Dear Friend,

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday, but I had to reach out today because we are just 30 days out from one of the most important deadlines for Arab Americans for generations to come. What am I talking about? We have until April 12, 2023, to submit a comment in support of the addition of a Middle East or North Africa (MENA) ethnic category on the census and other federal forms.

Let me explain.

Last year, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced it was reviewing the standards for collecting federal data on race and ethnicity. You will recall that we were excited in the lead up to the 2020 Census because all our years of work had gotten us to the point of the Census Bureau testing and supporting the addition of a MENA category because it was found to improve data collection. Unfortunately, that did not happen when the census was politicized like never before and OMB did not revise the race and ethnicity standards as expected. So once again, we were left without representation and an undercount of our community on the 2020 Census.

Today, we are closer than ever.

In January, OMB published a Federal Register Notice seeking public comments on their working group’s initial proposal for updating the standards. For the first time ever, a government’s working group is formally recommending the addition of a MENA category! We need you to weigh in now in support and we’ve made it super easy with a draft comment for you.

This is so important because after decades of work to secure a MENA ethnic category so that we can improve data collection on Arab Americans, we are finally here, and the addition of the category will improve the lives of our community for generations to come as there is nothing on the federal, state, and local level that is not impacted by census data. Without a distinct category, we have been rendered invisible in the data and have faced significant barriers to our full representation, services for our community, and research about our health, education, or economic needs to name a few.

And to be clear, as an Arab American, I am proud of the rich culture, history, and diversity in our community. I also understand that the best method to secure an accurate count of our community is to create a distinct minimum reporting MENA ethnic category based on geography where I can mark a MENA checkbox and identify my ethnicity or national origin, and any race I may identify with. We are not seeking to create a “MENA race,” or to be identified as “MENA Americans.” We simply need to be counted in the data as Arab Americans so that our rights are fully protected, and our representation fully secure. It is why we have also always advocated for the MENA category to be ethnic category, as people from MENA can be of any race.

The importance of accurate data about Arab Americans is why, since the founding of AAI in 1985, we have been working on census data. AAI launched the first get-out-the-count campaign in 1990. Our founding director and former Executive Director Helen Samhan first testified before Congress to advocate for a category in 1993. Our co-founder and President Jim Zogby wrote “Arab Americans: Their Self Definition and Political Agenda in a Time of Change” in 1994. A full campaign was launched in the summer of 1994 in the lead up to the last time OMB revised the standards in 1997. We created the MENA Advocacy Network in 2011 after the long form census, with its question on ancestry (a key source of data for us), was removed from the census in 2010. We presented to a different OMB working group in 2014 and organized around the last Federal Register Notice that same year. And after the Census Bureau’s 2015 testing found that a MENA category would improve the count, we thought we were there. As I said, politics took us down a different path, but we were still ready with a major get-out-the-count campaign, Yalla, Count Me In, that was supported by so many of you.

So today, we have updated the campaign to Yalla, Count MENA in! and with your help, we can finally make the MENA ethnic category a reality and secure the data we need about Arab Americans. Please submit your comment today with the draft we provided for you, download the social media sharables and post them from your accounts, and forward this email to everyone you can—it’s that important for our community.

Thank you for always being ready to help—we could not have gotten this far without you.

Let’s do this,

Maya

Maya Berry,

Executive Director

The Arab American Institute is a national civil rights advocacy organization that provides strategic analysis to policy makers and community members to strengthen democracy, protect civil rights and liberties, and defend human rights. AAI organizes the 3.7 million Arab Americans across the country to ensure an informed, organized, and effective constituency is represented in all aspects of civic life.

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