Thanks to my students, I have the opportunity to regularly hear Arabic in a neutral, everyday context. It’s a highly expressive language that echoes off the walls of our classroom during class breaks and small group discussions. My students thread it with English words and names, so I can often catch the gist of what they’re saying without a translation. They talk about the same things American teenagers talk about: college applications, movies and music, problems with tests and teachers, plans for spring break.
To prevent the kind of discrimination that reportedly occurred on a Southwest Airlines flight this month, more Americans need the opportunity to hear Arabic in these kinds of natural settings. However, for that to happen, Arabic speakers need to feel like they’re safe to speak their own language. My students tell me they won’t speak Arabic at all in U.S. airports because the risk of being profiled as a security threat is too high.
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