Middle Easterners: A guide to what no one seems to know
Hi, I’m arab and exhausted. I’m exhausted of all the subtle ways I’ve been treated bc of who I am. And I’ve come to realise that treating Middle Easterners like this is so subconscious now that people don’t even realise a lot of the time what they are doing. Though this list will also include some more well known ones, as well as, some religion based things but over all I am talking about the racism that’s perpetuated on Arabs and other Middle Easterners and North Africans. Please add on if you are MENA, as this won’t ve exhaustive.
It’s NOT pronounced A-rab (A like the single letter + rab s as in rabbit) it IS pronounced Arab (air + ab - like the abdominal muslce). [this point specifically applies to people with American/Canadian accents]
Within the Middle East there are all types of landscapes from desert to green, farmable lands. Where you live does dictate what you eat more of (traditionally). Soo it’s not all sand. However, I’m from where the sand is and that’s where you find the more nomadic tribes. These are the peoples who keep camels and they move a lot. They are referred to as Bedu (BEH-doo). Today, not all of them live normadic desert lifestyles. But most Arabs are able to trace their lineage to different tribes. However, not all Arabs tribes were Bedu or nomadic.
Slurs: DO NOT USE THESE, this has been included in case you don’t know: Dune Coon, Sand N*gger, Towel Head, Terrorist, A-Rab, Lizard Eater, Snake Charmers, calling us all Ali Baba, Jihadis, Savages, Barbarians.
Misconceptions and Myths: we all ride camels, we all work with oil, we are all Muslim, we are all terrorists, we are Indian (from the sub-continent), Turks are Arabs (they are a fun mix after centuries of colonisation), we are all liars/swindlers/untrustworthy, not everyone speaks Arabic, we don’t live in the 21st century, we are very backwards about everything. We all have loads of money and drive Rolls-Royce. We aren’t all super conservative or sexist or homophobic or transphobic. Gay and Transgender MENA exist and have existed for a long time.
Who is in the Middle East? What ethnicities? Arabs, Egyptians, Kurds, Persians, Areminians, Azerbaijanis, Copts, Jews (the list goes on but these are the larger groups - there are Ethnic Jews of ME descent which live outside of Palestine, as well as ethnically Palestinian Jews). Though Arabs is normally used as an umbrella term for anyone residing in MENA. It depends on the person if they find that offensive. But if you know where they are from better to say that.
What are we racially? This is a point of contention in the MENA community. As we have been labelled as different races over the years. The important thing to recognise that we prove Race is a dumb concept that has no validity. But to clarify we are a literal mix of just about everything from thousands of years of trade in the Silk Road and colonisation. There’s no one look for Middle Easterners at all. Proof, me and my family who range from being White passing to full blown brown, with hair that’s straight to wavy to tight curls, with eyes that are brown, hazel, blue and green. And the Arab kids I went to school with who had bright red hair and green eyes. But, would I say any of us are White? Uhhh, maybe some Turks and some of the Jewish peoples currently in Palestine. But really none of us are White as White here tend to mean of European descent. My best guess is that was said so white ppl could claim Jesus.
Languages of the Middle East: Arabic is the most popular language though the dialect varies highly between countries to the point that the Moroccans can’t really be understood by the peoples in the Levant and Peninsula normally. Persian/Farsi spoken throughout modern day Iran. These are the big two with Hebrew and Turkish also being popular languages. The diagram below shows more. Though it doesn’t show all of North African, but they speak Arabic for the most part, though some can speak the colonisers languages as well (eg French)
[Photo ID: Map of South West Asia region colloquially referred to as the Middle East. It has modern country borders as well as a colour coded system that extents out of borders to denote the majority language spoken in different areas. Countries w/ languages in brackets: Egypt (Arabic), Yemen (Arabic), Oman (Arabic), UAE (Arabic), Baharain (Arabic), Qatar (Arabic), Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Jordon (Arabic), Lebanon (Arabic), Palestine/Israel (Arabic/Hebrew), Syria (Arabic/Kurdik), Iraq (Arabic/Kurdik/Lun), Turkey (Turkish/Zazai/Kurdik), Armenia (Armenian), Azerbaijan (Azeri), Iran (Farsi/Arabic/Kurdik/Lun/Azeri/Talysh/Gilaki/Mazani/Qashqai/Baluchi/Dari/Turkmen), Turkmenistan (Turkmen), Afghanistan (Turkmen/Dari/Pashto/Baluchi/Braha/Tajik), Pakistan (Baluchi/Pashto/Braha/Punjabi/Sindhi), Uzbekistan (Kæakh/Uzbek), Tajikistan (Tajik/Uzbek) End ID]
8. Being anti Hijab/Niqab/Burka is just as racist as it is Islamiphobic. The practice of wearing these pre-dates Islam and they are considered traditional head dresses. They are sand/sun protection and almost around the world you had women wearing some sort of head wrap well into the 1960s. Furthermore, while Islam does say one should dress modestly and women should wear a head wrap (especially to pray), there is nothing religious about the niqab or burka. Additionally Islam says it should be the woman’s choice. Soo when you hear about families forcing girls, that’s more cultural than religious. Make the distinction. AND NEVER TRY TO REMOVE A WOMAN’S HEADDRESS. That’s like pulling down someone’s pants. And ESPECIALLY DO NOT SAY you are ‘freeing her’ or ‘saving her’ .
9. Not all Muslims are MENA: just a quick reminder that Islam is a religion. Muslims are the people who follow it. Muslims can be from any ethnic background and there are European, African, Chinese, South Asian and South East Asian, Arabs, Persians, Turks, etc. Oh, and like in the Jewish and Christian religions you get different sects and schools of thought that can alter the original religion to being more conservative or liberal. People practice differently. Don’t assume all Muslims are radical, misogynists. Actually most the stereotypes of the average Muslim (and I mean a lot of people do practice it that way) are very against the religion and what it teaches at it’s core. It’s like the joke about Christianity. The Qaran is the canon, but the fandom sometimes completely ignores it for its own headcanons.
10. In MENA, there are many people who follow other religions: Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, forms of Paganism, Buddists, Hindus, etc. Remember, it’s always been a hub of peoples from around the worlds. They don’t just give up their religions when they move over. And more importantly, forceful conversation or missionary type of work is banned in Islam. This is why there are still Christians and Jewish peoples and the likes.
11. Don’t assume we all know each other. We don’t. Okay..... sometimes we do. But it’s not everyone. We are just very friendly and we do things in a ‘oh well I got a friend of friend of a friend who does that and can help’ way. Though we just call everyone friend or brother or sister.
12. DO NOT compare our culture to European past cultures. Okay we get it we are more socially conservative, but when people use turns of phrase saying we are x numbers of years behind civilisation, or oh how Victorian of us or we are stuck in the dark ages, it hurts, like a lot. We are not somebackwards people, we are not less evolved and we sure as hell don’t need to be compared to our oppressors. And guess what statements like that are what western powers use as excuses to attack us, start wars. These lead to mass diasporas you see of MENA around the world, either being forced into refugee camps to survive, drowning/dying trying to evacuate when invaders want to use our lands as test grounds for their weapons and military’s and to keep us in line. It makes a myth that makes ppl more comfortable with invading us too, that they are helping us in some way. But also A LOT of the ‘backwards’ things that are said we do can be found in western and European countries. And a lot of the ways we are ‘behind’ directly link to multiple points of colonisation.
13. This is kinda in general (not MENA specific), but if you are from a western democracy (especially capitalist) DO NOT even open ur mouth about countries that have monarchies or whatever. It may not be the best system, but neither is any democracy. But one thing is certain, the desire to make us into ‘morally upright’ peoples with democracy is Imperialistic af. Like the entire Cold War was just america going only Capitalist Democracy for everyone. Like congrats you are perpetuating that notion everytime I have someone tell me I must be happy to have escaped to a democracy or even when I see ppl be like oh, this fantasy story is very good I like it but it would be better if it ended with the abolishment of their very non western government system. Also, fun fact, culture effects government, and it effects whichever governmental system might be being used. A monarchy in MENA or East Asia or Africa is going to be SO different that the British Monarchy. So yeah, it might not be the best system but it’s no westerners place to but in and say that. Like just don’t.
14. I want to draw attention to how we are systematically mistreated by the world on a regular basis. Refugees can be forced into unclean camps, loose their lives trying to escape, be forced into camps for over a decade. Get poorly mistreated when arriving in a host country. Various world policies like the White Australian policy. Being forced to assimilate to survive in non MENA countries, not being allowed to openly practice Islam. Hate crimes, HATE CRIMES. Being fired for being suspicious, being sent home from school for being loud when defending yourself, being told that we look exotic and beautiful but only if we have the right mix of arabesque and white features. Having various plastic surgeries encouraged to groups of us to make us ‘prettier’ (mostly nose jobs). REFUGEE CAMPS, they are literally so awful and there are refugees from the Lebanese and Syrian diasporas who are still in camps (THAT IS A DECADE +). LITERAL FUCKING GENOCIDES. Having the media constantly demonise us. Being always chosen for ‘random checks’ and the airport and being overly patted down to ‘make sure’. It’s not the biggest thing but it’s so dehumanising to travel.
Lastly, what is the culture actually like? Overall, I think we have a sense of community I rarely see elsewhere. What do I mean by this? We will treat strangers like family, providing help to them in anyway we can. I s2g the number of times I’m abroad and I go to the Arab markets and they find out I’m living there by myself and I just get adopted into their family to have dinners with them and they look out for me. It’s just part of the lifestyle. Food is probably the communal love language lol. We feed everybody. You won’t ever go hungry in an arabs house. Actually I can guarantee you will put on weight. We have a strong oral tradition of sharing stories and poetry through word of mouth. It’s honestly amazing to listen to, when we speak poetry, it’s like we are singing. We love to share our stories with anyone who will listen respectfully, though in more recent years I’ve seen people become reluctant either because the stereotypes of us makes people do not care, etc. We also have the preforming arts. We have beautiful instruments and styles of singing throughout the lands. We have our own dances. And most importantly something we all have always treasured is knowledge. We have been the hubs of knowledge for centuries (quite literally until the Ottomans took over). But keep in mind many of the Western Scientists we praise today basically just copy/pasted Middle Eastern scientists and then took the credit in history.
Please feel free to add on if you are MENA, everyone else should reblog but not add on.
I really wanna emphasize that this is not an Islamophobia post. Yes, that is an issue. Yes, I do mention Islam, but this post is specifically about MENA individuals regardless of religion. I’m reluctant to call it racism because as I said the notion of race is just dumb, but like that’s what this is. It is racism, it is xenophobia. It’s misunderstanding or blatantly refusing to understand us.
