http://seattleglobalist.com/2015/08/25/seattle-hookah-lounge-crackdown-needlessly-targets-east-africans-opinion-fathi-karshie/40828
The hookah lounge crackdown needlessly targets East Africans
by Fathi Karshie - Aug 25, 2015
A sign posted in the window of Cloud 9 hookah lounge in the Central
District frames the crackdown as an “assault on our Black
communities.” (Photo by Alex Stonehill)
In the immediate wake of the mayor’s announcement that he intends to
close down hookah lounges in Seattle, a wedge emerged between
different immigrant and refugee communities.
The Asian American community, mourning the death of Donnie Chin, was
seemingly pitted against East African patrons of hookah bars. But East
Africans were also pitted against each other. For example, while most
Somalis came out in support the mayor’s initiative, based on the
impression that hookah lounges are dens of drugs and vice luring
vulnerable East African youth, most non-Muslim Ethiopian and Eritreans
have vociferously opposed the initiatives.
Some members of these communities resorted to religious and cultural
propositions, positing inane arguments for and against the hookah
trend, until divisions had emerged even amongst Ethiopians, Somalis
and within religious groups.
Much of the discussion fell into line with the mayor’s argument, that
hookah bars present a simple choice — criminality vs order.
For the nuanced observer, however, realities are far from politically
authored textbook sketches that aim to scrub ‘undesirables’ by law’s
might.
As a Muslim, an East African cultured in Middle Eastern, Somali and
Ethiopian traditions, one familiar with the meanings of relationships
between those within and without authority, and one who may hold the
title of the first East African person to run for citywide office in
Seattle, I believe I have a perspective to add to the hookah
conversation.
The real wedge on the issue is not between immigrant communities, but
between those selected by the city to represent our community’s
interest and the community themselves.
The police department’s appointed liaison to the East African
community, Habtamu Abdi, has been helping to drive the anti-hookah
campaign forward, even as the community is clearly divided on the
issue. Where Abdi should be listening to the perspectives of the
community and representing them to the mayor, instead he’s doing the
opposite, pushing the mayor’s agenda to the community.
I believe that it is a failure to understand the social, tribal and
religious dynamics and sentiments of Puget Sound immigrants and
refugees that was at the root of the Mayor Murray’s miscalculated
measure in the first place.
Had the newly created liaison office been more familiar with Puget
Sound refugee and immigrant sentiments on hookah, or more willing to
convey diverse perspectives on the subject to the mayor, the hookah
conversation would be otherwise. But now here we are.
Hookah or Shisha is a glass-bottomed water pipe in which
fruit-flavored tobacco is covered with foil and roasted with charcoal.
The tobacco smoke passes through a water chamber and inhaled; smokers
attest that the sweet smelling, fruit-flavored tobacco is greatly
enjoyable experience.
RCW 70.160, previously the Clean Indoor Air Act, which bans smoking in
public places, is being used in conjunction with chapter 19.03.050 of
King County Board of Health Code to run hookah bars out of the city.
Of course, both statues were intended to curb smoking for health
reasons, not for criminality — as is the real motivation behind
banning hookah bars. A reading of the notices now being dished out to
hookah owners is very revealing of legal flippancy. Of the eleven
hookah lounges within city limits, at least nine have so far received
notices citing them for violations of the smoking at a work place
statute (as opposed to say RCW 70.155, which deals with selling
tobacco to underage customers etc.).
Resorting to law when the issue at hand could be peacefully resolved
clearly bespeaks a level of ignorance. People from oppressed
backgrounds, especially those of East Africa memory, though accepting
of law and order, are nonetheless suspicious of this forceful
approach.
This is in fact the reason why the hookah bar ‘issue’ has become
connected to the ‘black lives matter’ movement. One need only read
Michelle Alexanders’ “The New Jim Crow” to realize the shared memory.
Embedded in the mayor’s miscalculation, also, is failure to see hookah
as a trend in popular culture. A Seattle-based study conducted in 2012
found that more than a quarter of all university students reported
using hookah.
While one of the major arguments I heard presented to law makers at
City Council hearings is that hookah is a convenient pastime for those
whose religion restricts intoxicants, a nuanced observer would have
been aware of the simple fact that hookah smoking is not of Somali
culture or Islamic making.
In fact, there are multiple stories of its origin. Indications are
that it was brought to East Africa by Middle Eastern merchants. In
East Africa it is mainly used in Djibouti and eastern parts of
Ethiopia as pastime, and is considered shameful and un-Islamic in
other parts of East Africa.
My feeling is that the mayor was ill advised on the matter. It appears
that hookah was framed as an East African problem by those working for
the city, who for some reason hated to see some East African youths
frequenting these places.
Despite the vaguely Middle Eastern aesthetic, smoking hookah in
America ought to be contextualized. Irish pubs in the American context
have nothing to do with Irish culture. There’s no monolithic ‘East
African culture,’ and if there were, hookah wouldn’t be a defining
characteristic of it.
To the suspicious mind, making such a connection accentuates rather
than attenuates racial undertones.
Falsely equating hookah lounges with crime, and then falsely equating
hookah lounges with East African culture, has understandably lead some
young East Africans to feel targeted.
Rather than pursing the hookah crackdown that has created these
divisions, the mayor could be working with business, religious and
community leaders and using their voices to aid his real goal —
halting criminality.
For what makes America the great country that it is is its ability to
absorb, enculturate, assimilate all without denying any its identity —
E pluribus unum!
The views expressed here are those of the writer and not necessarily
of the Seattle Globalist.
Received on Thu Aug 27 2015 - 08:13:16 EDT