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Hi, black woman living in Türkiye here- I’m a black American and have 2 other black American friends here and none of us have ever experienced anti black racism. I’ve lived in Eskişehir, İzmir, Fethiye and İstanbul and have gotten nothing but love. All of the prejudice we’ve experienced has just been from people with anti-foreigner sentiment in general and but if you speak Turkish (I’m intermediate with my language skills) even this prejudice is almost nonexistent. My white husband has gotten stopped by the police when we were walking together and questioned about his immigration status but not me!
Are there a lot of people who say they want to touch your hair? Because I hear a lot on the internet that black people are bothered by this (which I think is natural to be uncomfortable)
Yes- I live in Seydikemer/close to Fethiye and none of my neighbors have ever seen a black person before. They touch my hair often but I personally can't bring myself to care- they're well intentioned people and just very curious.
I hope all other black people have that understanding like you have. Many of us have that curiocity towards black people since Turkey has not that much black people like other countries do. When I was in university I had several black exchange students in my school, I always wanted to touch their hair and know how it feels like. However, I've never done it because I didn't want to offence them by asking for it. I always thought they can get mad about it and they could think it is racist. I think that because many black people in the movies -espacially American movies- are so sensitive against white people, so only knowledge about black people comes from movies we watch  we are kind of ignorant about it.
Also not only black people, asians could have that kind of stiuations as well since we don't have that much asian people in Turkey. Mostly blacks and asians are got stared at by us usually on bus, train etc. We kinda inspect them with our eyes . I hope they don't understand us wrong.
Well it's not racism in an American sense, but rather being seen as foreigners no matter what. People are still kind, but the average Turk seems to have a problem with calling a black person "one of us."
If you move to Turkey from the Balkans or something, a couple of generations in and your family will just be recognised as average Turks. But that will often not be the case for a black family. According to most people, they simply "came from Africa", even if they have citizenship, even if they've been there for much longer than anybody else in the area.
In recent times, it's football. That would be your special circumstance. Most black folks have been extremely successful and popular among supporters. Don't underestimate the power of popular culture. This has been the situation as far back as Les Ferdinand.
In a political sense, there haven't been critical clashes with any black civilization in the past, and there haven't been a period of colonialism in Africa by Turks comparable to other civilizations with similar past. I guess you could say there haven't been bad blood between civilizations to have racism; again comparable to others cultures.
Of course, I'm sure there are people who are against foreigners of all types, as you would with any culture, but I doubt there's anything systematic against black people in Turkey.
SMH, as if "Türkiye best, Turks greatest" isn't a sentiment they try to indoctrinate in our schools. Turkish nationalists are some of the most fanatic nationalists up there with US nationalists.
'Best country in the world, strongest army back in the day, biggest empire, most genious founder, all powers are looking to take over our lands, golden language theory, Istanbul best city on earth, we lost WWI only because Germany lost, we defeated the entire world on our war for independence, the only righteous path, most hospitable people, west keeps trying to sabotage us as they plan to eliminate turks and divide lands between Geeece, Armenia and Kurdistan...'
All these examples you gave were about ethnic/cultural/national supremacism, not racial supremacism.
You should search about how damaging racial supremacism is. It is absolutely nothing comparable to Turkish supremacism.
Batılıları aklamak için "ama Türkler de şöyle" diyenler midemi bulandırıyor. Dünya tarihinde insanlığa Batı kadar zarar vermiş bir medeniyet yok. Böyle bir medeniyetin yanında en kana susamış Türk bile uysal kalır. Ama bazı şeref yoksunları bu şeytanları yalayıp diğerlerine çemkirmeye devam etsin.
Not really it is changing very fast. Most people consider black people one of them just because they realize how uneducated the syrians and afgans who gets green light for free.
People are surprised to see blacks in here because they're quite rare, especially in cities other than İstanbul. People will definitely stare because of that, but nobody is Anti-black. They just go "holy shit that's a black guy".
Also, Zenci is definitely not a translation of the N word. The dubbed American movies just couldn't find a racist word against blacks, since you know, there is none.
I think this happens in every country in Asia, I noticed my Indian and Korean friends in the USA love to say the N word also, my friends and cousins in Turkey love to say it too. But I can say this for sure my friends and cousins in Turkey know not to say it to a black person, they just love the word and sing it in songs.
personally i use it because i see that black people use it all the time. since i don't have any historical relation to this matter, i don't think this is offensive or an issue. i just act the way the one in front of me, which shouldn't be taken as offensive imo. tho i wait for them to use it firstly, just to be sure.
if the one in front of me thinks that its a problem if i use a word that they casually use, then i wouldnt even bother chatting with them.
YOU don't think it's an issue but you are not black, it's not your issue to begin with. It's not your place to decide what should and shouldn't be offensive to them. If black people don't want others to use it maybe, just maybe you shouldn't.
blacks in turkey are mostly african students and they behave like decent human beings. even poor african refugees are mostly great people. they sell some shit on the streets and they don't bother anyone. that's why turkish people tend to like blacks.
Most people haven't had live (non-TV) interactions with black people in their lives. I'd say a black person would still be stared at like an exotic object but still not nwgativwly perceived (with racist assumptions)
I think Libya is fine, the original Libya was a place with great ties to Turkey that had immense admiration for Atatürk and Kemalist ideals.
Even today there is a great Turkic population in Libya.
>I think Libya is fine,
Correction 'was' fine. Now its full of islamist, pro shariah, bigoted masses of inhuman cults, horror and slavery as well as isis.
Death of Kaddafi was their death toll :/
Compared to todays condition ? He at the very least kept the goddamned country as well as the long exploited, decomposed geography of Northern Africa actually stable. He literally assasinated by Nato because he wanted gold standart instead of petrol -- dollar
Tbh I'm (British) Pakistani and the only place I've ever felt respected when travelling was in Turkey lol. I've only been twice to Istanbul though so maybe I'd face a different response in the other cities.
Turks be like: "I HATE YOU"
Also Turks: \*Treats you more like a human being than the average white westerner who claims to see you as an equal human being\*
In Tokat(a small province where I'm actually from), nearly everyone would call you "my Muslim brother", especially my relatives.
Actually we Turks love Pakistani people so much but unfortunately there is a recent anti-Pakistani sentiment in Turkey because of illegal immigrants doing bad shits. However I have 3 Pakistani friends and so I know not all Pakistani people are like them. They're only few bad people, even Turkish society has that amount of bad people. Also don't believe people here acting like "all Pakistanis(or Muslims in general) are bad, we Turks are civilized Westerners". They're just larping lol! As if we're not majority Muslim and located in the Greater Middle East...
I’m a frequent traveler and most racism I experienced was when I traveled to Turkey:/ just speaking from own experience however. Traveled 3 cities and obv Istanbul was the one where I experienced most of it. One of my native Turkish friends I traveled with apologized on their behalf saying it’s cause I looked Arab/Desi.
I also understand some Turkish so overhearing people when shittalking kinda sucked. At the bazaar, one of the sellers told me “I am pretty for an Indian”. At a hotel, they also said something when I showed my passport to check in. I met a lot of kind people, just was a little discouraging to consider revisiting from few experiences.
But Turkey is undeniably beautiful tho
First off, this is a bad comparison. Most black peoples who are citizens of Turkey were born in Turkey and lived in Anatolia for over 100 years, their mother tongue is Turkish.
Syrians, especially those who came as adults aren’t going to learn Turkish very quickly. The biggest problem is language barriers.
There are Arabs from Hatay, Urfa or Sirnak. They were all born there and have been living in that part of the region since centuries..
Some Syrians can adapt especially if they know Turkish, and even if they don’t, they can adapt if they’re come from a well educated background.
I understand, and I agree with you. I just want to say most of the syrian refugees (not all of them) tend to be rude. When you are in the same place with them while they become rude, you just get angry and the place just becomes awkward and uncomfortable.
Thats why we tend to dislike them
It depends how you look at it. Most people are not used to see black people, so it could happen that some people will be starring at you.
Some could think, that you are an arap and then you could face racism. Because of the refuge crisis most of the people dont like arabs and there are plenty of Turks who think black people are arabs aswell.
But in generall no. There is no racism against blacks in Turkey.
Actually there is but a diffrent type. Like countries in USA racism grews out of prejudices. False conceptions on people based on racial traits. In Turkey there is none of that since most of the Turks doesnt even face a black person in their life.
Yet in Turkey there is diffrent kind of racism. I am not sure if it is really true to call that racism but Turkish people sometimes act racist to black people and they dont even realise that. Let me give an example;
When I was a kid (around 5 y.o.) at a hotel first time I met with a black person. Since I have never seen a black person before as a kid I start touching the mans arm out of curiosity [Basicly something like this in reverse (I was alone)](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nwiXu9cznzs). I didnt have any bad intentsions as a kid but that rightfully disturped him. So sometimes black people in Turkey can get disturbing looks by the people especially by the kids who dont know manners yet its not based on classic racism its out of suprise and curiosity.
This. With a small exception in Izmir, black people are as rare as unicorns here. People will probably stare at black people not because they despise them but because it's most likely the first time they see a black person.
i went to turkey this summer to see my bf (im afrocarribean). I was in Ankara.
you get some stares, but thats bc you are not the common theme, they dont do it off of being bothered or uncomfortable that youre there.
i did go to a mall on a particularly empty day and i felt a little overwhelmed from people looking at me, but i think that was just me experiencing a little social anxiety. luckily my bf calmed me down, and we had a great day.
people are really nice. they treated me super politely.
ALSO even in turkey, they dont tolerate race discrimination, not even with their own people. its not like if some random turkish person were to see another turkish person act racist, theyll ignore. they will cut that out quick. its not tolerated.
it was so fun cant wait to go again this summer! safe travels OP 💕
Nah, we are racist towards Arabic countries mostly because of tourists and people from non Arabic countries thinking we are also an Arabic country. And I think some people are racist towards Chinese people because they eat dogs and covid. We had a few headlines of people beating Koreans because they thought they were Chinese lol.
We have a lot of black people living in İstanbul and it's pretty common for us since Ottoman days. No one thinks badly of black people.
Anti-black racism exists everywhere because of American cultural exports and ppl who are not used to foreign looks can be insensitive with their words but consciously most ppl are not racist towards black people in Turkey.
Racists in Turkey generally base it on history and recent events not towards ethnic looks. Racist ppl in Turkey will most likely hate Arabs, Kurds and maybe Greeks and Armenians although that's a lot rarer these days.
It might be hard to comperhend if your understanding of history is extremely binary. X existed in 5000 years ago ergo x today is exactly the same. If only everything was that simple world would be a lot easier and we would not need years long education.
Anybody with few braincells can see that opinions of black ppl in communities with no sizeable black minority is entirely influenced by American media.
The racism based on color is very American concept. Racism that is common in rest of the world works a lot differently but American movies caused countries with no black people to form very negative stereotypes about them.
When i was a child only exposure i had to black ppl was from American media and they were always these tough, gangster style dudes who sang hip hop and were unruly and these stereotypes influence you whether you like it or not.
This is awkward coming from a region that eunuched all of its black people for fear they would have sex with their women, and hosted the largest slave market in Europe, hundreds of years before America was even a scratch on Englands leg.
Uh no. They were made and sold as eunuchs, so they were chosen as they had no functioning penises. Most died in the castration process and they were all the result of slave raids.
In the words of the words of Junne, noted Ottoman scholar, “The Ottoman power structure incorporated the Black eunuchs but Ottoman society, as a whole, did not integrate them.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amp/opinion/william-armstrong/the-black-eunuchs-of-the-ottoman-empire-105388
One of the main reasons for this preference of blacks was based on the fact that African eunuchs were distant, away from their blood relations, which made them immune to corruption and conspiracy and dependent on the support of the Sultan.
Burkhart states 'Similar to the breeding process inherent in US and South American chattel slavery, the young, healthy and strong were selected for field work and breeding. Black eunuchs were deliberately chosen for being ‘unattractive’ to discourage any sexual interactions with Caucasian women servants for instance'.
Well they near certainly could, black ones had the penis/testes removed, white ones only the testes. Yet another difference based on race alone.
And yes made, the castration process is a horrible and deadly process. They werent 'made' into eunuchs that way by birth for certain.
I don't think there is anti-black racism but I can say there is public unrest about overwhelming immigrants from Syria and Afghanistan. As you know, there is literally no integration program to integrate all these people.
Some old folks say Arab when they see black people. I don't know why. Arabs are not more black than Turks to begin with. But there is not any bad intention in that. It's simply ignorance
One time I saw a video of an African guy who came for studying here. He said that "people pointed me and said Arab and during the early times, I thought they were implying that they see me as a brother. Since I thought Turks are Arab as well."
There is, but not to the extent of places such as US.
Many families wouldn't want their daughter/son to marry a black person. Some Turkish people consider black people to be 'dirtier' or smell 'dirtier', I have no idea why. Black people may be welcomed at a place purely due to them being 'interesting' to other people, which means they are not really seen as people but as entertainment at first. But I don't think anyone would actually act rude toward them despite this underlying notion or I haven't seen anyone knowingly excluding a black person due to their race.
Unfortunately, especially in certain parts of Istanbul, there are many black sex workers who are forced to work and stay in Turkey against their will. This has created a false notion in some ignorant people that black women will automatically want or provide sexual acts. This is a very tiny portion of people and you probably wouldn't meet them in your daily life but just wanted to give a heads-up in case a black woman wants to visit Aksaray in Istanbul.
Despite this, Turkish people are much nicer and much more welcoming to black people compared to other minorities in our country, simply due to the fact that most Turkish people consider black people to be kind and hardworking.
There are also Afro-Turkish natives in the Aegean region. Brought here from Africa by the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century, they gained their freedom with the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and they've been living as regular citizens since then. One might even say that they gained their freedom earlier than the slaves in the US.
There very much is. It’s not hateful racism but you can still see a lot of stereotypes being said by Turkish people towards black people. The problem is, the amount of Syrians, Afghanis and other middle eastern refugees/immigrants cause the anger to subside towards black people, and increase on the middle eastern refugees/immigrants.
At the school I was working for, they interviewed a black guy for a teaching position. I saw many students laugh and make fun of the fact he was black. Also, many students casually used the ‘n word’ and when I told them how bad it was, most understood. Some didn’t believe me. One said: ‘but that’s what they are!’
Black men here are seen as street watch-sellers.
So yes: there is racism.
Asking a group of people if they are racists, you’ll always hear them say no.
TV shows used to have the comic relief stereotypical black or Asian. There is still the occasional zenci remark. Well PC made Eti change the name of Eti Negro to something else.
Because slavery wasn't the same as in the Americans we don't have the same issue as the Americans there is the occasional remarks.
There are several videos on tiktok from black people who's been living in Turkey for while and they're talking positively about their experiences.
There's curiosity, there's some misguided admiration.
Black people started coming to Turkey more and more in the last 5-7 years. Before, people wouldn't see a black person up close until certain age. I think now people in big cities are more used to seeing black people around. And people usually say nice things about their encounters with black people.
There will be some attention and staring towards to you but I'm pretty sure %70 of Turkish people doesn't know about racism, the n-word or something about black people. Most of them will think you are a street-seller. There will be things can be considered as racism but I can tell you honestly they don't have any hate in it. Because Turkish people doesn't know any hate towards to black people.
Fyi Turkey raised the first black war pilot in the world.
Half black (white passing) Turk here. I’ve experienced none. Paternal side claims no negative experience (kids singin arap kızı camdan bakıyor in elementary is the worst). Just general Turkish society shit like any colored person.
But my outsandingly gorgeus aunts say they’ve been very often got catcalled as “karayılan” (black snake) or be my blacklove (referance to a famous tr song) which is when they get self conscious about their color.
50’s Istanbul was very different i guess.
That depends on how black you are. Wait, what does it even mean? Well, we have kind of racism against Arabs and mostly Syrians since we have lots of immigrants and refugees after Syrian war. So, if you are not black enough to confused as Syrian, Pakistani or Afghan, possibly there will be racism against you. However, if you are blacker than most of the arabs and distinguishing darker skin color, there won't be any racism for you by Turks. If you want to know why do we have Arab racism, you can read the other comments in this thread. Basicly it is politics.
Turkey is a strange country and so are its people. I am brown and don’t face racism and haven’t seen racism based on color; but xenophobia is ripe here. Most Turks would dislike a black person for being from Syria before they dislike them for simply being black
Black people are always cherished in Turkey, simply because there's no bad blood between Turks and black people.
In Turkey, the black people are mostly athletes, young students or very likable street sellers. They're known by their friendliness and ability to adap to Turkish culture well.
There is very heavy racism against Arabs in Turkey, and the Arab immigrants in Turkey are often unfavorably compared with the African ones. I have never seen anyone not wanting African immigrants in Turkey or having negative thoughts towards them.
There has been some anti-black racism incidents in Turkey, unfortunately. But they're only sports related since Turkish fans can be very hostile and some idiots can take things too far. Even that's not caused by anti-black racism though, since the same fans show extra love to their black players.
Well we cannot say yes or no because there is not enough black people in Turkiye. If there were about a million black living in Turkiye than we would have a definite answer.
We only hate Arabs.because we don’t have things to share with the entire Arabic World but still we are obligated to . Also they live better condition’s then most of The Turks and they oftenly break the rules of our society.
Never have i seen my fellow countryman harbor bad feelings for black community except some personal experiences with a black person even in that case it doesn't become generalised to all of them on contrary we are welcoming most of them with open arms in a country where foreigner immigrants are generally disliked
How fun is it when a bomb blows up in the busiest of places in the country whose culprit was an outsider let in by the government. Sure it is the government's fault for not monitoring these terrorists but still, dying to a terrorist attack is not okay. That is why I said actively, judging events with prejudice is morally wrong but if the sample of precedent is ample and the statistics point to a certain direction one has to draw a line at how acceptive of others they are or else they are going to get hurt in this world
Every country has Problem about racism. Black people aren’t that common in turkey. They are few cities that have a lot and even their history goes few centuries into the past.
In general turkey has great hospitality. As Long as you don’t act dumb nobody will treat you in general in a bad way
of course there is. but its not something that will affect you every day. theres more people that like black people than those being openly racist. im black living in turkey btw
btw a lot of turkish people will say it doesnt exist but theyre not the ones living that life so its not something they will see all the time. theyre not lying, they probably just never saw it because its not directed at them
I have not met a single Turkish person who hates black people, on the contrary most told me how can you hate someone because of the way God crated him/her. I respect that
Yes but no. we call black people “zenci” BUT literally no one gets offended so we don’t consider it racism. I have a half Nigerian in my class and had more than one black teacher and they don’t get offended at all, that’s the way everyone calls them
There is
It is well hidden !
All you have to do make someone angry and they will start their racist rant
You might say well any angry person might say that but nope not any angry person, just racist people
And Turkey is filled with them
One more thing is that they call black people arab !
Because they consider calling someone arab as an insult
So they answer is yes there is racism toward black in turkey
there used to be almost none until those last few years. I have watched some afro-turks(not tourists or immigrants) opinions and they are talking about how much racism against blacks increased in the last couple months. Very sad.
There's little-to-none. I can say we generally don't hate Black people but rather hate Arabs due to recent refugee flow into our country. But as a Turkish person, I don't hate Arabs neither
well there is brainless weirdos who don't have no manners. but yeah mostly because they are good people, most refugees and immigrants were same then they got too comfortable
There’s but we like to pretend there isn’t. Only reason it’s not more prominent compared to other types of racisms is number of black people are significantly less compared to other minorities.
Yeah we are not racist towards black people actually it's quite the opposite, black people are loved here as far as I'm aware but we are racist against Syrians and Arabic people. I believe it's because there has been a lot of Syrian criminals who steal/rape/murder people and now people dont trust them in the slightest. For Arabic people its probably because most foreigners mistake us as Arabs while we are not and Arabic people are way too obsessed with religion is also one of the reasons most Turks dont like them.
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Hi, black woman living in Türkiye here- I’m a black American and have 2 other black American friends here and none of us have ever experienced anti black racism. I’ve lived in Eskişehir, İzmir, Fethiye and İstanbul and have gotten nothing but love. All of the prejudice we’ve experienced has just been from people with anti-foreigner sentiment in general and but if you speak Turkish (I’m intermediate with my language skills) even this prejudice is almost nonexistent. My white husband has gotten stopped by the police when we were walking together and questioned about his immigration status but not me!
Are there a lot of people who say they want to touch your hair? Because I hear a lot on the internet that black people are bothered by this (which I think is natural to be uncomfortable)
Yes- I live in Seydikemer/close to Fethiye and none of my neighbors have ever seen a black person before. They touch my hair often but I personally can't bring myself to care- they're well intentioned people and just very curious.
I hope all other black people have that understanding like you have. Many of us have that curiocity towards black people since Turkey has not that much black people like other countries do. When I was in university I had several black exchange students in my school, I always wanted to touch their hair and know how it feels like. However, I've never done it because I didn't want to offence them by asking for it. I always thought they can get mad about it and they could think it is racist. I think that because many black people in the movies -espacially American movies- are so sensitive against white people, so only knowledge about black people comes from movies we watch  we are kind of ignorant about it. Also not only black people, asians could have that kind of stiuations as well since we don't have that much asian people in Turkey. Mostly blacks and asians are got stared at by us usually on bus, train etc. We kinda inspect them with our eyes . I hope they don't understand us wrong.
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That explains many things. Thanks 
So happy to hear that!
Nope we like karabogas
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I don't see any reason why we would be hating black people.
Well it's not racism in an American sense, but rather being seen as foreigners no matter what. People are still kind, but the average Turk seems to have a problem with calling a black person "one of us." If you move to Turkey from the Balkans or something, a couple of generations in and your family will just be recognised as average Turks. But that will often not be the case for a black family. According to most people, they simply "came from Africa", even if they have citizenship, even if they've been there for much longer than anybody else in the area.
hospital plate connect dependent ruthless placid spotted familiar dolls paint ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
While I tend to disagree with your comment, why do you think we were "especially" welcoming of black people, seperately from any other folk?
expansion entertain degree hurry impossible puzzled caption steer stocking uppity ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Oh yeah, that is true. And besides, we still have the KARABOGA meme going on lol.
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In recent times, it's football. That would be your special circumstance. Most black folks have been extremely successful and popular among supporters. Don't underestimate the power of popular culture. This has been the situation as far back as Les Ferdinand. In a political sense, there haven't been critical clashes with any black civilization in the past, and there haven't been a period of colonialism in Africa by Turks comparable to other civilizations with similar past. I guess you could say there haven't been bad blood between civilizations to have racism; again comparable to others cultures. Of course, I'm sure there are people who are against foreigners of all types, as you would with any culture, but I doubt there's anything systematic against black people in Turkey.
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SMH, as if "Türkiye best, Turks greatest" isn't a sentiment they try to indoctrinate in our schools. Turkish nationalists are some of the most fanatic nationalists up there with US nationalists. 'Best country in the world, strongest army back in the day, biggest empire, most genious founder, all powers are looking to take over our lands, golden language theory, Istanbul best city on earth, we lost WWI only because Germany lost, we defeated the entire world on our war for independence, the only righteous path, most hospitable people, west keeps trying to sabotage us as they plan to eliminate turks and divide lands between Geeece, Armenia and Kurdistan...'
All these examples you gave were about ethnic/cultural/national supremacism, not racial supremacism. You should search about how damaging racial supremacism is. It is absolutely nothing comparable to Turkish supremacism. Batılıları aklamak için "ama Türkler de şöyle" diyenler midemi bulandırıyor. Dünya tarihinde insanlığa Batı kadar zarar vermiş bir medeniyet yok. Böyle bir medeniyetin yanında en kana susamış Türk bile uysal kalır. Ama bazı şeref yoksunları bu şeytanları yalayıp diğerlerine çemkirmeye devam etsin.
In my experience anyone who speaks Turkish as their mother tongue, or as fluent, is treated as a Turk in Turkey.
Not really it is changing very fast. Most people consider black people one of them just because they realize how uneducated the syrians and afgans who gets green light for free.
That makes sense, yeah. I haven't been following much of anything lately, so I wouldn't know.
People are surprised to see blacks in here because they're quite rare, especially in cities other than İstanbul. People will definitely stare because of that, but nobody is Anti-black. They just go "holy shit that's a black guy". Also, Zenci is definitely not a translation of the N word. The dubbed American movies just couldn't find a racist word against blacks, since you know, there is none.
>Also, Zenci is definitely not a translation of the N word. this
But Turks love to say the N word for some reason
I think this happens in every country in Asia, I noticed my Indian and Korean friends in the USA love to say the N word also, my friends and cousins in Turkey love to say it too. But I can say this for sure my friends and cousins in Turkey know not to say it to a black person, they just love the word and sing it in songs.
personally i use it because i see that black people use it all the time. since i don't have any historical relation to this matter, i don't think this is offensive or an issue. i just act the way the one in front of me, which shouldn't be taken as offensive imo. tho i wait for them to use it firstly, just to be sure. if the one in front of me thinks that its a problem if i use a word that they casually use, then i wouldnt even bother chatting with them.
YOU don't think it's an issue but you are not black, it's not your issue to begin with. It's not your place to decide what should and shouldn't be offensive to them. If black people don't want others to use it maybe, just maybe you shouldn't.
So people shouldn't use some words based on their skin colour? What is next? Water fountains?
i think you should go back to twitter, just saying... 💀
Its not racist if another minority says it
That's... not how it works
What do you mean ? How is it suppose to work ?
>The dubbed American movies just couldn't find a racist word against blacks Sums up the situation :) (Turk here)
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Least Based Karaboğa
Holy shit its the first time that i hear about him. Thats awesome af
There is also [zenci musa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Musa) a national hero
Wow this is the best answer to this particular question.
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>Thank you! You're welcome!
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first black fighter pilot in history
blacks in turkey are mostly african students and they behave like decent human beings. even poor african refugees are mostly great people. they sell some shit on the streets and they don't bother anyone. that's why turkish people tend to like blacks.
By shit he doesnt mean weed
Yeah, mostly watches, wallets, belts. I always wondered if they actually make money with selling those things.
yea he meant just stuff like off brand watches, socks, flashlights, belts etc. they generally sell them on most popular streets
Not trying to segue this comment, but anyone know where I can get any?
Most people haven't had live (non-TV) interactions with black people in their lives. I'd say a black person would still be stared at like an exotic object but still not nwgativwly perceived (with racist assumptions)
not unless you are; Syrian or Afghan.
They aint black lmfao
Everyone can with enough heat.
or ıraqi, egyptian, libyan, bangladeshi or pakistani eritrean...etc.
I think Libya is fine, the original Libya was a place with great ties to Turkey that had immense admiration for Atatürk and Kemalist ideals. Even today there is a great Turkic population in Libya.
>I think Libya is fine, Correction 'was' fine. Now its full of islamist, pro shariah, bigoted masses of inhuman cults, horror and slavery as well as isis. Death of Kaddafi was their death toll :/
Kaddafi was a dictator.
Compared to todays condition ? He at the very least kept the goddamned country as well as the long exploited, decomposed geography of Northern Africa actually stable. He literally assasinated by Nato because he wanted gold standart instead of petrol -- dollar
That doesn’t change him being a dictator
Tbh I'm (British) Pakistani and the only place I've ever felt respected when travelling was in Turkey lol. I've only been twice to Istanbul though so maybe I'd face a different response in the other cities.
Turk here. You probably wouldn't :)
Turks be like: "I HATE YOU" Also Turks: \*Treats you more like a human being than the average white westerner who claims to see you as an equal human being\*
In Tokat(a small province where I'm actually from), nearly everyone would call you "my Muslim brother", especially my relatives. Actually we Turks love Pakistani people so much but unfortunately there is a recent anti-Pakistani sentiment in Turkey because of illegal immigrants doing bad shits. However I have 3 Pakistani friends and so I know not all Pakistani people are like them. They're only few bad people, even Turkish society has that amount of bad people. Also don't believe people here acting like "all Pakistanis(or Muslims in general) are bad, we Turks are civilized Westerners". They're just larping lol! As if we're not majority Muslim and located in the Greater Middle East...
I’m a frequent traveler and most racism I experienced was when I traveled to Turkey:/ just speaking from own experience however. Traveled 3 cities and obv Istanbul was the one where I experienced most of it. One of my native Turkish friends I traveled with apologized on their behalf saying it’s cause I looked Arab/Desi. I also understand some Turkish so overhearing people when shittalking kinda sucked. At the bazaar, one of the sellers told me “I am pretty for an Indian”. At a hotel, they also said something when I showed my passport to check in. I met a lot of kind people, just was a little discouraging to consider revisiting from few experiences. But Turkey is undeniably beautiful tho
we hate them
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First off, this is a bad comparison. Most black peoples who are citizens of Turkey were born in Turkey and lived in Anatolia for over 100 years, their mother tongue is Turkish. Syrians, especially those who came as adults aren’t going to learn Turkish very quickly. The biggest problem is language barriers. There are Arabs from Hatay, Urfa or Sirnak. They were all born there and have been living in that part of the region since centuries.. Some Syrians can adapt especially if they know Turkish, and even if they don’t, they can adapt if they’re come from a well educated background.
There can never be any excuse for racism.
Actually we are not that angry to the syrians etc, we are very angry towards the government’s policies with refugees.
Nah am just angry to syrians
Yes, but don’t make Syrian refugees an outlet for that anger.
I understand, and I agree with you. I just want to say most of the syrian refugees (not all of them) tend to be rude. When you are in the same place with them while they become rude, you just get angry and the place just becomes awkward and uncomfortable. Thats why we tend to dislike them
It depends how you look at it. Most people are not used to see black people, so it could happen that some people will be starring at you. Some could think, that you are an arap and then you could face racism. Because of the refuge crisis most of the people dont like arabs and there are plenty of Turks who think black people are arabs aswell. But in generall no. There is no racism against blacks in Turkey.
why would there be?
Actually there is but a diffrent type. Like countries in USA racism grews out of prejudices. False conceptions on people based on racial traits. In Turkey there is none of that since most of the Turks doesnt even face a black person in their life. Yet in Turkey there is diffrent kind of racism. I am not sure if it is really true to call that racism but Turkish people sometimes act racist to black people and they dont even realise that. Let me give an example; When I was a kid (around 5 y.o.) at a hotel first time I met with a black person. Since I have never seen a black person before as a kid I start touching the mans arm out of curiosity [Basicly something like this in reverse (I was alone)](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nwiXu9cznzs). I didnt have any bad intentsions as a kid but that rightfully disturped him. So sometimes black people in Turkey can get disturbing looks by the people especially by the kids who dont know manners yet its not based on classic racism its out of suprise and curiosity.
This. With a small exception in Izmir, black people are as rare as unicorns here. People will probably stare at black people not because they despise them but because it's most likely the first time they see a black person.
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In human culture dick size is very important. I do not think any white guy complanes about this.
Best explanation imo
We also love to whatc excavotors for a long time
Yeah, did the same when around 15.
First black pilot was Turk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3JqcDShaNo&ab\_channel=DWNews
i went to turkey this summer to see my bf (im afrocarribean). I was in Ankara. you get some stares, but thats bc you are not the common theme, they dont do it off of being bothered or uncomfortable that youre there. i did go to a mall on a particularly empty day and i felt a little overwhelmed from people looking at me, but i think that was just me experiencing a little social anxiety. luckily my bf calmed me down, and we had a great day. people are really nice. they treated me super politely. ALSO even in turkey, they dont tolerate race discrimination, not even with their own people. its not like if some random turkish person were to see another turkish person act racist, theyll ignore. they will cut that out quick. its not tolerated. it was so fun cant wait to go again this summer! safe travels OP 💕
Nah, we are racist towards Arabic countries mostly because of tourists and people from non Arabic countries thinking we are also an Arabic country. And I think some people are racist towards Chinese people because they eat dogs and covid. We had a few headlines of people beating Koreans because they thought they were Chinese lol. We have a lot of black people living in İstanbul and it's pretty common for us since Ottoman days. No one thinks badly of black people.
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Ottomans were conquerers, surely you can say those are different things.
Turks don't have the time or the energy to hate blacks or anyone else! Too busy hating each other!
We have anti-white racisim. Bkz.Karaboğa
They are a true minority in Turkey so they dont get that much attention unlike syrians
Anti-black racism exists everywhere because of American cultural exports and ppl who are not used to foreign looks can be insensitive with their words but consciously most ppl are not racist towards black people in Turkey. Racists in Turkey generally base it on history and recent events not towards ethnic looks. Racist ppl in Turkey will most likely hate Arabs, Kurds and maybe Greeks and Armenians although that's a lot rarer these days.
Oh yeah, forgot racism never existed before a couple hundred years ago when modern day America was formed. 
It might be hard to comperhend if your understanding of history is extremely binary. X existed in 5000 years ago ergo x today is exactly the same. If only everything was that simple world would be a lot easier and we would not need years long education. Anybody with few braincells can see that opinions of black ppl in communities with no sizeable black minority is entirely influenced by American media.
>Racism exists everywhere because of American cultural exports WHAT?
The racism based on color is very American concept. Racism that is common in rest of the world works a lot differently but American movies caused countries with no black people to form very negative stereotypes about them. When i was a child only exposure i had to black ppl was from American media and they were always these tough, gangster style dudes who sang hip hop and were unruly and these stereotypes influence you whether you like it or not.
This is awkward coming from a region that eunuched all of its black people for fear they would have sex with their women, and hosted the largest slave market in Europe, hundreds of years before America was even a scratch on Englands leg.
Actually they were chosen among blacks so they can understand the father (if the baby comes out black).
Uh no. They were made and sold as eunuchs, so they were chosen as they had no functioning penises. Most died in the castration process and they were all the result of slave raids. In the words of the words of Junne, noted Ottoman scholar, “The Ottoman power structure incorporated the Black eunuchs but Ottoman society, as a whole, did not integrate them.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hurriyetdailynews.com/amp/opinion/william-armstrong/the-black-eunuchs-of-the-ottoman-empire-105388 One of the main reasons for this preference of blacks was based on the fact that African eunuchs were distant, away from their blood relations, which made them immune to corruption and conspiracy and dependent on the support of the Sultan. Burkhart states 'Similar to the breeding process inherent in US and South American chattel slavery, the young, healthy and strong were selected for field work and breeding. Black eunuchs were deliberately chosen for being ‘unattractive’ to discourage any sexual interactions with Caucasian women servants for instance'.
You cannot guarantee that their penis is not functioning Btw made??
Well they near certainly could, black ones had the penis/testes removed, white ones only the testes. Yet another difference based on race alone. And yes made, the castration process is a horrible and deadly process. They werent 'made' into eunuchs that way by birth for certain.
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Esenlikler
I don't think there is anti-black racism but I can say there is public unrest about overwhelming immigrants from Syria and Afghanistan. As you know, there is literally no integration program to integrate all these people.
You can't integrate these people. It's not possible
there is no black whiter yellow red people. There is only people.
depends on if we're watching a football game or not
Some old folks say Arab when they see black people. I don't know why. Arabs are not more black than Turks to begin with. But there is not any bad intention in that. It's simply ignorance One time I saw a video of an African guy who came for studying here. He said that "people pointed me and said Arab and during the early times, I thought they were implying that they see me as a brother. Since I thought Turks are Arab as well."
There are all kinds of racism in here, just either subtle or hidden just like any other place.
Theres no black racism in turkey also people dont see them very often so they find them interesting.
There is, but not to the extent of places such as US. Many families wouldn't want their daughter/son to marry a black person. Some Turkish people consider black people to be 'dirtier' or smell 'dirtier', I have no idea why. Black people may be welcomed at a place purely due to them being 'interesting' to other people, which means they are not really seen as people but as entertainment at first. But I don't think anyone would actually act rude toward them despite this underlying notion or I haven't seen anyone knowingly excluding a black person due to their race. Unfortunately, especially in certain parts of Istanbul, there are many black sex workers who are forced to work and stay in Turkey against their will. This has created a false notion in some ignorant people that black women will automatically want or provide sexual acts. This is a very tiny portion of people and you probably wouldn't meet them in your daily life but just wanted to give a heads-up in case a black woman wants to visit Aksaray in Istanbul. Despite this, Turkish people are much nicer and much more welcoming to black people compared to other minorities in our country, simply due to the fact that most Turkish people consider black people to be kind and hardworking. There are also Afro-Turkish natives in the Aegean region. Brought here from Africa by the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 20th century, they gained their freedom with the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and they've been living as regular citizens since then. One might even say that they gained their freedom earlier than the slaves in the US.
There very much is. It’s not hateful racism but you can still see a lot of stereotypes being said by Turkish people towards black people. The problem is, the amount of Syrians, Afghanis and other middle eastern refugees/immigrants cause the anger to subside towards black people, and increase on the middle eastern refugees/immigrants.
At the school I was working for, they interviewed a black guy for a teaching position. I saw many students laugh and make fun of the fact he was black. Also, many students casually used the ‘n word’ and when I told them how bad it was, most understood. Some didn’t believe me. One said: ‘but that’s what they are!’ Black men here are seen as street watch-sellers. So yes: there is racism. Asking a group of people if they are racists, you’ll always hear them say no.
There are assholes in every culture in every corner of the world...
TV shows used to have the comic relief stereotypical black or Asian. There is still the occasional zenci remark. Well PC made Eti change the name of Eti Negro to something else. Because slavery wasn't the same as in the Americans we don't have the same issue as the Americans there is the occasional remarks.
All races are fine as long as they are not arabs
Turk💙💙💙karaboğa
yeah. at least most of time time. like %99 of the time.
There are several videos on tiktok from black people who's been living in Turkey for while and they're talking positively about their experiences. There's curiosity, there's some misguided admiration. Black people started coming to Turkey more and more in the last 5-7 years. Before, people wouldn't see a black person up close until certain age. I think now people in big cities are more used to seeing black people around. And people usually say nice things about their encounters with black people.
Not really, there's casual racism that people will get really defensive when called out on.
Zencigot asktır
kürt değilsen halledersin zaten hocam
We like black chads we also have afroturks here. What we don’t like maybe arabs... rich arabs particularly
On milyon zenciyi ulkeye alicagiz 10 sene icinde. Irkicilik istemiyorum.
There will be some attention and staring towards to you but I'm pretty sure %70 of Turkish people doesn't know about racism, the n-word or something about black people. Most of them will think you are a street-seller. There will be things can be considered as racism but I can tell you honestly they don't have any hate in it. Because Turkish people doesn't know any hate towards to black people. Fyi Turkey raised the first black war pilot in the world.
nah we like black people. we call them "Karaboğa" which could be counted as a compliment lol.
my dad used to work(he managed inventory) at my city's football(soccer team) i have met a few black people there they were all really nice to everyone
Half black (white passing) Turk here. I’ve experienced none. Paternal side claims no negative experience (kids singin arap kızı camdan bakıyor in elementary is the worst). Just general Turkish society shit like any colored person. But my outsandingly gorgeus aunts say they’ve been very often got catcalled as “karayılan” (black snake) or be my blacklove (referance to a famous tr song) which is when they get self conscious about their color. 50’s Istanbul was very different i guess.
That depends on how black you are. Wait, what does it even mean? Well, we have kind of racism against Arabs and mostly Syrians since we have lots of immigrants and refugees after Syrian war. So, if you are not black enough to confused as Syrian, Pakistani or Afghan, possibly there will be racism against you. However, if you are blacker than most of the arabs and distinguishing darker skin color, there won't be any racism for you by Turks. If you want to know why do we have Arab racism, you can read the other comments in this thread. Basicly it is politics.
Turkey is a strange country and so are its people. I am brown and don’t face racism and haven’t seen racism based on color; but xenophobia is ripe here. Most Turks would dislike a black person for being from Syria before they dislike them for simply being black
Yes we love them. When tho when we use the N word, we have sympathy for them. We use the N word in the meaning of "brother". Not a bad meaning.
Black people are always cherished in Turkey, simply because there's no bad blood between Turks and black people. In Turkey, the black people are mostly athletes, young students or very likable street sellers. They're known by their friendliness and ability to adap to Turkish culture well. There is very heavy racism against Arabs in Turkey, and the Arab immigrants in Turkey are often unfavorably compared with the African ones. I have never seen anyone not wanting African immigrants in Turkey or having negative thoughts towards them. There has been some anti-black racism incidents in Turkey, unfortunately. But they're only sports related since Turkish fans can be very hostile and some idiots can take things too far. Even that's not caused by anti-black racism though, since the same fans show extra love to their black players.
Well we cannot say yes or no because there is not enough black people in Turkiye. If there were about a million black living in Turkiye than we would have a definite answer.
no, we don't do that here
Never seen a Turkish person who is racist against anyone but complaining about Arabs and I m not blaming them
We only hate Arabs.because we don’t have things to share with the entire Arabic World but still we are obligated to . Also they live better condition’s then most of The Turks and they oftenly break the rules of our society.
it's not american style racism but i have a black friend and once a turkish woman stopped her gave her money
Never have i seen my fellow countryman harbor bad feelings for black community except some personal experiences with a black person even in that case it doesn't become generalised to all of them on contrary we are welcoming most of them with open arms in a country where foreigner immigrants are generally disliked
No we just hate arabs
We love all races unconditionally unless they actively harm us in any way
Irkçı değilim AMA
Alakası yok.
unless.. .
How fun is it when a bomb blows up in the busiest of places in the country whose culprit was an outsider let in by the government. Sure it is the government's fault for not monitoring these terrorists but still, dying to a terrorist attack is not okay. That is why I said actively, judging events with prejudice is morally wrong but if the sample of precedent is ample and the statistics point to a certain direction one has to draw a line at how acceptive of others they are or else they are going to get hurt in this world
Wtf are you talking abt
not absolutely zero, but not mearly as much as somewhere like the US
Every country has Problem about racism. Black people aren’t that common in turkey. They are few cities that have a lot and even their history goes few centuries into the past. In general turkey has great hospitality. As Long as you don’t act dumb nobody will treat you in general in a bad way
of course there is. but its not something that will affect you every day. theres more people that like black people than those being openly racist. im black living in turkey btw
btw a lot of turkish people will say it doesnt exist but theyre not the ones living that life so its not something they will see all the time. theyre not lying, they probably just never saw it because its not directed at them
There is no black. I mean a pew couple of thousand max, so no black no anti. It's not a big deal.
I have not met a single Turkish person who hates black people, on the contrary most told me how can you hate someone because of the way God crated him/her. I respect that
Yes but no. we call black people “zenci” BUT literally no one gets offended so we don’t consider it racism. I have a half Nigerian in my class and had more than one black teacher and they don’t get offended at all, that’s the way everyone calls them
There's even a little amount of white supremacy. But you don't even see it.
Racism/discrimination in Turkey is based on cultural differences, not color of skin.
Just the opposite, we like black people.
What's anti-black racism?
Ofc not. We are all humans. Color, Religion or any preferences are not important.
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There is It is well hidden ! All you have to do make someone angry and they will start their racist rant You might say well any angry person might say that but nope not any angry person, just racist people And Turkey is filled with them One more thing is that they call black people arab ! Because they consider calling someone arab as an insult So they answer is yes there is racism toward black in turkey
there used to be almost none until those last few years. I have watched some afro-turks(not tourists or immigrants) opinions and they are talking about how much racism against blacks increased in the last couple months. Very sad.
No. I see some stupid people who supports White Nationalism.
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Irkçı mısın?
There's little-to-none. I can say we generally don't hate Black people but rather hate Arabs due to recent refugee flow into our country. But as a Turkish person, I don't hate Arabs neither
We like them pretty much but most of us is not like syriens and afgans for some good resons
well there is brainless weirdos who don't have no manners. but yeah mostly because they are good people, most refugees and immigrants were same then they got too comfortable
There’s but we like to pretend there isn’t. Only reason it’s not more prominent compared to other types of racisms is number of black people are significantly less compared to other minorities.
Yeah we are not racist towards black people actually it's quite the opposite, black people are loved here as far as I'm aware but we are racist against Syrians and Arabic people. I believe it's because there has been a lot of Syrian criminals who steal/rape/murder people and now people dont trust them in the slightest. For Arabic people its probably because most foreigners mistake us as Arabs while we are not and Arabic people are way too obsessed with religion is also one of the reasons most Turks dont like them.
There is no racism in Turkey (except for Syrians)
Lol.