But You Don’t Look Afghan?
Oh, that skin-crawling, gut-wrenching, piss-off of a statement myself and my countrymen get from time to time. One time, I got, “But you’re not dark.” Ok moron.
Look, I know the media makes us all look the same. I know that from an outsiders standpoint, Afghans are just brown people with brown hair and brown eyes and brown skin.
And there are many Afghans who fit that phenotype. BUT GUESS WHAT. THERE ARE ALSO A LOT WHO DON’T.
This post was inspired by something really stupid that happened last night:
I saw a really ignorant comment on a friends post. She is an ethnic Pashtun and gets mistaken for white, European, Anglo, whatever the hell you wanna call it. Well, she was wearing traditional clothing in the picture and someone who presumptuously thought she is “white” commented, inquiring if she was “culture-appropriating”.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT. NOT ALL “BROWN PEOPLE” ARE ACTUALLY BROWN. Many, and I mean MANNYYYYY of us come out with “white” features. My mother was born with red hair, my youngest aunt with blonde, and my father with green eyes. And these features are NOT limited to Afghanistan; Iranians, Arabs, Desis, pretty much anywhere in our region, there are MANY people who wouldn’t get a second look from TSA.
“White” looking Afghans are not a phenomenon, they just don’t fit the stupid Western stereotypical phenotype of “those people over there” and so, are gazed at in awe.
Well, get the hell over it. For Gods sake, WE PUT CAUCASIAN ON OUR DOCUMENTS. They exist. And here are some pictures to prove it.
Then there’s those on the other side of the argument. Those who whitewash our histories and constantly put up pictures on their FB and Instagram pages of ONLY Afghans who have red and blonde hair. I have seen countless “Afghan pride” pages on Instagram with photos of people who look nothing like me. Why you tryna fit in so bad? Why can’t we celebrate the diversity of ALL Afghans, no matter their hair or eye color?
But I guess I understand that desire to “prove our whiteness”. Technically speaking, Afghans are Aryans, Caucasians. This fact is really only known to the people from this region, and it still weirds me out that I put “White” on my records. BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS.
My points, summed up:
- People need to understand that the media tries to box Middle Eastern and Central Asian Muslims in little stupid categories and looks. They do this to further a racist, policing agenda thats pushed by colonial, military governments. They do this so it is an Us-versus-Them thing; as in, “See! the enemy looks nothing like you!” But SURPRISE! As these pictures show, the “enemy” can look just like you, and ya daddy.
- Race is socially-constructed. In high school I used to love reading about the different “stocks” of people and was so about that Aryan life. I used to always love throwing it out there that Afghans were “white”, because it challenged people’s notions of race. But after I did a DNA test and found my ethnic makeup to be tremendously mixed, I got over that shit. I could care less that we’re Caucasian.
- However, this does not mean we must abide by the fixed stereotypical phenotype the Western media has imposed on us. If, for educational reasons, we must dig into and prove our “white” past – so be it. If that means some ignorant moron who thinks we all look like Osama will open their eyes to our diversity, then I’m all for plastering photos of blonde Afghans all over social media.
- All of this should not be done to put our brown brothers and sisters down. Afghans have all sorts of skin tones – and they’re all beautiful. I tan my skin on purpose for Gods sake. Many Afghans have dark skin too, and there’s nothing wrong with that either.
Afghans are some of the most phenotypically-diverse people on earth. As the crossroads of empires, along the Silk Road, and as the heart of Asia, of course we’re all gonna look like a United Colors of Benetton ad. When our non-Afghan friends get this, then we’ve made a small stride towards breaking the stereotype. And that’s always good.
Race is a social construct? Well if DNA can tell us what race a person is how is that a social construct? Race is very real regardless of what koombaya liberal professors tell you.
Thank you Ray for visiting the site & sharing your comment. I agree that race is very real. I don’t believe she uses the term “social construct” at all in her article — her points can be summed up from #1-4. Race is real but is not defined by the color of our skin, hair, or eyes.
Thank you Ray for visiting the site & sharing your comment. I agree that race is very real. I don’t believe she uses the term “social construct” at all in her article — her points can be summed up from #1-4. Race is real but is not defined by the color of our skin, hair, or eyes.
Thank you for responding Gina. Sorry for my initial tone. Her 2nd bullet point states race is a social-construct.
How dare an Anglo-Saxon make the “skin-crawling, gut-wrenching, piss-off” assumption that Afghans are “brown”, based simply on the fact that 99% of them are. Don’t they realize how much the Afghans enjoy being considered white? How outrageously insensitive. But in India, your “brown” relatives simply refuse to accept that the Mongoloids from the part of India bordering China are actually Indians. In fact, they are openly racist to these Mongoloids in their very own country. A few thousand suicides and protests have done nothing to change their mindset. But that’s okay, they’re not Anglo-Saxon, they can’t possibly be racist.
This is so interesting! I’ve read a few books on Afghanistan and even though I knew about the different races, it’s so nice to actually have some visuals! 🙂
Truly appreciate that!
We are all human. The social construct of race tries to divide people into sub-categories just because they look different. All these terms like mongoloids or caucasians etc.., they don’t mean anything, they are just more words that divide us. You are not your race or skin color, you are what you make yourself to be. Race is only real because you acknowledge it.
Absolutely! Thank you for your words, they are very impactful and I feel your passion 👏
That last picture of the little blond girl is a Kalashi girl from Pakistan. She isn’t Afghan at all and no offence sis Afghans are only considered ‘white’ in America. Come to the Europe or UK you’re definitely considered Asian (South or Central Asian) on paper like your neighbouring countries. I get the point you’re trying to make here but you really tried to beg it.
Gina,
I will read this to Christian. I’m sure he will love it.
Would Kurds be considered White?
I know this was about your personal experience, but I can relate also. I always get the “YOU DONT LOOK AFGHAN!” comments and it really invalidates my identity. I wish Hazara people were more represented in the media so people could finally understand the diversity of Afghanistan. I always get mistaken for Filipino or Indonesian, which is understandable. But, when people don’t consider me Afghan because of the media’s one dimensional and racist portrayal of Afghans, that’s when it pisses me off. We’re not all tanned or have big eyes. Sorry for the rant.
Thank you for being YOU!! I love what you shared.
The first photo are Kalash kids from Pakistan not Afghans.
Um Adam, Afghans are not “white”. White is apparently a European classification. Indians are not “relatives” to Afghans in any way. I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. In Afghanistan people do not identify with colored categories so the point is moot. Europeans can call themselves white and create whatever classifications they deem fit but these have no relevance to the whole rest of mankind, the vast majority of which have never had a tradition of color categorizing people. Afghans are simply Afghans, they may identify with their various tribes and as Afghans in general. There is no tradition of identifying racially with other people in neighboring regions or with alien races of Europe. If westerners have uneducated stereotypes on what an Afghan looks like that is their own naivete and lack of awareness.
How do you know she is a Kalahi girl? You say she is from pakistan as if pakistan is some ancient land. It’s an artificial construct if ever there was on with all of 70 years of “history”. pakistanis are indian muslims with no relation to Kalash, Turks Afghans, Persians or anyone else they try to conflate themselves with.
The ancient Indo-Europeans were white, they literally were as white as Europeans are today. The Indo-Europeans originated from the area of Ukraine and close to Eastern Poland about 6,000 years ago. They were the people who domesticated the horse and first began to smelt copper, tin, later on bronze and then iron.
When they domesticated the horse, they were the first people to move into central asia and they moved as far as east as western China. Look at the Tarim mummies, they are blonde haired and European connected dna wise. They also went into Iran, India, and everywhere in-between which includes Afghanistan and the areas that Kurds inhabit today.
The only reason why much of Central Asia is populated by mongoloids today or mixed caucasian-mongolids is due to the Turkic tribes and to the Mongol horde. They did genocide on the native (white) population of Central Asia. The white looking people there today are the remnants, and many with white features are simply the result of being mixed race due to ancient rapes by Mongol soldiers.
The “whites” / Indo-Europeans of Europe however, they were not touched much by the Mongol invasions. That is why they are still white and not mixed like most Afghans and other central asians are together. The Kalash btw are one of the Indo-European remnants.
These photos are all from Pakistan, people from Hunza and Kalash Valley.
“The fool has said in his heart,” there is no God”. Corrupt are they and have done abominable inequity”. (psalm 14)
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
“I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me”. Jesus Chris, the only begotten Son of God who died on the cross to do only the Will of the Father, rose again the 3rd day, He is the resurrection and the Life, ascended into heaven seated at the Father’s Right Hand until He’s going to make all His enemies His footstool and comes again to judge all people at the resurrection of the dead , and the Kingdom of God is eternal.
I know this is like well old but it’s helpful. I went on to see, well this sounds bad but it ain’t meant to, to see what people look like from Afghanistan so if i see one I know to be nice, coz, well shit watch the tv?!? So its like they have it bad, and they come to uk, to Birmingham, and its like, everyone’s different there, how do i know who is maybe the new or the afraid? Thanks for making this thing, its proper interesting to me as a self confessed ignorant person (but a goodie not a baddie), i mean it, this will help someone one day, that i have seen this will make a difference to someone, thankyou
There are white indigenous africans. They are tribal. They are often murdered by black indigenous africans. Blue eyes can show up anywhere.
I’m a afghan but originally from nuristan. My mother is nuristani and she is very white like nordic people. I don’t care white or black or yellow or red , The land of Afghanistan Is called Ariana in the past, and all the European historians, especially the Greeks, have recorded Afghanistan as Ariana and Herat city as Arya in their geographical maps. We are Aryans and we are proud of this identity.We do not care about the wildlife of western liberalism. May God be with you all the Aryan races
I think our diversity in amazing i don’t care if same one is white ,light brown or brown as long they are not Shia i don’t have problem with them