Muslim identity stripped South Asian men of their model-minority racial privilege

Evidence

When identified as Muslims, whether through the hijab or a Muslim name, the racial classification as white stops applying to Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqi Americans. Whiteness comes with certain benefits, like being able to walk into a store without being stared at, monitored, or verbally harassed; boarding a flight in the airport without having your body searched several times, and not having to monitor what you say out of fear that someone will report you to law enforcement. It affords individuals these tangible material and social benefits (Harris 1993). Arabs who are Muslim are being ejected from the racial classification of white because their religious identity marks them as the other, and South Asian Muslims are simultaneously losing their footing as honorary whites. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 662 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines; Converting to Islam or wearing the hijab causes loss of whiteness privileges — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 261; State hypersurveillance disempowers Muslim men and lowers their political participation (+15 more)

Related

• Muslim identity ejects Arabs from whiteness and strips them of its material benefits (similarity 0.91)
• Muslim identity ejects Arab Americans from legal whiteness and its social benefits. (similarity 0.87)
• Religious identity racializes Arab and South Asian Muslims along shared lines (similarity 0.86)
• Muslim men can be racialized by ethnicity alone, not only by disclosed religion (similarity 0.86)
• Post-1965 South Asian and Arab immigrants enjoyed class privileges that African Americans were denied (similarity 0.85)
• Categorical whiteness excludes Arabs and Muslims from the benefits of racial remedy in America (similarity 0.85)
• South Asian racial classification has been fluid and contested in the US. (similarity 0.84)
• State hypersurveillance disempowers Muslim men and lowers their political participation (similarity 0.84)
• Islamic identity exceeded skin color in rendering Arabs non-white for citizenship (similarity 0.84)
• Arabs gained whiteness-status in 1943 while Muslims generally remained excluded because Islam signified non-whiteness. (similarity 0.82)
• Syrian Christians won nominal whiteness yet were never treated as fully white (similarity 0.81)
• Muslim American men are losing model-minority racial privileges (similarity 0.81)
• Converting to Islam or wearing the hijab causes loss of whiteness privileges (similarity 0.81)
• Religious identity can be racialized when signifiers trigger profiling (similarity 0.81)
• Lighter skin and Christian identity secured citizenship privileges that darker or Muslim Arabs lacked (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Muslim identity ejects Arabs from whiteness and strips them of its material benefits #expands (0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 662
• Muslims move down the racial hierarchy rather than becoming a new race #expands (0.70)
• Religious identity replaced ethnicity as the marker making Muslim Americans seen as anti-American #expands (0.70)
• An ethnic minority identity invites questions while a Muslim identity invites hostile expulsion #expands (0.65)
• Orientalism converted Muslim identity from a religion into a race. #expands (0.60) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 161
• Surveillance pressure makes Muslim men erase rather than transform their identity #expands (0.55)
• Muslim men self-censor to avoid being associated with terrorism. #expands (0.55)
• Lighter skin and Christian identity secured citizenship privileges that darker or Muslim Arabs lacked #corroborates (0.55)
• Arab and South Asian identities have been conflated with Islam #expands (0.50) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 173
• Cultural practices become racialized when they are essentialized as innate to Muslims #expands (0.50) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 274
• Anti-Muslim prejudice shapes Muslim-American identity formation from within #expands (0.50) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 709
• Post-1965 South Asian and Arab immigrants enjoyed class privileges that African Americans were denied #qualifies (0.50)