#african americans do and use american class categorisations to categorise me etc.

[menalez]

still find it annoying that westerners on here saw me talk about being dark-skinned, sth i am deemed in my country & have been literally physically abused for in the past, and they were like hmmm this woman is saying she’s a dark-skinned black woman… no… i’m saying i’m dark-skinned, and mixed race. two separate things. black bahrainis & part black bahrainis don’t have a culture of “dark skin black” etc.. ur either dark skinned or ur not, regardless of racial heritage. and there’s no comparison among black bahrainis either bc we view skin colour & heritage as entirely separate things. like even the visibly black bahraini women ive known (who in my experience are all dark-skinned by our standards. not necessarily western or african ones but by bahraini standards) would consider me dark-skinned and we would bond over that experience & understand what that word means. but westerners love to think they know everything about everywhere and place their standards on everyone ever and refuse to actually understand that we also have our own standards ig so to them me talking about being dark-skinned led them to believe that i’m claiming to have the same experience as idk lupita nyong’o. despite me repeatedly vocally differentiating my experiences from dark-skinned black women in places like the US…

i can never even discuss my experiences on here and state what i mean bc they will intentionally misconstrue it to fit their standards instead of just. understanding lol

#also annoying how ppl saw me talk about being partially of east african decent #and were like ‘hmmm but u don’t look west african 🤔 curious’ like… #even tho i’d always refer to myself as part black & make it clear that while some of my relatives are visibly part black i’m simply read as #south asian. and they’d compare me to ppl with mixed west african descent and argue then must be using terms like dark skinned the way #african americans do and use american class categorisations to categorise me etc. #it’s just annoying being from the middle east in english-speaking areas #and ppl on here being so egotistical they refuse to understand we have our own standards which i use to define my experiences #why would i use other places’ standards to define my experiences like ??? #anyways. rant over i just continue to find this annoying. the US & euro centrism is so real