Nationality can flip from liability to privilege within one interaction

Evidence

It behooves us to remember that Homer Plessy was not visibly Black but chosen specifically because he could pass for white. In order to violate the Jim Crow laws segregating train cars, he had to reveal himself to the train conductor as a Black man, thereby triggering his arrest. White segregationists could not always tell a Black person by looking at them, and Plessy might have just passed into Whiteness sitting in the whitesonly car but for the self-revelation of his Black racial identity. Similarly, Muslims cannot always be seen. Conversely, someone who is seen as Muslim may not be Muslim. A person can be ascribed as Muslim and Islamicized even while vociferously refusing that identification as did Barack Obama who considered being called a Muslim a slur. Others become Islamicized when they “come out.” — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nationality can offset racial disadvantage when abroad — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1168; Nationality and class can become privilege markers abroad despite race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1168; National identity is negotiated between legal citizenship and cultural custom — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 52 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial ascription can override a person’s own refusal of that identity #complicates (0.74) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 526