Racism in the Arab world

In the Arab world, racism targets black-Arabs, and non-Arabs ethnic minorities such as Armenians, Africans, Berbers, the Saqaliba, Southeast Asians, Druze, Jews, Kurds, and Coptic Christians, Assyrians, Persians, Turks, and other Turkic peoples, and South Asians living in Arab countries of the Middle East. Arab racism also targets the expat majority of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf coming from South Asian (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh) groups as well as Black, European, and Asian groups that are Muslim.

Racism in the Arab world has been linked to notions of Arab supremacy, manifesting in various forms of discrimination against non-Arab communities. Historically, this has included the marginalization of groups such as the Berbers in North Africa, Kurds in the Middle East, and Black Africans, like Masalit and Dinka in countries, like Sudan.

The previously taboo topics of race and racism in the Arab world have been explored more since the rise of foreign, private, and independent media. In one example, Al-Jazeera's critical coverage of the Darfur crisis led to the arrest and conviction of its Khartoum bureau chief. The Darfur conflict has been characterized by racially motivated violence, with reports indicating that Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, targeted non-Arab ethnic groups, leading to allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.