Ann Arbor-based Activist Named Arab American of the Year
SOURCE: MLIVE.COM
BY: DANA AFANA
ANN ARBOR, MI — Four decades of volunteering, from working in refugee camps in Beirut to fighting for social justice in Detroit, have earned Anan Ameri high honors from a leading Michigan social services organization.
She’ll be named “Arab American of the Year” on Friday by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS).
The 75-year-old Ann Arbor-based activist of Palestinian descent moved from Lebanon to Detroit in 1974 and began volunteering with ACCESS a year later. The Dearborn-based organization plans to present Ameri with the award Friday, March 6 during it’s annual fundraising banquet, with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. and Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans scheduled to attend.
“When I came here, I didn’t have friends,” Ameri said. “I didn’t know anyone. I was looking for someplace to resume my activism… (with) people who share your values. Abdeen Jabara, who was on ACCESS’ board and one of the founders of the board, introduced me to ACCESS.”
Ameri later moved to Washington, D.C., then Boston before returning to Michigan to work for ACCESS in 1997. Between moves, she started the Palestine Aid Society of America, an advocacy and fundraising organization to support Palestinians, mainly “women in the occupied territories and Lebanon,” she said, with seminars, conferences, rallies and demonstrations.
“When I came to this country… I was shocked. Literally shocked by the image of Arab Americans, especially Palestinians in this country,” she said. “… That’s what really pushed me in this country to do the kind of work I do.
“I came here already politicized, so where I felt comfortable is working with my own community, which had its own issue… of being treated equally or not being demonized in newspapers and television, and cartoons and films. You can live in this country as an immigrant, and you’re talking about communities that have been here for generations, and you’re still treated badly.”
She later was involved in establishing Dearborn’s Arab American National Museum, which opened in 2005, and is a project of ACCESS to highlight Arab American history and culture. Ameri serves as the founding director and worked with ACCESS’ arts and culture program to develop ways to make the museum a popular destination.
Ameri said she’s received many awards, including an induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2016, but there’s something special about receiving the “Arab American of the Year” recognition from her own colleagues at ACCESS, years after leaving the organization.
“I never quit being active. I never quit going to most events. I have a good relationship with ACCESS. These are your friends. These are people you worked with and six years later after you retired, they remembered you,” Ameri said.
In retirement, Ameri hopes to continue to find ways to support young people.
“I’d like to talk more to younger people,” she said. “… They should know they are smart. They are capable. When people treat them badly or demonize them for this religion, or color, or curly hair or ethnicity… they should know they are good people and not let that affect them,” Ameri said. “They will accomplish whatever they set their mind to.”