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by j45 5350 days ago
Maybe, brown / "arab" are the new blacks to get stares and all that.
1 comments

I'm actually one of these brown / "arab" new blacks you speak of incidentally (I'm from Algeria) and I haven't had this problem. But I do not have an accent and I've sort of "integrated" well within American culture. I can see where someone who is not so well-integrated and comes with an accent might see some trouble, but if they can code with quality and work in teams well, all that goes out the window.
In my experience once most middle eastern/arab people are "integrated", people see their appearance as vaguely mediterranean and don't really think twice about it.
I agree. I'd also add that I don't think that experience is the same as African-Americans. People do distinguish between middle-eastern/Mediterranean and African-American. At least in my experience.
I too, seem to stand out a little to some people; some even call me a visible minority.

Even though I speak better english and command a larger vocabulary than most. English is my first of four languages.

I also dress well, drive well, dine well, know my music, have friends from many countries.

I once heard a saying you have to be twice as * to be * enough. Fill that in for any group.