DEARBORN — With her dark good looks, Arab family structure and independent spirit, actress and comedienne Kathy Najimy — of theatre, movie and activist fame — has always been different. “At school other kids brought toys or hobbies in to show and tell,” she quipped, in an address to a diversity conference here this week. “I brought in parsley, mint and borghul and made tabbouli for the whole class.”

Talking about being in Dearborn, the national heart and soul of Arab America, she said, “I thought when I got off the plane the streets would be paved with baba ghanouge.”

The Lebanese American Najimy, who currently stars in the weekly CBS drama “Numb3rs” but who has a long, award-winning acting history, was the very popular luncheon speaker at Arab Detroit’s fifth annual cultural workshop, this year entitled “From Immigration to Discrimination: Understanding A Diverse Community.”

More than 150 people gathered at the University of Michigan Fairlane Center to hear Najimy and morning speakers Dr. George Saliba from Columbia University and Dr. Jack Shaheen, the country’s foremost expert on media stereotypes of Arabs and Arab Americans.

Najimy forever endeared herself to Arab Americans in the audience. She brought along her husband, daughter and mother and proudly claimed and extolled the virtues of her Arab heritage. “There is no film, no TV show, no amount of money or fame that could ever mean as much to me as the country and the people I come from.” She said she, her husband, mother and daughter have a trip to Lebanon planned and she can hardly wait. Reviewing all the roles she has played in her life — mother, daughter, actress, activist — she said the title most important to her is that of Arab American. And she identified one of her greatest wishes to be that her daughter finds the same pride in her heritage as she does.

Dr. Saliba is professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in the Department of Middle East and Asian Studies at Columbia University. He is the author or editor of six books in Arabic and English. He gave a brilliant exposition on Islamic contributions to the world of science and Western civilization and reviewed how the beauty and reason of the faith has been distorted, both as a result of and feeding into current U.S. foreign affairs in the Middle East

Dr. Shaheen spoke about media misrepresentations of Islam, Arab culture, Arabs and Arab Americans. He is the author of four books including the latest, “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People.” He has given more than one thousand lectures across the country and on three continents about damaging racial and ethnic stereotypes.

Central to the propagation of stereotypes based on race and religion is the concept of “The Other,” which allows people to dehumanize an entire group of people. Dr. Shaheen identified the components of “The Other” as those who have a different appearance, live elsewhere, speak with a thick accent; are unattached to family, believe in a “different” deity, kidnap and/or rape women, are cowardly, inept in both the battlefield and the bedroom, are equated with animals and who do not value human life the same way “we” do.

The audience was treated to the final ten minutes of the documentary “Reel Bad Arabs,” which is based on Shaheen’s book.

Despite his lifelong work documenting the racism, Dr. Shaheen said he was optimistic. “I’m an optimist and I believe in the future and in our young filmmakers,” he said, adding “We can unlearn our prejudices against Arabs and Muslims.”

The Arab Detroit event had strong backing from more than a dozen companies and organizations, including Northwest Airlines, the U.S. Army, Comerica Bank and Wayne County Community College District.

Arab Detroit founder Warren David is also president and CEO of David Communications, a multicultural marketing firm. He and vice president Siham Awada Jaafer, as well as Dr. Amal David, bilingual program supervisor of Detroit Public Schools, also presented at the event.