SHAMARA RILEY OP-ED: Racism In The Middle East Deserves Our Attention

My latest piece is up over at theGrio.com, which focuses on anti-black racism in the Middle East and North Africa, and how blacks are combating it: "Black Iraqis, who are an estimated 10 percent of the total Iraqi population and have been based mainly in southern Iraq for more than 1,000 years, hope that President Barack Obama's success as America's first black president will be a turning point for racial equality in their own country. Under a 'change' mantra, they are fighting against usage of the popular Arabic term for black (abed, which means slave). Movement of Free Iraqis, a political party that advances black interests, fights for anti-discrimination laws, for the Iraqi government of officially recognize blacks as a minority group, and to increase black political power in the hopes that there will one day be an Iraqi Obama. Iranian blacks are using humor as teachable moments to address racism and racial assumptions of what constitutes an 'authentic' Iranian."

More: "That this growing anti-racism movement in the Middle East and North Africa isn't getting more attention in the U.S. is partly due to us not knowing more about what goes on beyond our borders. However, it is also due to black elites' narrow mindedness in that the faces behind racism and oppression of blacks are of European decent. Black Americans shouldn't lose sight of the fact that racism comes in various forms, and should challenge oppression of black people wherever it's found. The time for us to put the Middle East and North Africa on the hook, as we have rightfully done with the West, is long overdue."