re-Orient

chaya (they/them) #madwomenfightback about

[hineni]

i was filling out this volunteer form for a really rad org and that listed the type race options along with "arab person" and like. you did actually talk to anyone from the mashreq have u

[hineni]

concept: white ppl ask your opinion on something, and then actually listen to your response

[hineni]

my white coworker is *explaining* southeast asia to my other coworker who, you guessed it, is from vietnam

[bioillogically]

incomplete list of things you should think twice about as a white convert who didn’t grow up culturally muslim:

making commentary on how you Reconcile your new faith with your sexuality or gender identity. seriously. leave that to people to whom it’s not an intellectual exercise and who’ve spent their lives doing this up close and personal, sometimes at risk to their mental and physical wellbeing.

riffing on sociopolitical or religiously-motivated conflict in muslim-majority countries in which you have absolutely no stake. literally why would you do that

honestly? even sharing jokes/memes about growing up muslim. you don’t need to ‘me too’ about everything to practice a faith.

just generally overcompensating.

complaining about how hard it is for you to feel ‘culturally appropriative’ for your beliefs and/or dress. seriously.

complaining about other muslims viewing you with some degree of suspicion, given the political animus around islam in the west.

talking about anti-muslim sentiment as if it’s something that meaningfully affects you.

equating your experiences to those of people who grew up in the faith, certainly not those of muslims of color.

like go ahead and practice the faith–but, like, that just doesn’t need to involve inserting yourself into discourses in which you have no stake. i don’t believe converting as a white person is culturally appropriative per se, but you need to have some perspective.

[madilik]

if i can add 1 thing as much as my current state of sinusitis allows me to form coherent sentences (i hope u dnt mind leylâ abla!!):

i dnt think its a matter of cultural appropriation but like, so much of classic Western anti-Muslim thought is based on a few ideas, for example:

1 - Imperialist / Colonialist ideas of the Muslim Orient (directly racial) - Islam is very directly racialised and it’s more about race / ethnicity than the faith, knowledge of the faith (about Islam + about a person’s religiosity and practices) is not necessary to racialise them /as a Muslim/.. like race + religion were/are idk interchangable in this context, for example the word “Turk” was used to mean all Muslims / (Muslim) subjects of the Ottoman Empire

2 - Crusades and the Reformation (the Muslim (or the “Turk”)) as the Antichrist, the enemy of Christendom (used by Protestants and Catholics against one another) etc etc (–> current ideas of the Muslim as the enemy of Western Civilization and Our Way Of Life)

(American anti-Muslim sentiment is different not in essence but in justification, there’s more focus on more recent events of course.)

and therefore Islam and Muslim-ness does not exist outside race / racialisation, and when someone treats me (a secular person with 0 grams of faith in her body) in a certain way for being Muslim, it’s because I’m Turkish and Look Like This (a combination of the two, usually, depending on the extent of my interactions with them). It’s what they assume my /essence/ to be, and my /culture/ to be, etc etc. Like, of course it changes from person to person (how you look, where you live, how you practice) and situation to situation but like, don’t go around pretending Islamophobia as an ideologic thing affects you like it affects us (it may even aim to protect you from our corrupting influences, lol)

also (and don’t take me seriously on this), i have not had 1 conversation about “growing up muslim” or “the muslim experience” that had anything to do with /faith/ in it. It’s either being repressed / traumatized by our societies or like “cultural” things lmao

[gothhabiba]

not to sound cynical but I’ve honestly dealt with too many white people who seem for all the world like they converted for the specific purpose of inserting themselves into these conversations and having the thrill of (supposedly) being racialised by proxy. given how they talked about & fetishised issues of race in general and also how they talked about their faith (“it irks me that as a white convert I’m expected to be like, really religious” why else…. would you…….. convert). I’ve interacted with white people who seemed like they would do literally anything to deny, deflect, or otherwise “complicate” the fact that they’re white, and religion can play a part in that game for a lot of them (as can moving to “Third World” countries and then calling people of colour “Western” or something, lmfao). people do the same with Judaism though of course that’s not parallel

[hineni]

I feel this conversation is also super relevant (although not identical) to the positions many White folks take when they convert (or even just consider converting!!) to Judaism. and the... eagerness in which white people throw themselves into positions of marginalization and do whatever they can to distract from their whiteness or be held countable for their actions

[bioillogically]

incomplete list of things you should think twice about as a white convert who didn’t grow up culturally muslim:

making commentary on how you Reconcile your new faith with your sexuality or gender identity. seriously. leave that to people to whom it’s not an intellectual exercise and who’ve spent their lives doing this up close and personal, sometimes at risk to their mental and physical wellbeing.

riffing on sociopolitical or religiously-motivated conflict in muslim-majority countries in which you have absolutely no stake. literally why would you do that

honestly? even sharing jokes/memes about growing up muslim. you don’t need to ‘me too’ about everything to practice a faith.

just generally overcompensating.

complaining about how hard it is for you to feel ‘culturally appropriative’ for your beliefs and/or dress. seriously.

complaining about other muslims viewing you with some degree of suspicion, given the political animus around islam in the west.

talking about anti-muslim sentiment as if it’s something that meaningfully affects you.

equating your experiences to those of people who grew up in the faith, certainly not those of muslims of color.

like go ahead and practice the faith–but, like, that just doesn’t need to involve inserting yourself into discourses in which you have no stake. i don’t believe converting as a white person is culturally appropriative per se, but you need to have some perspective.

[madilik]

if i can add 1 thing as much as my current state of sinusitis allows me to form coherent sentences (i hope u dnt mind leylâ abla!!):

i dnt think its a matter of cultural appropriation but like, so much of classic Western anti-Muslim thought is based on a few ideas, for example:

1 - Imperialist / Colonialist ideas of the Muslim Orient (directly racial) - Islam is very directly racialised and it’s more about race / ethnicity than the faith, knowledge of the faith (about Islam + about a person’s religiosity and practices) is not necessary to racialise them /as a Muslim/.. like race + religion were/are idk interchangable in this context, for example the word “Turk” was used to mean all Muslims / (Muslim) subjects of the Ottoman Empire

2 - Crusades and the Reformation (the Muslim (or the “Turk”)) as the Antichrist, the enemy of Christendom (used by Protestants and Catholics against one another) etc etc (–> current ideas of the Muslim as the enemy of Western Civilization and Our Way Of Life)

(American anti-Muslim sentiment is different not in essence but in justification, there’s more focus on more recent events of course.)

and therefore Islam and Muslim-ness does not exist outside race / racialisation, and when someone treats me (a secular person with 0 grams of faith in her body) in a certain way for being Muslim, it’s because I’m Turkish and Look Like This (a combination of the two, usually, depending on the extent of my interactions with them). It’s what they assume my /essence/ to be, and my /culture/ to be, etc etc. Like, of course it changes from person to person (how you look, where you live, how you practice) and situation to situation but like, don’t go around pretending Islamophobia as an ideologic thing affects you like it affects us (it may even aim to protect you from our corrupting influences, lol)

also (and don’t take me seriously on this), i have not had 1 conversation about “growing up muslim” or “the muslim experience” that had anything to do with /faith/ in it. It’s either being repressed / traumatized by our societies or like “cultural” things lmao

[gothhabiba]

not to sound cynical but I’ve honestly dealt with too many white people who seem for all the world like they converted for the specific purpose of inserting themselves into these conversations and having the thrill of (supposedly) being racialised by proxy. given how they talked about & fetishised issues of race in general and also how they talked about their faith (“it irks me that as a white convert I’m expected to be like, really religious” why else…. would you…….. convert). I’ve interacted with white people who seemed like they would do literally anything to deny, deflect, or otherwise “complicate” the fact that they’re white, and religion can play a part in that game for a lot of them (as can moving to “Third World” countries and then calling people of colour “Western” or something, lmfao). people do the same with Judaism though of course that’s not parallel

[hineni]

that ethnic feel when

[boogara]

not to stereotype but if you like ghosts, youre probably gay

[wellbutrinboy]

if u have curly hair and someone tells u it would look better straight theyre a liar and a dumb bitch

[hineni]

oh yes, wouldn't be a Thursday evening if someone on the bus didn't fervently insist Im Mexican

[hineni]

team i've had this cold for over two weeks at this point what do i do? real question

[hineni]

for real though how are you supposed to have enough time to work full-time, have a babe, make food, exercise, go to therapy, do laundry, have a social life, respond to emails, and destroy the state?

[hineni]

white women today have been viscous pls send me good thoughts

[hineni]

can you believe that to this day i have never been diagnosed with ptsd

[melanchole]

whatsapp is nonwhite culture

[finalfantasy37]

the valid-problematic spectrum

[womanfourwoman]

lie to cops

[hineni]

me