The Impacts of Arab American Discrimination
In this research study conducted by Aasim I. Padella and Michele Heisler, survey data was collected in order to gain insight on two matters, the prevalence of perceived discrimination and abuse among Arab Americans since 9/11, and how that perceived discrimination and abuse impacts mental health. After establishing that a sizeable percentage of the sample has experienced discrimination, the researchers concluded that personal negative experiences related to ethnicity, perceptions of not being respected within US society, and greater reported effects of 9/11 in respect to personal security and safety were all associated with increased psychological distress, reduced levels of happiness, and worse health status (Padela & Heisler, 2010). These results provide evidence that mental health is one domain in which Arab American discrimination has had observable, negative impacts.
Padela, A. I., & Heisler, M. (2010, February). The association of perceived abuse and discrimination after September 11, 2001, with psychological distress, level of happiness, and health status among Arab Americans. American journal of public health, 100(2), 284–291. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.164954
In this local news article, a recent story is covered regarding Hadi Abuatelah, a Palestinian American teenager who was savagely beaten by police officers and put into the hospital where he was found to be suffering from a brain bleed due to the assault. The local Arab American community responded with outrage to this, claiming that police in the area have been known to harass and racially profile Arab members of the community (Grimm, 2022). The victim's family filed a lawsuit against the police officers, quoting that there was a racially-motivated conspiracy at play on the hand of the local officers and considering the excessive force that was used. This is one of the countless examples of an Arab American being harassed or abused, an unfortunately quite common occurrence among Arab communities in a post 9/11 America.
Grimm, A. (2022, August 2nd). Teen beaten by police in Oak Lawn released from hospital, taken to juvenile detention - Chicago Sun-Times. https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2022/8/1/23287984/teen-police-oak-lawn-juvenile-detention-videotape
In this research paper by Daniel Widner and Stephen Chicoine, the researchers attempt to investigate a gap in the literature regarding how Arab American discrimination takes form through employment discrimination. After conducting a study where they sent equally qualified resumes to 256 job applications using both a white-sounding name and typical Arab sounding name, they found that resumes with white names had twice as much of a chance to receive a callback for an interview (Widner & Chicoine, 2011). They conclude that this difference must be accounted for by discriminatory tendencies in the hiring market, highlighting yet another detrimental impact of Arab American discrimination the livelihoods and wellbeing of this population.
Widner, D., & Chicoine, S. (2011, December). It’s All in the Name: Employment Discrimination Against Arab Americans. Sociological Forum, 26(4), 806–823. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41330896