The weekend before the US Presidential Election, I attended the first Arab American Festival in Glendale, Arizona. We have a very small Arab American community (so small that I had wrongly assumed it was nonexistent), and I was very intrigued to see what types of vendors and performances they might put on.
I was especially interested when I visited their website. It stated that:
“The Arab American Festival is a Non-political, Non-religious, Non-profit Organization established to build community pride in the valley and showcases our diversity of music, arts, and cultures. Multi-generational and multi-cultural families gather to enjoy free music, arts and crafts, entertainment, children’s activities, and services from local businesses, foods, and vendors.
The Arab American Festival is an exploration of the rich culture and history of the world’s oldest civilization. Our festival is targeted to all Americans to create an awareness of the diverse ethnic groups while having fun.”
Imagine my surprise, then, that the entire festival seemed to be geared around recruiting Arab Americans to work for the CIA, FBI, Armed Forces, and translation contractors.
Overall the event had a peculiar atmosphere of tension and suspended disbelief. It was not at all the welcoming, informative, unifying event that I had anticipated attending. Arab Americans appeared disquieted; the few non-Arab attendees seemed lost and uncertain. The information booth had no information except a list of which musicians were performing at which time. There were no explanations of the origins of certain dances and no boothes explaining the unique history and cultures of the many Arab nations. Other than an Afghan tent selling wooden frames of Mecca, I only saw a hookah tent and a couple of belly dancing costume boothes. Even the food stands left much to be desired: other than falafal, pita and kebab, there were almost no opportunities to discover Arab American cuisine. No tabbouleh, even!
Now, I concede that it is only the first year and so it is bound to be a little slow and underdeveloped. What concerns me is that the entire event really seemed to be built around staging a convenient sideshow for federal recruitment.
Why not just have a career fair and openly court Arab Americans? Why try and mix it in with a “non political” cultural festival? My husband and I both tried expressing an interest in working for the federal government in these boothes, but they were clearly only interested in Americans with an Arabic background. So again, why not just have a career fair for them specifically? Wouldn’t that have been a better way to reach out to them after all of the social injustice that they have endured anyway?
I regret most that such a promising opportunity to build a bridge between the Arab American community and Arizona society – and between Arabs themselves- was so blithely lost. Had the event really focused on its stated purpose, it would have been a success – regardless of the size of the turnout or the number of vendors. Instead, we all participated in a CIA raffle for giveaways such as post-it pads and lanyards.
The event must have been sponsored by the federal budget, I guess. As the proverb says, he who gives the money orders the music. I always wish the sponsors of any event to be transparent so that people knew what to expect.