Comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about President Obama during the 2008 campaign have sparked a racial debate in the U.S. and around the globe.
Reid, who recently apologized, is quoted in a new book as saying Obama was electable because he is “light-skinned…with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Racial discrimination takes on many forms around the world.
In Iraq, some estimate that 10 percent of the country’s 29 million people are of African origin.
Much of the black population feel marginalized and are increasingly frustrated about not having a legally mandated share of parliamentary seats — unlike many of Iraq’s other minorities, including Kurds and Christians.
Watch a report by Omar Saleh of Al Jazeera English here:
In Australia, 21-year-old Indian student Nitin Garg was stabbed to death in Melbourne recently. And another Indian man was set on fire outside of his Melbourne home.
Australian police are still looking for the attackers but say they don’t think either crime was racially motivated.
This has upset many Indians — both in Australia and India. A series of violent attacks against Indians in Australia last year had already strained diplomatic relations.
Applications by Indians for Australian student visas have dropped by half, and at least one protest has taken place outside the Australian High Commission in New Delhi.
Watch a recent report by Ashima Thomas of Al Jazeera English on the violence in Australia:
Global Voices blogger Kevin Rennie, a former secondary school teacher and resident of Melbourne, offers a wrap-up from Australian bloggers.
The murder of an Indian man in Melbourne has reignited the debate about racism in Australia and the safety of overseas students. It has also severely strained relations between Australia and India.
And lastly, in our Worldfocus broadcast tonight, we discuss the discrimination faced by Afro-Peruvians.
For the first time, the government of Peru has apologized to the African-Peruvian population for centuries of abuse, exclusion and discrimination.
The government said it hoped the apology would help promote the “true integration” of Peru’s multi-cultural population.
Africans first arrived in Peru in the 16th century as slaves of Spanish conquerors. Today Afro-Peruvians account for 5 to 10 percent of Peru’s 29 million people.
On the blog “Living in Peru,” Andres Flores writes about the history of Africans in Peru:
“According to the anthropologist Humberto Rodriguez, traces of the African culture are strongly marked in the capital. “There are streets in Lima called Malambo, inhabited by large numbers of African descendants. Their roots are not confined only to music and food, they are also seen in their lifestyle, their creolism, language and customs of the city.”
- Geneva Sands-Sadowitz
01/22/2010 :: 12:25:55 AM
Global Fusion Says:
@Secretary-I think u r mad & ur words are at best laughable because nothing u have said has any basis on facts or common sense. U don’t seem to know much about Africans, Blacks or Americans & r speaking from purely ignorant opinion. As to what Flamingo says Rawlins ran Ghana 4 over 20yrs -he first came 2 power in a military Coup then had 2 terms in a democratic election & his father was a European. If anything mixed raced children get preferential treatment in many African nations because unfortunately the stain of slavery has Africans & Diasporans still believing that lighter is better or somehow superior which was taught to them by colonizers & slave masters & continues 2 exist thru the descendants on all sides- hence Harry Reid’s statement of what is very much a fact in America where Obama was more acceptable as a candidate to many Whites because he has lighter skin & higher level of education- translation:he was closer to their ideal of White acceptability/superiority than to their stereotype of Black unacceptability/inferiority.