Thanks for submitting your question to Radical Reference. I wish I had better news, but it seems that this question highlights the arbitrary nature of racial difference and the need for policies and advocacy to protect people of Middle Eastern origins from discrimination.
To start, I spoke to Wendy at the ALA Diversity office about the Spectrum scholarship and about library school funding in general that is geared toward underrepresented populations. As you noted, the Spectrum Scholarship, among many others, follows federal guidelines of race and "minority" status, which means that this will often exclude people of Arab and Middle Eastern ancestry.
From the census website:
Comments on Recommendation Not to Add an Arab or
Middle Eastern Ethnic Category
"The Interagency Committee recommended that an Arab or Middle Eastern ethnic category should not be added to the minimum standards for all reporting of Federal data on race and ethnicity. Several comments were received in support of having a separate category in order to have data viewed as necessary to monitor discrimination against this population."
And from the Arab American Institute:
"Although the U.S. census classifies Arabs as white along with the European majority, a sizable number believe they are not treated as whites, but more like such other minorities as Asians Americans and Hispanic Americans (see 'Not Quite White: Race Classification and the Arab American Experience'
). Not surprisingly, there is no consensus among all generations of Arab Americans on this question, nor is there yet a move in the federal government to measure Arabs separately. In some arenas, however, such as higher education, some health agencies, and even in market research, Middle Eastern ethnicity is classified separately, a trend that is likely to expand to other institutions."
According to Wendy, not all "minority" scholarships exclude people of Arab or Middle Eastern ancestry. Some state-based scholarships will follow their local EEO standards of minority status, and therefore, a relatively progressive state like California might have scholarships that are more inclusive of disenfranchised groups in the US, but this will vary on a state-to-state or foundation-to-foundation basis.
Wendy was very sympathetic and aware of the problems census categories of identity pose, and urged that concerned folks help campaign to expand minority status to Arab Americans in order to counter racist discrimination. She also encouraged anyone interested in funding help in general to call her at 1(800)545.2433 ext. 5048.
So it seems there are 3 places for students of Arab or Middle Eastern ancestry to go from here for funding.
1.) Contacting individual scholarships—and this largely depends on the state—to see whether their "minority" status is flexible enough to incorporate Middle Eastern and Arab descendents.
2.) There are other sources and organizations out there that support Arab American education, though clearly not enough. The following 2 sites are specific to Arab American education foundations, with a lot of overlap between them.
ADC frequently gets requests from students and parents regarding scholarship funds earmarked for Arab Americans (or Arab students in the U.S.). We have discovered that there are only a few scholarship programs which could be identified.
Arab American Institute scholarships
3.) Finally, one might have more luck applying for general scholarships:
Funding guide created by Megan Perez, a MLS student at UNC. Though a time-consuming endeavor, he suggests scouring the print sources. There might, additionally, be individual institutions listed that support Arab Americans in higher education.
Annual directory of awards from state library agencies, national and state library associations, local libraries, academic institutions, and foundations who give some form of financial assistance for undergraduate and/or graduate education programs in library and information studies.
Wendy suggested this general ALA scholarship.
A list of general library scholarships.
I hope this helps as a start. Please feel free to ask another question if you need more information. Once limited to a state level we can do follow-up searching in some of the print resources.
Thanks again for using Radical Reference.
