Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 44

4E DETROIT FREE PRESSMONDAY, APR. 28, 1986 FORDSON HIGH: An American Experience SAM AMEN He can identify with non- Arabs "I feel it's a bad tendency for kids to feel they are being divided into groups. When you get a disagreement between two people, suddenly it becomes a disagreement between two groups it's the Arabs against the non-Arabs even if it's really just between two people," says 17-year-old Sam Amen, a fourth-generation Arab-American who plays defensive back on Fordson's football team. "Kids tend to divide themselves into groups all the time. It's part of searching for your identity.

It's like in football: You identify the other team as the enemy. "We don't sit around before a game and talk about why we like them; we talk about them like the enemy. Same thing at school when we see kids that are different from us, we say, 'Wait a minute, do they think they're better than "A lot of Arabic kids jump to conclusions. If they have a problem with a teacher, they say this teacher doesn't like me because I'm an Arab. It's an easy excuse because Dearborn has a reputation for being anti-Arab." Sam, whose father and grandmother both went to Fordson, says it's easier for him to identify with his non-Arab friends than with some of the recent arrivals from Lebanon.

"I've lived in Dearborn all my life; it's all I know. The newcomers, they've seen something else. It's hard for me to empathize with them." But he doesn't believe new immigrants should be forced to act like Americans. "When people start telling others that they're doing it wrong, or that they are backward, well, I don't agree with that. We're not here to tell other people how to live.

I think you have to give these people a chance to pick out what they like about America and then they will imitate it. "What if I came here from another country and the first thing I saw was a motorcycle gang am I supposed to run out and join a motorcycle gang?" Tom Hundley Free Press Photo bv PATRICIA BECK Sam Amen, a fourth-generation Arab-American, relaxes after practicing with the discus. Arab-Americans: Caught between cultures "I remember in ninth grade there were fights between Arabic and American students, fights over the drinking fountain, pushing in the hallways, volleyball games. The police were here twice. They called it a riot but it was just a 10-minute fight," says Alex.

"It was getting better until the Guido thing happened and the Americans started to say, 'Oh, what barbarians' about the Arabic students. "When you have two cultures come together, it always creates problems. I wouldn't know what to do except give it time and allow people to adjust. The Americans have to adjust to the Arab students and vice versa. It has to come from the individual." 1 ARAB-AMERICAN, from Page 1E PROF.

BARBARA ASWAD, an anthropologist at Wayne State University, cites four factors that have altered the assimilation process for Dearborn Arabs. The first is the growing size of the Arab community. Ten years ago, fewer than 1 0,000 of Dearborn's 90,000 residents were of Arabic origin. Today that figure has nearly doubled. "Arabs assimilated more easily when they were a small community surrounded by a large one," says Aswad.

"Now there is a much larger group for Arabs to identify with. The group has its own dynamic." The second factor, says Aswad, is the "sense of being under attack by the mainstream community." She points to unflattering media stereotypes of Arabs, uneasy U.S. relations with the Arab world and, closer to home, the anti-Arab sentiment stirred by Dearborn Mayor Michael Guido's election campaign last fall. When Guido addressed a school assembly in November, he was alternately shouted down by Arab students and cheered by non-Arabs; for days afterward, tensions ran high between the two groups. The third factor is the steady infusion of immigrants who bring with them the increased Islamic fervor of the Middle East and the idea that U.S.

society is corrupt and decadent. "The whole community has gotten more conservative," says Aswad. "I've had students who will tell me that their second- or third-generation cousin who used to wear shorts will no longer wear them. As the community has gotten larger, and there has been this resurgence of Islam, there is more pressure to be religious. The pressure is from other members of the group." The final factor, says Aswad, is that many immigrants who have come recently, particularly the Lebanese, do not plan to stay.

Their children often view school as a temporary situation, a nuisance to be endured until they can return home to Lebanon and their real friends. "I like my culture. I am proud of where I come from. If we went out with a boy, you know what they would say about us? They would say we are loose. We would get a wjio hhiiwium pmiuuiim r.

1, "5 V'" f-y, to i NmPnS 'til I mm t' jf bad reputation even though we have done nothing." Hana Jaber Caught between cultures While most Arab-Americans at Fordson are typical of kids at any American high school, school officials say the cross-cultural identity crisis is felt most acutely not by the newcomers but rather by some children of families who have lived here for more than a generation. "I feel the second- and third-generation is very much frustrated," says Al Harp, an Arab-American who teaches Arabic at Fordson. "They're not sure about their values. They are caught between cultures. It's created a lot of tension.

As a result you see these fights between second- and third-generation (Arab) students and the Anglo students. i "Many of the Arab students were complaining about the name-calling (but) in some cases, I think, the second- and third-generation students were creating problems to get; attention. Very few of the newcomers get involved. The' newcomers are primarily immersed in learning ft THE ADJUSTMENT can be particularly difficult for i girls, says Ralph Hartshorn, a school social worker. Most Arab parents keep a tight rein on their daughters.

Among traditional families, arranged marriages for 1 5- and 1 6-year-old daughters usually to men in their mid-20s are fairly common. Even among some families that have been here for generations, dating is restricted and after-school activities 'A lot of people look at me and they say, 'You are a Mus- Im and go out' and they discouraged. School officials say that in recent years a number of girls from strict families attempted suicide because they were unable to reconcile their families' demands with the more permissive environment they find at school. There also are reports of girls being severely beaten by fathers or brothers for having violated the family's moral code. On the other hand, anthropologist Aswad notes, in traditional Arab families, "Girls don't have all the anxiety of American girls competing with each other for boys.

You don't feel that your life depends on your looks and personality. They feel more secure that their family will help them obtain a spouse." can't understand that. There pressure from cousins to be more conservative. I understand where I am com- A Muslim first "The big question," says Ahmed Algazaly, a 19-year-old senior who was born in Yemen, "is how far you are willing to go to be a good Muslim. It is a challenge to be a good Muslim in this country.

Almost everything is against you, (but) this is a country with freedom, so if you really want to, you can be a good Muslim." Ahmed says he has no serious complaints about Fordson. The school was willing to set aside a private area so that he and other Muslim students could say their noon prayer. And when Ahmed begins his Ramadan fast next month, abstaining from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset for four weeks, he will at least have company. He says there would be fewer problems between Ford-son's Arab and non-Arab students if Muslim students would be more observant. Instead, he says, too many Muslim students "wear gold and play with girls." "I think they have chosen to become Americans instead of Arabs.

I think it's bad. It's a problem of leaving who you are and trying to become something else." Although he has lived in the United States for 14 years and attended American schools all his life, Ahmed says, "I haven't really changed that much to become an American. I think of myself as a Yemeni no, say I think of myself first as a Muslim." Free Press Pholos bv PATRICIA BECK ng from but they don't un derstand me." After school, Nawal Amen, left, Fatima Makki and Fadia Amen meet outside Fordson to talk and laugh. Jeanette Salamey Keeping their respect Hana Jaber, a 17-year-old senior born in the United States, is comfortable with the restrictions her parents place on her: "Some of us don't want to go out. We want to keep here expect students to be creative and do analytic work," says Aswad.

"In the Middle East, children expect to be told what to do. They are not self-directed. They are more comfortable following orders." To help bridge the gap between some Arab-American Fouad agrees: "It's kind of like judging a book by its cover. They don't know what's inside." Says Samira: "They just hear about the trouble we have and they think that's what Fordson is really like. But the faculty is pretty good.

None of them have been against us. I don't feel that they discriminate against us at all." uur respeci. Hana and her three sisters are not allowed to date. "No talking on the phone even. I don't regret that.

It doesn't bother me at all. "I like my culture. I am proud of where I come from. If we went out with a boy, you know what they would say about us? They would say we are loose. We would get a bad reputation even though we have done nothing.

"Some Arab-American girls date, but they do it behind their parents' back," she says. "I probably won't go to the prom. I've been asked by a boy, an Arab boy. But I probably won't go. If they like us, they know we are for marriage." Jeanette Salamey, a 1 6-year old junior born in the United States, is allowed to date by her parents, both of whom were born in Lebanon.

"I have understanding parents," she explains. "It's great." The problem is with her Arab friends: "A lot of people look at me and they say, 'You are a Muslim and go out' and -they can understand that. There is pressure from cousins to be more conservative. They think I should stick to my own -kind. I understand where I am coming from but they don't understand me." students and their teachers (and sometimes between students and their parents), Fordson has hired an Arabic-speaking community liaison officer.

But outside the liaison office, bilingual program and Arabic language program, Fordson's staff has no Arab-American teachers. "I would love to be able to add Arabic teachers," says principal William Letsche. "I think there is a need for more Arab and Muslim teachers to help our students." He says, however, that declining enrollments throughout the Dearborn school system have curtailed staff hiring. Learning to cope Most of the Arab-American students at Fordson have more in common with the non-Arab majority there than they do with the newcomers from the Middle East. "I see myself as 100 percent American," says junior Alex Zwinak, 16, a third-generation Syrian whose parents both went to Fordson.

"(My family)is pretty much Americanized. many people know I am Arabic, especially with a name Bridging the gap For longtime faculty and staff members, the infldjT of Middle East immigrants has required a major adjustment. "There are some people on the faculty now who were there when I was there and they still haven't learned to relate to an ethnically diverse student population," says Alan Amen, a 1965 graduate and former president of Fordson's parent-faculty organization. "They don't want to deal with kids who are foreign-born. Their attitude is, 'Change the A common complaint among teachers is that Arab students actually Arab boys are unruly and disruptive.

"I've gotten complaints at various workshops that the kids don't respect authority," says anthropologist Aswad. "But really, it's a confusion of authority. The teacher is supposed to be a figure of authority the student expects that but here a teacher often tends to be a friend to a student. A Middle Eastern teacher might be friends with a student's parents, but certainly not with the student. Arab students may take advantage of the teachers here because they really don't know where the lines are." Comfortable as Americans Like their classmate Ahmed Algazaly, Samira Mashhour, 17, and Fouad Zaban, 16, both came to the United States at early ages when their families left southern Lebanon in the mid-'70s.

Unlike Ahmed, Samira and Fouad are both comfortable with American life-styles. "I classify myself as an Arab-American," says Fouad. "I feel like I've lived here quite a while, and I feel comfortable." Fouad, a starter on the basketball team, says he is more interested in sports than politics, and has not followed developments in Lebanon closely. He also is skeptical of the religious fervor that has become evident among some of Fordson's Muslim students: "You hear some of them talk and you figure they are real religious, but they're nasty, man. They talk religion, but they are like Jekyll and Hyde." SAMIRA, the sixth of nine children, will be co-valedictorian this year.

She already has won several scholarships, and will attend Wayne State University next fall. She hopes to become a doctor. "People who aren't in ttie school don't understand what it's reallke in here. Wetall get along pretty well." line mine. "It's quite obvious there's friction at Fordson.

You have a lot of Arabic people that come from a harsh atmosphere and they come here to a more subdued environment. It's hard for them to cope, just as it's hard for us to cope with them, Despite the tensions, the occasional fights and the cross- cultural tug of war, the majority of Fordson's Arab- Americans express feelings of deep loyalty to the school and what it represents. t. i "There are a lot of Arahs that An rausp nrnhlpmc at And students from Middle Eastern backgrounds are biu.uu ii vim iTuuuii. Lvnnu uav-ngKgyuua me i i 9 um a scT-uiiu nunie, says nana We feel like accustomed to a different approach to education.

Vfeachers Fordson. Their temper is not exactly the best. They fight. we becor; something if we go to schtwl here.".