Ethnic Minorities and Mechanisms of Survival in Selected American and Iraqi Narratives

يهدف هذا البحث الى دراسة آليات البقاء في الكتابات الاثنية. وهو يستشهد بمثالين الأول رواية الكاتبة الأمريكية مايا أنجيلو بعنوان (أعرف لِمَ يغرد الطائر الحبيس) والثاني رواية الكاتبة العراقية انعام كجه جي (طشاري). 
يستهل البحث بمقدمة عن مفهوم الاثنية وعلاقتها بالآخر في ضوء مفهومي الاستعمار والهيمنة. كما تم تلخيص أهم الملامح التي تقدمها النماذج الجاهزة عن الأقليات الاثنية والتي نجدها في الأدب الرئيسي. 
ثم ينتقل البحث لمعاينة أنماط سلوكية معينة تتميز بها الشخصيات الأمريكية-الأفريقية في رواية مايا أنجيلو (أعرف لِمَ يغرد الطائر الحبيس) متبوعة بتفحص لآليات البقاء في رواية انعام كجه جي (طشاري) لدى الشخصيات العراقية الآثورية.
وينتهي البحث بخاتمة تلخص أهم النتائج التي خلصت اليها الدراسة، حيث التأكيد على ضرورة تعزيز قيم المحبة الأخوية والإنسانية في المجتمعات متعددة الثقافات لانتزاع روح العداء والتعصب التي تهدد الأمن والسلم.

The paper starts with introductory remarks on the concept of "ethnicity" and its relation to the Other, in the light of Colonialism and hegemony. Stereotype characteristics of ethnic minorities, which are often presented in mainstream literature, are outlined.
Then the paper moves to examine certain patterns of behavior, that spring from the survival instinct detected in African-American characters in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This is followed by investigating the devices of survival of Iraqi Assyrian characters in Hither and Thither.
The paper ends with a conclusion that summarizes the final findings of the study in which the necessity of enhancing values of fraternity and humanity in multicultural societies is stressed in order to disarm the spirit of hostility and prejudice that threaten security and peace.

Introduction:
The term "ethnicity" appeared in the 1920s in sociological studies. It is derived from "ethnos" in Greek, which means "people". 1 Most societies of the world consist of variant, distinguished minority groups that are integrated constituents of the national fabric of the community. There are between 2.500 to 10.000 ethnic groups in the world. 2 Very few societies are ethnically homogenous, even when they assert the opposite. 3 Ethnicity is a reality that has its social, cultural, political and psychological impacts. Individuals of a certain ethnic group share certain cultural, linguistic, religious, social, and genetic affinity. The bond among individuals of an ethnic group may be intensified by a shared history of being victimized by the Other creating, thus, an inner sense of solidarity that unites its members vis à vis the majority. 4 in an attempt to preserve ethnic identity.
Ethnic affiliation is a fact of human life that can be used to positive or negative ends. Recognition of human rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) may yield positive outcomes such as economic flourishing, socio-political integration, linguistic diversity as well as cultural richness reflected by the development of distinctive styles of life, art and literature, 5 while when these ethnic minorities are denied recognition, esteem, or accessibility to power, social stance and development tension arises and the socio-political peace in the society is shaken.
Ethnic violence has variant forms that range from psychological and verbal violence to repression, assimilation and physical assault. Ethnic cleansing, exemplified by racial expulsions and population transfer (that is driving ethnic groups from their ancestral lands), and ethnocide or cultural genocide are attempts to wipe out the cultural heritage of a particular group and replace it with the culture of the majority. 6 Colonialism and imperialism have always been supported by a welldeveloped attitude of the conqueror's genetic, cultural, or ideological supremacy, which resulted in the legacy of cultural intolerance. White settlers who conquered nonwhite peoples often held the attitude that ethnic and cultural dissimilarities define some people as superior and others as inferior.
The claimed theory of Western or White superiority aims at building the grounds for subjugating other nations, through the fabrication of ethical justifications (e.g. The White Man's Burden). Unfortunately, Some western ‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ intellectuals like Aristotle, Thomas More, and Rudyard Kipling defended slavery, supporting a colonialist attitude adopted by the governing systems of their countries. 7 Anti-black racism relied on an ideology that stresses the alleged physical ugliness, mental inferiority as well as false presuppositions of Black immorality and criminality. 8 As such is the case, minorities tend to gather in quarters were they form a majority, or, at least, a strong minority. 9 Ghetto-centricity is a harmful approach that generalizes biased features of those living in poverty or in minority run-down communities. Hence, we see that mainstream literature, until very recently, abounds with stereotype images of ethnic minorities that view them as:

1.
Intellectually inferior and incapable of abstract reasoning and deep thought.

3.
Inclined to violence and aggression.
On the other hand, self-assertion of an ethnic group should be combined with values of respect and tolerance towards the host society, otherwise, the excessive sense of group identity turns from self-esteem into hostility and tension against outsiders. It must be mentioned here that throughout history there were cases when the majority of a society was dominated by an economically or politically powerful ethnic minority (as in the Apartheid in South Africa and the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia); in which case hostility and degradation of human dignity would possibly arise. Here, the statistic minority is a hegemonic majority. 11 As this is the case, certain patterns of behavior by the subjugated can be noticed in cases of the absence of formal state authority and shortage in protecting downtrodden ethnic minorities. They are going to internally adapt in order to survive. 12 These are mechanisms of survival that the subdued is 1.
Compulsive submission: When the subjugated puts himself\hereself under the control of the Other for necessity. Here we must distinguish this kind of submission from "internalization"; i.e. voluntary submission which arises from an authentic conviction as in the case of ideological conversion. 13

2.
Cunning: Cleverly getting what one wants by tricking other people. Cunning also includes sanctimoniousness (pretending to be pious) and ostentation (showing off property and luxury).

3.
Flattery: The act of flattery practiced by a minority individual addresses feelings of self-esteem and superiority in a majority individual.

4.
Double dealing: Because of pressure exerted by the subjugator and his\her authoritative behavior, the subjugated would behave in a certain way in his\her presence and in another in absence. 14

5.
Escape and replacement: As in the case of migration where the oppressed minority escapes the persecution of the majority by self-exile, seeking tolerance and preferring to be a minority in a foreign land living the agony of homesickness and trying to adapt themselves into the newly adopted culture.

6.
Fantasy is a form of escaping harsh reality with imagination.

7.
Vengeance and rebellion: Revenge is a form of primitive justice usually sought in the absence of formal law and protection. 13 It is needless to say that every ethnic situation has its own circumstances and governing conditions. The adopted survival mechanisms differ according to the nature of society, institutions, and according to the options available to the oppressed minority member. 14 The inner tension of the subjugated can be detected in emotional messages that escape to the outside world. Though these messages are kept down, they can be read in the individual's body language including: movements, gestures, poses and facial expressions. 15

Mechanisms of Survival in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:
Maya Angelou in her autobiographical novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) narrates conditions under which the African-Americans live in the Southern city of Black Stamps and the atrocities suffered by the African-American ethnicity in a White-controlled culture. Today, some 34.7 million African-Americans live in the United States, making up 12.3 percent of the total population. They constitute the largest minority group in the US. 16 In order to survive and save one's physical as well as spiritual well being Black characters in the novel resort to different measures which result in what is known among psychologists as "cognitive dissonance"; a state of psychological tension resulting from a contradiction between a person's holding two contradictory ideas or feelings. 17 Young Marguerite's imagination offers her escape from the harsh reality of ethnic discrimination. Her mind is already stuffed with the white's stereotype conceptions of the Blacks as being physically ugly and unattractive. However, the child finds consolation in the little "ruffles" she puts in her hair: "I knew that once I put [ruffles] on I'd look like a movie star…. I was going to look like one of the sweet little white girls who were everybody's dream of what was right with the world." 18 She continues during the first pages of the book to fantasize about her ethnic identity imagining that she was "really white and [….] a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair." (p. 3) The protagonist escapes the fact of her physical characteristics since the attitude that the powerful whites spread was that "black is wrong, white is true" (p. 5). It is a method of rejecting being branded that reflects a psychological defense of one's being. Marguerite's fantasies indicate refusal of her alleged ugliness for she feels, as does any little girl, her beauty and dignity as a human being. She includes God in her fantasies; imagining that He has a covenant with "children, Negroes and the crippled" (p. 17) that He is there especially for them. This indicates the character's urging need for a sense of justice, protection and, eventually, of peace in life. Marguerite's rape accident results in a severe trauma; retreat and refrain from speaking. She is sorry for the rapper, Mr. Freeman, who was found dead after the truth was revealed, for she at the beginning did not mind what he was doing for her since she was craving for passion. Yet, she starts ‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ to overcome her trauma by the help of Mrs. Flowers who encouraged her to read books and tell her about her readings. Sympathy and understanding, which are forms of Christian love, help Marguerite survive the cruel act of rape done to an eight-year old child.
Marguerite, the narrator, gives the reader glimpses of the emotions that boil inside her for being an African-American. Racism once functioned as a justification for slavery, today it justifies imperialism. 19 Fantasy again comes in the form of wishing: "Then I wished that Gabriel Prossel Nat Turner had killed all the whitefolks in their beds and that Abraham Lincolin had been assassinated before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation [….] and that Christopher Colombus had drowned in the Santa Maria. It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life." (p.180) Marguerite imagines a confrontation between Grandmother Henderson and the white dentist who is so mean as to insult the old lady in front of her granddaughter forgetting the favor she did to him once when she lended him money. Marguerite imagines that the old woman grabs the man by the collar and he apologizes for his insult.
This pattern of fantasizing cannot be detected in the character of Uncle Willie, the crippled, who was proud and sensitive "he couldn't pretend that he was not crippled, nor could he deceive himself that people were not repelled by his defect." (p. 11) Uncle Willie is a representation of the realistic oppressed; he realizes his limitations when the Klan threatens to revenge from every black man after the assault of an African-American on a white lady. 16 Uncle Willie survives the Klan's attack by hiding under slices of potatoes and onions. Survival here is achieved through temporal escape within a climate of fear. 17 Grandmother Henderson presents a different way of dealing with the humiliation and degradation of racial segregation. Her deep religious nature supplies her with patience and restrain when a group of young white girls, pushed by racial prejudice, comes to her store and starts mocking her. The old woman starts singing a religious song while the girls were going on with their mockery. Henderson's songs, throughout the book, are in the form of prayers that fight away her tension and anguish "Momma changed her song to "Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more" (p. 32). Yet, when the intruding white girls leave the scene the old woman retains ‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬ titles of respect (Miz) when saying goodbye to the offenders; a matter that asserts her self-control and desire to avoid retaliation; it also proves her success in managing the racial conflict though is a clear mark of "cognitive dissonance". However, the physical and moral strength in which Grandmother Henderson is presented, as well as her financial independence and authority in the family present an image of a matriarchal system. This is symbolically enhanced by the fact that the shop owned by the old lady is the center of gathering for the neighborhood.
It is ironic that death is used as a tool of survival. Mr. Freeman tries to survive the consequences of his crime of rape inflicted on eight-year old Marguerite by threatening to kill her brother Bailey if she ever tells anybody: "If you scream I'm gonna kill you. And if you tell, I'm gonna kill Bailey" (p. 78). The other irony is that Mr. Freeman was found dead soon after his assault was revealed.
Marguerite endures the psychological damage of her rape by withdrawing into a long lasting silence; a symptom of her after-assault trauma. However, with the help of Mrs. Flowers, the aristocrat of Black Stamps, the young girl not only recovers speech but also is encouraged into interest in reading and reciting literature. Language here is used as a tool of self-expression and soul nourishment, which is to develop in later adulthood years into creative writing, singing and dancing. Man is inclined to preserve his\her life security as well as building a success identity to reassure his\her existence and selfesteem. 18

Mechanisms of Survival in Hither and Thither:
The debate over the racial status of immigrants and the displaced emerge in numerous forms of cultural production. In her novel Hither and Thither (2013) the Iraqi novelist Inaam Kachachi presents a picture of the Iraqi Assyrian Christians before and after 2003. The novel is related to diaspora literature rather than to a discourse of homeland and rootedness. This compares to the issue of identity in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The single, homogenous selfhood of Angelou's book is replaced here by a recognition of a disseminated heterogeneity and diversity in Kachachi's novel. Kachachi's displaced characters constantly produce and reproduce themselves anew, through difference, transformation and naturalization.

‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬
The major character, Dr. Wardiya Iskandar, is an Assyrian from Mosul city who migrates to Bagdad, Diwaniya and eventually seeks asylum in France to escape the religious-ethnic violence that ravaged the country. The novel follows the characters' life events in relation to the majority of Arab Muslims (and sometimes Jews) since the 1950s up to today's Iraq.
Assyrians, are an ethno-religious and linguistic minority in Iraq. They are (along with the Mandeans) the indigenous people of Iraq, descending from the ancient Mesopotamians. 19 The theme of immigration or replacing one's home is recurrent in Hither and Thither.
The novel is related to diaspora novel rather than to a discourse of homeland and rootedness. This compares to the view of identity in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The single, homogenous selfhood of Angelou's book is replaced by a recognition of a disseminated heterogeneity and diversity in Kachachi's novel. Kachachi's diaspora identities constantly produce and reproduce themselves anew, through difference, transformation and naturalization.
The novel opens with eighty-year-old doctor Wardiya Iskandar seeking asylum in France to escape the harsh life-threatening realities of ethnicreligious violence in Iraq that escalated after 2003. She, following her family members, decides to leave the home country in an exodus to be dispersed in different countries of the world. The same is true of her daughter Hinda who had left the country to Canada with her husband, her son, Buraq, who was living in Haiti, and her daughter Jasmine in Dubai. It was a self-imposed exile after finding threat papers in the garden and a near-death encounter with a suicide woman bomber in Dr. Wardiya's clinic. The option of replacing the homeland with a foreign land is portrayed in the image of butchery and death: "As if a butcher used his chopper and dismembered her parts scattering them at those places". 20 Kachachi also uses cargo imagery to represent the dehumanization of the Christian Iraqis who, in order to survive, were forced to immigrate or self-exile themselves; like Jasmine who "married in a hurry, they prepared her like a stolen car and shipped her to her groom in the U.A.E." (p. 19). Survival here is accompanied by extreme pain of separation; it is seeking life by resorting to a metaphoric death. Wardiya's family, when she was a small girl, had migrated from Mosul city to the capital, Bagdad, when the oldest son, Suleiman, wanted to attend the Law

‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬
School. Wardiya herself after graduating from the School of Medicine had to relocate in the city of Diwaniya in order to be able to start a career in medicine. In all these examples, although migration signals the beginning of a new life it is associated with sever nostalgia and tears. Death itself (whether real or metaphoric) seems to be the only way out. Wardiya, in a flash back, remembers her brother Iskandar asking his father while they were residing in Paris to go on vacation; and the father's rebuking answer comes: "Shut up. You ask for a vacation while you live in Paris!" His father tells him that twenty million Iraqis envy him for being here; had he been in Bagdad, he would have been recruited to the military, had his long curly hair cut and would have had the silver ring out of his ear. Death as a way out seems to be Wardiya's choice when an expectant mother had to be saved by cutting the neck of her stillborn baby to get the stuck head out of the mother's body (p. 49). Hinda, Dr. Wardiya's daughter, repeats the idea in a letter to her mother "Canada is beautiful and safe, though it is cold and far away…too far away from you, as if whoever goes there dies in life" (pp. 53-54).
Wardiya, the gynecologist, did not fear bugs, dogs or corpses. She inserted her hand in and dug in [the corpses'] inner organs to learn whatever the dead can teach the living" (p. 80). However, she avoids revolutionary action as a means of change; she avoids politics fearing its consequences (p. 83).
Keeping a sense of national identity for Iskandar, who is a second generation of his immigrate family, is achieved through his computer skills by building a virtual graveyard on the internet for those who already died back in Iraq or those who passed away in their host countries. Electronic communication with his Iraqi relatives and cousins who are dispersed around the globe is not enough for him to survive feelings of rootlessness and to establish social connection with the homeland. His mother insists that he communicates with them via Facebook, while he longs for a more tangible connection like sitting on the same table, living at the same house, growing up together and exchanging gifts in Christmas (p. 85). The virtual graveyard is a symbol of the homeland, it is a desperate attempt to reunite his community, reconnect the present with the past and the dead with the living just like putting back together shattered pieces of pottery.
The virtual graveyard of Iraqi Christians built by Iskandar was found to be a magical solution for facing the community's exodus:

‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬
The new comer from Cologne would lay beside his wife, whose bones had been brought from Ainkawa, their sons and daughters, who are scattered among Erbil, Aukland, and Jarmana would log into the graveyard website, whenever and wherever they wish to pray for their souls. (p. 230).
Iskandar's art and creativity enable him to draw tombs, graveyards and plant flowers on the graves chosen by the families. He adds pictures of the dead, music and songs to the tombs so that everyone can have access to this virtual homeland via the internet to experience moments of reconnection with a world that they were forced to escape (p. 160): [Iskandar's] screen expanded and turned into an ideal shelter, a temporal graveyard for a multi-faceted death [….] and as soon as a new comer arrives at the burial site carrying his skeleton over the shoulders, the comer's dead relatives and loved ones rise up from their tombs dancing and chanting: You are most welcomed.. You are most welcomed. (p. 238) Willingness to have offspring is a form of clinging to life to survive extinction. In this regard, Hinda and her Muslim maid Bustana resort to religious vows. Hinda, after two miscarriages, prayed to Mary the Virgin for a daughter. Bustana also made a vow to the Shrine of Al-Hamza so that Hinda gets pregnant and does not lose the baby, "saints were encircled from all directions and thus it was accomplished". (p. 181); the very reason behind the exodus into which Wardiya's family were forced to endure (religion) offered once a human bondage between people from different religions and ethnicities. The protagonist identifies herself with people from other religions and ethnicities (Muslims, Jews, and Aboriginal Canadians) emphasizing the idea that we are more similar than we are dissimilar.
Language, for the protagonist of Hither and Thither, is a hindrance to adapting to the new homes in which she relocates. When she travels to Diwaniya city not only her outward appearance but also her accent, expose her as an outsider to the Arab Muslim community. This theme of language as a barrier is repeated after her immigration to France being unable to speak French when a mixture of Arabic and English phrases escape her lips when talking to the French. While we find how Margurite in Maya Angelou's novel overcomes her self-imposed silence, bursting into verbal distinction.
Immigrant Christian Iraqis suffer nostalgia that they try to cope with by:

‫اﻟﻌﺎﺷر‬ ‫اﻟدوﻟﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻌﻠﻣﻲ‬ ‫اﻟﻣؤﺗﻣر‬ ‫واﺳط‬ ‫ﺟﺎﻣﻌﺔ‬ / ‫اﻟﺗرﺑﯾﺔ‬ ‫ﻛﻠﯾﺔ‬
] building a virtual country on the internet. They wake up in the mornings at their exiles rushing to the screens before they put teapots on fire. They read the news, save articles, poems, songs, old photos and situations that reflect an extinct honor. They read the emails loaded with emotional ammunition and redirect the cargo to hundreds of addresses of friends and acquaintances. (p. 240).
The only confrontational character that can be seen in Hither and Thither is Kamala, Wardiya's sister, who used to be subjected to verbal molestation from a young man who used to say inappropriate things to her, dirty flirtation, and send her air kisses. The man used to chase her after she got out of her school, Kamala hits him with her umbrella and he runs away never showing up again. (p. 125). This female act of self-defense is reported by the author using the third person view point, unfortunately, creating a distance between the reader and the character that prevents a direct evaluation of the ethnographic and sociolinguistic features of the confrontation.

Conclusion
The stylistic artisanship with which the two novels under discussion are written prove that the preconception that ethnic literature and writers are second rate and their writings as lacking multi-layerdness and sophistication is false. Such prejudice reflects a colonial attitude that hinders the recognition of this kind of literature and, on a social scale, thwarts the recognition of the creativity and contribution of ethnicities to world culture. Ethnic writings shed light on issues and problems related to ethnic groups, in this way they can be used as rich materials for the purpose of psychological analysis to arrive at a better understanding of the attitudes of minorities (aboriginal residents, immigrants, refugees,…etc.) in order to better integrate these groups into the multitude of the society. The last half century has witnessed the diminishing of the old concept of nation state to be replaced by cultural and religious diversity of immigrant groups. Many countries realized that the old pattern no longer suits their new emerging historical and demographic situation. 21 On the other hand, the absence of dialogue and shortage in formal state authority in protecting downtrodden ethnic minorities would inevitably result in behavioral patterns, mechanism or adaptations in order to survive and counterbalance the growing hostility and aggression of the Other. This idea