Heike Graf 142 topic of anti-black racism among immigrants, and especially within the Turkish and Arabic community, which is according to the hosts an under-discussed issue and needs, therefore, fur- ther scrutiny. Despite denial from the non-black Muslim side, the participants show that anti-black racism by Muslims with Middle East backgrounds is relatively widespread and not re- flected upon. The hosts ask where this kind of racism comes from and conclude that it is imported from the Near and Middle East, which has a long tradition of anti-black racism. They give insights into the history of the slave trade, especially the Arab- Muslim slave trade, and the audience is informed that it lasted for over 1300 years and was much greater than the transatlantic slave trade. They also give examples of deeply rooted anti-black racism in the Middle East of today. Together with the guests, they share their shocking experiences when visiting Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle, where slaves were imprisoned before they were loaded onto ships. In their criticism, the participants also include the black community, which is not free from prejudice and ste- reotypes directed towards their “own” people based on differ- ent shades of black skin color, called “colorism”. The audience learns about this form of prejudice in which people are treated differently based on meanings attached to different shades of skin color. Lighter skin tones are considered more beautiful and valuable and, therefore, those people are treated more favorably than those with a darker tone. With this episode the hosts challenge the view of racism as a problem only for white people in the US and advocate for anti-black racism as a global problem. By paraphrasing the “Black Lives Matter” movement, they claim that the lives of, e.g., Black Turkish people also matter as well as the lives of people with different skin tones. At the end, the hosts invite the audi- ence to further discuss the issue and provide links for more information about slavery, and racism among the black commu- nity and Muslim community.
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