An NFLPA executive has a few pertinent words about refugees
Last week, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers spoke up when a fan made anti-Muslim comments during a moment of silence in remembrance of the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks before an NFL game.
“I think it’s important to do things like [the moment of silence]. We’re a connected world, you know — six degrees of separation,” Rodgers said. “I must admit, though, I was very disappointed with whoever the fan was who made a comment that I thought was really inappropriate, during the moment of silence. It’s that kind of prejudicial ideology that, I think, puts us in the position that we’re in today, as a world.”
A little later in the week, George Atallah, the assistant executive director of external affairs for the NFL Players Association, sat down with Dave Zirin to discuss the matter — and being a Lebanese-American — on Zirin’s new Edge of Sports podcast on the Panoply Network. The two discuss the debate over admitting Syrian refugees, the power of sports to unite people and Atallah’s family’s experiences when they arrived from Lebanon.
[Rodgers was very disappointed in fan who yelled about Muslims during moment of silence]
Here’s an abridged version of the interview.
GA: “This is not a one-dimensional problem, and I think Aaron brought to light that this is not going to be resolved just by building an intellectual or material wall. Sports has a tremendous way of bringing people together and unifying people. We mentioned before we started recording about the symbolic nature of the French national soccer team, and how many African immigrants are on that team. How many North African immigrants are on that team. How many people have assimilated to play such a big part in their World Cup victories, beyond just the homegrown [Michel] Platini’s. And sports has that effect on cultures, on nations, on this country as well. I mean, my dad, the way that he helped assimilate with other Americans in this country was watching the Steelers of the late ’70s.”
Atallah goes on to say that his parents arrived from Lebanon shortly after his birth.
“I mean, I think that they were, by definition, refugees from the Civil War there. This country took us in, we made a life, here I am sitting in front of you today. And that wouldn’t happen if the doors of this country were closed to people…not just doors, but mind-sets. So, my wife is American. Her family has their own immigration story, and when I married into the family, I learned a lot about their history. From my father-in-law’s family, traveling from Sweden, and how they had to make their way here. And why they are now living outside of Buffalo, New York. And so there’s this really powerful enmeshment that happens in America, that I think has to be preserved. And I think sports can play a really powerful role in that.”
DZ: “And I can’t help now but ask you about what could be tearing apart that enmeshment, and that’s just the laundry list of governors who are coming forward to say – even though I understand they don’t have a legal or constitutional basis to even say this – but saying that they will not take in Syrian refugees; people who are fleeing the very violence that we’ve seen both in Beirut and in Paris over the last week. First, I want to know what’s your reaction to the governors saying that we’re not going to take in your tired, your poor, your huddled masses? And also, if the NFLPA is in a position to release a statement about it or make any sort of statement to say that this is wrong?”
GA: “Look, The only way I can answer that question is through my own personal experience, Dave. What do I want to tell my three daughters when they grow up about the heritage and legacy of their family? You know, I have three young daughters. My daughter is 5, for the first time she’s starting to get a consciousness about world events, on a very basic level, right? So after the bombing in Beirut on Thursday, she saw that I was frazzled, I picked up the phone and called [nicknames] – my parents, her grandparents – and she wanted to know, what happened? Were they okay? Who was the bad guy? And for all of these governors who are saying that the only answer – and by the way, presidential candidates – who are saying that the answer is to shut our doors…my daughters are not in the United States if we have that sort of isolationist policy in the late ’70s. They don’t get the experiences to live in a free, safe, secure country that gives, by the way, women, an opportunity to grow up and do whatever they want — unlike some of the places they might’ve grown up in elsewhere. So, that’s the only way I can answer, is from: ‘what do I want my daughters to know about their own family history?’ ”
DZ: “As a Lebanese-American I would ask you, and as a man with the name George Atallah, are there concerns, fears, that the kind of anger these kinds of situations whip up? We’ve already started to hear reports of attacks on Sikh people because they think they’re Muslim. Oftentimes, the bigots do not care to distinguish what one’s religious ideals are.”
GA: “They don’t. They look at what you look like, what your last name sounds like, and they make certain assumptions. At times like this, it takes some leadership from people. And it takes leadership from people who are in positions who can fight ignorance, who can educate. And I know that there is a growing voice here in the United States of Arab-Americans who are trying to help people understand that we are as much as Americans as what our heritage is, or where we’re from, or what our religion is, or what our value system is. It’s unfortunate that you have to make those types of claims but it’s even in the language we use. I mean, I’ve even stopped referring to these people as “Islamic State,” because they’re not a state, they’re are a group of horrible people, period. And to even use some sort of official term with “state” in it, I think, gives them way more credibility than they deserve. You know, at the same time, I went through the same reactions after 9/11. You know, I lived in New York City, I was a few blocks away, and I remember my first reaction was, “uh oh, there’s going to be a backlash.” So again, these are not one-dimensional problems, and now that I have the tremendous opportunity to work in sports, in the back of my mind I always try to think of how our union, within finite parameters of what we do, how do we help bring down barriers of race? Of ethnicity? Of culture? How do we educate, on all sorts of issues, not just this one? So it’s a really, kind of, unique responsibility for us that we have to also show some leadership on.”
DZ: “You’re a Christian man of Lebanese descent, we’ve known each other a long time, I often thought that you happened to be Muslim – not just because you’re from Lebanon- but that you’ve always been an absolutely principled opponent of Islamophobia. And you’ve always been somebody who’s spoken out against racism and bigotry when it’s directed at people for being Muslim. And I was just wondering, is that something that you came to when you came to the United States? This idea of, like, I need to stand with my Muslim sisters and brothers partly because I receive some of the run-off of that prejudice just because of where I’m from?”
GA: “Yeah, I think there’s some run-off from that, but I also think our experiences are similar. So when you look at — I mean — when two presidential candidates said that ‘how could Syrian immigrants – how could Syrian refugees assimilate to cold places in the United States?’ Did you see that?”
DZ: “Yeah.”
GA: “I’m like, did they forget that there’s almost 400,000 Arab Americans living in Dearborn? Not exactly beachside property.”
Source: www.washingtonpost.com