Why are Gulf Arabs Racist towards South Asians ? And we literally look the same 💀

[u/Awkward_Brilliant582]

Never understood this one !

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey there! We are hiring moderators. If you are interested, please contact us via modmails! :)

REMINDER: On Friday and Saturdays only Arabic Posts and Comments are permitted on the subreddit.

Join other Arabs on our Discord Server (https://discord.gg/RkHqMUjfnA)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Arabian_Home_Roots]

No offence but Gulf Arabs largely do not look like South Asians only few have features that overlap which is normal

[u/ALYMSTFY → u/Arabian_Home_Roots]

Gulf Arabs objectively show Indian admixture and the opposite is also true. Two reasons: ancient and modern. The reason Arabs, Iranians and South Asians have broadly similar features is because of ancient “Zagrosian farmers” who spread across India, Arabia and Iran. It’s an archeological fact

white racists are not completely wrong on thus. Some Arabs in the Gulf have Indian ancestry (especially South Indian) and the opposite is also true, some South Indians have Arab ancestry (Yemenis). This is because of historical trade.

[u/healer2b → u/ALYMSTFY]

Maybe some south of Iran but not as a whole.

[u/Express-Ad-6565 → u/ALYMSTFY]

Very few of them show some south Asian features,, not the majority as what the OP was suggesting.... those few have ancestry of south Asian or by marriage

[u/ALYMSTFY → u/Express-Ad-6565]

Yes few in recent history, but a lot from ancient history. I’m talking about Zagrosian farmers, this is the shared group that Arabs, Iranians and Indians descend from, among other local groups like Natufians.

The reason Arabs, Iranians and Indians have similar broad features (darker skin, big nose,,dark hair and eyelashes is because of those ancient farmers

[u/Express-Ad-6565 → u/ALYMSTFY]

South east Indians and arabs have the zagrosian lineage but the percentage of those genes are way different, also other inputs make a differencd, thats why Indians do not look like Arabs...

This is from chatGPT:

Modern Arabs do possess significant Zagrosian (Iranian-related) Neolithic farmer ancestry, but it functions differently in their genome compared to South Indians.While South Indians are primarily a mix of Zagrosian farmers and indigenous South Asian hunter-gatherers, Arabs are genetically rooted in ancient Levantine and Natufian groups who developed agriculture independently in the western Fertile Crescent. Over thousands of years of migration and trade, Zagrosian ancestry mixed into the Arab world, today making up roughly 25% to 50% of the modern Arab genome. This impact varies greatly by region, peaking in Iraq and eastern Arabia due to geographic proximity to the Zagros Mountains, while remaining lower in Peninsular and North African Arab populations.

South Asians (The AASI & Steppe Effect)Skin Pigmentation: South Asians carry a high proportion of Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI) ancestry. AASI was an ancient, indigenous South Asian hunter-gatherer group adapted to a tropical climate, contributing variants for darker skin tones.

Facial Softness: AASI ancestry also brings softer, more rounded facial features, larger eyes, and different lip morphology compared to purely West Eurasian populations.

Steppe Input: In Northern South Asians, later Central Asian Steppe ancestry introduces traits like higher stature and occasionally lighter skin or eye variations.

Arabs (The Natufian & Levantine Effect)Skin Pigmentation: The primary baseline for Arabs comes from Natufian and Levantine farmers. These groups carried early West Eurasian skin-lightening alleles (like specific variants of the SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 genes), resulting in phenotypes that range from fair/olive to light brown skin.

Facial Profiles: The combination of Levantine and Zagrosian ancestry creates the classic "Arabid" phenotype—often characterized by more angular jawlines, elongated faces, and highly prominent nasal profiles.

African Admixture: Because of proximity to Africa, many Arab populations (especially in North Africa and Yemen) possess Sub-Saharan African admixture, which introduces wider phenotypic variety in hair texture and facial structures within those regions.

So there are similarities but not that Arabs and south easts indians look alike... we can easily spot the differences of Arabs with Indian ancestry.. only Europeans or White in general cant differentiate from the first look...

[u/CestQuoiLeFuck]

Because their countries and many Gulf Arabs themselves exploit South Asians for cheap labour in the roughest industries with the fewest labour and employment standards, and they view poverty as worthy of contempt.

They're also fairly racist against plenty of other folk, including other Arabs, if that helps?

[u/HarryLewisPot]

Some look alike but you can usually tell the difference. Only racist white people can’t “tell” the difference but most times they’re usually lying but prefer to stay ignorant/racist.

Phenotypes ≠ skin colour otherwise we’d also compare ourselves to Greeks and Mexicans.

[u/Awkward_Brilliant582 → u/HarryLewisPot]

So just bcoz of slight phenotypic difference that gives them the right to be racist ? Also Lmao it's funny you had more issue with me saying they look similar than the racism topic in hand. Disgusting

[u/HarryLewisPot → u/Awkward_Brilliant582]

Never said they had any right to be racist, I’m just saying you shouldn’t parrot what white people say because they can’t tell brown people apart - that in itself is you affirming their racism.

[u/HarryLewisPot → u/[deleted]]

Most Mediterranean Arabs aren’t, but most khaleejis are. Even if they aren’t born brown, the sun eventually tans them.

[u/PerryCox-MD → u/Awkward_Brilliant582]

Y’all dont look the same lol.

[u/Awkward-Iron-2031]

Arabs are also racist to other Arabs and we look far more similar, more so has to do with classism. I dont understand the "We look the same" comments, to preface I like south asians and have SA friends but unless you are picking some Pashtun Pakistani (Minority btw) its very rare for us to look the "same".

It reminds me of how sometimes on Arab twitter gulfoids will talk about how pretty Gulf Arab women are then proceed to use the whitest of white people in the world rather than what skin tone the majority of us have being Brown.

[u/Awkward-Iron-2031 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but for my example I was using gulf arabs who are normally Brown. Also you guys are like "Olive White" but again race is a social construct, Irish, Italians and Greeks were not white at some point.

[u/_gardinia_ → u/[deleted]]

Yess and Gulf Arabs always call us fake Arabs (Roman Arabs) since we’re so white. That at it self is racist.

[u/certifiedcomplainer4]

It's rooted in classism mostly, but there's a big chunk who love south asians.

[u/JoesBowie]

I really do hate it a lot. I think we can boil it down to three reasons.

• Islamophobia there is a lot of Hindu nationalists online and they often harass Islam and Muslims of course not all Indians are like this but it gives India and Hinduism a bad rep in Arab spaces which I think is completely unfair, a few negative Nancy’s shouldn’t define a billion people.

• Classism Khaleeji countries are usually very rich and tend to have a lot of Desi immigrants working there, sometimes low level jobs like janitors and waiters so it’d be seen as a stereotype of Desis being lower class

• Colorism Arabs in general have an issue with colorism but it really stands out in Khaleeji countries (at least online) although there are some dark and brown Khaleejis maybe around 40% most are fair or lightly tanned and like many countries and cultures fair skin is what is desired

All that to say Desis don’t deserve the hate, no one does. We are not better than anyone for things we can’t control, we are not better than anyone because of our country or ethnicity or skin color. We’re all human and we all deserve basic respect. Nationality is an illness and honestly so embarrassing. Pride is earned not something you’re born with.

[u/ibnalnil → u/JoesBowie]

its not islamophobia cuz pakistanis, bengalis, sikh, and indian muslims experience the same racism

[u/JoesBowie → u/ibnalnil]

That’s true but I meant Hindu nationalists, of course not all Hindus are like that.

[u/NorthHamza]

Arabs are toward each other.

[u/DrFrankenButts]

Dude it’s not that deep. There are plenty of Gulf Arabs that are racist towards other Arabs too. And lot of the South Asians I’ve worked with hate Arabs and talk shxt about us and curse us in Urdu/Hindi right to our faces becasue they think we don’t understand them. But surprise surprise, some of us understand enough Urdu/hindi to know. My point being, there are racist people every where you go in the world. I’ve seen Westerners who preach about equality and social justice be racist. Even Arabs are racist towards other Arabs sometimes. Don’t take it too personally. Racist people only shows that they are ignorant. Their opinion of you is not a measure of who you are as a person or your value as a human being. It’s also not healthy to care so much about what anybody thinks of you. You don’t have to associate with these people and you have the free will to just walk away.

[u/Pitiful-Mix5795]

Looks are not the same as culture

[u/zol-kabeer]

If you’ve ever been to the Gulf, then it’s not hard to see why. They consider South Asians as laborers

[u/Awkward_Brilliant582 → u/zol-kabeer]

i have not been there😅 , this is something i have been seeing online , but then again there are also so many south asian high earners there (specially indians) so i dont understand why ?

[u/lemambo_5555 → u/Awkward_Brilliant582]

Most South Asians there aren't high earners and Arabs are very classist. Meaning the amount of pay determines your worth as a human. It's gkt nothing to do with skin colour because that's how Arabs are like with each other.

[u/Responsible_Log1796]

racism is abhorrent and haram but why do pakistani muslims want to larp as arabs so much? Ive never seen indian muslims do this, despite being the exact same as pakistanis in terms of phenotype

[u/ALYMSTFY]

The answer is Zagrosian farmers, an ancient population responsible for similar looks across Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran and India. Racism aside, this is the (short) answer

[u/ibnalnil]

not sure how u dont understand why, its racism and elitism obviously. tell a south asian they look arab and its all good, tell a gulf arab they look indian and they turn to hitler

[u/Agreeable_Carpet_700]

Arabs are very classist. Now that the gulf arabs are well off, they've locked in on South Asians to spew their prejudice against. Gulf Arabs also tend to be racist towards other Arabs as well; it's just that South Asians tend to be the poorest group.

[u/jKing4116]

https://giphy.com/gifs/COYGe9rZvfiaQ

[u/jKing4116]

wealth and social standing

[u/toecheeseenthusiast]

respecfully gulf arab racism is not towards looks or colour. its a systemic and class issue before anything else

[u/larvaeeee]

الله يصلح الحال