Anti-Black Arab Racism

Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under Sudan, Racism, Sudanese |

I found this great article by Nesrine Malik, a fellow Sudanese, via a link at Ali’s blog. I can strongly relate to her story.

As a Northern Sudanese, I’ve always found it funny how we have no problem whatsoever being racist towards our fellow countrymen with darker skin from Darfur and the South but then start whining and complaining about the racism in Arab countries when we face it.

Within the context of Sudan we generally tend to regard ourselves as Arabs (even though most of us Northerns are actually Afro-Arabs) but when we step out of our comfortable context and into that of neighboring Arab countries, especially in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf, we suddenly become “contaminated” inferior pseudo-Arabs

Ah, racism is so much fun.

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Comments

17 Responses to “Anti-Black Arab Racism”

  1. suzanne on March 6th, 2008 8:13 am

    There is nothign wrong being African. When do people realise that?

    Sigh.

  2. suzanne on March 6th, 2008 11:23 am

    And you know what?

    Before I did some research on Sudan (for work, that is), I thought Sudan to be yet another dusty Arab/African place with hardly any history but being colonised in the past and grabbing each others hair for whatever stupid reason.

    How wrong I was. I never thought Sudan to be such a rich and especially diverse country. Rich in its own way. It’s dusty, but not everywhere. There are muslims, there are christians. There are arabs, there are africans. There are many kind of Africans as well with each their own traditions and cultures.

    There appeared to be piramids (!) and a fascinating past. There appeared to be great thinkers with refreshing new ideas (of whom e.g. Mohammed Taha and I still curse the government back then of killing him).

    The Sudanese people are beautiful. Some Arab-like, others African-like. Brown, more brown, black, to kenian-like black, which i’d call blueblack.
    That sounds weird, but its a beautiful colour :)

    But yet, as usual. There are people who just rather destroys beautiful culture because of some weird idea that they are superiour above the other.

    It’s just so disgusting :(

    Btw, I would like to add an anecdote, which also shows some mistrust by African Sudanese towards Arabs.

    During a meeting with Sudanese, there was also this Palestinian man in the room. A colleague and (former) friend of mine. I saw him talking with an African Sudanese and he had a rather pissed off face and walked away.

    Later this Sudanese man came to me, saying that hatred from Arabs towards Blacks is still not over as was shown, because “did you see the look at his face when I was talking to him”? I asked this Palestinian later what had happened. He said that he saw the Sudanese African hating him because he was Arab. I have not really a clue of what had been said, but it just sounded so stupid and I tried to ease the Sudanese and Palestinian that they probably are not like this and that they took things too personally.

    :)

  3. Drima on March 6th, 2008 2:15 pm

    Racism from Africans towards Arabs exists in Sudan. I’ve met quite a significant number of Southern Sudanese out here where I live who become very hostile towards me once they realize I’m a Northern Sudanese and not Ethiopian.

    If only they knew what I thought about John Garang. Hell, if he was still around I’d vote for him in next year’s supposedly coming monumental elections.

  4. SALMA on March 6th, 2008 3:21 pm

    what i find it wierd about this blog readers is their ability to bash palestineans in thier comments even if the topic is not about them.

    drima do not rake this as something against your blog.
    about racism it is every where and i realize that it is just another form of ignorance.

  5. Drima on March 6th, 2008 3:30 pm

    Salam Salma,

    “there was also this Palestinian man in the room. A colleague and (former) friend of mine.”

    By looking at the above quote, I don’t think Suzanne intended to bash her Palestinian friend.

    “about racism it is every where and i realize that it is just another form of ignorance.”

    I certainly agree. Racism comes down to plain ignorance.

    Anyways Salma, just wanna say thanks for your openness and calm exchange of ideas regardless of whether we agree or not. I appreciate it. :)

  6. suzanne on March 6th, 2008 3:44 pm

    Haha, since when is mentioning a Palestinian bashing a Palestinian?

    He was a colleague and a former friend of mine. Former because we lost contact, unfortunately.

  7. suzanne on March 6th, 2008 3:48 pm

    “about racism it is every where and i realize that it is just another form of ignorance.”

    …leading to prejudices. That’s one part.

    But I believe there is also still hard-core racism. Those whose ideology is based on “superior and inferior races”, because that’s what they believe is true. Teaching the latter group will not be of much help, then.

    Or am I too pessimistic?

  8. Ahmad al-Safawi on March 6th, 2008 6:25 pm

    Suzanne: Nothing wrong in being African, but African is not an ethnicity, so you can be arab and african on the same time, just like you can be hutu (bantu) and african on the same time, amhari (semitic) and african on the same and afrikaaner (indoeuropean) and african on the same time.

  9. asma ana on March 6th, 2008 6:59 pm

    Drima,

    “Racism from Africans towards Arabs exists in Sudan. I’ve met quite a significant number of Southern Sudanese out here where I live who become very hostile towards me once they realize I’m a Northern Sudanese and not Ethiopian.”

    I agree with you. Unfortunately, there is this pervasive feeling among southerners that ALL Northerners of Arabic stock are evil. It was only when I lived among Northern Sudanese did I realize (when I was a kid) that they are nice people (of course the racist ones exist too)and that they are just people like me. Some of my best friends were Northern Sudanese kids.

    Suffice to say in the hela, I was also called racist names too. Today I consider myself an englightened person and associate will all Sudanese regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity. If you look beyond skin colour, people are people. I just wish humanity can realize that and what a peaceful world we would be living in!

    To explore more on some of the stuff Nasrin wrote about in Ali’s blog, read “War of Visions: Conflict of Identity in the Sudan,” written by the well-known and respected scholar, Dr. Francis Mading Deng.

  10. asma ana on March 6th, 2008 7:00 pm

    Drima,

    “Racism from Africans towards Arabs exists in Sudan. I’ve met quite a significant number of Southern Sudanese out here where I live who become very hostile towards me once they realize I’m a Northern Sudanese and not Ethiopian.”

    I agree with you. Unfortunately, there is this pervasive feeling among southerners that ALL Northerners of Arabic stock are evil. It was only when I lived among Northern Sudanese did I realize (when I was a kid) that they are nice people (of course the racist ones exist too)and that they are just people like me. Some of my best friends were Northern Sudanese kids.

    Suffice to say in the hela, I was also called racist names too. Today I consider myself an englightened person and associate will all Sudanese regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity. If you look beyond skin colour, people are people. I just wish humanity can realize that and what a peaceful world we would be living in!

    To explore more on some of the stuff Nasrin wrote about in Ali’s blog, read “War of Visions: Conflict of Identity in the Sudan,” written by the well-known and respected Sudanese scholar, Dr. Francis Mading Deng. I bet people in Sudan are not even aware of this book, considered a classic among scholars.

  11. suzanne on March 6th, 2008 8:26 pm

    @Ahmad, you are right. :) but i did not wat to pose it as an ethnicity ;)

  12. Dalu on March 7th, 2008 5:03 am

    Racism is so tiring.

    Sometimes I scorn bleaching creams. And then I realize/reminded why they are needed. Maybe I should jump on the bandwagon.

  13. suzanne on March 7th, 2008 11:34 am

    Bleaching creams?

    Haha. I use browning creams, before the summer is there coz of my white skiin ;)

  14. Andrew Brehm on March 7th, 2008 12:43 pm

    “Nothing wrong in being African, but African is not an ethnicity, so you can be arab and african on the same time, just like you can be hutu (bantu) and african on the same time, amhari (semitic) and african on the same and afrikaaner (indoeuropean) and african on the same time.”

    Can you be Jewish and Palestinian at the same time?

  15. suzanne on March 7th, 2008 4:25 pm

    @Andrew, Golda was one :)

  16. Ahmad al-Safawi on March 7th, 2008 5:18 pm

    Andrew:

    No problem, all the jews who were native to the country until the state of Israel were declared de jure was.

    So yes you can. You can also be a jew and an egyptian.

    Arab jew then? Well i dont know, Arab jew or Jewish Arab… i am certain that you can be one of those two, dont know which one.

  17. Andrew Brehm on March 10th, 2008 3:02 pm

    “No problem, all the jews who were native to the country until the state of Israel were declared de jure was.”

    I don’t care about “de jure” since the mandate of Palestine (Land of Israel) ended when Israel was founded. Since both Israel and a possible Arab state are successors to that mandate Palestine (Land of Israel), both people born in Israel as well as people born in the Arab part of Palestine should be Palestinians, UNLESS we want to argue that race matters.

    The de-jure part is meaningless since none of the Jews that lived in Palestine (Land of Israel) before 1948 have received any of the benefits that were legally due to Palestinians. That particular de-jure definition is hence meaningless.

    And what about those many Egyptians who moved into the mandate because of the jobs created by Jews? Are they Palestinians?

    It seems to me that many people believe that Yasser Arafat, born in Cairo, is a Palestinian while Moshe Dayan, born in the land of Israel when it was a part of the Ottoman Empire, is not a Palestinian.

    It also seems to me that many people think that an Arab born in Lebanon to parents born in Lebanon to parents born in the mandate Palestine (Land of Israel) is a “Palestinian” while a Jew born in Israel to parents born in Israel to parents born in Lebanon is neither Palestinian nor Lebanese.

    So when exactly did the term “Palestinian” get attached to Arab ethnicity rather than actual location of Palestine?

    “So yes you can. You can also be a jew and an egyptian.”

    I know. It just wasn’t advisable to be one after the revolution.

    Incidentally, since all Jews ultimately trace their heritage to the land of Israel (even those who converted do since that is what G-d’s law commanded), would not all Jews be Palestinians?

    “Arab jew then? Well i dont know, Arab jew or Jewish Arab… i am certain that you can be one of those two, dont know which one.”

    Half of Israel’s Jewish population are Arab Jews.

    I believe maybe a Jewish Arab is an Arab who became a Jew and possibly his descendants, while an Arab Jew is a Jew who became assimilated into Arab society. Or maybe vice versa. Which definition should we use?

    Both Arabic and German have been languages used by Jews for over a thousand years. But today the connection of Jews with Germany is still very much alive, despite the Holocaust and WW2, while the connection of Jews with Arab countries is pretty much dead (with the possible exception of a small presence in Morocco).

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