Racial classification as White does not shield Middle Eastern Americans from Islamophobia.

Evidence

Middle Eastern Americans are most often assumed to have “Muslim-like” appearances and are thus exposed to Islamophobia. While they are classified as “White” by the Office of Management and Budget, they do not benefit from White privilege and are still exposed to Islamophobia based on physical appearance. — Goleen Samari, Islamophobia and Public Health in the…, 38

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the ‘Muslim-like appearance’ racialization and the gap between official classification and lived experience.
• XREF: Connects to ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and ‘Home Boy’ in the library, both dealing with brown/Muslim men facing prejudice despite conventional markers of belonging. — connects to: Heterogeneity does not disqualify a group from holding racial identity. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 61

Related

• Anti-Muslim prejudice functions as racialized discrimination tied to physical appearance. (similarity 0.83)
• Researchers conflate Middle Eastern ethnicity with Muslim identity in health studies. (similarity 0.82)
• State Islamophobia has always been entangled with US racial classification, splitting Muslims by race. (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia constructs a stigmatized Muslim identity through dehumanizing stereotypes rooted in Orientalism. (similarity 0.81)
• American Muslims are racially diverse and often identify as white or Asian (similarity 0.81)
• American Islamophobia stems from slavery and anti-Black racism, not just Orientalism. (similarity 0.80)
• American Muslims are racially heterogeneous across white, black, Asian, Latinx categories. (similarity 0.80)
• Muslims are racially assigned to blackness while immigrants aspire to whiteness. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamic identity could not shield Black Americans from racial prejudice. (similarity 0.80)
• Islamophobia operates through imputed inferior traits rooted in religious identity (similarity 0.79)
• The American Muslim-as-public-enemy image shifted from black to brown (similarity 0.79)
• People who seem white can be raced non-white on the basis of Islam alone. (similarity 0.79)
• Muslim identity ejects Arab Americans from legal whiteness and its social benefits. (similarity 0.79)
• Islamophobia and racial prejudice are entangled in distinct ways across Western contexts (similarity 0.79)
• Islamophobia operates as entrenched American race politics producing anti-Muslim racism (similarity 0.79)