A 2003 biography by Denise A. Seachrist describes the multilayered ethnic and racial identity of El-Dabh. As a young student in Egypt, he was inspired by the secularism and pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser, but became disenchanted with Arab identity when Nasser failed to act against the institutionalized discrimination against Egypt's Copts. After he immigrated to the United States, El-Dabh encountered racism. Because he was of Upper (southern) Egyptian descent, he notes that he was darker-skinned than most Egyptian immigrants to the United States.