Study: Western scholarship oversimplifies racism in Morocco, overlooks local voices

A new academic study has criticized what it calls a simplified and misleading Western portrayal of racism in Morocco, arguing that foreign scholarship often ignores local perspectives and flattens the country’s complex history.

The research, conducted by Zakia Salime, a professor at Rutgers University, says some Western academics depict Black Moroccans and sub-Saharan migrants as passive victims awaiting “rescue” from systemic racism.

This framing, she argues, overlooks Morocco’s own debates, activism, and grassroots movements that challenge discrimination, including campaigns such as “Mashi Azzi” and “Mashi Azzia.”

Salime warns against what she calls the “myth of discovery,” in which foreign researchers present local anti-racism conversations as invisible until uncovered by outsiders.

She also criticizes the tendency to apply U.S.-based racial frameworks, such as slavery and segregation, to Morocco without adequate historical or cultural context.

“The history of slavery in Morocco is undeniable, but it should not be the only lens through which race is understood today,” she writes.

As an example, Salime cites American scholar Stephen King, whose work portrays Black Moroccans as an oppressed group needing outside intervention.

While such studies aim to expose racism, she says they often ignore the intertwined histories and longstanding social ties between North and West Africa.

The study also points to what it calls a double standard, noting that French research institutions help produce studies on racism in Morocco while largely remaining silent on racism in France.

Salime calls for “decolonized” approaches to studying race in North Africa that avoid importing Western racial binaries and instead draw on knowledge from within the region.

Her work does not deny the presence of racism against Black Moroccans or migrants but urges a more nuanced understanding that recognizes differences within Black communities and the country’s broader historical and cultural complexity.