Light-skinned Muslims can pass as white and escape airport profiling

Evidence

Sommer is able to pass as a white American because she does not wear the hijab and has a lighter skin tone. She admitted in the interview that people do not identify her as someone from a racialized ethnic group. As her testimony reveals, when she is mistaken for anything, it is a white European ethnic. Because her husband Anglicized his name and is also light skinned, he was not on the Selectee List or subjected to random stops and searches. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 151 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In racialized social systems, rewards are allocated along racial lines (Bonilla-Silva 2001). U.S. airports constitute a racialized social system where bodies are organized into those worthy of protection and those who are a potential threat. Being able to fly without suspicion is a privilege. The ability to print out a boarding pass and get through security without being stopped and searched is also a privilege. Travelers who are identified as Muslim are often denied these simple rights regardless of their statuses as citizens. Power is exerted on a Muslim population when they have to take extra precautions to avoid profiling and surveillance from TSA agents. They must avoid wearing items that could set off the metal detector and overtly display signs of helpfulness and cooperation. As a result of being observed in public spaces, Muslims monitor their own behaviors and actions. They internalize the surveillance as a form of discipline. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 244 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Airports allocate the privilege of unexamined travel along racialized lines (similarity 0.84)
• Unveiled light-skinned Muslim women evade airport racial profiling (similarity 0.84)
• Airport profiling collapses religious identity and racial appearance into a single target (similarity 0.83)
• Muslim identity overrides American citizenship in airport profiling (similarity 0.82)
• Muslim passengers are marked on their tickets with four Ss without knowing it (similarity 0.80)
• Wearing the hijab, not skin tone, triggers routine airport stops and searches. (similarity 0.79)
• TSA agents profile hijab-wearing Muslim women based on racial cues, not watchlists. (similarity 0.79)
• Listed Muslim travelers are routinely pulled for pat-downs at airport checkpoints (similarity 0.79)
• Airport profiling targets all Muslims, not just Arabs or specific nationalities (similarity 0.79)
• TSA surveillance targets citizens regardless of religiosity, profession, or travel habits (similarity 0.78)
• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American (similarity 0.78)
• State profiling legitimizes fellow passengers to report Muslims as suspicious (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Lighter skin and Westernized names let some Muslims pass as white #corroborates (0.95) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 151
• Airports allocate the privilege of unexamined travel along racialized lines #expands (0.70) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 244