My Thoughts On Taraji Mustafa’s Interview

I’ve blogged about Taraji Mustafa a month ago and gave my opinion on her based on an Arabic article I read. Now after watching a video of the interview she had with Al Arabiya, I have more to say.

After watching the video, one can quite easily notice that Taraji Mustafa was emotionally charged when she was talking. She reminded a little bit of Wafa Sultan. Both were emotional when they spoke and both have the same hair do. The difference however was that Wafa’s criticisms were in the context of religion. Taraji’s are not. She has a clear disliking towards Arabs and Arab attitudes. Being a northern Sudanese she also seems to consider herself as purely African and not Afro-Arab as most northern Sudanese including myself do. At least that’s the impression I had. We northern Sudanese have a serious issue of identity crisis. Bring a group of us, put us together and drop the question “are you Arabs or Africans”. You’ll most probably end up witnessing a huge heated debate but anyways, this topic and the issue of internal racism within Sudan are beyond the scope of this post.

I support Taraji’s overall stance and interview. I believe there’s nothing wrong in establishing a Sudanese-Israeli friendship association. It’s actually a good thing. Let’s see the following:

Interviewer: Do you have any popular or official mandate to establish the Sudanese-Israeli Friendship Association, or is this your own personal initiative?

Taraji Mustafa: First of all, I do not need a mandate to talk about my personal beliefs, or those of some of the Sudanese people. None of the Sudanese friendship associations, like the Sudanese-Indian or the Sudanese-Swedish associations, and many others, needed a popular mandate. Why do I need a mandate to establish a friendship [association] with that part of the Israeli people that believes in friendship?

Exactly! Now, seriously what’s wrong with that statement? Hell, I myself, Drima of The Sudanese Thinker have my hand stretched out in peace and friendship to any Israeli out there who also wants peace and friendship. In fact, here’s a “digital brotherly hug and handshake” to all my Israeli readers who don’t mind living in peace and friendship with me.

I admire Taraji’s bravery and courage. It made me go WOW. The woman certainly has guts. She doesn’t conform to the general negative “bla bla blas” of Sudanese society. She speaks her mind freely and says what she wants confidently. I like that.

There are some glaring flaws Taraji made in her passionate speech which I didn’t like though. Here’s the first:

…Lawyers called me to say they were initiating a constitutional lawsuit against the Sudanese government because of the words “to all countries, except Israel” [in Sudanese passports]. Sudan is the only country to include in its passports such a clause, which deprives a very wide sector of Christians, and even Muslims, from visiting [Jerusalem] and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Wrong! That was a dumb statement. Sudan is not the only country with such a clause in its passport.

Moreover and secondly in my humble opinion, Taraji herself is guilty to a certain extent of the same thing she accuses the Arabs of. Let’s see the following:

The Palestinian people should not forget that we, the Sudanese people, opened our doors to them in the days of Sabra and Shatila. The Palestinians should not forget that Ja’far al-Numeiri saved Yasser Arafat in the days of Black September. Unfortunately, none of this is imparted to the Palestinian people, which, as has been proven, treats the Sudanese in the worst possible way – with racism and persecution – because they are black.

I don’t think it was fair for her to say that. She herself made a generalization too. Sure, Palestinians are not all lovely non-racist angels but at the same time they’re not all evil racist devils. How can you make such a blunt generalizing statement and describe a whole people as racist? Now, listen up guys and girls. I’m not going to sit here behind my keyboard and tell you that I haven’t experienced racism from Arabs who view northern Sudanese darker skinned Afro-Arabs as lesser Arabs. I’ve experienced my own share of racism from Arabs… in fact too much of it especially during my childhood school days in Qatar. I’ve been called names like charcoal, chocolate boy, “blackie” and slave. I’ve experienced racism from Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, Qataris, Saudis but not Palestinians. Yes, not Palestinians. However does that mean that just because I never met a Palestinian who is racist, all Palestinians must automatically be non-racist angels? Bleh, yup sure ‘cause you know I’m just like totally retarded. Damn it, of course not! I bet you a thousand bucks that there are some racist retarded Palestinians out there! Also ask any Sudanese who they think are the most racist of all Arabs and there’s a 90% chance they’ll answer “the Lebanese”. Hell, many Lebanese call Sudanese peanuts, “fustug il 3abeed” which translates as “peanuts of the slaves”. Yes, the Lebanese have a bad reputation amongst the Sudanese and many of us consider them to be racist but you see this is exactly what I heavily dislike… this whole generalization and stereotyping thing which of course I myself am embarrassed to say used to be quite guilty of in the past when it came to Jews and Israelis.

Most of the racist retards that I really hated back during my childhood school days in Qatar were Lebanese mostly, Syrians, Jordanians and Qataris but at the same time my best friends in class mainly consisted of 2 Palestinians, a Jordanian, a Bahraini, 3 Qataris and a Lebanese. My point? Don’t generalize and paint all people with the same ugly brush. I think Taraji got too emotional during the interview and I didn’t like the sweeping statements she made. My guess is that she probably had a very bad experience with a Palestinian person sometime in the past. It’s kind of like those funny Sudanese I know who visit India only to return back and say “man, Indians are smelly”, or get robbed while visiting Egypt only to return back and say “man, Egyptians are thieves”, or go to a fully packed mosque while visiting Indonesia only to return back and say “man, Indonesians are such good religious Muslims”. I can go on and on but you get the idea.

Taraji Sultan also makes another generalization:

I believe the Arab media in its entirety – TV, websites, movies, and songs – should be held responsible for this racist behavior. We are sick and tired of seeing blacks in Egyptian TV series in the roles of doormen, waiters, or drivers. We are sick and tired of the stereotyping of blacks in the media, in series aired in the Gulf countries.

In its entirety??!! Like whole damn entirety?!! As in everything?! If she said “some”, I would have no problem but “entirety”?! Damn! People, do you see what I’m trying to point out here? The roles in Egyptian TV simply portray reality. Most of the mentioned jobs are held by dark skinned Nubian Egyptians from the far south of Egypt. Portraying blacks holding such jobs isn’t racist. Plus how the hell can you explain the huge popularity of many dark skinned Egyptian actors and singers? And how can you explain the popularity of this Kuwaiti band which I really like?

Please Taraji, I admire your courage and bravery but chill out a little bit. Don’t generalize and don’t get heated up in the moment. Friendly peace loving Israelis deserve our friendship and we should stand against the wrong ignorant stereotypes about them but let’s not paint all Arabs with the same brush.

Oh well… there you go… my thoughts on Taraji Mustafa’s interview.