Black, White and In Between

A somewhat confusing conversation about race / skin color.

The author writes in the comments:

I think with arab women who marry black men it is not the same as white women who marry out of their race. i have never had such coments made by white women. I think when some Arab women see, for instance me and exotic sister married to white men and they have black men - then it is kind of humiliating for them. I mean how can an ugly black woman pull in the o so desired white man, while a beatiful Arab woman (white according to some) gets stuck with the black man they look down on.

My heart bleeds.

saudistepfordwife says:

I’ve had three very dark-skinned Muslima friends who’ve all had bad experiences with marrying “lighter”. One was a Saudi woman of Nigerian descent who married a Bedouin. Although he was happy with her, his family forced him to divorce her. She eventually married a Syrian then divorced him after 3 kids due to his condescending attitude towards her then decided to marry a black guy her third try. Don’t know how that went because I’ve lost track.

The other was a dear friend in England, one of the best Muslimas I’ve met in my life, who is of Jamaican descent and about as dark-complected as a human can be. She married a Pakistani and ran into the same issues as my first friend, the family forced them into a divorce after she had one child. Later she was engaged to marry an Egyptian guy but that didn’t go through.

The third was one of the cutest Saudi girls I’ve met. She is very religious and strong in her convictions despite it making her unpopular at times amongst her “modern” peers. She had the most beautiful face and smile which was completely overlooked because although she is not of African descent, she is very dark complected and doesn’t have “good hair” by Arab standards. Upon being “viewed” for by a potential suitor for marriage, she was rejected because of her color.

alwaysred comments:

I had a very ‘interesting’ experience at the local mosque here. I had a somali or sudanese lady who was talking to my son and obviously liked the way he looked, ask where I was from. So I told her I was Pakistani and then I told her that my son is half Egyptian though. And she goes something like ‘oh that’s why he’s so beautiful’.

Ouch!