Saudi Arabia and India agree to study feasibility of establishing power grid    Saudi Awwal Bank records SR5.9 billion net profit after Zakat and Income Tax for YTD Q3    Economy minister emphasizes global partnerships to address pressing challenges Private investments in non-oil sector soar 70%    Saudi Arabia's GDP grows 2.8% in Q3, driven by non-oil sectors    PIF, HKMA sign MoU to establish $1 billion investment fund    Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian men to take off clothes as they evacuated war-torn Jabalya    North Korea fires suspected intercontinental missile    India celebrates Diwali, the festival of lights    'It was like a tsunami': Spaniards recount horror of deadly floods    Bahrain Crown Prince receives Saudi Interior Minister    In-person classes will remain suspended in Jeddah, Rabigh and Khulais schools on Thursday    HR Ministry takes penal action against 568 violators of Domestic Workers' Regulation    Derby Week makes its debut in the Roshn Saudi League    Al Nassr eliminated from King's Cup after a defeat to Al Taawoun    Teri Garr, Young Frankenstein and Tootsie star, dies at 79    Othman Al Omeir receives Legacy of Change Medal at the UK Parliament for advocacy in media    Neymar joins Saudi fashion trend, donning traditional attire at Al Hilal match    Indonesia Days event celebrates cultural diversity at Al Suwaidi Park    Saudi Football Federation reappoints Hervé Renard to lead national team    Tarzan star Ron Ely dies aged 86    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Muted Eid celebrations for millions of Nigerian Muslims    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



How do others see us?
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 30 - 06 - 2008

THE cafeteria of London University's Institute of Education is where students affiliated to various political, humanitarian or naturalistic parties regularly meet, express themselves, and clash. For the active student union of the day, it is a convenient place to shower us, whenever we sit down to a meal or coffee, with announcements and news of its many activities.
One o'clock in the afternoon is when things bubble up in this throbbing heart of campus life, when most lectures are suspended for lunch and students line up patiently to pick up already-made tea with milk and a cold or hot meal depending on one's budget.
For me as a girl from the Orient with its conservative political and student-related practices, every happening in the cafeteria offered a true lesson. Who speaks, what is spoken, how long the speech – we learned how to be accurate, specific, and clear without being too long. We learned the culture of that heated environment.
What drew my attention the most was the nature of the thorny issues raised, notably the discrimination against the non-whites in Britain, particularly those of African origin.
A student would stand up boldly and slap us with accusations of groupism and raise the issue of our discriminatory and convoluted feelings towards him through our everyday acts or through what he faces on the street. Many were the times when a ‘colored' girl like me would be yelled at and asked bluntly whether we felt the same unflappability when sharing the elevator with a dark skinned and non-white person – despite the rising crime rate even among the whites.
What struck me was that these worrying questions made us self-conscious, as they were interwoven with our social upbringing and our resultant convictions. To be honest, at the outset, I felt that they were blowing things out of proportion. As a girl from the Orient unaccustomed to addressing such worrying issues, I found myself repeating with the crowd: “We are alright and our values communicate to us many concepts and practices that deprive us of feelings such as these, or at least make us refrain from admitting these feelings to ourselves.”
Yes, I would tell myself, we have many personal biases towards certain parties but time is likely to lessen these feelings without necessarily bringing them out in the open as they wanted. But why were they seeking to intentionally expose their wounds?
I went on to graduate and as the years passed the quantum of discriminatory feelings around the world heightened as a result of many tensions.
As Amartya Sen says in his beautiful book ‘Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny', the fact of the matter is that the world is increasingly seen, even if only inherently, as a federation of religions or cultures, which leads to shunning any other way in which people see themselves. This perception stems from a strange assumption that people in this world may only be classified according to an individualist and global system, Sen says.
Cultural or religious divisions lead to schismatic comparisons of human identities, which isolate people into groups – based also on nationality, class, ethnicity, color, etc.
Such divisions have led to conflicts that are tormenting and tearing up the world as peoples strive to be unique, the best and the most powerful by creating a certain charm around their claimed identity which purports to eclipse and flatten out all other affiliations.
Claiming to have a unique identity gradually leads to cultural hegemony and the judging of others accordingly. Therefore, all that is not endorsed by the dominant culture is deemed unnatural, unfathomable, irresponsible, inexplicable, less enlightened and primitive.
This can be easily noted in our judgments of those who do not act like us in the way they eat, drink or dress up. This was precisely what was faced by the Filipina nurse who was in the news recently over her bitter experience of daily discrimination against her – whether as a non-Saudi, as part of a minority group, or as a woman.
What has become of us and why do we take this stance against ‘other' non-Western nationalities without the least fear of being accused of discrimination or without even pausing to think about how we see others and how others see us?
I am appalled at some of the messages and jokes I receive on my cell-phone from people whom I thought had exemplary humanitarian values but who clearly disppoint by showing racial discrimination instead.
I state with confidence that we have grown so accustomed to putting down other nationalities that we fail to see our stereotypical behavior.
What is more, this notion is promoted even by television ads. In the case of a popular beverage brand advertised on our television, we see a strong player at the supermarket kicking a ball. The ball hits the chubby cashier who belongs to a certain nationality and who acts stupidly in line with the prevalent discriminatory notion about his nationality.
Many are the morbid general ideas we harbor about other cultures in our midst, and many are the morbid behavioral patterns with which we slap them in the face each day when we meet with or deal with them.
What is happening?
We are stereotyping and building up distorted mental images with irrational feelings about a gender, culture or a person, and then generalizng and applying it. We would say that a certain nationality is stupid, another is lazy, a third likes to consume, etc..
Are we the only ones like this? No, most cultures are the same. The stance exhibited by the Americans towards Hispanics (Latin American immigrants) or the Germans towards immigrant Turks is similar to our stance towards expatriate workers each day, no matter whether the person acting superior is a layman, policeman, or child.
Cultural dominance takes place when social, political or religious groups in any culture, by virtue of their being the most influential and powerful, adopt and impose the notion that their values and behavioral patterns are superior to those of others and so should be expected in practice, in the relationship between man and woman, in dress code, in food habits and so on. Consequently, any behavior reflected by the minorities – whether expatriate labor, women, children, dark-skinned individuals or even individuals from other areas within the country itself – that does not espouse the values and behavioral patterns of the dominant class, would be termed as erroneous and the persons deemed guilty of erring would be termed as stupid, failing to understand, etc.
Discriminatory classifications that we hand out generously to others around us make us feel culturally superior and make them feel culturally handicapped. Our notion that our culture is superior in its values and behavioral patterns is what leads gradually to adoption and proliferation of discriminatory behavioral patterms without our even being conscious of it.
Have you ever reflected on how you see your housemaid or your driver or the grocery store owner or even the woman whom you married?
We will naturally scream out a loud denial and many of us will say that we are all Muslim and equal, which is theoretically true but which is also something we fail to envision in our day-to-day behavior.
Just look at how the layman, whether civilian or policeman, deals with expatriate laborers on the streets and you will understand what I am trying to communicate. – Translated from the Arabic article originally published in Al


Clic here to read the story from its source.