African American Muslims remain permanently racialized regardless of identity performance

Evidence

The most glaring limitation is my purposeful focus on immigrant Muslims who arrived on US shores after 1965. Although I take into account how the racialization of African American Muslims has shaped the racialization of immigrant Muslims (see chapters 3, 5, and 6), I agree with Sylvia Chan-Malik, and Zain Abdullah that the racialization of African American Muslims is intertwined with the enslavement of Africans, of whom approximately 30 percent were estimated to be Muslim. I also concur with Edward Curtis in his assessment that African American Muslims are racialized as Black first, resulting in their Black identity intersecting with their Muslim identity to create experiences of private and state discrimination uniquely different from those of immigrant Muslims. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 116 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Muslims get racialized via projected religious ancestry regardless of self-understanding — Mareike Riedel, Islamophobia, Racial Discrimination…, 64; Islam as race makes Muslim assimilation permanently impossible. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 252; Americanization has always required abandoning racial distinctiveness and any link to Blackness (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Converting to Islam did not shield African Americans from racial classification #corroborates (0.95)
• African American Muslims are racialized as Black before being seen as Muslim #expands (0.92) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 116