MLK's Legacy: The Impact on Arab Americans and the City of Detroit

Detroit MLK Day March through downtown on January 20, 2014. The demonstration opposed the EM and bankruptcy., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

The Arab American News

MLK's Legacy: The impact on Arab Americans and the City of Detroit

By Samer Hijazi
Thursday, 01.23.2014, 08:55pm

DETROIT — “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Martin Luther King Jr. once famously said.

Five decades later, that statement is still imperative in a country that is deeply embedded in bigotry, inequality and resistance.

After emerging as a hero for the African American community during the Civil Rights Movement, today King's words hold true for various minority groups that continue to be targeted based on the color of their skin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

Perhaps some parallels can be drawn between the treatment of Muslim and Arabs in a post-9/11 era and the lengthy history of struggle for African Americans. Over the last decade, while the horrible tragedy of 9/11 slowly faded from the spotlight, attacks targeting Muslim and Arab Americans in the U.S. have only become more common.

This week, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., The Arab American News reached out to a couple of prominent Arab and Muslim organizations to discuss the impact that MLK's legacy has had on various communities in the past and present.

In a press release, the Arab-American Civil Rights League (ACRL) said that MLK paved the way for the establishment of prominent civil rights organizations across the country, in order to assure that justice is prevailing in present-day America.

"As Arab Americans, we value and cherish the legacy of Dr. King as it has paved a way for an avenue towards establishing a fair and equal justice system," the ACRL stated. "In 2011-13, we have witnessed attempts by presidential candidates to use ugly stereotypes of Arab and Muslim Americans to advance their political agenda and divide our country. Diversionary tactics such as these are nothing more than a smoke screen, and the American people are insulted by these discriminatory campaigns."

Just last week, the Muslim community was hit with another round of political attacks made by Republican National Committee Member Dave Agema, who reposted a Facebook message that targeted Muslims, asking “Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?”

Agema, known to have a track record of being anti-Muslim and opposing gay rights, has since appeared unremorseful for his stance, prompting several politicians and civil rights organization to ask for his resignation. Gov. Rick Snyder declined to do so, but still referenced the event without mentioning Agema's name during his State of the State address last week.

But while it is apparent that our community continues to struggle with challenges and setbacks of our own, we should also not forget that the struggle for African Americans is far from over.

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Michigan (CAIR-MI), says that one underlying message that people seem to forget about MLK is his message of solidarity amongst minority groups. Walid says it is important for various communities to stand up for each other when a specific group of people is being targeted.

"One of the things we can get from Dr. King is the solidarity that he showed to stand for justice with people outside his religious and ethnic group. He didn't just stand up against segregation relating to African Americans, but he also took solidarity with Latinos and migrant workers," Walid said.

Walid points out that on a local level there seems to be a large group of African Americans who stand in solidarity with Arab and Muslim communities when they are being attacked, but that not enough Arab and Muslim Americans have been engaging in African American initiatives. He cited recent examples that included Terry Jones' anti-Islamic protest in front of the Islamic Center of America and evangelist groups protesting at the Arab International Festival, where African American leaders stood behind the community.

"We have seen assistance from African Americans who are Muslims standing with us against Islamophobia. Black religious and civil rights leaders stood in solidarity with our community. To a degree there also has been a level of solidarity in terms of Black American activists speaking out against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine," Walid adds. "What I think needs to be done is that the Arab American community needs to be a little more vocal in terms of civil rights challenges facing Black Americans. There is some solidarity, but I don't think it's forceful."

While MLK's message calls for minorities to stand united against injustice, residents in Detroit today are using his message to unify themselves as one city that has severely been impacted by poverty.

On MLK day this year, hundreds of Detroit residents marched down Woodward Ave. to protest continued struggles with bankruptcy, blight, education and unemployment.

Marchers shouted slogans such as “Bail out the people! Not the banks!” and wore shirts that included messages such as "Hands off my pension."

It was clear that the majority of the marchers were opposed to a state takeover of the city, claiming that Governor Rick Snyder and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr are focused on bailing out businesses and corporations as opposed to revitalizing the city's neighborhoods and schools, which have continued to decay over the years without much government intervention.

Detroit, a city with a population that is 83 percent African American, suffers with a staggering poverty rate that is three times the national average, standing at 35.5 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

It is not uncommon for Detroit residents to feel that many of the city's struggles are a result of government and corporate racial targeting. For example, last July, a federal judge allowed a case to move forward alleging that mortgage company Morgan Stanley intentionally pushed sub-prime mortgages in Detroit neighborhoods.

Walid points out that the same issues that African Americans struggled with during the civil rights movement are still prominent today as a result of Detroit's condition.

"Dr. King didn't just stand for anti-racism. He stood for workers’ rights and against corporate dictation of the masses. He was also against militarism and the exploitation of the common American in the industrial complex. The same issues he struggled against are still valid today. These are issues that affect all Americans, including Arab Americans."