Brown Muslims: This Ramadan, Quit Respectability Politics, AND Your Anti-Blackness
This Ramadan, Brown Muslims need to stop trying to get white people to like us, and instead start checking our family and friends (and ourselves) on our community-wide anti-blackness.
We’ve all seen the videos. (Like this one , this one, or this one, to name a few). A blindfolded Brown Muslim man standing in the middle of a public space, making himself vulnerable to the white masses with a sign saying something along the lines of “I’m a Muslim, but I’m not a terrorist. If you believe me, hug me”.
There’s several videos of this, but Brown Muslims can be seen clinging to respectability politics like a small child to a guardian - doing anything necessary to live up to it’s impossible standards. In a post 9/11 world, Brown Muslims are demonized by the media and general public, made out to be dangerous, bloodthirsty enemies of the western world.
When communities are villainized and stereotyped by the white masses, what can happen is a process of adhering to respectability politics (people of color altering and compromising parts of themselves in order to make white people comfortable and seem more “respectable”) and to an extent, whitewashing.
Anti-Blackness within Brown spaces is centuries old, mainly dating back to colonization and imperialism by the West as well as the start of the European/American slave trade, in which Black people were targeted and cultures began to stray from being associated with Blackness as much as possible (even though, you know, most of the Prophets were probably Black, but I digress).
So what does that have to do with American Brown Muslims? Everything. Black people continue to be targeted by white supremacy in countless forms, and while Brown Muslims are also targeted by white supremacy, members of our community still cling onto becoming a “Model Minority” to distance themselves from Black people.
“Why? Isn’t that inherently prejudiced?”
Why yes it is, Ahmed! Sometimes, minoritized communities work SO hard to appear as “non-threatening”, that they ignore the needs of people being marginalized within their own communities; you combine this with a about a few centuries of colorism, and therein lies Brown Muslim Anti-Blackness.
Here’s the wake-up call so many of y’all need: white people will never accept us. You see the way that white supremacy is set up, they decide when we’re “respectable”, and on the track things are going on, that won’t be anytime soon. So many members of our community are out here compromising their safety by standing blindfolded on street corners in white areas, or taking money out of their pocket to raise money for white supremacists to “prove them wrong about us” and that’s just not healthy.
The adherence to respectability politics in the Brown Muslim community is not only embarrassing, but it’s wasteful and dangerous in several aspects. First, we are wasting our emotional and financial resources to prove ourselves to people who have made their mind, and have had their mind made up for centuries. Brown = bad. Second, Black Muslim organizers are doing endless work to feed, house, educate, and mobilize one another and deserve to be paid for their labor. Last, stay woke. The more you adhere to what white supremacists and islamophobes deem a “good Brown person”, the more likely you will be used to perpetuate an agenda. Watch yourselves before you end up on Fox News!
As a community, we just need to do so much better. It’s hypocritical to stand for the rights of Muslims and simultaneously perpetuate anti-Black rhetoric as if the majority of Muslims aren’t Black. We can not - repeat after me - we CAN NOT move towards justice and an end to islamophobia without also fighting for the rights of our Black siblings in Islam. In case that didn’t all sink in, I have a guide for anti-Black rhetoric to shut the hell down while you’re at the iftar table, and some Black Muslim causes for you to put your money instead of, I don’t know, paying for famed Islamophobe Frank Morganthaler’s medical bills (yes, this is actually a thing Brown Muslims wasting their time in 2017 with.)
SHUT DOWN THESE THINGS:
Assumptions that Black Muslims are converts and/or members of the Nation of Islam. This is ridiculous, because not only do you need to mind your own business, but again - Black Muslims outnumber you.
Demonization of Nation of Islam. In general, demonizing marginalized people for making a space where they are prioritized and loved is just awful and YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER. Sure, there have been many a critique of the Nation, but what religion doesn’t have endless critiques? Again, mind your business.
Claiming Malcolm X while denouncing militant Black activists because he went to Hajj and “came around”. Please see above for why that is messed up.
THE BODY SHAMING OF BLACK MUSLIM WOMEN. I can’t say this enough. Black Muslim women are constantly hypersexualized even in the Muslim community. Men insist on policing them for “not covering enough” when most times, Black Muslim Women are inherently curvy. You are not guiding them towards righteousness. You are body shaming.
Number 4 applies to hijab too. You don’t get to claim anyone is “less Muslim” because they wear hijab differently. Again, mind. your. business.
DONATE TO THESE THINGS:
https://www.gofundme.com/blklibmn The Black Liberation Project is raising money for a trip to the Black Muslim Psychology Conference in Philadelphia, and a healing retreat in New York City.
https://www.gofundme.com/BlackGirlAbroad University of Wisconsin-Madison student Mariam Coker is an artist and activist who will have an internship in London working with and leading workshops for students of color. She will need help paying for expenses.
https://www.gofundme.com/YMC2Philly The Young Muslim Collective aims to mobilize and empower Black Muslims at the 3rd annual Black Muslim Psychology Conference in Philadelphia. They need assistance in paying for airfare, food, transportation, and lodging expenses.
