Was that Disrimination?

Warning: this post is a little more serious than most.

In my travels and especially in my daily life I am the constant recipient of racially discriminatory actions and comments. After a while it gets old and I've learned to ignore it for the most part, but still, no one can ever tell me that I don't know what it's like to be discriminated against.

For instance, at the airport leaving the Sandbox, the security guy at the metal detector said (in Arabic) 'these girls are white, search them.' It wasn't just a pat down either, it was a detailed, other people's hands in my pockets, kind of search that wasn't really all that pleasant. All I could think was 'seriously? because I'm the ONLY suspicious looking person in this line!'

We also had some problems when we tried to get into Egypt. All foreigners have to buy these stamp things to get through passport control. Problem was, there was no one selling them! And the guy in the passport control booth told us 'once I finish with my line I will call the man who sells the stamps'. 15 minutes later, long after the line was finished and my bags had gone around the baggage carousel 7 times, the stamp guy finally shows up. We felt warmly welcomed.

Then when I arrived back in the Sandbox the customs guy seemed really friendly, flipping through other people's passports to check their visas and chatting with them. I handed him my passport, he took one look at the cover and his demeanor totally changed. Instead of being real friendly he turns and says (in Arabic) 'What do you have in your bag? You're trying to sneak bad things into the country?' and so in Arabic I replied that I had only clothes and souvenirs from my holiday. PTL he was so surprised that I spoke Arabic that his demeanor changed back into that friendly guy...he didn't even go through my bag, just let me go through. But still, just having an American passport meant that he was going to give me trouble.

And then there's the fact that as I walk down the street I am constantly reminded that I am a foreigner. Specifically by the constant yelling of the word 'khawaja' which is pretty much a derogatory term in reference to a white person. So it usually works like this...I walk down the street and people, either sitting on the sidewalk or driving down the road or walking by or little kids...basically everyone, feels compelled to say 'khawaja' when they see me, as if I didn't already know that I was different. I need to remember to ask my language helper how to say 'thanks for the reminder'! For now I either ignore them or if there's an opporunity I'll just look at them and in Arabic kindly remind them that they are 'sandboxians'. (When I would really like to say something to the effect of 'congrats, you're pretty clever' or 'your mom')

And this is all because I'm white and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am a single woman living in a society where women and dogs are pretty much looked upon as equals...I try not to let it get to me but somedays you just can't ignore it.