Asha Noor writes down actionable ideas for solidarity

DEARBORN — Black America has been traumatized by the shootings of Alton Sterling and Filando Castile. The chilling videos of the two men’s deaths served as a reminder of racial disparities across the nation.

Black Lives Matter protesters took over the streets in major cities across the country. The anger prompted calls for solidarity with the Black community from Arab Americans.

Take On Hate organized a meeting of African American, Arab and Muslim activists on Monday. Attendees discussed ways to increase cooperation and understanding and ideas to empower the community.

Asha Noor of Take on Hate said the past week was difficult. She added that local activists are determined, as more than 1,000 gathered in Detroit over the weekend to protest police brutality.

“There has been a need to have discussions in this community and to figure out what we need to do moving forward,” she said. “Although we’re not Baton Rouge or Minneapolis, we have lost lives at the hands of police brutality here in Southeast Michigan.”

In December of 2015 and January of this year, Dearborn police officers fatally shot two unarmed African Americans. The investigation has not concluded in either case.

Noor demanded updates on the Dearborn shootings.

“We’re extremely concerned with what’s going on around the country, but we have to realize as a Muslim community, as an African American community, as an Arab community, that it is our duty to focus on what’s going on in our own backyard,” she said. 

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Michigan, cited the words of Martin Luther King Jr., criticizing the “White moderate” who prefers order to justice. 

“I’m a Muslim, but my Blackness has never escaped me since day one,” he said. “I’ve been a victim of police brutality myself as a 19-year-old young man.”

Walid said the African American and Muslim communities are intertwined, not mutually exclusive.

“The largest percentage of Muslim Americans has always been Black folks, going back to slave ships, to Malcolm X, to today,” Walid said.

The CAIR-MI director said police brutality is not new; cameras are now showing what African Americans have been complaining about for decades.

“What we need for you is to show up and be present more, outside of re-tweeting something, outside of sending a press release,” Walid told Arab American leaders. “We need you to reach out to us when we are in a time of trauma.”

He added that sometimes Black activists are too busy addressing their own community’s wounds that they cannot call Arab American allies.

“We need you all to show up in allyship and not try to take the lead and also understand that there are various expressions of Blackness, and there are different strategies,” Walid said. “Get in where you fit in.”

He also urged Arab Americans to demand accountability from Dearborn or Dearborn Heights Police when they abuse Black folks.

“We need to see some people out there with us, at least standing there, especially when this area is considered the capital of Arabs in the Western Hemisphere, not just in America,” he said.

He added that there is anti-Black bias in Arab American and south Asian communities that go beyond the racial slurs.

Walid said some Arab Americans made it a point to voice support for Dearborn Police after the shootings, as if to poke their finger in the eyes of African Americans. 

He encouraged Arab community leaders to correct those attitudes through education.

“That needs to stop,” Walid said.

Jermaine Carey of the Muslim Center Detroit urged sincerity in solidarity efforts.

“The hashtag is cool, but every two months it fades away until someone else is murdered,” he said.

Carey said Arab Americans started feeling the heat of bigotry after Sept. 11, 2001, but African Americans have been experiencing racism for the past 500 years.

Others speakers suggested frequenting Black-owned businesses, looking at community policing alternatives and encouraging voting in the community.

Activists warned against passing “Blue Lives Matter” legislations that would give special protections to police officers.