Muslims experience more racisin than black people
Summary
A Somali-Norwegian rider tells Kareem about living with what he calls "dual racism," experiencing discrimination as both a Black person and a Muslim. Before 9/11, his Black identity drew more prejudice. After, his Muslim name did. He recounts arriving at JFK from Oslo, where a customs agent treated him warmly until reading "Abdullah Afra" on his passport and immediately sending him to a random check. The conversation shifts to Norway, where he's from "the white people factory" and where locals use a Latin-derived slur that sounds dangerously close to the N-word. In heavily white spaces like Norway, he gives the nod to anyone even slightly dark. How dark? Italian counts. His friend Anthony looks so Pakistani that he'd get the nod too, even though he's 100% Italian.
Full Transcript
So what's your take? Muslims experience more racism than black people. I don't know. I'm not black. Yeah, I'm Somali. I mean, some black and a Muslim. I'm what you call it, you know. And before 9/11, my black side experienced most racism. And after 9/11, my Muslim side experienced most.
So you have dual racism. Dual racism. Like I just came in from Oslo and at JFK I was expecting a lot of racism for being black, but they treated me really nice. Really nice. And then I showed my passport and he read my name. He's like, "You're Abdullah Afra." And he's like, "Oh man, I forgot to apply racism." And then he took me to a random check.
So physically he was like, "Oh, it's a cool black guy." But then he saw your name and he said, "Oh, that's a Muslim guy. Let's send him to the detention center." No, random check.
Oh, random check. Detention center. Not yet. Not yet. And I'm also from Norway, you know. So the, the, the white people here in America, they came here with ships many years ago. I'm from where they make the white people.
Oh, they make white people in Norway. Yeah, the factory.
Dude, I thought it was Sweden. No, it's Norway, man. But Norway is quite racist. Like they have this word in Norway where they call us—nag in Norway.
Nag. I'm not saying it. You can say—you can say it then. No, I'm not saying it. You can't say it. But don't say, don't say, don't say it.
No, I'm not saying it. Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't make me say it. But I can say it. You say it, whatever you want. And the thing is, when you meet Norwegians who say it, they will kind of be like, "Oh, it's not racist. It actually means black in Latin." But they use it as an insult.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then it's definitely racist. It's the N-word in Norway, man.
Do you ever see any black tourists in, uh, in, in Norway and and you give them the nod? We always nod to black because we're like, "Ah, I see." It's not just for black people, by the way. 'Cause I do the nod with A-Arabs or with everybody. If I'm in a white zone, a white territory like Norway, I would do the nod to anyone who's a little bit dark.
How dark are we talking? Italian.
Yes. Italian gets the nod. Yeah, because like my friend Anthony, he looks Pakistani. He is he not Pakistani? He's Italian. That is the most Pakistani looking man I've ever seen, man.
That nose is from Islamabad, dude. Yeah. So if I saw him in Norway, I'd go like this.
Yeah. But he could say naked in Norway though.