Arabized Blacks News Today

The Hirak, a massive popular protest movement for democracy in Algeria which began in February 2019 and continues to challenge military authoritarian rule in the country today, is most potent when it can sustain mass mobilization against the regime across cultural, ethnic, linguistic, ideological, class, and racial lines. 1Elsewhere, I discuss the importance of sustained, cross-cutting mobilization in efforts to end military authoritarian rule. See Stephen J. King, The Arab Winter: Democratic ...

Three generations after independence, the Algerian state is still resisting the open public debate and civil society engagement needed to reflect the country’s pluralism and to begin to reckon with the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination. Instead of trying to impose a white Arab-Muslim identity on all Algerians, national unity and stability are more likely to be found in recognizing and accommodating diversity. Black Algerians need to be a part of the conversation about identity an...