The Most Invisible of the Invisibles: Skin Color and Arab American Political Ideology
This paper explores the role of skin color in shaping Arab Americans' political attitudes. Previous literature has confirmed the relationship between skin color and social and economic outcomes, though research on politics is more mixed. In this thesis, I argue that because of Arab Americans' racial ambiguity, skin color holds more political significance for the group relative to groups with more salient racial identities. In particular, I hypothesize that darker skinned Arab Americans will be more likely to perceive discrimination, identify with other Arab Americans, and thus favor more liberal, anti discrimination policies relative to their lighter skinned counterparts. Using data from the 2003 Detroit Arab American Survey, I found that skin color had no significant effects on Arab American political ideology. Instead, the data shows that darker skinned Arabs tend to be less politically engaged, less connected with other Arab Americans, and more distrustful of other racial/ethnic groups compared to Arab Americans with lighter skin. These findings are fascinating as they illuminate a deeper issue of intragroup isolation and political disengagement among members of an otherwise "invisible" racial/ethnic identity. NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY: In this paper, I will use the term "Arab American" to describe immigrants and relatives of immigrants from Western Asia and North Africa. This "Arab League" consists of 22 nations, which include but are not limited to Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar, Yemen, Kuwait, Libya, and Algeria. The term "Middle Eastern" includes the Arab League, as well as individuals from Israel, Iran, and Turkey, among other states. I have selected to use the term "Arab American" as it is most frequently used both in the literature and elsewhere to refer to members of both groups. THE MOST INVISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLES 6 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION "It's tough to name a group when most people aren't aware the group exists that's why I coined this phrase for our community: The Most Invisible of the Invisibles" (Kadi, 1994) Arab Americans are a group seldom studied in the social sciences, though they are one of the United States' most complex and fast growing racial/ethnic groups. The United States Census reports that the Arab American population has increased by 76% since 1990 and 25% since 2000, and the the Arab American Institute estimates the Arab American population at 3.5 million (Wang, 2013; AAI, 2018) Ultimately, Arab Americans have developed an ever growing presence in the United States, yet continue to be ignored in discussions of race and politics, existing as "neither fully white nor recognized as people of color" (Zopf, 2001) This feeling of Arab American invisibility is further exacerbated by the United States' legal racial categories. While legally classified as "white," many Arab Americans do not identify as white, nor "look" white to most Americans (Ajrouch Jamal, 2007; Shouhayib, 2016) This fact is supported by the 2010 Alternative Questionnaire Experiment, which found that a "number of MENA participants did not see themselves in the current race and ethnicity response categories" (OMB) Undoubtedly, a disconnect arises between one's legal race and a race which is selfidentified or perceived by other individuals. To address such a disconnect, the Office of Management and Budget proposed the addition of a MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) category in 2015, which would give Arab Americans their own racial/ethnic designation (OMB) According to the OMB, this new category could help monitor discrimination, distribute social services, and enforce laws like the Voting Rights Act and Fair Housing Act (OMB) This data could also help scholars better understand trends in MENA employment, health, education, as well as general population characteristics. Scholars have found difficulty in tracking Arab Americans, as data on the group is lumped into the broader "white" racial category. Not only does this erase the unique experiences of Arab Americans, but it also skews data for those who actually are and/or identify as white. Thus, while the MENA proposition has not yet passed, it does raise an important concern over the accuracy of the U.S. racial labelling system. Without accurate racial/ethnic labels, our understanding of racial/ethnic politics remains THE MOST INVISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLES 7 hazy and incomplete. Thus, the goal of this project is to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of racial/ethnic politics via the study of Arab Americans, a typically "invisible," under studied racial/ethnic group. It is also worth exploring how skin color a vehicle of perceived race impacts Arab Americans' political identities. In this project, I ask how skin color interacts with Arab Americans' political attitudes, in order to better understand the group as a unique racial/ethnic category. Skin color has been shown to have profound effects on the social and economic outcomes of racial/ethnic minorities (Keith Herring, 1991; King Johnson. 1998; Krieger et al. 1998; Allen et al. 2000; Hill, 2000; Proctor Snyder, 2000; Dixon Maddox, 2005; Gullickson 2005; Hersch 2006; Monk 2014; Burch, 2015; Monk, 2018) For example, Monk (2016) found that skin color was a strong predictor of Brazilians' "educational attainment and occupational status," more so than participants' actual racial identity. Among these studies, we find implicit biases attached to skin color, which in turn produce less favorable outcomes for certain minority groups. In this project, I ask whether skin color matters not only for socioeconomic status, but also for political outcomes. In other words, is race alone an adequate measure of political ideology? Or does skin color serve to reveal important (but otherwise unknown) cleavages among racial/ethnic groups? The answer to this question is highly contested. Some scholars have found significant effects of skin color on policy preferences and political attitudes (Piston Strother, 2015; Hutchings et al, 2015) However, Hochschild and Weaver (2007) argue the opposite. Despite skin color mattering for socioeconomic status, skin color has little to no effect on the political attitudes of African Americans. Hochschild and Weaver (2007) name this anomaly the Skin Color Paradox, attributed to Black Americans' strong, clearly defined racial identity. They argue that the external hierarchy of race holds more political significance than does skin color, meaning that Black Americans engage with politics as collectively Black, not as light skinned and darkskinned. However, while this may be the case for Black Americans, I argue that skin color likely holds more political significance for Arab Americans, a less salient racial/ethnic identity. As opposed THE MOST INVISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLES 8 to other racial/ethnic groups like Black Americans, where racial identity is strong and clearly defined, Arab American identity is neither. As Naber (2000) notes, some Arab Americans have "blonde hair and blue eyes, others have crimpy hair and very dark skin." Because racial identity is not as clearly defined, I expect the internal hierarchy of skin color to matter more than (or just as much as) the broader hierarchy of race. Furthermore, we see skin color factoring into experiences of discrimination. Since Arab Americans have no clearly defined race, race/ethnic based discrimination is decided on the basis of skin tone. Naber (2000) asserts that "when no allusion to an Arab or Muslim identity is made, those who 'can pass' as whites return to their neutral, yet privileged position as 'white Americans." Arab Americans with light skin are perceived as more "American," whereas darker skinned Arabs are seen as more foreign, and in most cases, anti American. We see this trend historically, beginning with Orientalism, continuing through racial prerequisite cases and lastly, manifesting in American media and other cultural projects. When individuals experience racial/ethnic discrimination, they are more likely to perceive discrimination and thus favor pro minority, anti discriminatory policies. This explains why the majority of non white groups lean liberal, while white individuals lean more conservative. Based on this mechanism, I arrive at a central hypothesis: lighter skinned Arabs who more adequately fit the "white" racial schema will be more conservative, whereas those who are dark skinned will face more discrimination, have stronger feelings of linked fate, and thus favor more liberal political attitudes. To test this hypothesis, I will run statistical analyses using data from the Detroit Arab American Survey (2003) which samples 1,016 Arab Americans living in Detroit, Michigan from June to December 2003. In Chapter 3, I will outline the existing literature on skin color and its relationship to social, economic, and political outcomes. In Chapter 4, I will develop my theory on Arab Americans' ambiguous racial identity. In Chapter 5, I will lay out my research design, then present my results and statistical analysis in Chapters 6 and 8, while introducing a new theory in Chapter 7. Finally, I will conclude with the implications of the study in Chapter 9 of the thesis. THE MOST INVISIBLE OF THE INVISIBLES 9 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 COLORISM Colorism is a central framework for understanding skin color skin and its social, economic, and political implications. In U.S. culture, lighter skin is preferred to darker skin "aesthetically, normatively, and culturally" (Hochschild Weaver, 2007) This preference is known as colorism, or discrimination that is "directed against African Americans with darker skin and, conversely, the benefits..granted to.[those with] lighter skin" (Blair et al. 2002) While colorism is predominantly associated with African Americans, it serves as a crucial analytical framework for other racial/ethnic groups