Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects

by Amaney Jamal (Editor), Nadine Naber (Editor)

Overview

Bringing the rich terrain of Arab American histories to bear on conceptualizations of race in the U.S., this groundbreaking volume fills a critical gap in the field of ethnic studies. Unlike most immigrant communities who either have been consistently marked as "non-white," or have made a transition from "non-white" to "white," Arab Americans historically have been rendered "white" and have increasingly come to be seen as "non-white."

This book highlights emergent discourses on the distinct ways that race matters to the study of Arab American histories and asks essential questions. What is the relationship between U.S. imperialism in Arab homelands and anti-Arab racism in the lives of Arab Americans? What are the relationships between religion, class, gender, and anti-Arab racism? What is the significance of whiteness studies to Arab American studies? Transcending multiculturalist discourses after September 11 that have simply "added on" the category "Arab American" to the landscape of U.S. ethnic and racial studies, this volume locates September 11 as a turning point, rather than a beginning, in the history of Arab American engagements with race, multiculturalism, and Americanization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815631521
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2007
Series:	Arab American Writing Series
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Amaney Jamal is assistant professor of politics at Princeton University. She is the author of Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World.

Nadine Naber is assistant professor in the Department of Women's Studies and the Program in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Feminist Studies, Journal of Ethnic Studies, and Journal of Cultural Dynamics. She is coeditor of Gender, Nation, and Belonging, a special issue of MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables     vii
Acknowledgments     ix
Contributors     xi
Introduction: Arab Americans and U.S. Racial Formations   Nadine Naber     1
Thinking Outside the Box: Arabs and Race in the United States   Louise Cainkar     46
The Moral Analogies of Race: Arab American Identity, Color Politics, and the Limits of Racialized Citizenship   Andrew Shryock     81
Civil Liberties and the Otherization of Arab and Muslim Americans   Amaney Jamal     114
"Whiteness" and the Arab Immigrant Experience   Sawsan Abdulrahim     131
Strange Fruit?: Syrian Immigrants, Extralegal Violence, and Racial Formation in the United States   Sarah M. A. Gualtieri     147
Grandmothers, Grape Leaves, and Kahlil Gibran: Writing Race in Anthologies of Arab American Literature   Michelle Hartman     170
The Prime-Time Plight of the Arab Muslim American after 9/11: Configurations of Race and Nation in TV Dramas   Evelyn Alsultany     204
Arab Americans and Muslim Americans in the New York Times, Before and After 9/11   Suad Joseph$dBenjamin D'Harlingue, with Alvin Ka Hin Wong     229
"Look, Mohammed the Terrorist Is Coming!": Cultural Racism, Nation-Based Racism, and the Intersectionality of Oppressions after 9/11   Nadine Naber     276
Discrimination and Identity Formation in a Post-9/11 Era: A Comparison of Muslim and Christian Arab Americans   Jen'Nan Ghazal Read     305
Conclusion: Arab American Racialization   Amaney Jamal     318
Works Cited     327
Index     357

Editorial Reviews

A breakthrough volume. No one has systematically tried to situate Arab American studies within American race theory. . . . very challenging and highly provocative. It will engage readers across the disciplines and will be a must read.-- "Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis"

A volume with a consistent theme--the 'racialization process' of Arab Americans after 9/11--and a rich discursive analysis of 'whiteness, ' 'blackness, ' and 'otherization.'-- "Choice"

As a crucial addition to the field of Arab American studies, Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11 also promises to critically expand the fields of ethnic studies, American studies, and Middle East studies by theorizing the dynamic intersection between race, nation, citizenship, religion, class, gender, and discourses of 'civilization' in relation to Arab and Muslim Americans.-- "Journal of Middle East Women's Studies"

From the Publisher

A breakthrough volume. No one has systematically tried to situate Arab American studies within American race theory. . . . very challenging and highly provocative. It will engage readers across the disciplines and will be a must read.

Suad Joseph

A volume with a consistent theme-the 'racialization process' of Arab Americans after 9/11-and a rich discursive analysis of 'whiteness,' 'blackness,' and 'otherization.'

Choice

As a crucial addition to the field of Arab American studies, Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11 also promises to critically expand the fields of ethnic studies, American studies, and Middle East studies by theorizing the dynamic intersection between race, nation, citizenship, religion, class, gender, and discourses of 'civilization' in relation to Arab and Muslim Americans.

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies

As a crucial addition to the field of Arab American studies, Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11 also promises to critically expand the fields of ethnic studies, American studies, and Middle East studies by theorizing the dynamic intersection between race, nation, citizenship, religion, class, gender, and discourses of 'civilization' in relation to Arab and Muslim Americans.

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies