Rambling thoughts on race
I am grateful for a Guardian article to finally give me the push to create this page in a blog where I can air the many issues which irritate me. I intend to use this as a place to shout out my ideas to the world. To begin:
The Guardian article I have referred to above is this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/24/new-nus-president-not-antisemitic-isis-sympathiser
I read the article with admiration for this woman with a nagging thought in my head. I thought incessantly that she is not black. I am not suggesting that there is a shade of black at which one can refer to one's self as black. I am suggesting that naming her as black is at worst a manipulation she/ the press has used to make her even more of a 'first' than she really is and at best a sign of serious ignorance.
I don't think race should be ever of any importance in politics but if we must make a point of her race, then I believe it's important to get it right. Calling her black is frankly offensive to black people and to Arabs.
A quick Google search confirms what a glance at her photo can tell us, that she is of Middle Eastern descent. Specifically, she is Algerian. Not that someone who is Algerian cannot be black, they can, as nationality differs from race but she is obviously not black.
You might ask why this has bothered me so much and I believe it's because it's indicative of how much people like to simplify the beautiful complexity of humanity. People are not either black or white, literally and figuratively. There are shades of people in between and it's tragic that one must be one extreme in order to fit in the 'minority' box. Had she just announced that she was not black and yet an Arab, would this have taken away from her achievement? Or an even better question, isn't it sad that she is considered to have achieved significantly more than her predecessors despite getting to the same position simply because of her skin colour?
The Guardian article I have referred to above is this: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/24/new-nus-president-not-antisemitic-isis-sympathiser
I read the article with admiration for this woman with a nagging thought in my head. I thought incessantly that she is not black. I am not suggesting that there is a shade of black at which one can refer to one's self as black. I am suggesting that naming her as black is at worst a manipulation she/ the press has used to make her even more of a 'first' than she really is and at best a sign of serious ignorance.
I don't think race should be ever of any importance in politics but if we must make a point of her race, then I believe it's important to get it right. Calling her black is frankly offensive to black people and to Arabs.
A quick Google search confirms what a glance at her photo can tell us, that she is of Middle Eastern descent. Specifically, she is Algerian. Not that someone who is Algerian cannot be black, they can, as nationality differs from race but she is obviously not black.
You might ask why this has bothered me so much and I believe it's because it's indicative of how much people like to simplify the beautiful complexity of humanity. People are not either black or white, literally and figuratively. There are shades of people in between and it's tragic that one must be one extreme in order to fit in the 'minority' box. Had she just announced that she was not black and yet an Arab, would this have taken away from her achievement? Or an even better question, isn't it sad that she is considered to have achieved significantly more than her predecessors despite getting to the same position simply because of her skin colour?
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