Islamophobic crisis produces simultaneous mainstreaming and marginalization of Arab American communities

Evidence

The answer to this question is that the two trends—the positive and the negative—are part of one process. Over the years, I have given this process several names: mainstreaming, disciplinary inclusion, crisis identity formation. In each case, the central idea is the same. As political constituencies and as sites of local community formation, Detroit’s Arab/Muslim populations make substantial gains during times of political crisis in the Middle East, especially when the United States is directly engaged in violent conflict with enemies defined as Arab, Muslim, or both. These gains are possible only to the extent that (and only because) local Arab/Muslim communities are seen as ambiguously American, and ambiguously Other. Attempts to remove this ambiguity in moments of crisis generate mainstreaming effects that are also, of necessity, marginalizing effects. The process is traumatic and empowering; it already has a long history; and the 9/11 attacks were rapidly assimilated to its logic. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 670 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Political crisis inclusion simultaneously mainstreams and marginalizes Arab-American communities (similarity 0.94)
• Anti-Muslim crisis periods simultaneously empower and marginalize Arab American communities (similarity 0.90)
• Muslim American communities joined progressive movements only after being targeted (similarity 0.83)
• Crisis-time scapegoating of religious out-groups masks political and economic causes (similarity 0.81)
• Anti-Arab racism in the US is rooted in the Palestinian struggle. (similarity 0.80)
• Anti-Muslim surveillance failed to deter the mainstreaming of Detroit’s Arab communities (similarity 0.80)
• Arab and Muslim Americans are rapidly mainstreaming on every measurable indicator (similarity 0.79)
• American Muslims are mainstreaming faster than the general public (similarity 0.79)
• Arab American political inclusion was purchased as geopolitics demanded (similarity 0.79)
• US media and academia collapsed diverse groups into a single Arab-looking category (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Muslim crisis periods simultaneously empower and marginalize Arab American communities #corroborates (0.90)
• Political crisis inclusion simultaneously mainstreams and marginalizes Arab-American communities #corroborates (0.85) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 670