Specials DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS MAGAZINE Spring 2011 - Anniversary Commemorative Issue

Minorities Global Village News

By The Associated Press

Arab museum launches online exhibit on stereotypes

By JEFF KAROUB

Associated Press

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) - The Arab American National Museum officially launched an online exhibit Tuesday that aims to explore -- and overcome -- Arab stereotypes that have influenced popular culture for more than a century.

The exhibit, "Reclaiming Identity: Dismantling Arab Stereotypes,'' includes commentary as well as paintings, books, films and sheet music showing Arab culture as exotic, uncivilized and threatening.

"We wanted to make the knowledge of how Arabs have been represented in culture more accessible to the public,'' said Evelyn Alsultany, the exhibit's curator and an assistant professor at University of Michigan who teaches about representations of Arabs and Muslims.

"We're hoping people will leave the site with a vivid sense of this discrepancy between who Arab Americans are in their diversity and the actual limited, restricting stereotypes,'' she said.

Alsultany said the first images of such stereotypes started to appear in the 1880s, about the time that Arabs began to settle in significant numbers in the United States.

The exhibit cites the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, which recreated Arab streets and customs. A book of photographs chronicling the fair included a depiction of the "peculiar manners of Egyptians'' and refers to a girl's veil as an "unsightly disguise.''

Alsultany said the stereotype of "Arab as terrorist'' began to appear in the 1960s, with the Arab-Israeli war. Such depictions have been common in movies during the past few decades, such as in 1994's "True Lies,'' but films have a longer history of presenting women as belly-dancers and seductive-yet-veiled members of harems.

"A lot of times, we watch TV, we think to ourselves, `This is make-believe,''' said Alsultany, whose father came to the U.S. from Iraq in the 1960s. "I want to challenge that idea. I'd like for viewers to see there are impacts of these stereotypes.''

She said the effects include simple misperceptions, such as assuming all Arabs in the Middle East ride camels or live in tents in the desert. But stereotypes and overgeneralizations also can lead to mosque burnings and other crimes, as well as inform or influence U.S. foreign policy.

The website offers video interviews of Alsultany and other Arab-Americans, as well as examples of the community's contributions to U.S. culture and society. The exhibit also explores stereotypes of other groups, such as Jews, African-Americans and Native Americans.

"One of the things we all agreed on, we didn't want to give impression that this is unique to Arabs,'' Alsultany said. "The creation of an `other' -- these stereotypes -- has happened over time to many groups.''

The exhibit took five years to develop and received financial support from several foundations, including the Ford Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, which describes itself as being "rooted in the Jewish tradition and committed to democratic values and social justice, including fairness, diversity, and community.''

The website is the first, full-fledged online exhibit for the museum, which opened in 2005 in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. The city has one of the oldest, largest and best known Middle Eastern communities in the nation.

___

Online:

http://www.arabstereotypes.org

Mexico's IMF candidate says India neutral on job

By The Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) - Mexico's candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund says Indian leaders he met in New Delhi are completely neutral on their choice for the job.

Agustin Carstens, Mexico's central bank governor, says Indian leaders told him they needed to evaluate the candidates once they had full information.

He spoke to reporters after meeting with India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde visited India earlier in the week to campaign for the job.

India and other developing nations have called for an end to the convention that the IMF head is European. However, they have not come together with a common candidate to head the fund.

Lady Gaga sings 'Born This Way' at Rome gay rally

By FRANCES D'EMILIO

Associated Press

ROME (AP) - Lady Gaga sang a few bars of her smash hit "Born This Way'' and demanded the end of discrimination against gays as she proclaimed herself a "child of diversity'' at a gay pride rally Saturday night in the ancient Circus Maximus.

The star, whose "Born This Way'' album recently topped 1 million sales in a week, delighted tens of thousands of people at a brief concert in the vast field where the ancient Roman masses would gather for spectacles.

Wearing a green wig, she played the piano and sang a few numbers. But she devoted much of her appearance after an annual European gay pride parade to denounce intolerance and discrimination against gays and transgender people. Among the places she cited was the Middle East, Poland, Russia and Lithuania.

Lady Gaga told the crowd she is often asked "How gay are you, Lady Gaga?''

"My answer is: 'I am a child of diversity.'''

She also proudly cited her Italian roots -- saying she was really named Stefania Giovanna Angelina Germanotta.

And she told fans her costume -- a sleek black top with one bare shoulder and billowing plaid skirt -- were from the last collection of Gianni Versace.

Decrying intolerance of homosexuality, Lady Gaga lamented that young people who are gay are susceptible to "suicide, self-loathing, isolation.''

Many in the crowd had participated in an hours-long parade of colorful floats and brightly costumed marchers through Rome's historic center before the rally. The events were part of the annual Europride day to encourage gay rights on the continent.

Lady Gaga praised her audience for its "great courage'' which she says inspires her.

Europride organizers hope the event will draw attention to discrimination gays face in many parts of the world. The U.S. ambassador was among those who invited Lady Gaga to Rome.

"I am so honored to be here,'' Lady Gaga said, recalling how, earlier in the day, she lay naked in silk sheets in her hotel room and enjoyed the din of adoring fans and packs of photographers in the street below.

Organizers said Rome was a significant choice of venue, since it is home to the Vatican, which staunchly opposes legislation that would recognize same-sex marriage or adoption by gay couples.

Others hoped the turnout would send a message to Premier Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian leader dogged by a sex scandal involving an alleged 17-year-old Moroccan prostitute. The billionaire media mogul triggered outrage from gay rights groups last fall when he contended during a public appearance that it was "better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay.''

Berlusconi's equal opportunity minister, a woman, defended the premier, saying he had just been joking and had no intention of offending gays. A government undersecretary further provoked protests when she said she was sure "all Italian parents hope to have heterosexual children.''

The premier, who is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying the teenager for sex and then using his office to try to cover it up, has denied any wrongdoing.

Most undocumented migrants to EU head to Italy

By The Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The main flow of illegal migrants seeking to enter the European Union has shifted dramatically from Greek borders to Italian islands due to the conflicts in north Africa, the bloc's border protection agency said Tuesday.

A total of about 33,000 people were detected trying to enter the 27-nation bloc in the first three months of the year, with 22,600 of them detected at Italian borders, mainly in the area around the island of Lampedusa, said Frontex deputy director Gil Arias Fernandez.

Greece, which was previously the main point of entry for people seeking to cross into the EU, saw 7,200 illegal entries in the same time period.

In the same three months of 2010, just 147 illegal migrants had been detected trying to enter Italy, compared to 13,085 attempting to get into Greece, Frontex figures showed.

Fernandez said that while it was difficult to predict what would happen in the rest of the year, "the situation will remain quite dramatic in the central Mediterranean.''

According to Frontex, more than 41,000 people attempted to enter the EU in the area around Lampedusa, and the other Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia from January to today, including 1,600 people over the weekend.