America: As an Arab American Narrator Views it

The Relevance of Religion and Politics

Religion wasn’t something that greatly impacted Jackie’s life. She was raised Roman Catholic, but not devout. Other families would pray over a rosary, but her mother wanted them to think for themselves, stating that “God was not an accountant” and so wouldn’t be ticking off on the things they did right. As a family, they did attend church regularly at the Roman Catholic Church, but her parents were married at the traditional Syrian Melkite Church, where Jackie was later confirmed. The differences between these two churches and their practices are highlighted in the below clips.
Politics was something that Jackie’s family frequently discussed, and Jackie has always been passionate about. A particularly important moment for Jackie’s political identity was in college when she attended a rally for Nixon’s Presidential campaign. Her father was an avid Republican and so was the majority of her family, each citing their businessmen status as reasoning’s, support which suggested her involvement. However, upon attendance at the rally, Jackie expressed outrage at the mindless manner in which the crowd cheered, with cheerleaders who would work them up at the appropriate moments. Interestingly, this struck Jackie as being similar to a Hitler rally and pushed her to look more into the Democrat’s and Kennedy at the time.

Outside of American politics, Jackie has spent much of her life concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, speaking out against the treatment of the Palestinians and the uneven criticisms of Israel by the American press. In her youth she was fearful of being called anti-Semitic, Jackie is no longer troubled with this and would rather be active in her questioning of the relationship between the two nations. She remembers her family discussing the issue extensively growing up and most significantly mentioned the times when she and her sister would visit their cousins’ house and listen to loud political debates across the family. 
Interestingly, it seems that in her adulthood Jackie has been relatively sheltered from many of the political issues that have faced Arabs in America. 9/11 still has a tremendous impact on the quality of life for many Arabs, but Jackie didn’t see any change in hers. Of course, she was aware of the prejudice’s others had experienced, but her family had been in America for such an elongated period that they were considered as a different type of Arab. Much of this seems to have stemmed from the Americanisation her family went through growing up and the almost arm’s length nature that Jackie publicly had with Syria and at multiple points, throughout her life, she maintained a public Lebanese status to avoid such conversation. 


 

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