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Randa Jarrar

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Randa Jarrar (born 1978) is an Arab-American writer and professor on leave from California State University at Fresno. In May of 2018 Jarrar attracted public attention for making statements critical of Barbara Bush on social media following her death.

Randa Jarrar
Born1978 (age 45–46)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
LanguageEnglish, Arabic
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Michigan,
Sarah Lawrence College

Biography

Randa Jarrar was born in 1978 in Chicago to a Greek-Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt. After the Gulf War in 1991, she and her family returned to the United States, living in the New York area.[1] Jarrar studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, receiving an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has taught College Writing, Creative Writing, and Arab-American literature. "Fresno State's a majority minority school," she describes. "Many of my undergraduates are brown: Latinos, Asian Americans, Muslim Americans. They're first generation college students. Or they're children of migrant workers. Or they work full time, and parent."[2]

Writings and Critical Commentaries

Jarrar wrote an opinion piece called "Why I Can't Stand White Belly-Dancers", published in Salon in 2014. In this piece, Jarrar said she felt that white women who take part in the art of bellydance are engaging in cultural appropriation and "brown face."[3]

Her commentary was widely criticized; UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh stated ironically "Maybe telling people that they can’t work in some field because they have the wrong color or ancestry would be ... rats, I don’t know what to call it. If only there were an adjective that could be used to mean 'telling people that they mustn’t do something, because of their race or ethnic origin'".[4]

Atlantic writer Conor Friedersdorf pointed out historical inaccuracies in Jarrar's argument, citing an academic source: "[W]ith regional variations, something like Raqs Sharqi seems to have been known throughout the Mediterranean and certainly flourished in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean before the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century".[5] Novelist and comics writer G. Willow Wilson wrote in defense of Jarrar, "When you shimmy around a stage in a hip band and call yourself Aliya Selim and receive praise and encouragement, while the real Aliya Selims are shortening their names to Ally and wondering if their accent is too strong to land that job interview, if the boss will look askance at their headscarf, if the kids at school are going to make fun of their children, guess what: you are exercising considerable privilege."[6]

In response these these criticisms, Jarrar wrote a follow-up to her piece, titled "I Still Can't Stand White Bellydancers" but did not address her critical commentaries from her first edition.[7]

Mockery of Barbara Bush's death

On April 17, 2018, following the death of former first lady Barbara Bush, Jarrar described her as “Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. Fuck outta here with your nice words,"[8] referring to her son Former President George W. Bush. Jarrar later boasted that she will "never be fired" for her harsh words, because she has tenure at California State University at Fresno.[9]

Jarrar responded to highly critical condemnatory replies by saying, "I'm happy the witch is dead".[10] She was widely criticized for her actions, and later set her account to private.[11]

Effect on an emergency suicide prevention hotline

Amid criticisms, Jarrar provided a telephone number on her Twitter account as if it was her own contact number, stating "If you really wanna reach me, here's my number ok?"[12] However, the phone number that she provided was that of an emergency suicide/crisis hotline at Arizona State University.

The resulting deluge of thousands of spam callers overwhelmed the mental health crisis center's ability to take calls. Two days after Jarrar's tweet, the mental health crisis center continued to receive between 50 to 70 calls per hour.[12]

California State University at Fresno administration response

California State University at Fresno president Joseph Castro responded to widespread public outrage, saying "Professor Jarrar’s expressed personal views and commentary are obviously contrary to the core values of our University, which include respect and empathy for individuals with divergent points of view".[13] California State University at Fresno confirmed that she was on leave from the university at the time the controversial comments were made.[13] President Castro stopped short of stating what (if any) disciplinary action would take place for Jarrar.

At a news conference, university provost Lynnette Zelezny confirmed that Jarrar's tenure would not protect her from termination, but did not specify whether termination was appropriate at the time.[14]

Alumni and major university donor responses

While a university investigation is under way, several donors to California State University at Fresno reportedly are considering whether the university deserves their contributions.

Ed Dunkel Jr., who made sizable financial contributions to California State University at Fresno in the past, said he will await the outcome of the controversy before deciding whether to close his checkbook.[15]

“I have a lot of friends that I’ve been talking to, and these are people who donate now and talking about holding back, and some are even questioning whether to send their kids to California State University at Fresno,” Dunkel told the Fresno Bee.[15]

“I admire and have a lot of respect for President Castro and huge affection for California State University at Fresno,” Dunkel said. “But I have huge concerns. This represents such an embarrassment to the California State University at Fresno and the community. It’s hard to believe this is an isolated thing that just happened. I have to imagine people previously knew of this person’s character and what she’s about.”

Another controversial California State University at Fresno lecturer Lars Maischak was demoted after tweeting that President Donald Trump “must hang” in order to “save American democracy,” said the university is failing to live up to its promise to defend academic freedom.[15]

Awards

  • 2004 Million Writers Award for best short story online [16]
  • 2007 Hopwood Award for Best Novel[17]
  • 2009 Arab American Book Award
  • 2016 Story Prize Spotlight Award [18]
  • 2017 American Book Award

Bibliography

  • A Map of Home: A Novel Hardcover: Other Press 2008. ISBN 1590512723.
  • A Map of Home: A Novel Paperback: Penguin 2009. ISBN 0143116266.
  • Him, Me, Muhammad Ali Paperback: Sarabande Books 2016. ISBN 9781941411315
Anthologies
  • Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers, Alane Salierno Mason, Dedi Felman, Samantha Schnee (eds), Anchor Books, March 2007, ISBN 9781400079759
  • Beirut39 Bloomsbury 2010
  • Watchlist: 32 short stories by persons of interest O/R Books 2016 ISBN 9781936787418
Translation
  • The Year Of The Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine by Hassan Daoud, 2007. ISBN 9781846590269, Published by Telegram, Paperback
  • Jo Glanville, ed. (2006). Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women. Telegram. ISBN 9781846590122.

References

  1. ^ "Randa Jarrar | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2015-08-06.
  2. ^ "Randa Jarrar: Author and Professor". Insitute for Middle East Understanding. IMEU. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  3. ^ "Why I can't stand white belly dancers". Retrieved 2015-08-20.
  4. ^ cl_admin (11 March 2014). "ICYMI: Belly Dancing When You're a White Woman".
  5. ^ Friedersdorf, Conor. "In Praise of Polyglot Culture—and Multicultural Belly Dancing".
  6. ^ Buchanan, Matthew. "In Defense (Sort Of) Of Randa Jarrar". gwillowwilson.com. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  7. ^ "I still can't stand white belly dancers". Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  8. ^ Mays, Mackenzie; Tehee, Joshua (April 19, 2018). "'Where's the lie?' Authors rally behind Fresno State prof who called Barbara Bush racist". Fresno Bee. Retrieved 20 April, 2018. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ Boroff, David (April 18, 2018). "University professor slams Barbara Bush as 'amazing racist'". MSN. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  10. ^ Jr, Cleve R. Wootson; Wong, Herman (2018-04-19). "After calling Barbara Bush an 'amazing racist,' a professor taunts critics: 'I will never be fired' citing the fact that she has [[tenure]]". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-04-19. {{cite news}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  11. ^ "Fresno State professor calls Barbara Bush 'amazing racist' after her death in controversial tweet". ABC30 Fresno. 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  12. ^ a b Anteola, Bryant-Jon. "'Here's my number': Fresno State professor's post floods Arizona State crisis line with calls". AZ Central. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  13. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference FresnoBee18042018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Professor's tweet about Barbara Bush was 'beyond free speech,' Fresno State president says". Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  15. ^ a b c "Bush-bashing professor has Fresno State scrambling to keep its donors". Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  16. ^ "storySouth Million Writers Award". www.storysouth.com. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  17. ^ "Lsa.umich.edu" (PDF).
  18. ^ "Spotlight Award Winner". The Story Prize. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
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