AltMuslimah and Brown Girl Magazine planned a Twitter conversation called #OwnBrown based on a previous Hashtag called #BrownParts. We hoped to address the issue and engage followers about skin color discrimination and the results were eye opening, sombering, and hopeful. AltMuslimah and Brown Girl Magazine welcomed followers to the event at 3:00…
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The latest Bollywood song blared from the speakers and the crowd at my sister’s wedding cheered in delight. As I laughed with my friends and shimmied my hips in time to the music, I was unaware that a family friend’s son was observing me from across the room. He had attended the event in order to “take a look at me” for a possible rishta (proposal). I didn’t make the cut, however. I wasn’t gori (fair) enough.
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“I often have to wonder [what] my great grandfather, who converted to Islam from Sikhism in Delhi, would [say if he were to] see all this. He broke from his family, lured by the egalitarian and authentic message of Islam. How would he feel if he knew, generations later, [that] his son would be confronted by educated, religious Muslims who are obsessed with skin color?”
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