Customer complaints can make Muslim employees suspect and untrustworthy at work

Evidence

Syed, who is an American-born Pakistani Muslim, was in his midtwenties and worked at a bank in Texas at the time of the interview. He wore a nametag at work and interacted with customers regularly. He told me that one day at the bank, he noticed an agitated customer speaking to his coworker and gesturing at him. The coworker told Syed the customer was unhappy and concerned that a Muslim was working in the bank. The bank did not appease the customer by firing Syed, but they also did not discipline the customer for his racist attitude toward Syed. The incident reflects the vulnerability of Muslims to anti-Muslim prejudice in the workplace. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 333

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete instance of surveillance-racialization hitting the body in the workplace, matching Selod’s thesis that Muslims become permanent suspects — connects to Beydoun’s account of Islamophobia as racial not just religious prejudice.