Before my best friend, a white European, left for her country over a year ago, we always felt a degree of unsafety and discomfort while walking Egyptian streets together.
The reason? Aside from the fact that Egypt has a sexual harassment pandemic, my friend's being white caused her to be the subject of even more unwanted attention: blondes with colored eyes are especially fetishized among many Egyptian men, and she was no exception.
On top of the constant discomfort she experienced while walking down the street--to the point where she couldn't use public transportation alone due to the harassment--she was also scammed while visiting some tourist attractions, much like many other foreigners who aren't well-acquainted with the local prices and usual tricks of scammers. She often had an Egyptian (whether her husband or someone else) accompany her when outside as a result of all of these issues.
Make no mistake: Egypt also has a racism problem against black people, so my friend's gender- and race-based ordeals are far from unique. Furthermore, a passport from a developed country, especially the U.S. and Europe, carries a lot of weight in Egypt, so she would have at least had her EU nationality backing her up if she had ever needed to escalate things on a legal level. This privilege, however, is based on one's passport, not on their skin color or gender--both of which proved to be factors against her multiple times in Egypt.
The idea that white people sit atop a hierarchy of privilege seems to me fundamentally myopic when applied on a global scale, at least if we're talking about average people rather than those who possess power or wealth. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi millionaires possess extreme and inhumane amounts of privilege over foreign workers--especially those from other parts of Asia and the Arab world. In Egypt, many brown people fetishize white people and mock or discriminate against black people. In the U.S., white supremacists have seemingly become more vocal in recent years, with some among the left mistakenly believing that Western-centric, racist generaliziations about white people are the answer to this problem.
Under the banner of pursuing racial equality--and, in reality for some people nowadays, political points among their political camp--we are seeing racist oversimplifications, mollycoddling of minorities as a default stance even when it is not warranted or healthy, and scapegoating of one racial group or another to further political goals. But it seems to me the most important thing to remember is this: racial issues extremely vary from one country to another, and it is beyond myopic to assume a specific race are the primary oppressors in general just because some of them are oppressors within one's country or region.
After all, politically correct racism is still indeed racism, whether or not ideologues and political hatemongers admit this. Classifying white people as a universally privileged and ignorant racial group is no less racist than doing the same to Arabs or black people, and vice versa.
The reason? Aside from the fact that Egypt has a sexual harassment pandemic, my friend's being white caused her to be the subject of even more unwanted attention: blondes with colored eyes are especially fetishized among many Egyptian men, and she was no exception.
On top of the constant discomfort she experienced while walking down the street--to the point where she couldn't use public transportation alone due to the harassment--she was also scammed while visiting some tourist attractions, much like many other foreigners who aren't well-acquainted with the local prices and usual tricks of scammers. She often had an Egyptian (whether her husband or someone else) accompany her when outside as a result of all of these issues.
Make no mistake: Egypt also has a racism problem against black people, so my friend's gender- and race-based ordeals are far from unique. Furthermore, a passport from a developed country, especially the U.S. and Europe, carries a lot of weight in Egypt, so she would have at least had her EU nationality backing her up if she had ever needed to escalate things on a legal level. This privilege, however, is based on one's passport, not on their skin color or gender--both of which proved to be factors against her multiple times in Egypt.
The idea that white people sit atop a hierarchy of privilege seems to me fundamentally myopic when applied on a global scale, at least if we're talking about average people rather than those who possess power or wealth. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi millionaires possess extreme and inhumane amounts of privilege over foreign workers--especially those from other parts of Asia and the Arab world. In Egypt, many brown people fetishize white people and mock or discriminate against black people. In the U.S., white supremacists have seemingly become more vocal in recent years, with some among the left mistakenly believing that Western-centric, racist generaliziations about white people are the answer to this problem.
Under the banner of pursuing racial equality--and, in reality for some people nowadays, political points among their political camp--we are seeing racist oversimplifications, mollycoddling of minorities as a default stance even when it is not warranted or healthy, and scapegoating of one racial group or another to further political goals. But it seems to me the most important thing to remember is this: racial issues extremely vary from one country to another, and it is beyond myopic to assume a specific race are the primary oppressors in general just because some of them are oppressors within one's country or region.
After all, politically correct racism is still indeed racism, whether or not ideologues and political hatemongers admit this. Classifying white people as a universally privileged and ignorant racial group is no less racist than doing the same to Arabs or black people, and vice versa.
