Exotical in an Arab Community

omg im so glad you talked about this, I'm Egyptian with Turkish ancestry so I'm Middle Eastern/North African and I grew up my whole life in Saudi Arabia. I've never left the Gulf area unless to go to Egypt. As an arab, I felt so unrepresented, I used to think no one knew about us and I always hated being arab. i am white-skinned which is a privilege in of itself but I do look mixed and due to the inner hatred I had of my nationality alongside the bullying I endured, I tried to separate myself from it and was really whitewashed in the process, I still have a lot of internalized racism but it is getting better and I am working on loving my cultures :) thank you for bringing this up <3

Hi again 😊 again it’s nice to hear of a story that I can relate to deeply. I too also went to an Islamic school that was mostly Arabs. I will say as a Somali we were considered exotic and naturally beautiful and I do remember a lot of Arab girls feeling threatened by us. We were a bit rough around the edges and very outspoken and boisterous compared to them whereas they were raised to be quiet and submissive. Arab guys were fascinated by us because we would always fight back and put them in their place lol . But it didn’t really matter because we were raised to date our own vice versa.. We did have issues with racism since we were the newer immigrant group in the city however, with my generation, it died down quite fast because we would always see each other in prayer rooms and at mosques. Kinda hard to be racist to each other if we keep hanging out in the same spaces 😅 You also brought up an excellent point .The sisterhood was definitely strong mostly because we were taught to only look at men for marriage and that’s it. I went to a private Islamic school and they separated us by sex in grade 6. Of course we had our crushes, but boys were not the centre of our lives. Also because we grew up Muslim, we were taught gossiping and backbiting is a sin so there was always a girl in the group that would remind us of this. As girls, we were very close and supportive of each other, and it was great. You mentioning this made me realize how different this experience was compared to the friendships I made once I left my circle of Muslim friends. Met a lot of girls who only wanted to be friends with me to attract male attention. The decentering men conversations is fascinating to watch because I naturally moved like that because I’m not interested in marriage therefore chasing men made no sense. Now, of course I love dating and being around men (not interested in marriage right now ) but they serve their purpose for me and that’s it. Anyways, love your channel keep posting and thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts!y

Please I clicked so fast 😭 Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it truly feels like my sign to just go for it and embrace this part of my heritage fully. This was so validating to me because I didn’t really have any other Arab-African people in my life growing up except for my paternal side of the family. I only made Arab and Arab-African friends in my teens. Everything you shared resonated so much. I think these cultural factors are the reason why my first predominantly Arab friend group was the one where I felt the most understood. The part in the end where you talked about the only person bullying you being an UABW was so relatable omg it brought back war flashbacks from a similar situation cuz that friend group had a couple UABW in it ☠️ I think a lot of UABW are bothered by multicultural exoticals who don’t have an inferiority complex and don’t pay attention to the limiting beliefs UABP keep telling each other. She was really just jealous and bothered that you were minding your business and living your best life at that school 😭🫶🏽💕

Your story was fascinating to listen to. I love how immigrant groups can transform areas into a slice of home. It’s also refreshing to hear exotical upbringing stories that aren’t filled jealousy and bullying from UABW. I never fully related to that narrative because I didn’t grow up in a black community. My hometown had some diversity, but was def mostly white. That came with its own problems, but believe it or not, I’d take it over living in the BC. I’m Jamaican-American, so I wish I had more Caribbean community, but it is what it is. Listening to all these channels makes me so thankful that I wasn’t surrounded by UAB men and women during my formative years. Esp because I live on the East Coast, and I hear some of the most awful exotical bullying stories from my region. I can’t imagine how that would’ve impacted me. I dodged a huge bullet. Of course the shady/identity policing behavior I did receive came from UABP. I also love the sisterhood you got to experience. That’s rare, and beautiful.

oh yes the difference between girls only schools vs mixed schools and pandering to the male gaze, now I was raised catholic but went to an Islamic girls school because there wasnt a catholic school nearby and my parents really wanted me in a girls school and was glad atleast it was something religious Abrahamic faith, (now Im Muslim lol) unique I know, but I remember the sharp shift between me making friends in that school to when I left, wow I used to ignore when other girls used to tell me about bratty they can be, used to think other girls were overreacting about how mean the girls can be around guys and pandering to the male gaze, unlike I witnessed it and wow it was insane how common it is, it would have mentally scarred me if I went to a public school and hitting puberty and they were all dating and being mean depending on which guy liked you, now I didnt date, but I have had coworkers, "friends" bosses who have literally mistreated and been mean to me purely on attention i got from a males (men who I didnt even like), to this day and I refused to be friends with insecure girls now I guess in the religious girls school, we might have crushes but no one was going to risk their representation for guys they didnt want to marry and were sure of, so there wasnt much talk about boys actually, very little in comparison to when I left the school

😮💖 I am loving this. Hearing your story

Finally u posted a new video 💗💗💗

I’m not even Arab at all and Arab women have always been fascinated by my beauty especially how my brows look naturally. I guess it’s because they’re known for their brows? anyways I always thought the cultures were beautiful and this is an interesting perspective

They are unbelievably gorgeous 💙 🩵 😊

So what are you mixed with? We’re dying to know. P.S your voice totally reminds me of the one iconic one from Gossip Girl 😭.

I have had continuous bad experiences with Arab women and I think it is because they are jealous of how I look and that I get their men's attention effortlessly as well as seeing my passivity as aloofness. I am a light skin exotical that looks racially ambiguous to the point that freshie South Asians have confused me for one of their own.

Do you know how to speak Arabic?

Are you black and Arab?

All exoticals are beautiful. We set the standard

I was in an Arab school - girrrrrrl they're ruthless