Moving On: Race, Islam, and Privilege
by Margari Aziza Hill, originally published at Just Another Angry Black Muslim Woman?
I’m a few hours into 2008, on the eve before New Year’s eve, I ran across Umm Zaid’s blog. She has a lot to say, and like all of us, her viewpoint on issues is shaped by her background and experiences.**
I always find it interesting to hear what Muslims who are not Black American have to say about race and privilege in the Muslim community. This particular blog entry highlighted major events and trends in 2007. She wrote:
In addition, sore points finally rose to the surface: the divide between immigrant Muslims and indigenous Muslims, especially Blackamericans. It’s always been there, but this seemed to be the year when everyone started talking about it. A lot of issues have been raised, and a lot of feelings have been hurt. Again, it’s a question of whether or not we’re going to move forward or if we’re going to hash and rehash every wrong, every slight, every issue of alienation between us. We have work to do.
While I agree with the overall sentiment–we can’t just be hung up on bitching and moaning–I am more than ambivalent with this message. Yes there is work to do. And many of us who are exploring the ways race, class, and gender intersect in the Muslim world are community activists. We are thinking, we are talking, we are writing, and we are doing work.
First, as Umm Zaid stated Muslims have finally began to really talk about the racial divide in the American Muslim community? How are you going to tell folks to move on from a topic when they’ve only just begun to explore it?
I’ve been Muslim fourteen years and only recently have a few writers and thinkers finally gave voice to what I have experienced and observed. When I began to observe patterns of discrimination in my immigrant dominated community, a lot of Muslims were in denial. Some even went so far as to claim that I was paranoid or making things up. Maybe it is convenient to want to dismiss the grievances I had. Then as I met more and more people, we began to discover that we were struggling. I was very happy to see a number of issues that are endemic to the Black American Muslim community addressed at the 2007 MANA conference. These conversations are beneficial because
1. they help individuals realize they are not crazy
and
2. recognizing our realities we can begin to come up with some solutions.
But if we follow this injunction we might be in trouble and lose another generation.
There is a need for a deeper exploration of the racial perceptions that immigrant Muslim bring to the American community, as well as American Muslim perceptions of immigrants. We need to examine the patterns of discrimination that perpetuate inequality in the American Muslim community. Without proper understanding of the issues we face, we will never be able to bridge the rifts that are dividing us. While there are scholars studying various religious and ethnic communities in America, American Musilms have been under-studied. That means there is little knowledge about our social, cultural, and political patterns. We don’t even have solid statistics of our marriage and divorce rates. We can’t even produce numbers on the patterns of intermarriage between communities. But because of the internet, through forums and blogs, a long silenced voices are beginning to speak of the realities that are in stark contrast with the ideals that we believe in. While these stories are anecdotes, we can glean that there are some broader patterns.
Secondly, the thing that makes this statement troubling is that reflects a general sentiment in America.The popular notion that we are living in a color blind society and that Muslims are especially color blind has been used to silence the people who are the most discriminated against. I’m not saying that Black Americans have been really deft at broaching this issue. I think there are ways that we can better engage the broader Muslim community with the issue that affect us. In addition, I find is troubling is that Black American Muslims and White American Muslims seem to be living that great divide. Even for us professional, educated and Middle Class Black American Muslims that divide exists. Few thinkers or scholars have deeply explored why.
The ambivalence that I have towards this sentiment also reflects my frustration with the broader trend in America. I have long suspected that this sentiment was shared by a number of people, especially immigrants because they may be perpetuating discrimination. But I guess I was a little surprised to see them articulated by white American Muslims. It just cut too close to rhetoric and attitudes that are outlined in
Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. A review of the book states:
These scholars are putting forward a fresh analysis of racial injustice that sets aside overt prejudice and individual acts of discrimination, which they say have little actual impact in today’s world. Instead they pull back the covers on social practices and policies sewn into the fabric of work, school and the medical system that privilege whites. Even the most well-intentioned white person, they say, benefits from a legacy of accumulated preferential treatment.
We are all influenced by certain ideologies and American myths. Some of the myths we are taught as Americans actually perpetuate inequality. Perhaps the myth of the color blind ummah also blinds us from seeing how racism and classism play out in our communities.
I’m not trying to bash the sister. Not at all. I think that people who want Black American Musilms to just move on and stop talking about discrimination and inequality are well meaning. But I wonder if at this stage of the discussion should people like Umm Zaid enter in the dialog, especially when they are insisting that we just pack up and move on. Or maybe she isn’t part of the dialog, but making an outsider commentary. At this stage, many of us in the Black American Muslim community are trying to put our cards on the table. It makes me wonder if these dialogs should be closed in order to avoid the dissonance. At the same time, I am reminded that Civil Rights leaders going back from Reconstruction times to the civil rights movement were constantly told to not make waves, that they were trouble makers–basically they were told to stay in their place. Without meaning to attack anyone, I just wanted to remind folks that silencing this discussion will not help advance our cause. It actually makes me keenly aware of how unaffected some of us are and how in their privilege they can afford to just be Muslim. Meanwhile, I have to make sense of the opportunities and limitations that are afforded to me as a Muslim who happens to be Black and who happens to a woman in America. Not everyone is directly affected by racism. You may not be subject to anti-Black discrimination or you may not be a person perpetuating anti-Black discrimination. These issues may be illegible an insignificant in your life. And you have every right to remain uninterested. And if you are an uninterested party, you don’t have to weigh in. But then again, weighing in implies you have some interest in the dialog going a certain way. But by you insisting which direction it should go, isn’t that asserting some kind of privilege?
**This is a correction where I stated that Umm Zaid was white after I was informed that Umm Zaid was not White America but white skinned.
Note from Latoya: I really enjoyed this piece and I believe I interpreted it in the way Aziza intended – Umm Zaid’s comment was a springboard for the subsequent discussion, not an indictment of Umm Zaid herself. However, Aamina Hernandez and Umm Zaid disagreed and posted their interpretation of the piece in the comments section. Please take a moment to click the link at the beginning of piece and read the discussion – some excellent points are brought up by both sides.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
luckyfatima wrote:
glad to see this issue being addressed. i think it is one of those dirty little secrets for those who chose to (have the privilege to) ignore it. but for others it is one of the many serious sources of angst about what keeps us so divided as Muslims.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 2:05 am ¶
Needs wrote:
I am not Muslim but it does really need to be addressed, my friends refuse to go to the mosque near my school because of that particular issue.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 3:28 am ¶
Kenza wrote:
Do you think that the Nation of Islam has anything to do with this?
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 10:17 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Kenza -
To do with what? I think I have an idea of your question, but I want to be clear before I forward it to the post author.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 10:44 am ¶
Aaminah wrote:
To be clear, I still find this post ridiculously offensive. UmmZaid NEVER said “move on” – she said when are we going to take action. You cannot refer to UmmZaid repeatedly throughout the post and quote her out of context, while referring directly to her so-called “privelage” and then say it isn’t personal or that you are speaking in generalities.
Yes, these issues need to be discussed, but it isn’t really a “new” discussion per se. The reality is that in the past year or so it became a “hot” discussion, which is good – now it’s on everyone’s radar. What UmmZaid was saying, and I completely agree with, is “What action will be taken now”. Because there is a tendency of some people to talk, complain, talk, complain, but not offer any solutions and not create anything that actually addresses the problems. Some people seem to get-off on being the “oppressed” because it gives them something to moan about but they don’t recognize the good that anyone else offers, or attempts at reconciliation that are genuinely made.
I will also add (my opinion, not to be attributed to UmmZaid) that sometimes groups who feel disenfranchised turn around and treat other groups the same way. Racism is racism no matter how you cut it and this issue isn’t about one group finally getting it over another but about creating unity already. Sadly, what I see more of is further disunity caused by someone who has been hurt turning on everyone else around them. And certain minorities are contiuously left out and ignored by both sides as if we don’t matter at all. Nationalism has no place in Islam. When a group finds fault with something being done by another, they must be cautious to not fall into the same pattern as well.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 12:22 pm ¶
kameelah wrote:
Salaams,
Just as I thought this discussion could not devolve any further into ridiculousness, myopia and assumptions of a more enlightened stance, I read a comment like, “Some people seem to get-off on being the “oppressed” because it gives them something to moan about but they don’t recognize the good that anyone else offers, or attempts at reconciliation that are genuinely made.” Before feelings get hurt, and folks began taking critiques of chosen rhetoric as critiques of persons, I will not here that I am dealing with the ideas and subtexts of the comment, not the person who made them. Allah (swt) knows best. I am not going to focus on anything else in comment and focus on this sentence alone because this sentence alone says a lot about the lens with which this dialogue is read, approached and rearticulated to others. Discussions on oppression, marginalization and alienation should not be reduced to a desire to satiate a latent desire or for the sheer excitement of verbal gymnastics. Assumptions that “some people seem to get off on being oppressed,” is offensive and riddled with underlying assertions. Let me list these unsaid assertions about “some oppressed people”:
1) Some people who are oppressed need to pass a litmus test in order for their oppression to be considered legitimate and worthy of others sympathy and concern. This is what I read from the scare quotes around oppression which imply that there is some doubt that the oppression is “valid.”
2) Some people who are oppressed are oppressed for the sake of having something to complain about. Oppression is just a play thing, a manipulative to keep folks busy who like to complain.
3) Some people who are oppressed are just “moaning.”
As to the second part of the sentence I pulled: “…but they don’t recognize the good that anyone else offers, or attempts at reconciliation that are genuinely made.”
What is considered genuine reconciliation by one person could be an attempt at erasure and silencing by others. Steve Biko talked about the politics of reconciliation in South Africa quite often. One party desires reconciliation however mandating HOW we “go forward,” and under what conditions reproduced the very violence of apartheid. Trying to force feed solutions or trying to tell others that what is offered is “good” is problematic. Of course, there are people who are very angry which makes it difficult to see the positive actions of others. However, we must take the presentation of these positive actions into consideration. If the offering of the olive branch or taking the risk to engage in a REAL conversation about race in the Ummah is premised by comments like “some people seem to get-off on being oppressed,” then really what can you expect to be the response. If folks are seen as whiny or unproductive, how do you expect that dialogue to unfold. If folks are assumed to be dwelling on a subject for the sake of hobby or masochist mastubatory intellectual exercise, really do you think that the “good that anyone offers” will be perceived as “good.” Or will it be perceived as some form of contrived and paternalistic action.
I want to address some other elements of Aaminah’s comment…
“Racism is racism no matter how you cut it and this issue isn’t about one group finally getting it over another but about creating unity already.”
I think we live in a “quick-mix revolution” society. We assume we can hop from centuries of oppression and decades of struggle with the Ummah to “unity” without the heavy lifting of uncomfortable discussions and hurt feelings. We are running so fast to the finish line that we are not taking the time to “condition” and train so that we make it to the finish line healthily.
“Because there is a tendency of some people to talk, complain, talk, complain, but not offer any solutions and not create anything that actually addresses the problems.”
Talking is not necessary and talking addresses the problem. We cannot address a problem if the nuances are not talked out. We must establish clarity about what we want to change before we can change it. I have seen wonderful efforts spring from conversations like this. Just because every post is not a traditional action plan does not mean that the person posting is inactive or that action is not being taken by others. Talking is cathartic and talking has to happen. Part of the problem in the Ummah is that of silencing and strategically ignoring issues. You stated “but it isn’t really a “new” discussion per se. The reality is that in the past year or so it became a “hot” discussion, which is good – now it’s on everyone’s radar.” I would argue that this discussion is in fact very new–very new in the sense that it is expanding beyond the community of folks who have cited issues of alienation. It is new in the sense that other Muslims are finally legitimizing (sadly, this has to be part of the process) the struggles of other Muslims. “Hot” discussions get “cold” very quickly. So for me this is not about a “hot” discussion. And, it is not on “everyone’s radar.” I have read stuff in the blogsphere and talked to other Muslims and its very clear that this issue is not on their radar.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 2:27 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Kameelah –
I was just about to email Aziza and ask permission to reprint your comments over here. Glad you beat me to it.
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 2:42 pm ¶
kameelah wrote:
super
Posted 03 Jan 2008 at 3:31 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:
Malaysian and Indonesian Moslems have experience patronization by Arab Moslems. Iranian Moslems sometimes find Arab Moslems hard to take. It’s not one big, happy family.
Posted 04 Jan 2008 at 8:56 am ¶
VICTORIA wrote:
salaams ladies-
yes, we actually do have to hash and rehash the complaints-
or at least hash them once-
or no new recognition of the behavior that causes the hurt will be addressed, identified-
and changed.
sister hill has gone to some length to not insult- but not be silent-
i would not be so politic as she
also- i find theres a great divide along not only the lines of outward skin color- but the haves and have nots-
i have many anecdotes- but anecdotes dont really prove anything- (maybe help illustrate a point- not validate it)
the same people who are truly driven to address some racism or unfairness in the treatment of african americans are the very ones who are sidelined in these conversations.
observing an inequality, and wanting to address it is not simply talking and complaining-
im not only white-skinned, im eurocentric, and blue eyed- but i also am a little disenchanted, even annoyed at the sisters rush to “move forward”
i got the feeling of being cheerled into just getting over it-
we have to know where we are at standstill to move in any direction, we may even have to go backward a bit to really get to the meat of the issues- the unfairness-
as stated, we have to suffer through a bit of uncomfortable soul searching personally-
the onus is not on our darker skinned sisters to “prove” inequality
the onus is on the people in the ummah to listen attentively and with compassion to the observations before they get busy forming committees where everyone talks about the experiences of people who are not present to submit their own observations and even, complaints.
and then , first of all- the inequalities have to be acknowledged-
identified pinpointed dissected then some form of remorse, even if oneself isnt guilty-
then apology
its about respect and no one should have to ask for it-
the best thing is not to tell people to move forward-
people do that in their own time-
and if people arent moving forward its because they are being held immobile by others-
let african americans speak for themselves-
and help them to identify the problems in the mosques, even if you yourself are oneof the contributors tothe problem
consider the possibilty
im not arabic, or well (or even badly) educated- but as a muslim, i apologize to the sister for the unfair treatment i have definitely observed in the ummah- and alienated myself sometimes for my own observations
after all- who wants to hear an irish american woman speak about islam anyway
let alone the problems facing african americans in the ummah
(but mercy, i have eyes to see)
Posted 14 Jan 2008 at 2:34 am ¶