Post-1965 Muslim immigrants accessed civil-rights protections that Black Americans were historically denied

Evidence

South Asian and Arab Muslims have also been able to distance themselves from the bottom of the racial hierarchy. They have enjoyed many of the privileges that socioeconomic status affords. The Muslim Americans I interviewed lived in suburban neighborhoods and had access to resourced public and private schools. They were middleto upper-middle-class citizens who had access to resources that have historically been denied to many African Americans due to structural racism, like residential racial segregation and disparities in the American public education system. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened the borders of the United States to professionals and highly educated immigrants from Pakistan, India, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon, and so South Asians and Arabs migrated to the United States after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, which subjected housing and employment practices to legal action if they were discriminatory in practice. The Muslim men and women I interviewed were able to benefit from these civil rights policies, which also included the Equal Employment Act of 1972. Their unique histories also excluded them from experiencing the racism that African Americans have historically endured in the United States. Their history with racism has been unique, as detailed in chapter 1. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 461

Categorization

• XREF: Positions Muslim Americans distinctly within the racial hierarchy relative to Black Americans — relevant to the reader’s map of racial positioning, though more context on the sample.