I've come to see our collective "us" not as a single ethnicity called "Arabs", but as a constellation of ethnicities who share a common language, and hence a common literature, and a common public & cultural sphere
We also share a common history, spiritual values, and similar political experiences and aspirations. The things that unite us are far more than what divides us, and in diversity there is strength and beauty. We don't need to deny the specific in order to assert the general.
And so when I say "Arab" I do not mean some sort of race, I'm using it to mean Arabic speaking peoples. There are many. And they're all my people regardless their origins. In this region we're all mutts anyway.
