CM Hanif, Demands M/WBE program include Middle Eastern & North African businesses
Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Americans are considered white in terms of racial classification under the U.S. Census, an identity that many haven’t necessarily agreed with for decades. Because of New York’s huge population of MENA immigrants and descendants, more advocates and business owners are pushing to be included in parity programs usually aimed at bolstering Black and Hispanic communities.
The 2020 Census was the first census to specifically solicit MENA responses. Its count concluded that California, Michigan and New York now have the largest MENA populations. Similarly, the Census has struggled with accurate Hispanic and Latino racial and ethnic distinctions in the past, but reported a huge increase in population numbers in the last count.
The MENA region covers an expansive area from Africa to the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan in Central Asia to the Mediterranean. It includes many Arabic and Islamic countries like Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the West Bank and Gaza.
MENA immigrants started coming to the states in the late 1800s and the U.S. imposed racial restrictions on who could become citizens up until 1952. Because of rampant and entrenched “anti-Blackness,” the earliest generations of MENA immigrants viewed an assimilation into American “whiteness” as the path towards full citizenship, reported NPR. This viewpoint largely shifted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City spurred a wave of Islamophobia against Arabs and Muslims, said NPR.
In 2022, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued an order to revise the Race and Ethnicity Standards or Directive No. 15, which would update how the federal government collects or uses race and ethnicity data — the first time this has happened since 1997. The U.S. Census Bureau vowed to stick to the directive and improve federal race and ethnicity statistics, ensuring that data more accurately reflect the country.
New York State passed legislation last year to disaggregate MENA citizens on government forms and create a new MENA racial category. The bill was sponsored by Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, and is currently waiting to be signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul.
“MENA communities deserve to be counted and their needs understood by the government,” González-Rojas said. “By now, we’ve celebrated the passage of my bill at the state level to disaggregate the data of these New Yorkers so state institutions can better serve them. But it has yet to be signed into law. There is no reason for these delays. The longer we wait, the longer we delay important resources and support to communities that need it most.”
At the city level, more people have begun to study the MENA population. In 2018, the Muslims for American Progress (MAP) subsidiary of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding released a report examining the contributions of Muslim Americans to the city. The report found that Muslims owned about 100,000 small businesses including restaurants, fashion stores, and bodegas.
Dr. Debbie Almontaser, an educator and Yemeni activist, said that the report really galvanized local MENA business owners to push for more of them to be considered for Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) city contracting and programming along with businesses owned by Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous Americans. “It’s been over 20 years that many Arab Americans and myself have been having conversations about [the MENA movement],” said Almontaser. “When you look at them, you say they’re a minority, they should get this but the classification of somebody from Sudan or Somalia or Morocco or Tunisia or Libya or Egypt–they’re considered white.”
Councilmember Shahana Hanif recently introduced Intro 1076, a bill that would expand the M/WBE program eligibility for MENA business owners and require the city to create a M/WBE disparity study to research whether MENA owned businesses are underrepresented in city government contracts.
“It wouldn’t be them competing against the Latin or Black community. They would have their own bracketing of funding, depending on how many businesses there are,” said Hanif at the conference.
“Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) communities have long been excluded from the support systems designed to uplift minority and women-owned businesses in New York City,” said Councilmember Yusef Salaam in a statement. “This bill is a necessary step toward rectifying this oversight and ensuring that members of the MENA community have the appropriate access to our city’s services. I stand proudly with Council Member Hanif and my colleagues in supporting this critical legislation to help MENA business owners thrive and contribute even more to our great city.”
MENA advocates were ecstatic that the city and state seem to be catching up to the MENA movement in terms of legislation.
“As we advocate for the inclusion of MENA communities in New York City’s data, we recognize that true equity starts with visibility,” said Rana Abdelhamid, executive director of nonprofit Malikah. “Our communities deserve to be counted, understood, and empowered. By supporting Councilmember Hanif’s bill to incorporate the MENA category in the MWBE business disparity study, we are not just seeking acknowledgment; we are opening doors to economic opportunities that have long been closed.”
Husein Yatabarry, executive director of Muslim Community Network (MCN), said that the bill is not just about recognizing identity, it’s about equity. “For too long MENA-owned businesses have been left out of crucial M/WBE programs and missing out on chances to grow and thrive due to outdated classifications,” he said. “As a Black West African muslim, I am able to access M/BWE resources but my counterparts in the MENA community cannot. And for me it’s an equity issue that has to be rectified.”
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