"Honey, you're cute. If only you were whiter...."

Mmm... I'm starting to hear stuff like this a lot more often. From friends, associates and even my own sister.

They usually compliment my features first and then drop the bomb. "I admire your light reddish brown almond shapped eyes, your lips, your feminine figure and soft voice, small hands, the natural arch your eyebrows have. You're really a cute girl, but I think you should try to whiten your skin. Then you'd be a bombshell."

Before I became muslim I've never been insecure about my skin color. In Honolulu, nobody EVER cares about how light their skin is. As a matter of fact, people were so eager to get tanned that you'd see full blooded Japanese girls several shades darker than me. I'm not kidding. Only recently have my sister and I started feeling insecure about our skin color. A couple of girls were over and raving about a soap that makes your skin whiter. She was a brown girl, Filipina, and wanted to be as light as Jessica Alba. " Not too white," she said, " I don't wanna be like Michael Jackson, you know."

I've even had close friends drop the "get white" line. Someone even said that one of the best things about hijab is that it blocks the sun's rays so you don't get darker. Hijab makes you paler and in turn, it makes you pretty? Interesting...

Recently I was talking to a group of people and someone mentioned that Arabs only prefer blondes with light colored eyes and pale skin. Basically the picture of a Valkyrie on the cover of a book about Norse mythology. I mentioned," Interesting, the majority of men that I see staring at me or pulling out pick-up lines are Arab. I've only noticed a few Black guys try such a thing."

One of the people laughed and said it's because I'm young and that I have a charismatic personality. My charm is what gets them, not my looks. I suppose it could be true. Cleopatra was one ugly broad but she seemed to have something about her that made men fall head over heels.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing that charm, wit, intellect and my youth are what make me appealing. But isn't it possible that some people think I'm pretty, just the way I am? Isn't it possible that some people don't treat brown skin as if it were some terrible infection?

I think hanging around Muslims may have killed my self esteem more than anything.

What say you? I'm gonna order some Fair and Lovely.

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CorsaroBarbaro CorsaroBarbaro is online
1 week ago

racism will never end.... tis fact... unfortunate but true

alinakhan alinakhan is offline
1 week ago

thank you posters i just hope one day all this racism will end its everywhere my own family were from racist afghan aryans but after converting to islam in the time of the prophet they stopped all that nonsense islam put a an end to it which im greatful for as that was the part of my ancestory that i hate and never want to know but now iv never heard any racist remarks in the white afghans now they mix with others so if islam ended that in our nation hope time will end it in other nations too and its not only the white that are racist evrytime i enter an coloured african shop they give you looks but i dont take it to heart i just purchase what i want be as polite as i can be and soon their own expression changes to a good being white isnt anything special its genectic mutation .

BACK2MYROOTS BACK2MYROOTS is offline
1 week ago

You can get statistics through opinion polls, from human rights organisations, government figures, research etc. Of course you can, An Maim. You can study employment statistics, housing, poverty, homelessness, social exlusion etc. and their distributions by whatever background characteristics/attributes you like. So, it can be done.

The thing is, because-as I maintain it isn't an issue- even official forms DO NOT include 'ethnicity', as in the West beause it IS an issue here.

An_Najm_uth_Thaaqib An_Najm_uth_Thaaqib is online
1 week ago

Assalamu alaikum.

Rasulullah (sallahu alayhi wassalam) said in an authentic hadith recorded by Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi: 'People should give up their pride in nations because this is a coal from the hellfire. If they do not give this up, Allah (swt) will consider them lower than a lowly dung worm which pushes itself through feces.'

Not implying anything about anyone, but maybe the hadith can bring about some reflection for all of us. Racism and nationalism is indeed an unhealthy habit borne out of love from the dunya - and it is true that racism exists everywhere, including countries like Algeria and other places in North Africa! How one can pin down abstract feelings like racial abuse down to statistics is beyond me...

Etcetera Etcetera is offline
1 week ago

yup alina... it was an interesting debate. lol...even if nothing was resolved:)
guess it just ended up being a venting session. Ah well, perhaps sometimes these things need to get spewed out.

BACK2MYROOTS BACK2MYROOTS is offline
1 week ago

@alinakhan. No problem. Arguments often go a bit out of hand, sometimes even get unpleasant. You just have to expect that and learn to deal with it in your own way. When it reaches that point, I either make my point and take a break, or engage in the debate until satisfied.

149 comments, 1,617 views for this blog is an unprecedented record I believe, and YOU helped achieve that!

B2MR [for short]

alinakhan alinakhan is offline
1 week ago

thanks back2myroots but the way the argument broke out i felt guilty im new here i want to learn ,

BACK2MYROOTS BACK2MYROOTS is offline
1 week ago

@alinakhan. It doesn't matter really when this particular blog was posted. It did stimulate some interesting discussions.

alinakhan alinakhan is offline
1 week ago

lol my fault opened a almost dead blog sorry but im new here i need to learn and read the dates on the blogs and then post

CorsaroBarbaro CorsaroBarbaro is online
2 weeks ago

but rocket compliments cheese perfectly ...especially oh .... i'm salivating.... i just remembered

I want to make goats cheese in bread crumbs on a bed of rocket *_*

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