A stolen high school achievement can collapse a young Muslim’s faith in American opportunity

Evidence

I didn’t want to hurt them or their reputation. I still feel bad about it, but then I realized that they didn’t really care as much about me as I did the school. So for a while I didn’t really complain—I just gave up. I still cry about it sometimes, even though it’s been a yr. But it hurt so much. In fact—I think it’s stupid to cry over such a little thing—but what hurt me most was that when I won secretary as a Freshman, I felt that I had achieved my dreams and broken a racial barrier that I thought would hold me back. I finally felt that as a Muslim that I was doing something and I could make a difference in the world. I believed people would have confidence in me because of what was in my heart and not prejudice against my outer appearance—I had hope that I could achieve my dreams—but when they took me out I felt different and segregated and it shattered everything I had hoped and dreamed of. Now all I feel is hurt, sadness, and I feel that as a Muslim I can never be something because America is prejudiced so much and will never let people like me succeed no matter how hard we try. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 394

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how small personal injustices compound into systemic distrust — analogous to the reputation/institution dynamics in the Milgrom and diamond-trade notes, where individual betrayal scales into institutional skepticism.