Article: “From Nearly White to Brown: Nation, Identity, and the Racialization of Muslim Americans”

Authors: Amílcar Antonio Barreto and Omar K. Sindi

Published in: Culture and Religion

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: November 2, 2022

Scholars debate elites’ capacity to shape the parameters of national belonging. Hard constructivists believe elites have tremendous leverage, while soft constructivists caution that elites face severe constraints in this process. We address this debate in our study of Muslim Americans. Recently political elites tried to integrate Muslim Americans by expanding an inscriptive interpretation of American identity: from WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), to white Christian, to pan-Abrahamic. This attempted incorporation was met by a potent wave of Islamophobia after 11 September 2001. One consequence of this rejection was an increasing number of Muslim Americans identifying themselves as, and being perceived by others as, people of color. Elites underestimated deeply-entrenched beliefs that resist expanding American-ness beyond white Christians. They face fewer constraints integrating new groups into the non-white category. We contend the debate over hard and soft construction must be circumscribed by the particular aspects or features elites are attempting to objectify.

Source: Taylor and Francis Online