A cultural, not a political lobby the mixed legacy of a grand plan.

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Association of Arab-American University Graduates - Organization overview - Essay

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A cultural, not a political lobby the mixed legacy of a grand plan.

ONE OF THE MAJOR DIFFICULTIES of reflecting upon and assessing a collective experience is to find the appropriate voice. To whom, or for whom, does one write? The membership which shaped and built an organization, or the external community which stood as the observers and evaluators of such an effort? In the case of AAUG, the task looms larger than in any effort preceding it simply because the membership, the founders, and the organizers of this group aimed at no less than the political and cultural mobilization of the external community. To complicate matters further, the external community itself lacked homogeneity or a common historical experience since it consisted of Arab-Americans, with all their varied countries of origin and levels of assimilation, as well as, the Arab World at large, with all of its multiple degrees of politicization, ideological commitment, and international awareness. But even if all of these variables were disentangled, it would still be difficult to adopt the appropriate voice since the ultimate choice lies between emphasizing what this distinguished organization set out to accomplish, and the reality of what it failed to achieve. In other words, any reflection on the history, development, and past stature of AAUG must contend with the fact that in the year 2006, the organization has already been dormant for a number of years. The most appropriate voice for this task, then, is to measure the achievement by the grandeur of the design as any outside critic would do, and in the process, recognize that history compels us to be absolutely candid. In the end, what should engage us here is the writing of one aspect of the organized life of the Arab-American community in the second half of the twentieth century. What this critic hopes to bring to this discussion is an analysis of the organization's standing in the communal life and history of the Arab-American immigrants. Within this ...

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