Mona Hisham Shadi: When you erase us

As an Arab-Muslim and employee of River Valley Co-op, I had the instance of recently receiving a disciplinary action for wearing pins that read,“Free Palestine” and “Remember Gaza.” This reprimand was part of a larger roll-out banning any staff solidarity with Palestine, because such references have been categorized as offensive, profane, or racist.

Despite reiterating that this is a “both-sides” issue, management has taken no action to hear from the local Arab and Muslim communities, including those in their employ. For the co-op, Arabs and Arab culture are accessories. And this has to stop. The agonies of Palestinians are inextricable from our art, language and worldviews. Instead, co-op management has deemed our calls to stop the most recent genocide against us “divisive.”

If this be the co-op’s stance, then they should be firm. When you erase us, do it completely. Don’t play our music to make yourself look worldly. Don’t continue the (frankly horrendous) attempts at cooking our food, when you don’t want us at the table. Don’t write our greeting in Arabic in your foyer, when you won’t convey care in your mother tongue.

And when you say “All are Welcome,” give us the dignity of an asterisk so that we may go down the page and find the truth of your actions when we read, “*except you.” If asking for our humanity to be acknowledged was too divisive, then surely you can build a just community with our erasure.

Mona Hisham Shadi

Easthampton