This paper intends to help decolonize language and perceptions about what is commonly referred to as the ‘Middle’ or ‘Near East’. There are pervasive uses of colonial terms like “Middle East” even at institutions like Columbia University, where Edward Said–the father of ‘post-colonial theory’ and ‘Orientalism’ set his intellectual foundation. This moniker has not only been debunked as a Western colonial construction, but also symbolizes and reifies white supremacy. With this problematic in mind, this paper asks: 1) Why is this insistence on employing colonial cartographies and terms normalized within institutions and associations–such as MESA–even though we know better than to continue to be complicit? 2) What does it look like to dis-Orientalize our gaze, language, and interactions with the Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) region? 3) How can instructors and students (re-)imagine the interconnected regions of South Asia, West Asia, and Africa (SAWAA) together? 4) How do we advocate for the rights of marginalized people globally as we occupy and move through colonized land locally? Taking seriously the politics of naming the SWANA region is a prerequisite for participating in anti-racist and anti-colonial struggles. As an alternative to the inaccurate, colonial, and Orientalist ‘East vs. West’ divide, I argue that we can implement a decolonized approach by referring to regions based on their location relative to continents or bodies of water. In other words, while there is no East or West on the globe, there is an East or West Mediterranean and Asia. This paper draws upon my experience as a Diversity Specialist for an anti-hierarchical cultural and linguistic exchange program, within which I led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and have taught college students bilingual Arabic-English courses titled, "Interrogating Anti-Blackness in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), and its Diaspora". My syllabi are designed to fill the gap in my own education and upbringing in an Arabic-speaking household, and are currently being re-adapted by other instructor-students in various directions. By initiating conversations that center the role of anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity as it relates to the settler-colonial contexts of Palestine and the US, my bilingual work de-centers English as the normative language in discussing critical topics in which we all have stakes.