More problems we didn't know about

Corey Flintoff of NPR has an on-line article about a little-known problem in Iraq:

The inauguration of Barack Obama to the US presidency later this month is being celebrated with special fervour by Iraqis of African descent in the southern port city of Basra. Although they have lived in Iraq for more than 1,000 years, the black Basrawis say they are still discriminated against because of the colour of their skin, and they see Obama as a role model.
Long relegated to menial jobs, or work as musicians and dancers, some of them have recently formed a group to advance their civil rights. Black people in Basra are most visible at joyous events. When there's a big wedding, Basrawis call in drummers from the district of Zubair. The Basrawi bride and groom are welcomed in traditional fashion by a row of musicians in Arab dress, long dishdasha gowns and red-checkered head scarves. The drummers are black men, descendants of the people who came to Basra from East Africa as sailors or slaves over the course of centuries. And while they are welcome fixtures at joyous events all over the city, they say they are not as welcome in Basra's political, commercial, or educational life.
"People here see us as slaves," says Jalal Diyaab, a 43-year-old civil rights activist. "They even call us ‘abd’, which means slave." Diyaab is the general secretary of the Free Iraqi Movement. He sits with more than a dozen other men in a narrow, high-ceilinged room in a mud-brick building in Zubair, talking about a history of slavery and oppression that he says dates back to at least the ninth century. "Black people worked on the plantations around Basra doing the hard labour, until there was a slave uprising in the mid-800s," says Diyaab. Black people controlled Basra for about 15 years, until the ruler sent troops. Many of the black rebels were massacred, and others were sold to the Arab tribes.
Slavery was abolished in Persia during the 19th century, but Diyaab says black people in modern-day Iraq still face discrimination. "Arabs here still look at us as being incapable of making decisions or even governing our lives. People here are 95 percent illiterate. They have terrible living conditions and very few jobs," he says. Diyaab takes visitors across the street to a warren of mud-brick courtyards where dozens of people are packed into tiny rooms without running water or sewage. The narrow passageways reek of excrement. Many people sleep in the open yards when the weather is good, because there isn't enough space in the rooms. "These houses are like caves. This house? This is it," says Diyaab, pointing at a single narrow room and the courtyard outside. He says fifteen people, the family of a man called Abu Haidar, live here. Diyaab says there are more than two million black people in Iraq. He says they want recognition as a minority, like the Christians, whose rights should be protected. He says his group's demands have been ignored by the Iraqi government, but they have found an ally in a Sunni political party, the National Dialogue Front.
Awath al-Abdan is the head of the party in Basra, and he says black Iraqis have a strong case for getting their minority status recognized. "We expect this cause to become a political reality soon because it just started to get publicity. We are working hard to get these people's message heard," he says.
On a bright Saturday in Zubair, young men hang bright flags and prepare an altar for a ceremony they say will summon a spirit from Africa. They work under the impatient direction of Baba Sa'eed al-Basri, a prominent local musician. He is the hereditary leader of this religious sect, which combines elements of Islam with African spirit traditions. The flags, Baba Sa'eed says, represent the African countries associated with various spirits. At the centre of the altar is a model of an Arab sailing dhow, the kind of ship that brought black people to this city. "These rituals," he says, "are inherited expressions that were brought to us from Africa, through the ships that traded in this port."
The ceremony ends with a song Baba says will send the spirits back to their homes, retracing the journey that his ancestors made, back through the Gulf to Yemen and then on to the coast of East Africa. The candles and the incense are extinguished. The flags are taken down and the model ship is put away. The black musicians of Zubair pack up their drums and get ready to play another round of weddings.

Rico says there's discrimination everywhere, if you only look for it...