Uncovering anti-Blackness in the Arab world The Conversation 10 Jun 2021, 00:40 GMT+10 Black Arabs are underrepresented and largely invisible in "white" Arab-dominated countries, and excluded from political, academic, artistic and religious institutions. "Black" and "Arab" are not mutually exclusive: some Black people are Arab and some Arab people are Black. As an Arab intellectual in the West (I'm an Arabic language and literature professor at the University of Waterloo), speaking out on anti-Blackness in the Arab world has placed me in a critical position. Until recently, anti-Blackness has been a taboo topic within Arab society. In 2004, this began to change when Bahraini cultural critic Nader Kadhim published Representations of the Other: The Image of Black People in the Medieval Arab Imaginary. I am currently translating the book into English to raise awareness in the West about anti-Blackness in the Arab world.