Amid riots and mass hysteria over “systemic racism” in the U.S. that doesn’t exist, here is some real racism in Algeria, as told by its victim.
“Aïcha, 28 years old,” translated from “Aïcha, 28 ans,” Goethe-Institut, May 6, 2020 (thanks to Elina):
I have been living in Constantine for 6 years. I came from Mali for my studies. It’s my family who chose Algeria. I wanted to go to the United States or Canada, but my parents preferred to send me to a Muslim country. For me, the important thing was to be free and independent.
Before coming, I thought that Algeria was an open country, where people lived well together. But when I got to the airport, I was shocked. They were staring at us, pointing at us and someone shouted: “welcome to Algeria, kahloucha!” I remember that word very well, I didn’t know it was an insult yet.
The day I arrived at the university campus, it was the same, we were hooted. Later, in the street, my hair was in an afro, a young man put a cigarette in my hair. It set fire to my hair and made a hole. An old lady came to help me put out the fire. Everyone laughed. I began to run, I was crying. It was then that some nice girls taught me to insult in the Algerian dialect.
The more I went outside, the more I was assaulted, insulted or hit. All the time, it was: “kahloucha” (black, pejorative), “kahloucha zobbi” (black my dick), “nik mok” (fuck your mother), roh bledek (go back to your country). I still had fear, a lump in my stomach. There has never been a day without my being assaulted, beaten or having my hair pulled. I fell into a terrible depression, the beginning of madness. I walked around carrying a stick to defend myself.
I couldn’t stand life here, I couldn’t even go out of my room, and in the first year, I attempted suicide. A week later, my family came to pick me up. I could not go back because I was ashamed that my community would see me as incapable of studying, they do not know what is going on here.
Constantine is a particularly conservative city, it’s much worse than in Algiers or Bejaïa. The boys are constantly attacking us. If they see a girl alone on the street, they go crazy. They throw stones at you, they stone you. I felt like everyone wanted to hurt me. So I started to respond with violence. They hit me, I hit them, they hit me, I hit them. All my school years, it was fights morning, noon and evening. I didn’t even know that I had so much violence inside me, but in Algeria, it made everything come out.
On campus, some girls told me that I was beautiful, but it was to make fun of me. Others were so shocked to see a black girl that they froze or screamed and ran away. Sometimes, some came to apologize afterwards. I made friends, too, who really were there for me and invited me into their family. These friendships are the best part of my years in Constantine.
Thanks to me, a lot has changed at the college. At first, the foreign students spoke very little with the Algerians, they kept their headphones on so as not to be disturbed. They had no way to defend themselves, no place to complain. But me, every time someone insulted me, I got into a fight and I went to the administration. It was from there that black students began to be respected. One day a girl said to me, “Thanks to you, now I can take off my headphones, they don’t even insult me anymore.” It was with violence that I made myself respected.
Among the black students we therefore created something like a family, with a lot of solidarity. The older students took care of the new ones. As soon as one of us had a problem, we were all there.
The administration says it is there for us. Indeed, we can file a complaint against those who attack us and the administration sanctions them with up to a year of suspension. But it does nothing to educate the students, apart from sharing us by working group so that we mix with the Algerians. They want us to integrate, but they don’t want integration. Many girls have experienced racism even from the teachers. A teacher asked a girl, “Are you a man or a woman? With blacks, I can’t tell the difference.”
Algerian society, I see it closed and racist. Blacks are still seen by many as slaves, as an inferior race. Here, the images that we are shown of black Africa, it is the disease, the famine, people who live in remote villages without any civilization. Few documentaries air on Africa, African history is not taught, and Algerians do not see themselves as Africans. They should be taught that both the people who come from large countries and they, too, are African. They don’t know anything about their history, just the Algerian revolution and the dark decade, so how can they respect black people? Society brutalized them. They are like sheep, while those in power get rich.
When I got home, my mother expected to see me religious, with the hijab. I had a shaved head like a rock n’roll star. The poor girl at the airport almost had a heart attack. She said to me, “Where were you?” “Well, I was in Algeria!” “But what happened to your hair?” “Your Algerians, your good Muslims there, they burned my hair!”
shosh says
Every man and woman is made in the image of their MAKER, a G-d Who loves people so much HE went to Hell for three days and three nights to keep everyone out of Hell (Psalm 16:10). But like the woman with the burned hair, this LOVING G-D WHO DIED AND WENT TO HELL FOR US, is also rejected by everyone….HE is the G-d Who will not be defeated in rejection, but will continue to follow you and plead with you all the days of your life until you take your last breath. HIS name is Jesus Yeshua in Hebrew and HE is right here waiting for you to talk to HIM about your future. Will you speak to HIM now ?
Quazgaa says
You know what they say, when you talk to God it’s called prayer; when God talks back to you, it’s schizophrenia.
Wilson Shoshana says
I am going to give you 365 prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. Probability statistics state this is impossible. Here is the link and then consider the consequences of dying without Jesus. You know down inside of your innermost thoughts that you have told lies, taken what is not yours, had thoughts that were not acceptable and other activities since you were old enough to form words. You also know you are accountable because you have a conscience. Here is the link:
http://bibleprobe.com/365messianicprophecies.htm
James Lincoln says
Wilson, I bookmarked it in my favorites.
Thanks!
william carr says
I lived in Brunei for four years. It was rare for black person to visit there but when they did the ‘good muslims’ would spot at them in the street
william carr says
Typo sorry. I mean spit of course
jodie lindell says
Muslims here in usa are similiarly rude ,violent and the most racist and intolerant kind .
william carr says
Sorry typo. I mean spit of course
gravenimage says
Thanks for that grim account, William.
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Good Evening Sir,
This is a very touching story.
I really wonder how Aïcha bore all the pain and strain fighting against racism.
A real dare devil indeed proving “and to every action there is always an equal and opposite or contrary, reaction”, hats off to her .
God bless her with my blessings added.
Regards and blessings to you.
Uma
mortimer says
Think Arabs don’t have black slave today? They do.
The Ongoing Fight To Free Thousands Of African Slaves In Yemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVuQTiQNJOE
keith O says
And the really crazy part about this is that slavery is common in a lot of Muslim countries.
After all, if it was good enough for Allah’s perfect man then it’s good enough for them now.
This is the fate that awaits infidels like us when the takeover happens.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that terrible link, Mortimer.
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Very touching video.
European pagan says
A teacher asked a girl, “Are you a man or a woman? With blacks, I can’t tell the difference.” —-> this kind of stupid racist people should not work as teachers. Open your eyes and you can see that it’s a woman. A teacher can not be so stupid.
I hate racism. We look different and it’s good. In a ‘normal ‘ country someone who burned the hair of an other person should be in prison. He thinks he is a strong man because he can attack a woman?
Kepha says
Wonderful Algeria–when I was a youngster, it as the haven for all those high-minded radicals fighting for justice and the pride and dignity of the black man.
keith O says
An interesting example of how Mudslimes treat lesser Mudslimes. And of course they have the audacity to call us racist & bigoted.
tim gallagher says
The media in the western countries would tend to bury reports like this. It is only racism by white people that they seem to report on. I also think that there is quite a lot of anti-white racism in our societies and it seems to be given a free run by the media. From this report, Algeria seems like a rotten society, but, hey, it’s a Muslim society, so I’m not the least bit surprised about that. As Aicha says, “I couldn’t stand life here”. Life in any Muslim society would be appalling. Islam poisons everything everywhere that it goes. None of the rotten attitudes towards this woman surprise me because Islam brings its followers up to have nasty, barbaric attitudes in all areas of life.
gravenimage says
“What happened to your hair?” “Your Algerians, your good Muslims there, they burned my hair!”
……………..
This poor woman. And yes–stories like this are ignored in the West. I remember when I was at college trying to tell another student about racism in Communist China, and she simply refused to believe it because it was not the West.
Most Muslim countries are even worse–and then there is, as Mortimer notes, the continued enslavement of Blacks in Dar-al-Islam.
The Awful Truth says
Here’s what a pious Arab believer answers to the question “was Muhammad multicultural?” She emphatically states “no” – it’s by Arabs for Arabs (even though she’s wrong In some ways, as there was no pure Arabic at the time and Muhammad was illiterate). So, outside KSA Islam is not too relevant:
https://www.quora.com/Was-Mohammed-a-multiculturalist/answer/Sara-Manar-15?ch=10&share=a01696a7&srid=Za7dO
NB Robert Spencer