Part One - What is going on with us?
I’ve had a few conversations recently and read a few comments left on the repat blog’s that I keep talking myself out of commenting on. I keep picturing the proverbial can of worms exploding if I attempted to start. But, whatever the draw, looks like I’m diving in…
It all started a few weeks ago when I was privy to a discussion between a racially mixed group of people, most of whom who were American born or have spent most of their lives in the US. A question was posed asking us to state our nationality and ethnicity - I thought, easy, American Armenian and was quick to announce my stamp which only lead to shock over the quick answers of the others as I heard "Latina, Mexican" "Japanese, Japan" "Latino, Spain" "Black, Jamaica" and on and on. Wait, I thought, these people are American, do they not know the definition of nationality? They did. Yet even given the fact that we agreed it wasn’t smart to disenfranchise themselves with being American, their answers still stood.
Turned out that America didn't make as much of an American out of them as it apparently has out of me. I do think that everyone who strongly associates with their race pays a price to do so, however after some thought I mostly felt (ignoring socio economic conditions) that it was easier to be most ethnicities in the US, than it was to be Armenian. Further I think that Armenians in America are cultivated to appreciate both aspects of our identity. In part of the Los Angeles Public School System I don't even think you need to say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore, whereas in my Armenian private school experience there was hardly a day that went by where we got away with not partaking in our morning rituals that often included the Hayer Mer, Star Spangled Banner, Mer Hayrenik, and the Pledge. And so, consequentially, I was also happy to identify myself as an American Armenian.
Blacks', Asians' and Latinos' have a choice to not want to be American. Not only because of their sheer numbers but their representation gives them so many avenue’s to find comfort in their community. However, as Armenians in the Diaspora we don't have the same luxury yet seem to be finding every way possible to alienate ourselves from one another and not looking forward into what affect it will have on the future.
There is a line of questioning among Armenians which is so annoying to me I refuse to partake in it. It’s the tedious conversation that invariably begins with a question along the line of “What kind of Armenian are you?”, “What kind of Armenia you would date?”, or “What kind of Armenian do you speak/do you speak Armenian?”. Ugh. Truthfully I think that it has gotten so out of hand it's disheartening to think that not only are we still not able to put these differences to bed but that the associated racialization of the Eastern and Western Armenian dialects with the categorization of Beirutahye’s, Hayastanci’s, Barsgahye’s, and the growing recognition of Amerigahye’s, grouping everyone else within these breakdowns, are not serving any purpose but to draw assumptions on our levels of Armenianness and know who we are going to accept and who we are going to ignore. It’s only aggravated further if you aren’t 100% Armenian. Recently I have opened my eyes to the divide between Tashnag’s and non-Tashnags, church associations in some communities, and the apparent divide between Armenia and the Diaspora. Everyone talks about their interests in travel because of the immersion in the culture that is different than our own. How come we can't indulge in these cultural differences when it comes to the variety that our backgrounds bring to the table. This is all well and good and something that maybe we just have to deal with until we develop lots of American born Armenians who have the same Armenian accent, cook with the same spices, and were born at Glendale Adventist Hospital but I wonder if we will be able to truly identify with being Armenian and care as strongly as we do now. Will we?
This is where the plot slightly thickens but I will have to get back to you with more insight. It's a perfect summer day (in November) in Los Angeles today so there is no use in trying to solve this in one sitting:)
It all started a few weeks ago when I was privy to a discussion between a racially mixed group of people, most of whom who were American born or have spent most of their lives in the US. A question was posed asking us to state our nationality and ethnicity - I thought, easy, American Armenian and was quick to announce my stamp which only lead to shock over the quick answers of the others as I heard "Latina, Mexican" "Japanese, Japan" "Latino, Spain" "Black, Jamaica" and on and on. Wait, I thought, these people are American, do they not know the definition of nationality? They did. Yet even given the fact that we agreed it wasn’t smart to disenfranchise themselves with being American, their answers still stood.
Turned out that America didn't make as much of an American out of them as it apparently has out of me. I do think that everyone who strongly associates with their race pays a price to do so, however after some thought I mostly felt (ignoring socio economic conditions) that it was easier to be most ethnicities in the US, than it was to be Armenian. Further I think that Armenians in America are cultivated to appreciate both aspects of our identity. In part of the Los Angeles Public School System I don't even think you need to say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore, whereas in my Armenian private school experience there was hardly a day that went by where we got away with not partaking in our morning rituals that often included the Hayer Mer, Star Spangled Banner, Mer Hayrenik, and the Pledge. And so, consequentially, I was also happy to identify myself as an American Armenian.
Blacks', Asians' and Latinos' have a choice to not want to be American. Not only because of their sheer numbers but their representation gives them so many avenue’s to find comfort in their community. However, as Armenians in the Diaspora we don't have the same luxury yet seem to be finding every way possible to alienate ourselves from one another and not looking forward into what affect it will have on the future.
There is a line of questioning among Armenians which is so annoying to me I refuse to partake in it. It’s the tedious conversation that invariably begins with a question along the line of “What kind of Armenian are you?”, “What kind of Armenia you would date?”, or “What kind of Armenian do you speak/do you speak Armenian?”. Ugh. Truthfully I think that it has gotten so out of hand it's disheartening to think that not only are we still not able to put these differences to bed but that the associated racialization of the Eastern and Western Armenian dialects with the categorization of Beirutahye’s, Hayastanci’s, Barsgahye’s, and the growing recognition of Amerigahye’s, grouping everyone else within these breakdowns, are not serving any purpose but to draw assumptions on our levels of Armenianness and know who we are going to accept and who we are going to ignore. It’s only aggravated further if you aren’t 100% Armenian. Recently I have opened my eyes to the divide between Tashnag’s and non-Tashnags, church associations in some communities, and the apparent divide between Armenia and the Diaspora. Everyone talks about their interests in travel because of the immersion in the culture that is different than our own. How come we can't indulge in these cultural differences when it comes to the variety that our backgrounds bring to the table. This is all well and good and something that maybe we just have to deal with until we develop lots of American born Armenians who have the same Armenian accent, cook with the same spices, and were born at Glendale Adventist Hospital but I wonder if we will be able to truly identify with being Armenian and care as strongly as we do now. Will we?
This is where the plot slightly thickens but I will have to get back to you with more insight. It's a perfect summer day (in November) in Los Angeles today so there is no use in trying to solve this in one sitting:)
posted by Lisa M. at 5:49 AM
4 Comments:
Lisa... you bring up excellent points! As a fellow Armenian-American who was born in a little hospital (which doesn't exist anymore) on Chevy Chase, I agree with the "mysterious" division between Armenians. Sure, stereotypes exist for all different groups - and I guess it's my "glass is half full" attitude that makes me LOVE all our differences. (We can have tabbouleh annndddd ghorme sabze--not to mention kebab, kabab and khorovadz!) :)
On top of it... why this great divide between Armenians? Think of it like this -- sooooo many of our ancestors have died in order for us to still be here. Sooooo many have fought for our culture, land, religion... and instead of embracing the differences (for example) a barsgahye and a beirutahye have... learning from one another and becoming more worldly... we isolate one another? Poor fedayees and martyrs are rollin' in their graves!
Get with it people... and if you still don't get it... well - (I'll keep my last suggestion to myself)
I don't think the divide between all these segments of Armenians is as deep as you present. At the end of the day, A Dasnak and HHSh-akan (the most extreme of the divides in my opinion) will work together in the face of external danger (if they can agree that it is indeed a danger :).
You are fighting human nature ;-)
If there are 5 Armenians at a school, 10 Latinos, 10 Asians, 6 Indians, then you will see them all sit together at their own tables at lunchtime.
If there are 50 Armenians, 100 Asians, 100 Hispanics, 100 Indians, you'll see the Iranian Armenians at one table, Hayastantsis at another, Mexicans at another, Guatemalans at another, Sikhs at another, speaker of other Indian dialects at other tables...
It's normal, it's natural... it fades only with time. People do slowly mix. We see that with the melting pot in the US which on some fronts has slowed down due to the acceptance of multi-culturalism, but has also sped up in unprecedented ways now that intermarriage is almost completely accepted (at least in California where I grew up). Jews in America don't know what to do now that over 50% of them are marrying gentiles.
We can discuss it, we can try to understand each other better, but it would take a great deal of effort to make a small dent in the process. Part of my "Hye Plan" addresses this.
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Hye_Plan
Shoosh...agreed! But why mince words. They didn't just die...they were killed and that is a main reason why we are here discussing this now.
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Funny Nazarian.
I recognize that the experience I'm presenting differs depending on where you are geographically and the circles you run in. I have lived most of my life in Los Angeles, with some time in Chicago and New York, but the Tashnag divide really hasn't presented itself to me within these communities. I put it in my blog because I have noticed that it's important to some commenter's on this site. However, I did slightly hesitant to mention it because in its purest form different political parties are supposed to represent the voice of the people and that is a necessity for any society.
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Raffi - I do mostly agree with what you're saying. Trying to challenge social construction and psychology is futile...things just take their natural course. And it's ok. But it's the labeling and associated alienation within our community that I'm more concerned with. It's one thing if a community has enough Armenians to comfortably split up between Hayastanci, Barsgahye, or whatever, but, the short of the long of it is that they make fun of one another and don't really like one another, at least on the surface level. And, I don't think it's just the ignorance of youth thing either: I hate this type, I won't talk to that, this is a crook, that is a rabiz, look at how they speak, look how they don't, I will marry this kind of Armenian, I'd never be with that kind. Figuring that in the future we will all meld together is reliable, but I wonder what that is going to look like? How is the growing animosity and labeling within the divides going to translate to the upcoming generations? I'm not as convinced that we will integrate seamlessly and not loose the essence of our culture if we don't take some control of this now and open our eyes a bit to what we're doing.
I read through Hye Plan on Armeniapeida.org and could write an entire blog about that too, but for now suffice it to say that there are lots of great ideas there particlarly in Tourism Development that have real potential.
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