I'm Black and I'm Jameela

The Stoop

Hana Baba and Leila Day

Identity, International, Thestoop, Blackness, Storytelling, African, Personal Journals, Africanamerican, Blackidentity, Blackart, Journalism, Society & Culture, Black, Diaspora, Blackculture

4.4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jameela means beautiful in Arabic- a description Black girls seldom would hear about themselves growing up in Arab countries. Beauty standards in the Middle East have been based on white Arabness- light skin, and long silky hair. So what is it like to navigate industries where what you look like matters? We meet three Black Arab women - models and influencers - who are part of a movement to push back on racist beauty standards, and redefine what it means to be beautiful.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Lila. Hey, Hanan. Who's this? So this woman's name is Amna. She's a black woman,
0:14.8	and she's also Arab. And what is she talking about? Okay, she's saying, I realized my blackness
0:26.4	was what I was judged on. My blackness was what made me unintelligent, and not to be taken
0:39.2	seriously. Everywhere I looked, my skin color decided what I was. And something I've thought
0:49.6	about a lot, especially that last line. What's the last line? She says, I'm not ugly. I'm just black.
1:04.7	We need to meet Amna. Let's steep this out.
1:19.3	The stoop. The stoop. The stoop. The stoop. Stories coming across the black diaspora.
1:26.4	My cousins were water and grease girls, and I couldn't be a water and grease girl. That's what I'm
1:30.8	talking about, ballerina in the hood. We be gulligitian-minded people. When a black woman walks
1:35.6	up to the desk in labor, what preconceived notions do you have about her? I didn't even know we had a
1:43.6	hair shark. The stoop. So today we're going to talk about being a black woman in the Arab world,
2:00.9	especially when it comes to beauty, and being in industries where what you look like matters.
2:08.1	So not many people may not think of blackness when they hear the words Arab or Middle Eastern.
2:15.7	They may think of Iraqis or Syrians or Egyptians and imagine more light skin people. I mean,
2:22.8	the image of a black person may not be the first one that comes to mind for a lot of people. So
2:28.9	first up, I think we need to establish some things. Yeah, so yes, the majority of people in the
2:34.9	Middle East are lighter skinned, but there are black minorities in these countries.
2:41.2	And some are descendants of Africans brought through the Arab slave trade that lasted 13 centuries.
2:48.3	Yeah, and today there are millions of Africans who migrated to the Arab world for work, for
2:54.7	opportunities. Right, and we wanted to do an episode on being a black woman in the Middle East
3:01.6	because I know you're from that region. And it's an issue that has touched you, but also people you
3:08.3	know, family and friends. Yeah. And when you work in industries that are very visible,
	...

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