On Location

This year’s US census is something I'm quite curious about these days, especially since the impetus behind getting Iranians to fill out their race/ethnicity as Iranians seems to have such broad/popular appeal. The fateful combo of streaming video and social networking site seems to be playing an important role in the popularity of the campaign (at least from what i can see from here) which will probably reach a lot more young Iranian Americans than radio or satellite channels. 

The census has really got all the big Iranian organizations and websites working together to get people to "stand up and be counted". Of course the mobilization is about getting the federal money allocated in ways that reflect the ethnic makeup of the population. But aside from the monetary reasons (which are not unimportant unto themselves) it looks like the census plays into the wider issue of recognition for Iranians - a notion of "we're a significant part of American society as a group", a message that publicly-oriented Iranian American organizations are also in the business of promoting, and the net seems to be a very popular method of doing just that. 

Whether through online or offline means, the politics of equal recognition for minorities in multicultural, pluralist societies is an important way of demanding rights and equality as members of society within a sovereign nation state. This goes beyond the demand for redistribution of public resources. The aims of recognition include emancipation of a community, preservation against future generations ‘losing’ this particular part of their identity, and gaining the respect worthy of the community and its culture. All pretty noble, most would agree. 

But when a group demands to be valued by the state because of their particularities and differences from the “majority” (and from other minorities), there's a subtle shift from making claims to equal access to resources because of our universal sameness to being valued for our difference. This focus on “recognition” has gained salience in multicultural societies around the globe in recent decades. It’s an approach that some people have worried borders too closely on the “politics of difference,” which suggests we should be “proud” of our culture precisely because of its difference. This pride in difference is seen by some as a healthy remedy to the damage caused by any (past) lack of recognition, but one central Iranian American community organizer I spoke with expressed her distaste for teaching the younger generation to be proud of themselves simply for being Iranian. Maybe such people would prefer teaching pride in oneself despite being Iranian American in a society that can be prejudiced as a form of self-preservation.

The other question this raises is whether pluralist states can indeed treat all their people as equally valuable while at the same time recognizing the distinctive cultural differences of some and offering the kinds of recognition and respect they demand. This debate goes on within academia, just as parallel debates go on within the Western political left, and also among Iranian Americans in LA. I saw this in everyday discussions about how we are to represent ourselves in ways that don’t come across as arrogant, especially given our wealth and success. How do we teach young people to claim their Iranian-ness in ways that don’t give way to chauvinistic “Persian pride.” Supplementing redistribution with claims for recognition seems to be a double edged sword that can possibly slip into exclusionist exigencies. I think, though, that with the content that’s circulating online around the census and with the activities of many (second generation) Iranian American organizers, that such segregatory politics are addressed and avoided… for the most part. 

Filling out the US census as Iranian or Iranian-American seems a bit of a no-brainer. It's probably the most straightforward way to contribute to a fairer redistribution and further recognition alongside the multitude of other unique and different cultures suffering from various levels of misrecognition in the US. Perhaps we can see it as a good example of how to effectively allow the approaches of redistribution and recognition to go hand in hand in order to reach self-empowerment and collective justice. Maybe you think I'm reading too much into it. But I´m amazed at the breadth of organizations that are promoting the census this time around. Has it ever before been this big of a deal? I'm impressed with this divided community's unification.