MoroccoBoard.com

ýAug 15, 2009ý

I am not White, Black, Asian or Hispanic

SARAH ALAOUI

Is this going to be one of those cliché articles discussing the
multiracial citizen’s struggle to check a race box? Well, not
exactly. It’s not about a mixed citizen, and it’s not really cliché
because it becomes relevant again every ten years when we have to fill
out the U.S. Census, and roughly every four years when applying to
schools, and every time one fills out a job application, or a survey
(but remember, it’s just for "statistical purposes"…please.) or
pretty much for almost every single piece of paperwork we have to fill
out. Cliché? I think not.
Before I begin my writing rampage, firing my missiles of information
and experiences at you regarding the futility of the current race box
system, I want to provide you with some background facts.
I come from a Moroccan family and throughout my life, I’ve had trouble
checking the boxes to indicate my "race". In elementary school, I
think I checked the "white" box which is interesting to me now–I
think it was because at that point in my life, I thought Moroccans
were the only types of people in the world and I fit into the category
of lighter skinned Moroccans (I’d spent some years living in Morocco
as a child and the environment there is not as heterogenous as
California). As a 6-year-old when I met my father’s Egyptian friend,
the first thing I said to him was, "Hey, you speak like they do on
TV!," referring to the Egyptian soap operas that are always playing on
the dish. I’m glad to say I’ve come a long way from elementary school
and my world has broadened to include people of all kinds of races,
faiths, and ethnicities–I now am fully aware that those actors on TV
also exist in real life!
As I grew older and became aware of social structure and society in
the United States, I began to realize that yes, although I am light
skinned for being Moroccan, there’s a whole world of people that are
much lighter than me, and they are the true "whites". That’s also when
I learned that Italians, Greeks, Armenians and even Persians are
considered white. Just when I was starting to feel comfortable that
others shared my olive skin and feel I could relate to them (there
aren’t very many Moroccans my age where I live), they were whisked
away by a category that indicated a whole different world I could
never relate to.
Because "white" does not only embody a color. What the term "white"
means in the United States today is something that transcends any skin
color. White means the suburbs and white means affluence and white
means picket fences. Some people may argue then, that I do fit into
the white category based on my definition of the term. But white also
means no questions asked ever, no extra security checks at the airport
or in that same category, no mispronunciations of my last name or
being told it’s a "cool" name as a precursor for the question of where
I’m from. Being white means being untouchable in this country.
In middle school, high school, and now in college, I’ve started
alternating between the "African/Black" box and the "Other"
box. During the cutthroat period of college applications, my friends
would ask, "Hey Sarah, can’t you apply as African-American? SO
unfair." I’m sorry, but I don’t want to get accepted into college and
be tossed into the gossip conversations of "well, she just got in
because she’s African-American…well, technically, she is". There was
one university application–the name doesn’t come to mind, right
now–but they had a box for "White/North African". That one made me
especially mad. Those are two completely different worlds, because as
far as I’m concerned, in places like Europe, for example, "White" and
"North African" represent completely different worlds. "Other", it
was, for college applications at least. Sometimes, there’s a "Middle
Eastern" box, but I don’t check that either. I don’t consider myself
Middle Eastern, I consider myself Arab. That’s a!
whole other conversation, however. The last job I applied for, I
checked off "African" crossing my fingers that my black manager
wouldn’t comment on it. Awkward. Also, I can’t forget the comments
from black peers, "You’re African? Nawww, no way!". YES WAY, I’m Arab,
I’m African, I’m not white, I’m not black. Here we go again…
Let’s cut straight to the point. That $300 billion that will be
redistributed to local and state governments and communities should
reflect the accurate amount of Arabs in the United States. Arabs,
please crawl out of your "white" and "other" boxes now, and make sure
our numbers are reflected accordingly in the 2010 census. Let’s get
our own box.