Middle East Racism
It’s not just in America
We sometimes find ourselves confronting so many issues of racism here in America, that we ignore the significant racism against Black people in other parts of the world.
Understandably, many Black Americans don’t have much bandwidth left to focus on things taking place 7,000 miles away when they face systemic racism in housing, health care, lending, policing, the criminal court system, and so many other areas right here at home.
It was refreshing when friends and I visited Ghana in West Africa in the summer of 2023. No racism.
Sadly, though, Ghana and its neighbors are the exception; in my travels, I have found many countries to be more like America when it comes to attitudes about Black people.
While there’s much I love about the Middle East in my travels to eight countries there—the food, hospitality, history, and culture — it’s sadly been one of the places where racism persists.
It has a long-ignored racist past and ongoing racism that we must confront.
Let’s start with the forgotten trans-Saharan slave trade (also known as the Arab-Muslim slave trade), which occurred across the Saharan Desert of North Africa, where culturally, the countries identify more as Arab rather than Black Africans.
