great Lakes Books
A complete listing of the books in this series can be found
onling at wsupress.wayne.edu.
Philip P. Mason, Editor
Department of History, Wayne State University
Dr. Charles K. Hyde, Associate Editor
Department of History, Wayne State University
Copyright © 2000 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
All rights are reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
04 03 5 4 3 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arab Detroit: from margin to mainstream / edited by Nabeel Abraham and Andrew
Shryock.
p. cm.—(Great Lakes books)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8143-2811-3 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8143-2812-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Arab Americans—Michigan—Detroit—Social conditions—Miscellanea.
2. Arab Americans—Michigan—Detroit—Ethnic identity—Miscellanea. 3. Detroit
(Mich.)—Ethnic relations—Miscellanea. 4. Arab Americans—Michigan—
Detroit—Biography. I. Abraham, Nabeel. II. Shryock, Andrew. III. Series.
F574.D49A653 2000
305.8927077434—dc21
99-054827
ISBN 978-0-8143-2811-8 (cl)
ISBN 978-0-8143-2812-5 (pb)
eISBN 978-0-8143-3978-7
Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Contributors 11
On Margins and Mainstreams
Andrew Shryock and Nabeel Abraham 15
PART 1 • QUALITIES/QUANTITIES
Introduction 39
8 Houses from the Birthplace of Henry Ford
Hayan Charara 45
Building the Infrastructure of
Arab American Identity in Detroit
A Short History of ACCESS and the Community It Serves
Karen Rignall 49
A Demographic Portrait of Arab Detroit
Kim Schopmeyer 61
PART 2 •WORK
Introduction 95
You Only Exist Inside Me
Lawrence Joseph 99
In the Tenth Year of War
Lawrence Joseph 101
Contents
Dumb like a Fox
Don Unis 103
Growing up in Detroit
An Immigrant Grocer's Daughter
AlixaNaff 107
Fandy
Kevin Rashid 149
Behind the Bulletproof Glass
Iraqi Chaldean Store Ownership in Metropolitan Detroit
Gary C. David 151
There I Am Again
Lawrence Joseph 179
On the Road with Bob
Peddling in the Early Sixties
Nabeel Abraham 181
PART 3 •RELIGION
Introduction 199
What They Did
Hayan Charara 203
The American Journey of a Chaldean from Iraq
Sharkey Haddad 205
Egyptian Copts in Detroit
Ethnic Community and Long-Distance Nationalism
Richard R.Jones 219
Finding the Straight Path
A Conversation with Mohsen and Lila Amen about
Faith, Life, and Family in Dearborn
Sally Howell 241
CONTENTS
Arab Detroit's "American" Mosque
Nabeel Abraham 279
PART 4 •POLITICS
Introduction 313
Aliya Hassan
317
Important Things to an Eight Year Old
For Haji Aliya Hassan
Saladin Ahmed 319
After Karbala
Iraqi Refugees in Detroit
Linda S. Walbridge and T. M. Aziz 321
Politics, Pragmatism, and the "Arab Vote"
A Conversation with Maya Berry
Sally Howell 343
Status
Refugee
Amira Saad 373
PART 5 • LIFE JOURNEYS
Introduction 377
Daughter of America
Shams Alwujude 381
Coming Home
Lara Hamza 391
Becoming the Center of Mystery
Hayan Charara 401
Contents
To Palestine and Back
Quest for Place
Nabeel Abraham 425
Hope, Figs, and a Place Called Home
Jeffrey Ghannam 463
What's Not in a Name
Marilynn Rashid 471
PART 6 • ETHNIC FUTURES
Introduction 483
The Art and Artistry of Arab Detroit
Changing Traditions in a New World
Sally Howell 487
Continuity and Adaptation in Arab American Foodways
William G. Lockwood and Yvonne R. Lockwood 515
The Sound of Culture, The Structure of Tradition
Musicians' Work in Arab Detroit
Anne Rasmussen 551
Family Resemblances
Kinship and Community in Arab Detroit
Andrew Shryock 573
Steps
Naomi Shihab Nye 611
Index 613