Black Iraqis congratulate Obama on election win

[sabra]

Source: AP

Iraq's centuries old black community congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory Wednesday.

A leader of the black community in the southern city of Basra, Jala Dhiyab, says Obama's win signals the start of a new way of thinking and tears down the psychological and social barriers that prevent people from achieving their goals.

Abdul-Hussein Abdul-Razaq, another community leader, said Obama's win is a great day for all people.

Abdul-Razaq says some 350,000 black Iraqis live in and around Basra, the country's second-largest city. In most cases, their ancestors came to Iraq as slaves from east Africa.

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225715351503&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[desktop]

1. That is interesting, DU is giving me an education

I wonder how the Iraqi amjority treats this community of people?

[Igel]

2. Not very well, for the most part.

There's a decided correlation between lower skin-melanin levels and better treatment.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/17/world/fg-blackiraqis17 for a quick review that tends to gloss over the problem a bit (since black Iraqis can ascend high in the social hierarchy), but later implies that conditions are bad. And the examples of those that rose high in the social hierarchy are scattered over 1500 years of history.