‘Where is our voice in the city?': Ahead of Philadelphia’s Elections, Arab Communities Are Still Left Out of the Count
Heather Tenzer
Last month, former City Councilmember Cherelle L. Parker of Mount Airy, won Philadelphia’s mayoral Democratic primaries. Leading up to elections, it was a tight race, and public polls sought to shed light on how voters were leaning. Amongst them, a nonpartisan public poll conducted by Survey USA for the Committee of Seventy broke down which candidate was favored by white, Black, Latinx, and Asian voters. Yet the poll offered no data about which candidate was favored by Arab voters.
This isn’t an issue unique to Philadelphia or one poll alone. The lack of official data on whom Arab communities support in any given election is a widespread problem partially driven by the United States Census. Unlike Black, white, Asian, and Latinx people, Arabs do not have a separate box to check. Instead, they are advised to check the ‘white/Caucasian’ category. And this categorization — or lack thereof — trickles down to nearly all other state and federal forms… and even impacts how pollsters poll.
For decades, Arab communities have fought to add a“Middle East and North Africa” (MENA) category in the U.S. Census. While some might shrug this off as a non-issue, collecting data on Arab communities specifically isn’t just about representation. National coalition Yalla Count MENA In! explains that including this category would provide more accurate data that can improve healthcare outcomes, allow for better community advocacy, and more.
In Northeast Philadelphia, local activist and business owner Mohammad Abuhillo, who runs the Philadelphia Arabs Facebook Page, was not waiting for pollsters to find out about how Arab communities planned to vote. Instead, he visited ten Arab businesses in the city, where he took an informal poll of business owners and their customers.
“The Arab American community was split between three candidates,” Abuhillo tells Al-Bustan, naming Helen Gym, Cherelle Parker and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, who dropped out of the race in early April, as the favorites.
“I talked to all three of those candidates on camera and I told them – one thing on a lot of Arab-Americans minds is that everyone wants to be included and recognized,” Abuhillo says, adding, “If that is the case, then why aren’t the Tunisian, Syrian, Sudanese, Iraqi and Palestinian flags raised on the [Benjamin Franklin] Parkway?” There are 109 international flags flanking the Parkway but several Arab countries are noticeably absent.
“We are looking for a candidate who says: ‘I see you and I hear you.’”
As part of his polling, Abuhillo also asked community members which issues were most important to them. Gun violence in Philadelphia came up as number one. As a result, many found Parker’s tough-on-crime platform, which included plans to hire more police officers, appealing.
A second group –Arab business owners– said that they wanted the mayor to reverse Philadelphia’s controversial soda tax. As Abuhillo tells Al-Bustan, “That tax is hurting our businesses. Everyone is just going outside the city to buy their soda, they told me.”
Lastly, respondents wanted to see themselves represented in the city. “‘Where is our voice in the city?’, they asked,” reports Abuhillo. “We are looking for a candidate who says: ‘I see you and I hear you.’” This explains why some community members were driven to Helen Gym because, as Abuhillo explains, “she comes from immigrant roots and it’s just the belief that no one understands an immigrant like an immigrant.”
While the data collected by Abuhillo is truly illuminating, Arab communities would still benefit from being included on official polls. Nationwide, some communities are already creating change at the state level. Illinois, which has a substantial Arab population, is set to become the first state to count Arabs and minority groups from the Middle East in a separate category when collecting public data.
Here in Pennsylvania, Arab communities are taking their cue from Illinois’ success. “A group of us have been working to elevate the Arab American voice in the city of Philadelphia,” says Abuhillo. He notes that Philadelphia’s Arab communities are significantly smaller than Chicago’s. Nonetheless, he says that people here wants to replicate Illinois’ victory. “Over the past two years, we have established relationships with elected officials to elevate our voice and hear our concerns.”
Heather Tenzer is a Philadelphia based writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is the director of the forthcoming documentary The Rabbis’ Intifada, about a community of Orthodox Jews speaking out in support of Palestinian liberation. Tenzer has been supported by grants and fellowships from Yaddo Artist Residency, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Queens Council on the Arts.