An-Najah Staff

Now that American critical studies of ethnic literature are less concerned with the idea of the melting pot in favor of displaying a mosaic of multiculturalism and of highlighting ethnic resistance to assimilation and cultural integration, the Arab's presence in this scenario_ of mosaic multiculturalism remains marginal. Unfortunately the political bias of some publishers, editors, university professors and the mass media in the United States made Arabs' presence an anomaly in the mosaic of ethnic groups. There are more than two million Arab Americans living in the United States and there is a good number of established writers in all literary genres known to us. The reception of these writers in the American scene and literary circles varied according to the chronological development of the political conflict in the Middle East. The Israeli-Arab conflict in particular played a major role in alienating Arabs from the American public and in making them less welcome, as average people and as writers, than other ethnic groups; "the last ethnic group in America safe to hate", one columnist calls Arabs. They are "safe" to hate, the columnist most likely believes, because they are invaded both politically and culturally and they form no threat of retaliation when harmed—an easy target and an under-dog.