Week Two

Things have started to happen here on the South Side. Week one at the AAAN passed well, things are started to get settled in. There are now familiar smiles and laughs at the Network, the same youth with the same high pitched laughs as they work harder and harder into the afternoon. The same innocent smiles from the older women, ones who have seen more than I can even fathom but remain genuinely sweet and caring to everyone around them, its actually quite an amazing place. Life is interesting being the only non-female staffer in an organization, people make assumptions & have expectations towards me that I sometimes laugh at and sometimes cringe at, I suppose perhaps both parties can learn from it. Today as I sat attempting to write an e-mail one of the female staffers ran up to the door next to my desk that leads to the outside and pounded on the window calling me to go outside because two women needed help. I ran down the stairs only to find the most religious staffer, and the tiny old woman who cleans the network twice a week, pushing against a giant garbage bin in the alley way attempting to move it back into place. The wheels were locked, the bin is heavy, and so they decided they needed a "man". After much laughter and realizing the problem was that the wheel was stuck in a deep crack in the concrete we pushed the bin back into place. I looked at both the women and told them that it was obvious they were both as strong, if not stronger, than me and could have done it themselves, though I was more than glad to help out.
I returned upstairs to continue making calls to old white librarians in hopes that one of them would accept my proposal to hold an Arab cultural event in their library, fourth time was a charm, Bridgeview library called me back. After a prolonged conversation in which the old (white) woman told me that we were "all the same regardless of nationality" I reserved the space...now it's time to see what the event is going to look like. I am planning a family event, something around Arab culture in which all the community members, of all ages, can come learn/partake in something to do with the culture of their neighbors. Work seems to be panning out nicely, people seem to be adapting nicely to me in the office, my hair/mannerisms are the agents of many moments of laughter, I was called a lady from behind by one of the staffers today we both got a decent laugh out of it. I do not know if my coworkers have ever even heard the term "Gender-Queer" and I don't know of any equivalent in Arabic but God-damn they sure as hell are exposed to it 6 hours a day.
Of course nothing can be perfect and small tensions between another staffer and I have continued to grow. We are both new, the only ones not really known by the rest of the staff and she has decided that this means we are now competitors. Constantly challenging me and undermining me on everything ranging from work tasks to petty statements. She presents a difficult obstacle, how do I confront her? From day one she has not liked me, that was clear, but I do not know why...There is some obvious tension with us, besides the fact that we clash during work we obviously do not have compatible personalities, I truly hope I start to have things to do soon so that I will spend less time around her and the petty arguments we always seem to fall into, oh well things cant all be good I suppose.
Otherwise the South Side has treated me well for the past 17 days, it is amazing how I moved here only two weeks ago, it seems like ages. This part of the city is full of beauty and contradictions, I discover more and more about the history of the Arab community here everyday. It saddens me to think my people left the South Side for the South West Suburbs. True the Arab community was in the heart of some of the worst areas of Chicago...the Markaz is located on what was one of if not the most violent corners in Chicago only 10-15 years ago. However we traded all of the beauty of our diverse and strong community with our South Side Latino/a, Chicano/a and Black neighbors for a permanently oppressed status in a White community. People rioted outside the mosque and Islamic schools on 9/11, people got death threats, the neo-nazi's have made a resurgence there. 15 years ago our community was going through the painful realities of drugs, gang banging, and poverty. Now as we continue our life with poverty the drugs and gang-banging are following those of us who moved to the suburbs to escape it, the difference is the dominant culture doesn't want us as their neighbors. From the stories I have collected it seems we were never as othered in Chicago as we are now, for Bridgeview and Oak Lawn were never built for A-rabs, we traded our cracked pavement and tiny apartments for loop-de loop streets and a target on all of our heads. Now our poor members struggle to make it into the city for basic assistance from the state as their kids face verbal, psychological, and physical violence in their suburban schools. Sure maybe we gained the superficial security that a sleepy suburb offers...but what did we lose?
This are questions I continue to ponder as my job picks up steam and I find myself a defacto representative of the Arab community of Chicago. These are the same questions that the Arab community must ask as we look ourselves in the face. Because there is a LOT of problems to be tackled and the city/state/federal government sure as hell isn't going to solve them for us. Here's to some of those problems getting worked on in the next year of my tenure at the Markaz...who knows maybe some Sun will shine on the South Side again

-محمد-