Arab Barometer: 43% of Moroccans Consider Anti-Black Racism a Problem

Rabat – In a survey of almost 23,000 participants from October 2021 to July 2022 across 10 countries in the MENA region investigating racial discrimination and “anti-blackness,” The Arab Barometer unveiled “unprecedented insight into the everyday lives of Arab citizens.”

The Arab Barometer’s 7th wave study is the first of its kind to “systematically examine the degree to which citizens across MENA perceive racial discrimination and anti-black discrimination to be a problem in their countries.”

The report’s findings

According to the report, Morocco reports the highest amount of racial discrimination. The data shows that almost a third of Moroccan citizens state they were “targets of racist comments at least once,” followed by Sudanese participants with a report rate of 27%.

The most common reaction found when experiencing racial abuse was to ignore it, but Morocco had the lowest ranking when it came to ignoring the issue with a score of 35%.

Morocco ranked the highest when it came to those who reacted in a physical manner with 26%, and Jordan ranked the lowest with 6%.

Even fewer victims chose to respond by reporting an incident to an authority figure. Morocco had the second highest report rate behind Sudan, with 9% compared to Sudan’s 10%.

Despite this data, there are very few instances where citizens in Morocco and other MENA countries reported either anti-black or racial discrimination to any kind of authority, something that the author of the report found particularly interesting.

The report notably highlights Tunisia as unique compared to other countries in the MENA region as it is the only country that criminalizes acts of racial discrimination by law.

Morocco World News spoke with the author Nisrine Hilizah, MA in Arab Studies Candidate at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Morocco stands out

Hilizah noted how Morocco stood out in the data explaining how it is one of few countries where citizens deemed anti-black discrimination to be a greater problem than that of racial discrimination.

The study showed that 43% of Moroccans believe anti-black discrimination is a problem, compared to 37% who said racial discrimination is more problematic.

The report divulged the long history of anti-black racism in Morocco, noting that the North African country has long been a transit site for migrants and refugees aiming to reach Europe. As of 2021, there were 700,000 sub-Saharan migrants living in Morocco according to the Arab Barometer.

Additionally, 40% of Moroccans think that racial discrimination against sub-Saharan migrants is a problem to a great or medium extent. Hilizah concludes that the data from the survey suggests there is an awareness and understanding in Morocco that racism is prevalent, especially discrimination against black people and sub-Saharan migrants in the country.

The Global Detention Project noted that these migrants are vulnerable to “a range of human rights abuses, helping fan the flames of racism targeting sub-Saharan Africans, encouraging forced displacements, and spurring new forms of ad hoc detention situations.”

Racism against sub-Saharan Africans in Morocco gained recognition earlier this year when reports about the kidnapping of 13 year-old Fatima Zahra in Casablanca detailed that she was taken by a “group of sub-Saharan Africans.”

Unveiling deep-rooted issues with racism in Morocco, the widely publicized story drove internet users to make racist remarks towards the sub-Saharan community.

Racial vs anti-black discrimination

Notably, the study contains two principal categories. One refers to racial discrimination and the other being anti-black discrimination, differentiating how MENA citizens perceive each one to be a problem in their country and to what extent.

Hilizah explained to MWN that it is important to have the separation because the Arab Barometer’s data showed an evident difference in how the participants understand racial discrimination against specifically anti-black discrimination.

As an example, Hilizah pointed out that the majority of the countries surveyed concluded that racial discrimination in their countries is a serious problem. However, only a small minority of citizens (except in Tunisia and Sudan) report that anti-black discrimination is a problem to a great or medium extent. The prevalent gap could be explained by a number of factors, the writer detailed, one being the sensitive nature of the topic.

“There tends to be a culture of silence…so some people may not want to openly engage in discussion surrounding racism, leading to denial that it exists,” Hilizah said.

Another explanation Hilizah gave is that the terminology of the wording used in English (“racial discrimination” and “anti-black discrimination”) does not translate literally from the Arabic term used in the survey.

She noted that it may be more helpful for the participants “to have context-specific language that does not rely on western, especially US, interpretations of race and racism.”

Most and least likely to report abuse

Another factor that Hilizah discussed from the survey is that women said that racial and anti-black discrimination is more of a problem than men did.

She speculates that this could be due to gender norms and beauty standards that are pushed on women in society making them more aware of daily pressures, and therefore increasingly aware of racial and anti-black discrimination.

The data also showed an interesting reaction from Moroccan participants as they were the only country to have an equal 43% of both men and women rank discrimination against black individuals as a problem to a medium or great extent.

Tunisia showed the greatest gap between genders; 74% of female participants ranked racial discrimination as a problem compared to only 53% of male participants.

Egypt also stood out to Hilizah as it had the lowest percentage of citizens that report racism as a problem in their country. Results found that only 8% of Egyptians rated racial discrimination as a problem and an even lower 6% rated anti-black discrimination as a problem.

Moving forward

In summary, the study found that participants did perceive racial discrimination as a problem across the MENA region, yet how anti-black discrimination is recognized has received some mixed responses.

Within the study, there is room for bias as it did not investigate any pre-existing racial blindness that the participants may have.

This became evident when participants were asked if they wanted to see more black representation on television. The study concludes that it is possible that the participants may not recognize that the ways in which black individuals are commonly portrayed on television in the MENA region include demeaning and derogatory representations.

Therefore, the study concludes racial blindness would be a valid area to extend the research.