Toufic El Rassi

This was interesting, perplexing and frustrating. It's a deeply political and personal book, but it suffers from a huge lack of introspection and, to my eyes, perspective. The story of an immigrant to the US from Lebanon. He did not initially identify with Middle East politics, but became increasingly marginalised - this seemed to be mostly due to him encountering increasing prejudice as he got older, which then found expression in a sense of injustice at the relationship between the West and the Middle East.

It's a sad tale, but the problem I have is that the kind of things he complains about just seem to be the usual idiots that people encounter, and then forget. He clearly hasn't, and worse then seems to ascribe those worst characteristics to all Americans. Beyond that, he is also horrified at the horrors perpetrated against arabs by Western powrs, but says not a word about those perpetrated by Arabs (the first gulf war being a case in point - nothing about Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athist regime for invading Kuwait).

A frustrating read, which I didn't feel worked as anything more than polemic.

To be fair, I may be misremembering some of this, but I honestly don't think the book is worth going back in order to give the benefit of the doubt.… (mehr)

Originally published in 2007, I read the 2016 edition in 2021. Obviously the 2016 edition does not touch on the Trump years, the Muslim ban, or the general rise in white supremacy over those years.

In this graphic memoir, El Rassi discusses his childhood growing up in a very white community, largely unaware that he was "different" until middle school, when he began to be teased for being of Middle Eastern descent/Arab. When he goes to college and 9/11 happens, he begins to be more interested in--and more afraid of--protesting. He gains his American citizenship so he feels safe participating in protests. It is not an easy nor quick process, despite the fact that he speaks fluent English and was raised as an American. He discusses the people he meets there, protesting--who, he notes, are largely white and happy to tell others what they should think, how they should protest also. I found this especially interesting because I see this all the time in local groups. The virtue-signaling of talking about how woke one is, when what these people are actually doing is speaking for other populations. Let them speak for themselves!

In between telling his own experiences, he also gives bits of history: music and movies that portray Arabs in a certain way (often with no Arab actors); people who have been held for years on questionable charges due to their origin; people who have been harrassed due to Americans' general misunderstanding of what "Arab" is; an explanation of "Arab" vs "Muslim".

Very interesting, would be a great read for high schoolers (or anyone interested in learning more). History, memoir, and a good explanation of how he (El Rassi) so often doesn't feel like it fits in.… (mehr)