"Sweetie, you seem nice but I have to be real with you, I don't play with young Black men in the world of BDSM because they all have a macho complex and they're allergic to Femdom," Zainab Sheikh said calmly, looking the brother standing before her up and down. Whoever said they don't make brothers like they used to wasn't thinking about this one, Zainab thought, bemused.
Rashid Darnell was certainly a handsome brother, six feet two inches tall, lean and athletic, with dark brown skin and slick, dark hair styled in a thick Afro. The brother carried himself with a maturity beyond his twenty three years. Clad in a Black leather jacket, red silk shirt, Black silk pants and Black timberland boots, Rashid looked good enough to eat. Like a lot of the brothers she met at BDSM functions such as the Black munches like this one, Rashid probably thought he could change her mind about a lot of things...
"That's news to me, ma'am, because I'm a switch," Rashid said, matter-of-factly, a wry grin on his handsome face. For the first time, a glimmer of interest appeared in Zainab's soulful brown eyes. The towering Black amazon and budding dominatrix sensed that this brother was not like the others. What on Earth were the odds of that? A young Black man who wasn't into White girls, nor was he threatened by Black female dominance. Hmm.
"Well, Rashid, I think you just might be a unicorn," Zainab replied, and Rashid grinned and shrugged. When he offered to buy her a drink, she happily accepted. As the evening rolled on, Zainab got to know this rare fish a little better. Rashid was a newcomer to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, by way of metropolitan Detroit, Michigan. He recently transferred to Carleton University from Wayne County Community College.
"Don't care to live in Donald Trump's twisted idea of a great America, I swear this bozo is going to make it legal for Klansmen to hunt brothers for sport just like they used to do in the bad old days," Rashid said bitterly, and Zainab gently laid her hand on his arm. Rashid smiled faintly, but said nothing. Little did he know how much Zainab empathized with his pain. If he only knew...
During Zainab's last trip to the U.S. she visited the City of Jacksonville, Florida, and saw a most disturbing sight. Unruly rednecks openly carrying guns on the city streets and mocking President Barack Obama during the 2016 Presidential election pitting Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. This brought back some bad memories for Zainab Sheikh, who was born to a Somali Muslim immigrant father and a French Canadian mother in the City of Montreal, Quebec, in 1977.
"They stare at us because they hate seeing Black Muslim men married to White women," Zainab's parents, Omar Sheikh and Elisabeth LaPierre-Sheikh explained to her one day. The life-changing discussion took place on a fateful day when Zainab inquired about people staring at them as they walked about a shopping center in Laval. From that day forward, Zainab began paying attention to her surroundings. What the young woman saw astonished her...
"I can't afford to be weak in a world that wants to eat me alive," Zainab Sheikh swore to herself, shortly after that talk with her parents. The product of good genes, Zainab grew up to be six feet tall, bodacious and curvy, with light brown skin, curly Black hair and lime-green eyes. People often mistook her for a Latina due to her 'exotic' good looks, but Zainab always told them that she was Black...and proudly Muslim.
The racism Zainab Sheikh saw in the world irked her, and she decided to become stronger so she could deal with. Even in a racially diverse place like the City of Montreal, Zainab saw that certain institutions like the police and the education system treated minorities different from Whites. The differentials in race and power dynamics fascinated her. While in college, Zainab discovered the world of BDSM and set out to become a dominatrix.
"Are you alright, Miss Sheikh?" Rashid's deep baritone voice chimed in, snatching Zainab Sheikh out of her little trip down memory lane. Zainab looked at Rashid, touched by the genuine concern in his voice. She assured the young brother that she was okay, and Rashid resumed with his myriad questions about BDSM, and what life was like in Ottawa. After all, he'd only been in the Canadian capital for a couple of months...
"Ottawa is what you make of it, my man, some say it's a boring city, but trust me, it's about who you know and what you're up to," Zainab said confidently. After graduating with her MBA from the University of Montreal in 1998, Zainab Sheikh moved to the City of Ottawa. Fresh out of university, Zainab began working for the Bank of Montreal. In the nearly two decades since, Zainab rose to the position of regional president of BMO. The first minority and only the second woman to achieve such a thing in company history...
"I could certainly use a guide," Rashid said amorously, and Zainab looked at him and grinned. This brother sure knows how to talk to a lady, she thought. That's why Zainab surprised Rashid, and herself, by ducking out of the munch. A lot of the attendees, Black men and Black women in the Ottawa area who were testing the waters of BDSM, looked on as Zainab Sheikh, the grand dame of the Black BDSM scene, left with a younger man. Certainly had a lot of tongues wagging, that's for sure...