Passage spaces like airports expose in-between racial identity to contradiction

Evidence

Chapter 5 argues that oft-overlooked in-between places are especially constitutive of racial identity, particularly for people of in-between races. The chapter focuses on the visceral experience of traveling through space—through international airports, in particular—which is required of Iranian American youth to visit their ancestral homelands. Once in Iran, youth testify to the peculiar experience of corporeal scrutiny by their native Iranian counterparts. Common concerns about not being “Iranian” enough for one’s parents and extended family in Iran are counterpoised against the lived experiences of being “too Iranian” with customs agents and security personnel. These experiences are highly gendered, with young men and women working to pass as differently raced at varied times and places in their international travels. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 79

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to reader’s through-line on ‘racial hinge/loophole’ essentialist identity positions — the same youth who leverage loopholes domestically face reversed scrutiny on home soil. — connects to: Airports allocate the privilege of unexamined travel along racialized lines; Multiple border crossings make subjectivity a continuous construction for racialized people — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2488; Outward racial rigidity masks internally contradictory individual subjectivities (+2 more)
• SEED: The gendered dimension — young men and women passing as ‘differently raced’ at varied times — is a candidate case study for the reader’s strategic-essentialism residence question.

Broader Connections

• Airports allocate the privilege of unexamined travel along racialized lines #expands (0.90)
• Multiple border crossings make subjectivity a continuous construction for racialized people #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2488
• Racial categories are unstable and shift through contested definition #corroborates (0.80)
• Racial identity functions as practice and intention, not just appearance #expands (0.80)
• Outward racial rigidity masks internally contradictory individual subjectivities #qualifies (0.75)