The A Word

Ahmed Twaij explores an often-overlooked issue in the Arab world; racism towards Black Arabs. In this episode, he looks at racism in his own community, taking us from his Iraqi roots, through to modern day slurs still commonly used in many Arab communities around the world.

The murder of George Floyd sent shockwaves around the world, as Americans and non-Americans sent messages of solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement. Communities worldwide began looking internally to seed any form of racism amongst them. As an Arab, I found it odious how many Arabs felt strongly about police brutality, yet remained silent or oblivious to the racism within our own communities. I found this duplicity concerning and to challenge it, I decided to research the roots of racism within the Arab world, how they have contributed to structural inequalities and what we can do to counter it. What I found, only scratched the surface and hearing from black Arab activist voices enlightened me, and hopefully the listeners, to the struggle that unfortunately persists today.

This episode was produced by Ahmed Twaij, with editorial support from Dana Ballout, Nadeen Shaker, Zeina Dowidar and Alex Atack. Fact checking by Shraddha Joshi, sound design by Alex Atack, and mixing by Mohamad Khreizat. Music in this episode was by Ahmed Moneka and Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Noon Salih and Sara Elhassan. Our marketing director is Bella Ibrahim, and Kerning Cultures is a Kerning Cultures Network production.