Surveillance registration programs racialize Arabs and Muslims by codifying essentialized categories

Evidence

Cainkar argues that programs like NSEERs, which are based on “assumptions about the innate characteristics of persons who inhabit the grand categories of Arab and Muslim,” lead to the “racialization of Arabs and Muslims because they give concrete meaning to essentialized, undifferentiated representations of Arabs and Muslims.” In 2003, another thousand people were arrested as part of a program to catch “absconders” from Middle Eastern nations who had overstayed their visas and who might have knowledge of “terrorist activity.” Many of these people were put “on planes to destinations where they knew no one. They left behind jobs, homes, and families, including American-born children.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 552

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how racialization operates through surveillance law — giving ‘concrete meaning’ to essentialized group categories.
• XREF: connects to: Surveillance itself racializes target groups into a suspicious race — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 75; Security registration programs racialize groups by concretizing essentialized categories; Surveillance justified by religious identity constitutes racialization of Muslims (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Security registration programs racialize groups by concretizing essentialized categories #corroborates (0.95)
• Surveillance justified by religious identity constitutes racialization of Muslims #corroborates (0.90)
• Muslim religious identity becomes a racial category through surveillance. #corroborates (0.90)
• Surveillance derives from country-of-origin priority lists that racialize Muslim identity #corroborates (0.85)
• The War on Terror racialized Muslim bodies to justify their surveillance #expands (0.85) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 29
• Federally funded anti-Muslim training normalized mass surveillance of Muslim communities. #exemplifies (0.80)
• Racialized religious signifiers trigger hostile surveillance interactions with state and citizens #expands (0.80) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 650
• The hijab rather than skin tone triggers racializing surveillance of Muslim women #qualifies (0.80) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 292