April is Arab American Heritage Month

In the 1990s, various States began recognizing Arab American heritage to celebrate the history and contributions of Americans with roots in the 22 countries located in the Middle East and North Africa: Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. These nations are diverse in their faith, ethnicities, and culture, but the majority of them share a common language-Arabic. An initiative to celebrate Arab American heritage nationwide began in 2017, leading to the White House proclaiming April as National Arab American Heritage Month for the first time in 2021. In May of 2023, the State of California adopted a resolution to designate April as Arab American Heritage Month.

Arab American groups have been advocating for additional ethnicity categories to better reflect the diversity of the Arab descendant communities, and foster better policy-making and belonging. In 2022, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced they would begin a formal review to revise OMB’s standards for federal data on race and ethnicity. Shortly after, an Interagency Technical Working Group was formed to aid in the process. The Working Group, made up of government career staff representing more than 20 federal agencies across the government, began their work, including engaging the American public directly as they deliberated their recommendations. On January 27, 2023, OMB published a Federal Register Notice seeking the public’s comments on the Working Group’s initial proposal for updating OMB’s Race and Ethnicity Standards, which included a call for adding a Middle East or North Africa (MENA) category. On March 28, 2024, OMB revised the Race and Ethnicity Standards to include a new MENA checkbox! Learn more here.