Muslim Americans alter their behavior to preemptively prove their loyalty

Evidence

Because Aziz felt he was constantly judged, he told me he has changed some of his actions. For example, after a terrorist attack in India, he made sure to contact his friend who grew up in India to inquire about his family’s safety in order to show him he condemned the terrorist attack. He knew his friend was not from the region where the attack occurred, but he also worried his friend would have negative feelings toward him because he was Muslim. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 447

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete behavioral evidence of surveillance producing self-censorship — connects to the reader’s map of how the fear touches bodies and to COINTELPRO-era self-policing analogies.
• SEED: The detail that Aziz contacted a friend unconnected to the attack purely to signal condemnation is a ready anecdote for an essay on performative loyalty.