Scholarship at UWindsor

Using Convoys of Social Relations to Understand Culture and Forgiveness from an Arab American Youth Perspective

University of Windsor

The study of forgiveness among Arab Americans is both unique and illustrative. First, the nature of social relations within Arab American culture, particularly the high value placed on family relations, draws attention to the ways that close and important relationships inform attitudes and behaviors around the act of forgiveness. Second, the growing sentiment of “otherness” that is both projected on to Arab Americans by mainstream U.S. society, as well as internalized by recent cohorts of Arab American youth hold potential insights into relations between Arab Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. In this presentation, I focus on forgiveness as a potential window into understanding the increasing complexity of social relations and their pervasive influence on identity. Also noted is that context (i.e., situation) is important both with regard to expectations about social relations and the experience of circumstances, behaviors or events that might warrant forgiveness.

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/arabyouthsymp/conference_presentations/presentations/8