In the midst of their political restructuring, Libya was found to be discriminatory to people from surrounding African countries and their own darker-skinned community. Amnesty International discovered that around half of the detainees held in detention centers were either from Mali, Nigeria, Chad, or Sudan or were dark-skinned Libyans. Since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was ousted, entire southern communities of dark-skinned people have disappeared and violence, racism, robbery, arrests, and even public lynchings of dark-skinned citizens have increased.
Although Libya's National Transition Council has denied any systematic racism, the undisciplined cases of overt racism have yet to be addressed. In her op-ed, Emira Woods discusses what needs to be done, including having the U.S., The African Union, and The United Nations be involved in the race-sensitive side of transitioning the chaotic African nation. "The Obama administration provides Libya military training, sales and equipment, which comprise the machinery of repression being unleashed against dark-skinned people," she said. "It is unconscionable to continue the steady flow of weapons to a military engaged in ethnic cleansing and torture. This is not tolerated in places like Darfur and should also not be tolerated in Libya."
Could the U.S., with our own color issues, be helpful with another country's color issues?
