5 Issues (Out of Many) to Focus on Instead of a “Hijabi” in Playboy

Struggling against discrimination and anti-Blackness in American Muslim Culture

So, remember those millions of NbA Black Muslims struggling with racism and police brutality I wrote about earlier? Well, they also have to contend with intra-cultural bias from fellow non-Black coreligionists as well as the erasure of their experiences from the American Muslim dialogue.

Non-Black Muslims frequently disqualify Black Muslims for leadership positions and marriage because of their skin color. There is also the deprecation of Black Muslims through various microaggressions and microassaults in diverse Muslim spaces with things like matrimonial applications that ask, “what color do you prefer,” which is a codification that values one skin tone at the detriment of another.

Imams frequently face criticism if they address issues like police brutality on the minbar, and communal du’as rarely include the devastation heaped on the multitude of Black American communities to which so many masaajid are in or within proximity.

Thus, Muslim spaces like masaajid, conventions, conferences and non-profit organizations present yet more alienating spaces for me as a Black Muslim, and I, like so many of my Black sisters and brothers, am forced to fight to assert my validity and humanity. I don’t have time to be mammy to and spend precious time and energy defending a non-Black Muslim woman who strategically placed herself at the center of this messiness.

So perhaps we should all consider expending our energies speaking out against the tenacious racism and bias in Muslim communities victimizing Black Muslims.

And before commenting, “Muslims can do both,” save it because they don’t.

Reason four: The work of real Muslim women “renegades”