Thursday, November 15, 2007

Whiteness?!?!

Asalamu alaikum,
Okay... i'm just gonna go off.

I know many people struggle with identity here in America. and the other day I was reading things online about race and racism... But what hit me, was something really frustrating!

Why are arabs considered white?! I swear we're like brown in color... Okay granted, that i'm white as anything, but thats because half the arab world was occupied by britain and france...
Did you know that on census reports if you fill in Arab or Muslim, you are automatically placed in the category of Caucasian! :x

I don't know how I am considered white or Caucasian... Yeah maybe if I wasn't a hijabi, you probably wouldn't be able to pick me out of a crowd.. But the fact of the matter is, I am not white. Whiteness is this stupid label people associate a standard of norm to.
Being white = opportunity or some craziness like that. I AM NOT WHITE! Forget that I AM NOT EVEN ARAB!! I AM MUSLIM! and yeah, obviously I am American, having been born and raised here, but I'm not even considered American by the general public.
But for me, I can walk down the street and no matter what my skin looks like, my hijab is seen first. hijab = not normal = not american = inferior. My brother, no matter what he looks like, he still has a Muslim name. My mother, no matter how she speaks, she's told that she doesn't belong here.

What annoys the heck out of me the most, is when people are like... you can't join the NAACP you're not black, or you can't join the Asian club you're white... I am sick of people putting a label on me. I am Reem, that's the only label I can carry, that coincides with my identity as a Muslim. Being a Muslim, let alone being HUMAN!!!! (not sub-human) should be reason enough for me to join support groups of other people.

2 comments:

Artistic Logic said...

you're right!!!
Allah didn't create us to be this divided, we invented this and its biting everyone in the butt
some more than others

supreem said...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for real!