“Can I please be your bitch White Man?”
The Emiratis do it again as they try their hands at winning the white man’s favor and purse strings. In an attempt to attract the colonial masters (that they have ironically appointed themselves) to their latest coastal residential development project in Abu Dhabi, Al-Raha Beach, the company has placed the above ad all over the AUH airport. Also, in an Etihad Airline Magazine (the magazine located in seat pockets) placed print ad, a famous mall in the Emirates advertises the enjoyable experience of shopping by featuring a visibly Anglo/European white family hand-holding and prancing around the mall’s interior.
Given that most of the population of the UAE is South Asian, targeting a group of people that make up less than 8% of the population (I know I don’t have the figures on buying power for each community-sorry about that), seems more like a subconscious attachment to the colonial master-subject relationship then smart business practices. Gulf countries are notorious for secretly reserving CEO and high-level positions in companies for White Brits or Americans. For a proposed business development in the UAE, my father was very seriously advised to substitute his Pakistani architect on the project with a white man for the presentation in front of a board of “local” landowners. Even given the Emiratis’ famous preferential treatment towards Americans, the double-edged sword of being both Pakistani and non-white outweighed the benefits American nationality can get a person in most of the GCC. Ergo…
“Can I please be your bitch White Man?”
Just my ithnayn piasters!
Related posts:
- On HAMAS’s Victory
- Fox News’ Wisdom on “Apple Dubai”
- Israel is a Beacon of Democracy
- A little hyphy these days, huh?
- Schwab takes the Gold in the Groveling Olympics.
Racial hierarchy in Dubai. 1) Westerners (paler the better) 2) Emiratis 3) Lebanese 4) Asians and Africans
Posted by Arayus | April 16, 2009, 5:54 pmI agree with the taxonomy of class, but have one question. Where do White South Africans fit? Because it appeared that when I was there that they really bad reputation. In fact, Emiratis seemed to favor Black South Africans to their White counterparts.
Posted by maytha | April 16, 2009, 8:04 pmI'll admit the taxonomy I created is incredibly simplified, and is more of joke than reality just in case anyone was taking it super seriously, however a short glance at Emirati society does make you see the pyramid in this way. That said, last year I got to spend more than a year in the Middle East. I noticed that Arabs are not racist in the way that us westerners are. They are very specific about who they are racist towards. For example, in Egypt, I noticed that they were racist towards groups of people not based on their race but based on their nationality. So they might show disrespect towards Africans from one African country but then show love towards Africans of another African country. This I found interesting cause as you know in the West, we just lump everyone from "over there" into one racial category and stereotype them all the same. Keep in mind that my observations of Arabs are limited to no more than 4 countries and are mere casual observations.
Posted by Arayus | April 17, 2009, 5:26 amWhite South Africans can be very stuck up and racist, whereas their black counterparts are usually friendlier. I wonder where Arab Americans or British Asians fit in?
Posted by Shafiq | April 17, 2009, 10:46 amI get a totally different impression from the poster… the Arab man is obviously in front, he seems to be friendly and welcoming, his body language suggests openness and he seems to be presenting. The "white" man seems to be a guest, he seems perhaps to have just arrived, he has his briefcase in his hand. I don't get the impression that the Arab man wants to be subservient, I get the impression he is friendly, he seems to be taking the lead, and he seems interesting in doing business. Abukhalil over at Angry Arab also shows this peculiar obsession with white people.
Posted by eagle007blogger | April 21, 2009, 12:35 amYou've obviously never been to the Gulf
Posted by Shafiq | April 21, 2009, 8:57 amNah, he just doesn't have a chip on his shoulder.
Posted by Andrew | May 26, 2009, 5:33 pm