Have you ever put someone on a pedestal and always thought so highly of them only to discover a heinous truth about them that renders you speechless? Well, what I am going to talk about today is sort of like that, but not really, because I’m not speechless. It is about Adel Emam and other actors, actresses, writers, and producers in the Egyptian film making industry who participate in unacceptable mockery of dark skinned people.
Growing up, Adel Emam to me was the funniest man alive. I am not much of a movie person, but if there is a Adel Emam movie, I will be the first to watch it. I am also not one to laugh out loud while watching TV (Southpark,Friends, and 30 Rock are exceptions to this rule), but his humor was impeccable and I loved most of his movies. I even made sure to get front row tickets to his play (masrahiya) "The Body Guard" when I visited to Egypt. It’s been a while since I’ve watched any of his movies, and there was one movie that I did not get to watch: Al Tajruba Al Denemarkiya (The Danish Experiment) so when I found it online the other day, I was excited. However, this time, I wasn’t laughing (okay maybe a little.) The particular scene that vexed me is where a blond lady arrives in Egypt and men start following her in droves (because you know, blond girls are the rarest, most prized species.) The men follow the lady all the way to Adel Emam’s home in the movie, so Adel’s character starts kicking them out. There were Egyptian men, Khaleeji men, and one really dark. Stereotyping you say? Wait till you hear what happens next. The dark man did not want to budge, as he was so stricken by the Danish Blonde’s beauty (because you know, you don’t get beauty like that with dark women.) Then the man offers 50 cows in exchange for the woman. Watch said scene here.
That is just one incident, but this treatment of dark people is not uncommon. Another movie I (unfortunately) watched recently was “Ali Spicy,” which is the Egyptian equivalent of Mariah Carey’s mess of a movie “Glitter.” In one scene, one of the characters is busted by his friend with a woman. The woman is black, and the main character (acted by Hakim) keeps making fun of the woman and says things like “Allah yesawed lailtik zay ma sawad wishik” (God darken your nights like he darkened your face.” Granted, the woman is a prostitute, but he does not treat her badly on that account, but because of the color of her skin. He makes several racist jokes and then yells and screams at his friend and says “dool mesh neswan, dol 7ayawanat.” (those are not women, they are animals.)
Adding insult to injury, there’s this song by Mohamed Henedy. In it he is dressed as a Sudanese man and sings to dark women saying: “esmaret, we etharaget bas batata” Now this is going to really be lost in translation but it literally means “she got darker, and tanner, and burnt like a potato.”
There are many more instances of racist treatment of darker people in Egyptian movies. Especially when it comes to dark women; they are often portrayed as inferior, and their beauty is shown as well below par in comparison to their “white” counterparts. Treating dark men as imbeciles and portraying dark women as inferior in terms of beauty is not acceptable comedy.While I really do hate the whole PC movement, I think pushing for more political correctness is a must in the Egyptian media.
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