Racism in Dubai

I grew in Dubai and attended a foreign British school there, all the way from Primary till the of High School last year. Being Pakistani initially,I came across a lot of racism from my local classmates. This was mainly due to the prevailing environment in most local extended families. Almost all of them were from royal families or from very influential local families.
However as time went on I managed to befriend most of them as they learnt that we weren't at all that different, as I was Sunni and had an Arab last name. But this didn't hold for the few Indians and Sri Lankans in the school, who were regularly bullied.

From my experience, the locals have a unique ability to dislike any person at all due to his family, race, religion. This holds true for locals from Abu Dhabi being prejudiced against locals from Ras al Khaimah. Or locals from some families being made fun of because of their family name or locals bullying Lebanese, Egyptian or Palestinian people. Some of the locals I knew also had an intense dislike for "khal"s or black people and were particularly vocal about it.
I once came across a guy boasting about how he had run over an Indian and gotten away with it because of his 'wasta' or connections. This guy was about 16 and therefore driving without a license and I was made sure of that he wasn't lying about his claims.

My white male friends enjoyed taking part in this racism and it dominated most of the conversations the locals would have with each other and with the white guys. To their credit, most of the white girls in my school discouraged this racist attitude as much as they could.

A note to white girls AND guys, NEVER get into a car with arabs you have never met before, no matter how insitent they are.