When colour robs you of the right to life

Most of the great powers lived through dark conditions of human enslavement and marginalisation of people with dark skin, trading in them as slaves to increase agricultural production, with the prevailing pattern that people with white skin were the nobles and people with dark skin were slaves. Racial discrimination still exists today in many of the great powers, though to a small degree, while it is spreading ever more widely in the Arab countries without awareness, for cultural, social and religious reasons.

Racism

It is the belief that there are inherited differences and traits in people's natures, abilities and colours, and the justification of treating individuals belonging to such a group differently, socially and legally. This discriminatory treatment is justified by resorting to generalisations built on stereotypes and to scientific fabrications. It is a feeling of superiority, or a behaviour, practice or policy based on exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination between human beings on the basis of colour or national or ethnic belonging.

Most regrettably, most people, especially in the Arab world, still practise discriminatory racism based on sex, colour and race to a frightening degree, and without awareness. They even justify it with literary concepts or religious texts, deepening hatred within society and promoting ignorance and extremism at the expense of their own people and of one another.

The causes

And when these concepts are explained, and an attempt is made to raise people's awareness of their danger and of how far they affect a large part of society, they turn into a united force to kill ideas, shun thinkers and widen the gap of hatred, in order to prevent ideas from being corrected, or the mistakes in society from being addressed, and to preserve customs and traditions of ignorance, extremism and racism.

Among these expressions that circulate widely in society is the attaching of the colour black to evil, hatred, divine punishment, injustice and slavery, while in return they attach the colour white to righteousness, goodness, light, strength and greatness.

So the human mind forms a mental image that people with dark skin are unwelcome, and they are marginalised in dealings and communication among members of society, and hatred is incited against them, until the matter has become a way of life among individuals, without any prior awareness.

There are many examples of this; I will sum up some of them here, such as:

“May God blacken your face”, “your day is black”, “O black day”, “black hands”, “your heart is black” …. etc.

All of them are expressions that attach badness, evil, malice and corruption to the colour black, and they are deeply offensive to people with dark skin. It is the culture of the ages of ignorance, of a life full of injustice, oppression, raids, highway robbers and the taking of women captive, and it reached us by transmission and inheritance without awareness. Society has become a victim of this culture; it does not intend to offend, it is simply a way of life.

Its danger

When people keep using these expressions every day, the subconscious mind gets used to them and forms a stereotype that people with dark skin carry ill omen and malice, and they become socially and culturally unwelcome. As this prevailing pattern continues, these groups become isolated from society in special spaces, special conditions, special work and special tasks. They are marginalised from political and social positions, excluded from the high offices of the state and kept out of social jobs, which forces them to accept very simple jobs such as cleaning the streets, working in the sewers, guarding and watching, and some tasks that can be very hard.

And you find them unable to integrate into society, even if they hold prestigious university degrees. Such a person faces two choices: to look for a job in other countries that accept the colour of their skin, or to give up their degree and accept jobs outside their academic qualifications.

The solutions

We cannot blame those who practise it in their daily lives in good faith, as Egyptians, the Gulf states and most Arab countries do, but we blame the thinkers, writers, journalists and human rights activists, who have been disappointing in raising societies' awareness of a great many issues.

What is truly regrettable is that most of the internet and the websites that supply societies and readers with information and data are scarce in what concerns human rights topics, and most of the information is full of fallacies and political point-scoring, and focuses on promoting superstitions and myths at the expense of human values and social enlightenment.

That is why it is important to talk about these topics, to help make peoples aware of the importance of their rights in life and of coexistence between peoples, and to reject racism in all its forms and colours, because this earth was not created for one particular group and not others. Every being on earth deserves a chance at a dignified life, and everyone must support the initiatives and ideas that call for peace, love and coexistence, instead of promoting inciting, takfiri ideas and beliefs that are hostile to human rights and promote killing, death and violence.

What we live in the Arab world is the product of our ideas, a reflection of the pattern of our past lives and of the prevailing culture of our societies. If we want to change our lives for the better, we must review society's culture, spread a culture of love and coexistence among individuals, change school curricula to raise the coming generations on coexistence and the absence of racial discrimination, and issue strict, deterrent laws against anyone who promotes it or practises it verbally, intellectually or in practice.

It is enough for us to learn from what happened in America, the countries of Europe and many countries of the world, and what tools and mechanisms they succeeded in using to curb the culture of racism and hatred against a group of human beings who carry different colours, born with them without their will and without their choice. No one has the right to punish them or hold them to account for it, or to marginalise and belittle them because of the colour of their skin.

Every human being, male or female, white or black, must be equal before the law and society; no one is to be favoured over another, and no side or group is to be excluded from another, whatever their lineage, colour, race or sex.

Nada Al-Ahdal

Human rights activist

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