Privilege and Discrimination

Over the last week I have had a few people tell me through social media or in person, that I have done something to encourage them or to make their lives brighter. These accolades of course made me feel great, and not just because everyone likes a compliment! :P They have helped me to see that others see the person I am trying to be. I am trying to be a person that stands up for others, that tries to put myself in their shoes and that can't always change things but can SEE the problems and will think about them. Living in the UAE has brought these personal challenges to the forefront of my life, like never before. It's not as though I see myself as some superhero trying to solve everyone's problems, I just think that I am solidifying the key parts of my identity in a way I haven't done since my teenage years.

So all was well and I was feeling happy, then something happened to confuse this positive course and make me rethink how much I'm really doing anything, or if I am simply making myself feel that I am. A group of my friends and I decided to go to the pool at a fancy hotel in the city. I used to be a member of the hotel but I realized that they never checked my membership, and it's soooo expensive, so I let it expire and I just use the pool occasionally. Victimless crime, right? Don't judge, I'm airing my dirty laundry for a reason here. I invited my friends to the pool today, assuming they would be able to take advantage of the same opportunity. For the purposes of this story it's important to know that I walked in with two friends, one Caucasian, and one Arab and went to meet our Caucasian friend who was already there. My two other friends I invited, who I will just identity as non-Caucasian (though that is certainly NOT how they identify themselves, just keeping things general for the blog...) came in, set themselves up and then I got into the pool shortly after. One of the lifeguards came over to my Caucasian friend and asked her was she a member, and she said "Yes, of course!" and he gave her towels. A short while after he asked my other two non-Caucasian friends if they were members, which they of course replied that they were. He walked away, then talked to another employee, pointing at my two friends. He then came back over and talked to them again, basically harassing them/not believing them, at which point they just picked up and left. I was swimming in the pool while this was happening and I would usually have gone to help, but I was also in the active process of scamming the hotel, so I really couldn't. The worst part is, they never even asked me for a membership, or spoke to me at all.

This isn't because I'm super special or shockingly gorgeous, but rather because I'm white. I'm not bragging. This invisible white privilege is something I learned about while doing a race and racism course in school. It confused and disturbed me then and it still does now. This country has been built on the idea that the English (ie. whites-in their eyes) are the people to be like, and everyone else is just here to serve the rich. I left the pool today feeling weird and feeling guilty. It was unfair that I didn't get called out, just because I'm white and I really should have said something. The most angering part of the whole situation is that the lifeguards who took part in this act of discrimination were also not white and in fact were nearly the same colour as my friends who they were discriminating against!

I have come to see this country as a little bit of a microcosm for what has historically been, and is still currently, wrong with the world. There is blatant discrimination and racism, classism and slavery. I see examples off it almost every day. At work the other day the students told a teacher they don't like a certain maid at our school because she yells at them every morning. What does she yell? "WHY DON'T YOU TREAT ME LIKE A HUMAN BEING!?" Yeah. We gave her a card and a little bit of money because she was going to her home country and she cried, so touched that people were being nice to her.

These are only a few of the problems that I see here on a daily basis. They affect the people that I know and love, which makes me angry. At the same time, I have seen these same problems almost anywhere in the world that I have gone. I have friends who deal with discrimination due to race, sexuality, gender identity, mental illness and countless other things in Canada (and undoubtedly other countries). Things are better hidden there, though. Here everything is on the surface. Maybe that's the reason I'm here, to observe, to write about, to share with the world that these issues exist on the surface here. There are some things I can change. Mindsets. My own behaviour. Maybe even the thoughts of those willing to listen. What I cannot change, I will write about. Change starts with awareness right?