"Abdul Hussein Abdul Razzaq laughs wearily when asked if racism is a problem in Iraq. As a black Iraqi, Razzaq says, he faces job and social discrimination and has little chance of getting a political appointment or being elected if he ran for public office. … Razzaq … has founded a political organization called the Free Iraqis Movement to press for equal rights for black people. Its goal includes amending Iraq's constitution to ban discrimination against blacks, who Razzaq says number about 2 million here, and getting blacks elected to the national parliament. … Razzaq regrets not launching his movement five years ago, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. 'We didn't do it then because we were worried about being accused of trying of trying to stir up trouble at a time of nation-building,' he said. 'We had hoped the new parliament would come to include black people, but that did not happen.'"
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I guess it's just rough for Black people everywhere.
Blacks can't catch a break anywhere.
I pride myself on being geographically aware, but I had no idea there were black people in Iraq, besides american soldiers. 2 million is a pretty substantial number in a country that size.
Iraq had slaves too. Did they ever apologize to blacks?
I wonder if the black population in concentrated in the South where the Zanj were enslaved on the plantations.
people need to realize that "Arab" or "Middle Eastern" is NOT a race– it's an ethnic group that is racially diverse– very much like Latinos/Hispanics. So yes, there are black Iraqis, brown Iraqis and white Iraqis.
solitaire& Ron- The blacks in Iraq are decendants fron slaves from East Africa. Mainly from Tanzaneia(tp) and Kenya and some can speak a little Swahili.
As much as I like to celebrate the USA as champion of racism and discrimination, the sad truth is that slavery lasted into the early 20th century in many Arab and Persian countries. The Quran, like Christianity (or so I am told) forbids slavery, but they got around it using the popular "Africans are Sub-Human" philosophy, which, different than in Europe and later America, was a view supported by the intellectual elite.
I have been living in Berlin, Germany the last couple of years and although most people equalize Germany with racism (no one believes me when I say America is much more racist) I only get discriminated by Turks and mainly Arabs. I am told this is because the view of blacks being sub-human is very deeply routed wherever they're from. At the same time and this is where race and racism become funny, being the freakishly white halfbreed I am, I get Arabs talking to me in Arabic every once in a while because they think I'm one of them.