You Have a Beautiful Color

Hello my beautiful people, it's been a very busy couple of weeks but I wanted to share some of my experiences as a (brown-skinned) Black woman traveling for an extended period of time in Morocco. Long story short, it hasn't exactly been what I expected.

Coming to Morocco, I was worried. I knew that Morocco was a North African country with a history of enslaving Black Africans. I had read a few blog posts by Black women who have traveled here to get a sense of what to expect as I was planning to spend five weeks living here. I came across this horrible story of a Black woman experiencing outright racism in Marrakech: a very touristy city in western Morocco. After booking her hotel room in advance, she was told by the concierge that there were no more rooms available and that she would have to find another hotel to stay in that night. She was frustrated and confused by this, but complied nonetheless. As she was leaving the hotel, she came across a white European couple and she warned them that there were unfortunately no more rooms available at this hotel. They thanked her yet entered the hotel to confirm what she had told them. The concierge then told the couple that they had a room available for them and that they could escort them there now. The couple then left the hotel to inform the Black woman that there were, in fact, rooms available here and that they were confused as to why she was told that there weren't. The Black woman immediately understood that she was a victim of anti-Black racism. It wasn't that there weren't rooms available; there were just no rooms available to her. Perhaps they thought she was a sub-Saharan African woman which comes with negative connotations in Morocco due to the influx of migrants and refugees from “Black Africa.” Nevertheless, this experience undoubtedly left a bad taste in her mouth and she said that she has doubts about visiting the country again. After reading this story, I was left disappointed and worried about the kind of racism that I would experience in Morocco.

I have been in Morocco for the past month and have luckily not experienced anything along the lines of what this woman experienced. I haven't experienced racism…but I have felt hyper fetishized. Allow me to explain. When I arrived in Morocco and met my host family, one of the first things they commented on was my skin color, but not in a negative way. They called me “Samara” , a name meaning a beautiful woman who wasn’t too dark or too light. It was a compliment to them to adorn me with such a title. My Arab host mom told me that she also fell in this category of “Samara” as she wasn’t a pale, nor darker skinned Moroccan woman. Despite feeling a bit uncomfortable by that title, I smiled shyly and thanked them. It wasn’t until I visited Fez (the cultural capital of Morocco) that I knew that my skin color was being fetishized. I recall wanting to buy some nougat for my host family to bring it back as a present from my trip. The owner of the shop told me that I should taste the caramel because I myself appeared mixed race with a nice caramel complexion. Lovely. Don’t you love it when your skin color is compared to a flavor? He then pulled my hand and told me to take a picture in front of his shop. He seemed delighted to have someone of my skin color near his shop. I was uncomfortable and confused. Like this isn’t racism…per se so should I be offended? As we walked around the medina (the ancient walled neighborhoods found in every major city in Morocco), men would cat call me and reference my skin color. “You have a beautiful color” they would say or “I love chocolate!” Good for you? I never knew what to respond. It’s not like Moroccans come in one shade. I have seen native Moroccans my skin complexion and darker so why was I getting this kind of attention?

The only other Black girl in our study abroad group was also getting statements like this. She’s of a darker complexion and sometimes the comments she received were more negative than the ones I did. It made me think about the history of skin complexion in this country. It is impossible that a formerly colonized country with a history of a Black slave trade wouldn’t be susceptible to colorism. From the looks of Moroccan tv shows and movies, they preferred people of lighter skin with a more “European” look. So again, why the interest in my Brown skin? I was told by my Moroccan friends that it was less about my skin color and more about getting my attention. It was clear that I was a tourist likely from Europe or the United States. These merchants knew how to get the attention of tourists no matter their shade. This did make me feel better though it still makes me uncomfortable to feel like my “not too dark or not too light” complexion was of interest to some of the people here. At the end of the day, it just made me feel like an object. Whether it’s slurs or fetishism, I just don’t want my skin color to precede me. And unfortunately, I can expect to hear these kinds of comments in most places that I visit in this country. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy and grateful that I haven’t experienced racially targeted violence or abuse (though that is the bare minimum…). And overall, I have enjoyed my experience in Morocco. But the weird fetishism that I’ve encountered in Rabat, Fez, Tangier and Marrakech…yeah that’s got to go.