Racism
The Arab world's dirty secret
By Mona Eltahawy
Published: Monday, November 10, 2008
NEW YORK — I was on my way home on the Cairo Metro, lost in thought as I listened to music when I noticed a young Egyptian taunting a Sudanese girl. She reached out and tried to grab the girl's nose and laughed when the girl tried to brush her hand away.
The Sudanese girl looked to be Dinka, from southern Sudan and not the northern Sudanese who "look like us." She was obviously in distress.
I removed my headphones and asked the Egyptian woman "Why are you treating her like that?"
She exploded into a tornado of yelling, demanding to know why it was my business. I told her it was my business because as an Egyptian and as a Muslim who was riding the Metro, her behavior was wrong and I would not stay silent about it. I knew she was Muslim because she wore a scarf.
I told her that the way she was treating the Sudanese girl made the scarf on her head meaningless. Her mother asked me why I didn't cover my hair and I replied that I didn't want to be a hypocrite like her and her daughter.
As distressing as I found that young woman's behavior, I was even more distressed that the other women in the Metro car watched and said nothing. They made no attempt to defend the Sudanese girl nor to defend me when I confronted the Egyptian woman.
After the Egyptian woman got off at her station, I asked the other women why they didn't do anything. One woman said she stayed silent because the racist woman would've yelled at her. So what, I asked? If enough of the women had confronted her, she would have been outnumbered.
I apologized to the Sudanese girl for the Egyptian woman's behavior and she thanked me and told me "Egyptians are bad." I could only imagine other times she'd been abused publicly.
We are a racist people in Egypt and we are in deep denial about it. On my Facebook page, I blamed racism for my argument and an Egyptian man wrote to deny that we are racists and used as his proof a program on Egyptian Radio featuring Sudanese songs and poetry!
Our silence over racism not only destroys the warmth and hospitality we are proud of as Egyptians, it has deadly consequences.
What else but racism on Dec. 30, 2005, allowed hundreds of riot policemen to storm through a makeshift camp in central Cairo to clear it of 2,500 Sudanese refugees, trampling or beating to death 28 people, among them women and children?
What else but racism lies behind the bloody statistics at the Egyptian border with Israel where, since 2007, Egyptian guards have killed at least 33 migrants, many from Sudan's Darfur region, including a pregnant woman and a 7-year-old girl?
The racism I saw on the Cairo Metro has an echo in the Arab world at large, where the suffering in Darfur goes ignored because its victims are black and because those who are creating the misery in Darfur are not Americans or Israelis and we only pay attention when America and Israel behave badly.
We love to cry "Islamophobia" when we talk about the way Muslim minorities are treated in the West and yet we never stop to consider how we treat minorities and the most vulnerable among us.
The U.S. television network ABC recently staged a scenario in which an actor worked in a bakery in Texas and refused to serve an actress dressed as a Muslim woman in a headscarf. The scene was an experiment to see if other customers would help the Muslim woman.
Thirteen customers defended her by yelling at the clerk, asking for the manager or walking out in disgust. Six customers supported the bigoted clerk and 22 looked away and did absolutely nothing.
I wonder now which Egyptian television channel would dare to stage such an experiment? And which Arab television channel would dare to stage a program that so boldly confronts us with the question "what would you do?"
For those of us who move between different worlds - where one day we are a majority as I am as a Sunni Muslim in Egypt and another we are a minority as I am as a Muslim in America - it is clear that to defend the rights of a Sudanese girl on the Cairo Metro means to defend my right on the New York Subway.
We live in a world that is connected in unprecedented ways. And that connection now extends to rights. If we want our rights to be respected we must do the right thing, everywhere.
Mona Eltahawy is a columnist for Egypt's Al Masry Al Youm and Qatar's Al Arab. She is based in New York.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Wed 10 Jun 2009 12:56 Post subject:
The dental assistant (one of them) at my dentist office is an Arab Sudanese, and he is as dark as me and I'm certain is considered black on the streets of America 100% of the time. That being said, I guess compared to a DInka he does "look like an Arab" as the woman said "like us".
THey seem to have a reverse one-drop rule, one drop of Arab blood makes you non-black.
Then again this does not make people in Egypt especially hypocritical, anywhere in the world in any group you can see people of one group hold members of those outside their group (ethnic, social, blah blah blah) by different standards. Hypocrisy is hard wired and must be unlearned. Hell you can see it at your work place, in high schools, etc. For more on that read the book "Sex and War"...people haven't fundamentally changed since Hunter/Gather times, unfortunately.
This was not an extreme example.
An extreme example is murdering men, women, and children of another ethnicity and being treated like a hero by your people, where if someone did that to your people you would call them a murder who deserved to be executed.
People do this all the time. There is no action that an in-group member can do that I can't find historical context to see members of his group trying to make excuses for...especially in war.
This condition can be unlearned to some extent or another, but it takes a lot of effort by society, because people are naturally bias.
The dental assistant (one of them) at my dentist office is an Arab Sudanese, and he is as dark as me and I'm certain is considered black on the streets of America 100% of the time. That being said, I guess compared to a DInka he does "look like an Arab" as the woman said "like us".
Are you sure he's an Arab? Could he be a Nubian or from some other Arabized/Muslim group? Just asking.
Dragon Horse wrote:
THey seem to have a reverse one-drop rule, one drop of Arab blood makes you non-black.
I see this example as a case of xenophobia combined with colorism as opposed to plain racism. Dinka are very different in appearance to your average Egyptian. In fact, they are different in appearance to your average West African. There's a Dinka who works at the Macy*s in my area who stands out like a sore thumb because he looks so different.
Of course negative attitudes about sub-Saharan Africans do exist in the Arab world, as uncomfortable as this may be for pan Third Worldists or Multiculturalists to accept. There's ample literature about this and these attitudes predate any influence by Europeans (or Jewz). I suspect this may vary from one Arab country to another. Iraq appears to be one of the worst.
“Black soldiers are a particular target. ‘To have Negroes occupying us is a particular humiliation,’ Abu Mujahed said, echoing the profound racism prevalent in much of the Middle East. ‘Sometimes we aborted a mission because there were no Negroes.’”
The Arab-regardless of religious affiliation- isn't a model of racial tolerance, but then noone in the world is.
Joined: 05 Apr 2006 {Posts: 300 } Location: Chatsworth, CA
Posted: Wed 10 Jun 2009 22:15 Post subject:
I see a lot of commonality between the Arab Islamic approach to Afro/non Afro relations, and the Latin American approach.
A widespread acceptance of racial mixing, as long as it occurs within the framework of male dominance. Afro descended women as wives, mistresses, concubines. The progeny of these unions often raised as full fledged members of the dominant group.
Rampant colorism which is often trumped by socio economic class and family ties.
I would go as far as to say that this is "normal" in the sense of it being the most common pattern, broadly defined.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Wed 10 Jun 2009 23:31 Post subject:
odocoileus wrote:
I see a lot of commonality between the Arab Islamic approach to Afro/non Afro relations, and the Latin American approach.
A widespread acceptance of racial mixing, as long as it occurs within the framework of male dominance. Afro descended women as wives, mistresses, concubines. The progeny of these unions often raised as full fledged members of the dominant group.
Rampant colorism which is often trumped by socio economic class and family ties.
I would go as far as to say that this is "normal" in the sense of it being the most common pattern, broadly defined.
I see a lot of commonality between the Arab Islamic approach to Afro/non Afro relations, and the Latin American approach.
A widespread acceptance of racial mixing, as long as it occurs within the framework of male dominance. Afro descended women as wives, mistresses, concubines. The progeny of these unions often raised as full fledged members of the dominant group.
Rampant colorism which is often trumped by socio economic class and family ties.
I would go as far as to say that this is "normal" in the sense of it being the most common pattern, broadly defined.
True. The Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Moors from North Africa for 700 years (?) or so. That might explain the similarities.
A similar pattern existed in Lusophone African countries like Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde and in Goa in India.
Someone who is more knowledgeable about Portuguese colonialism can confirm this, but didn’t the Salazar government in Portugal actually promote a policy of multiracialism (miscegenation) in their colonies?
n my Facebook page, I blamed racism for my argument and an Egyptian man wrote to deny that we are racists and used as his proof a program on Egyptian Radio featuring Sudanese songs and poetry!
You should check out the article I posted in the International Stories section about this type of 'cultural integration' behaviour in response to racism. The article was regarding how people in South Africa and America use integration and multiculturalism as a way to ignore the disparities and unfair treatment of different races. This man, must be just like people in America who would now make a case about Obama if someone should inform them of the continued disparities. I live in Toronto, and I know that that certain groups have a racist tinge to them when regarding people who are darker than them, including arabs, and egyptians. My post is 'In South Africa, Apartheid is Dead, But White Supremacy Lingers On', read it .
Joined: 02 May 2006 {Posts: 443 } Location: Île-de-France
Posted: Fri 12 Jun 2009 18:49 Post subject:
Quote:
True. The Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Moors from North Africa for 700 years (?) or so. That might explain the similarities.
They ruled an ever shifting area from 711 to 1492. And during that time period the Moors/Arabs brought slaves of many origins, including sub-saharan africa, with them to the peninsula. I would go as far as to argue that Spain's view of slavery and sub-saharan africans during the time of colonization was formed by the Moors/Arabs.
Joined: 05 Jul 2009 {Posts: 17 } Location: London, UK
Posted: Sat 08 Aug 2009 10:36 Post subject:
Dragon Horse wrote:
The dental assistant (one of them) at my dentist office is an Arab Sudanese, and he is as dark as me and I'm certain is considered black on the streets of America 100% of the time. That being said, I guess compared to a DInka he does "look like an Arab" as the woman said "like us".
THey seem to have a reverse one-drop rule, one drop of Arab blood makes you non-black.
Being an Arab is an ethnic definition and is not related to appareances.
In North AFrica and the Arabian peninsula, you can be black (strong african features) and arab at the same time or you can be "light skinned" and not being arab.
It's about language, culture and heritage (e.g: an african-looking person can say : I am arab, because my parents are and I can trace my ancestry to tribes somewhere in Saudi Arabia or Yemen). Whereas someone who has a much lighther skin or soft hair would tell "I am not an Arab but ethiopian or Tanzanian or from this african ethnicity or tribe".
Therefore one drop of Arab blood doesn't make you arab or non-black.
It's all about bloodlines, ancestry, ethnic affiliation and languages.
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