Religion alone can racialize even phenotypically White groups as inferior

Evidence

Because there are very few countering representations of Muslims as normal, law-­abiding, patriotic American citizens, the dominant narrative of Muslims as terrorists, misogynists, and sexual predators who are antifeminist and anti-­American is definitive. These cultural practices are seen as essentialized, inherent characteristics of Muslim bodies. For many Muslims, these labels are applied when they are identified as Muslim through visual clues like skin tone and clothing or nonvisual clues like having a Muslim name. Religious clothing that has acquired racial meaning racializes bodies in a similar way to skin tone. The hijab signifies foreignness and provokes the assumption that those who wear these symbols are “others” who are not American and not white. The hijab symbolizes a threat to Western feminist ideals and is associated with the forced submission of Muslim women to Muslim men (Razack 2008). But for Muslim men and women who do not wear religious signifiers, their Muslim names also racialize them even if they are phenotypically white. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 91 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

As all these narratives demonstrate, a Muslim identity is a racializing agent in the current political climate of the United States. When white people convert to Islam, they experience reracialization and lose their privileges associated with whiteness (Galonnier 2015; Moosavi 2015). For Arabs who are racially classified as white, they lose this status when they wear the hijab. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 89 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White American churches historically worshipped a Jesus who demanded racial hierarchy. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 31; Religious identity alone distanced Asian Indians from whiteness in naturalization law. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 118; Culture served as a racializing mode that displaced politics onto religion — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 256 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Muslim names alone can racialize phenotypically white people #exemplifies (0.95) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 91
• Converting to Islam causes white people to be reracialized as non-white #exemplifies (0.92) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 89
• Muslims can evade racialization by concealing religious difference #complicates (0.80)