Ok, one thing that seriously annoys me.
To be black isnt very good here in the UAE. There I said it. Rascism is rampant.
So its like OMG if you called someone black or '7al in arabic. So ppl resort to calling there local friends asmar: tanned... When they are black!
Screw that, just let us get that messed up thought about ppl of color from our minds, and that way we can call people who are black... black!.
Within Temptation - What have you done
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14 comments:
sry to say this but
how much guhwa have u had to drink.
firstly simply calling someone "7al" isn't necessarily a racist slur here.
the whole "black" issue isnt realy a problem in the U.A.E, or most of the gulf countries for that matter.eventhough we have the largest and longest slavetrade in history. we have been able to put it behind us and to allow black people to become part of our society. and when u consider that it wasnt realy that long ago, 50 years at most, that our grandfathers had slaves. u realise that weve gone along way.
BTW
i know we all wished it were true but people arnt the same, some of us are white, black, tanned or asian.
some of us r born into wealthy families, some of us are born in slums, some of us strive to make this world better for all, some of us work simply to satisfy to our own, never ending, greed.
black is simply a colour
nothing more nothing less.
oh! I had the same discussion many times before, when I first came to university. Black people where considered tan, and tan people where considered white, and then white people are just 'not local' (even if you are)
(think in Arabic)so they would refer to a Moza as Moza, the tan and I would thinking they're talking about the tan Moza when they're talking about the black Moza. It was very confusing and I just learned to never say 'black' in Arabic, not everyone was nice when I said.
I'm not being racist, it's just that I say what I see and if you try to turn the truth to be nicer you just get more confusing so let's be frank and okay about it.
I have to share this story, my dad's friend is black and when he last saw him he had a white beard, so the guy was like "People are always saying 'Allah ebayeth wayhek' (literal translation: May Allah whiten your face. Whiten = purity) so my beard turned white"
He's not talking about racism or black&white, he's talking about how people refer to black people in Arabic...
right?
Firstly... @ MJ 1st post: Lol
@ 2nd post: Im talking about rascism, and how we refer to ppl according to that rascism.
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@ a7med
"firstly simply calling someone "7al" isn't necessarily a racist slur here. " ... Up to debate.
"we have been able to put it behind us" ... Disagree entirely. We havent.
"weve gone along way." ... Yes we have, but not far enough.
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@ mitsuki: i dont generalize, I was talking about locals who deny calling ppl black because there is a stigma to it, they call them asmar. Just call them black w 4get the stigma. And though our religion says we shouldnt, many of us DO.
forgive me but i dont realy understand what u mean when u say "locals who deny calling ppl black ".
i admit that i may have been wrong in the sense that the slave trade is 'completely' behind us, it isn't in every way. i have herd, occasionaly, a few racist remarks towards blacks, even from my own family. but i honestly never have seen an case of local ppl not willing to call ppl black.
yes in some cases '7al does become racist slur, when u say it in a certain way. but personaly i dont believe it is a racist word, in the general sense.
dnt get u sorry!
just a neutral thought.
7abit il 5al.. did it orginiate from the word "5al" as in a black indiviual, or did the word "5al" originate from 7abit il 5al?
I was never able to find an answer to it.
or maybe it originated from the word "5al" as in Uncle?
up to discussion :p
I use the term "Afrab" for Arab people of African appearance/heritage, they are often some of the most beautiful people around here. They look particularly good in Gulf dress.
It is quite strange coming here from countries where everyone wants to tan themselves to discover there are millions of people that bleach their skin. And both are pretty damaging processes.
Weird that we all look so different, when genetically we are all so inter-related (the entire human race was supposedly squeezed down to just 10,000 people at one stage of history, when humankind was still in Africa) and weirder and sadder still that none of us is happy with the way we look. Well most of us anyway. I found myself buying fake tan the other day ;)
my sis had her baby!
yes, her sister had her baby and we had a party.
Im liking adinamorato's post best... I would love an answer to that!... lol
This post is quite old, but I just happen to have read it.. It’s an interesting topic and up to a discussion!
I am not entirely sure I get your point of the post, what I gathered is that you hate how people won't call black people "black" cuz they think it might be offending to the black people, and that those people believe that calling a black person "asmar" is more charming than the word black! Is that what you’re trying to say?
Honestly, I have never met anyone in my life (UAE national) that has ever had a problem with that Issue, I was quite surprised when I read your post actually :S
Basically, I am a black local lady! I've never had to deal with the fact that I am black, cuz I never really had anything to deal with! It took me a while to understand when I was the only black kid in class in school. But it was kinda funny in a way.
I am rambling about this. This is a nice topic, I think I am going to research about it and maybe write an article :) ok, am gonna shut up now!
Funniest thing happened to me, I wanted to shoot myself at the spot.
You know when you're extra careful not to be racist?
I was chatting with an aquaintance - she's black, but the lighter black... anyways we were chatting & the conversation went to her saying, "you be the trashy white girl and i'll be the bitchy black girl" ... & i was like, "but you're not black"
WHAT WAS I THINKING?! It made me sound so racist, when I'm not at all!!! Dammit
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