Have you ever experienced racism from Arabs? Share your stories here.
No…probably cause I could pass as an Arab until I open my mouth…I just yell at them and say Yallah Habibi, Alls cool in the world.
On a more serious note…its definitely a light skin thing, when I was in Dubai you can def feel the ingrained Racism if you talked to a local.
I haven’t experienced any direct racism, I have a very common arabic name and kinda look Mexican however I’ve heard some passive aggressive racist comments directed towards desis, like jokes about the smell of curry and desi food, making fun of Pakistani culture. Sometimes they expect me to agree with them cause they don’t believe that I’m Pakistani lool even though I think i look desi enough.
All the Saudi students I’ve met have been very friendly and always interested in learning about Pakistanis but I think they just view me as an Americanized desi not just paki and a lot saudis and qataris I’ve seen can even pass for paki. I think Palestinians, Lebanese, Iraqis and Egyptians are more racist.
Grew up in the Arab world and with the exception of a couple of obnoxious Arab bullies in high school, overall the experiences have been positive.
In my profession though, I have found Desi and Southeast Asian parents easier to work with. I’ve come across more of that feisty, defensive attitude among Arab parents…(not all of them, of course).
This Saudi student I got to know in the US when he was studying here, then many years after he went back and was employed as an Official in Riyad, I informed him of my plans for Umra! He came to the Jeddah Airport, at the arrival Gate He walked me out of the documents check line, we went directly to is car, we drove to the Haram sharif and performed Umra, Alhumdulillah! even though I insisted on paying my way He would not allow that!
Arab Hospitality! what can you say! May Allah reward him!
Yeah Saudis are very hospitable, at least the ones I came to know here. Some of them also know a little urdu.
I have interacted with Lebanese, Egyptian, Palestinian, Gulf and Saudi arabs and have not experienced any sort of hostility. Infact the most friendliest of these have been the Lebanese (i love their food) and Palestinians (they always look up to Bakistani beebles to help liberate them from the Yahood).
NOT ALL ARAB PARENTS ARE FEISTY AND DEFENSIVE.
I grew up in London which is super diverse, tbh I got racist comments from Arabs, a LOT from Afghans and none from Indians. And they were all about being light/dark skinned. Arabs would says I was too dark, as would Afghani’s (to put it in perspective, I am dead in the middle - medium skin tone - so how ‘white’ Arabs wanted me to be, I was never sure).
But overall, they are good people. Never had that much trouble.