“Public sphere” for this purpose, refers to all public institutions including that of government, the economy, employment, and access to healthcare, housing, and education. “Private sphere” refers to individual/household beliefs, mentalities, and treatment towards others within the privacy of their own home or more individual settings. 

 

According to both Interviewee A, Interviewee B, Zanzibaris span across various classes and societal statuses. They are not inhibited nor discriminated against in the public sphere in that they are granted equal opportunity to all rights granted to Omani citizens including that of education, healthcare, employment, and so forth. The Omani royal law decrees a strongly enforced anti-discrimination law (Al-Azri, 121) that protects the rights of all Omanis. This law is perceived as a safety valve for cohesion among the many different groups present in modern Omani society. In this regard, White’s definition of a minority in the context of societal contribution and opportunity does not apply to the Zanzibari population. On the other hand, the national curriculum for all public primary and secondary education actively avoids teaching the full extent of Omani history including any great detail in regards to its shared history with East Africa (School Education in the Sultanate of Oman). In this regard, Zanzibari's history and identity are avoided and in essence tabooed from entering the public sphere. 

 

In the private sphere, local/informal settings do not carry the same degree of equality that the public sphere does. By virtue of calling someone “Zanzibari” being perceived as a derogatory term implies that there is a negative connotation with the identity. When asking Interviewee B, a Zanzibari-identifying female, her take on how offensive the term is, she responded as follows: “hmm I don't [find the term offensive], but I think it also depends on where the person is coming from when they say that whether it's to take away from my Arab-ness. It is what I am. It just depends on where they're coming from with it.”. Although highly dependent on the individual, the fact that it could be used offensively is an indicator of private discourse around and about the group to be on unequal standing in comparison to other groups in the country. 

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“These attitudes are very covert and very telling of the way our culture functions. Many people aren't as outspoken or wouldn't say things overtly to your face. … you can see the way that certain ideologies exist in Arab culture, and I think it [having these ideologies] isn't an exception [to Arab culture] in that sense.” (Interviewee B). 

It is difficult to prove the mentality of those behind closed doors, yet the personal account of Interviewee B exemplified an individual who did not perceive Zanzibaris as on equal standing as others: 

 

“One time, I was talking to somebody and he was a dark skinned Bedouin, but not African I suppose... or not African identifying. Just a very dark-skinned Arab. He wasn't Swahili or African or Zanzibari he was just Bedouin and he said something questionable towards people have Black/African heritage. I sort of questioned it I guess he got very provoked. He just started yelling about how I wasn't grateful for being here [in Oman] and if I love being African so much that I should go back to Africa. This was my driving instructor. He went into a rant and was speaking in terms of the group in its entirety. [He was saying] this is the problem with us Zanzibaris and things of that sort.”

 

Whether this particular individual was an exception or the norm is difficult to gage. There appears to be two indicators of the varying acceptance of the group into mainstream Omani society: language, and marriage.