Taleb also has a bit of a racial obsession with proving his own racial purity and distinction. He's not a disinterested actor.

I can't make this out; his style contains an awful lot of "this guy is a racist" markers for someone who's Lebanese.

I once talked to a Somali woman who insisted black women were inferior. I tried to suggest to her that most people would see her as black, and she got terribly angry that I dared suggest she was black, on the basis of some obscure historic split that would not matter to anyone trying to classify her. (And to be clear, she was very dark skinned)

Having been married to a Nigerian woman, I've also experienced plenty of racism: Whenever I went to gatherings with her where most people were black, such as weddings etc, as "the white one" I was on one hand regularly fussed over to and extent none of the other men were. While everyone was always friendly, it was extremely embarrassing to be treated that way, but parts of West Africa still has a tendency to elevate white people (e.g. I more than once was told I should take my family to Nigeria, as lots of companies would pay high salaries to get a white person in an important position), and on the other hand I more than once overhead racist comments directed at Caribbeans and African Americans - believe it or not, but there's a segment of West Africans (I don't know about elsewhere) that see Caribbeans and African Americans as inferior. Their justification being that they're descendants of "people who were to dumb to escape the slave traders".

I'm not suggesting that these views reflect Talebs views - I have no idea if he's racist or just contrarian.

Just pointing out that not being of paler European origin does not in any way preclude people from holding messed up racist views. Even about your own ethnic groups in some cases - people manage to find ways of defining themselves out of whichever group they hold negative views about.

He's reflexively contrarian. It informs his reactions to things much more than any type of in-group loyalty.

Not really. He really does have an obsession with proving that his particular ancestry (Lebanese/'Levantine') is distinct from and pure regarding Arabic ancestry. To the point he wants to make some historical assertions that are not at all supported by fact.

I've seen this said now multiple times in multiple places by what I'm pretty sure are ideologically disjoint groups of people, and I gotta say, it makes me glad I skipped alot of his work. Racism is a hell of a drug. Was just talking with my mom this very morning about the anti italian racism in the early 20th century in the US and the subsequent change in perception of italians (especially southern, which I partially am) as "white". David Roediger wrote an excellent book on this from a labor standpoint, I need to finish it soon......

That must be exhausting, poor guy.