Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

I am not White, Black, Asian or Hispanic

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • I am not White, Black, Asian or Hispanic

    MoroccoBoard.com

    ýAug 15, 2009ý

    I am not White, Black, Asian or Hispanic

    SARAH ALAOUI

    Is this going to be one of those cliché articles discussing the
    multiracial citizen's struggle to check a race box? Well, not
    exactly. It's not about a mixed citizen, and it's not really cliché
    because it becomes relevant again every ten years when we have to fill
    out the U.S. Census, and roughly every four years when applying to
    schools, and every time one fills out a job application, or a survey
    (but remember, it's just for "statistical purposes"...please.) or
    pretty much for almost every single piece of paperwork we have to fill
    out. Cliché? I think not.
    Before I begin my writing rampage, firing my missiles of information
    and experiences at you regarding the futility of the current race box
    system, I want to provide you with some background facts.
    I come from a Moroccan family and throughout my life, I've had trouble
    checking the boxes to indicate my "race". In elementary school, I
    think I checked the "white" box which is interesting to me now--I
    think it was because at that point in my life, I thought Moroccans
    were the only types of people in the world and I fit into the category
    of lighter skinned Moroccans (I'd spent some years living in Morocco
    as a child and the environment there is not as heterogenous as
    California). As a 6-year-old when I met my father's Egyptian friend,
    the first thing I said to him was, "Hey, you speak like they do on
    TV!," referring to the Egyptian soap operas that are always playing on
    the dish. I'm glad to say I've come a long way from elementary school
    and my world has broadened to include people of all kinds of races,
    faiths, and ethnicities--I now am fully aware that those actors on TV
    also exist in real life!
    As I grew older and became aware of social structure and society in
    the United States, I began to realize that yes, although I am light
    skinned for being Moroccan, there's a whole world of people that are
    much lighter than me, and they are the true "whites". That's also when
    I learned that Italians, Greeks, Armenians and even Persians are
    considered white. Just when I was starting to feel comfortable that
    others shared my olive skin and feel I could relate to them (there
    aren't very many Moroccans my age where I live), they were whisked
    away by a category that indicated a whole different world I could
    never relate to.
    Because "white" does not only embody a color. What the term "white"
    means in the United States today is something that transcends any skin
    color. White means the suburbs and white means affluence and white
    means picket fences. Some people may argue then, that I do fit into
    the white category based on my definition of the term. But white also
    means no questions asked ever, no extra security checks at the airport
    or in that same category, no mispronunciations of my last name or
    being told it's a "cool" name as a precursor for the question of where
    I'm from. Being white means being untouchable in this country.
    In middle school, high school, and now in college, I've started
    alternating between the "African/Black" box and the "Other"
    box. During the cutthroat period of college applications, my friends
    would ask, "Hey Sarah, can't you apply as African-American? SO
    unfair." I'm sorry, but I don't want to get accepted into college and
    be tossed into the gossip conversations of "well, she just got in
    because she's African-American...well, technically, she is". There was
    one university application--the name doesn't come to mind, right
    now--but they had a box for "White/North African". That one made me
    especially mad. Those are two completely different worlds, because as
    far as I'm concerned, in places like Europe, for example, "White" and
    "North African" represent completely different worlds. "Other", it
    was, for college applications at least. Sometimes, there's a "Middle
    Eastern" box, but I don't check that either. I don't consider myself
    Middle Eastern, I consider myself Arab. That's a!
    whole other conversation, however. The last job I applied for, I
    checked off "African" crossing my fingers that my black manager
    wouldn't comment on it. Awkward. Also, I can't forget the comments
    from black peers, "You're African? Nawww, no way!". YES WAY, I'm Arab,
    I'm African, I'm not white, I'm not black. Here we go again...
    Let's cut straight to the point. That $300 billion that will be
    redistributed to local and state governments and communities should
    reflect the accurate amount of Arabs in the United States. Arabs,
    please crawl out of your "white" and "other" boxes now, and make sure
    our numbers are reflected accordingly in the 2010 census. Let's get
    our own box.
Working...
X