Bess 1 Laura Bess AMS 180 Dr.

Garner 5 October 2012 The New Problem How does it feel to be a problem? This is a question posed many times over the last century, and there have been a great many people who could honestly answer it. Whether those people were discriminated against because of their race, their religion, or their appearance, they live life in society, as though, always looking at ones self through the eyes of others, (Du Bois). In Moustafa Bayoumis book, How Does it Feel to be a Problem?, he outlines how, in recent years, Arab-Americans, or those who are members of Islam have become the problem. Since 9/11, discrimination against these previously unknown groups has gripped the nation, causing young Arabs and Muslim to come to realize what W.E.B. Du Bois was talking about in his book The Souls of Black Folk. Because of the racial prejudice that has resulted from 9/11, young Arab Americans are being denied opportunities in their schools and workforce, and also being subjected to unwarranted arrests, that cause them to feel as though they are outsiders in a country they legally hold citizenship in. By contrasting the experiences and the opportunities of Arab Americans before and after 9/11, it will be clear to see how a national crisis, and the association of Muslims with that event, causes people to shift suspicions onto people who fit a similar profile. A majority of all Arabs and Muslims that live in the U.S. today are legal citizens; they were born in America and maintain the same amount of citizenship as any white, AngloSaxon, protestant man. But, they are still discriminated against because they are not part of

Bess 2 hegemony, the unmarked majority. Ironically though, they are considered white on censuses. However, since September 11, 20012, being Arab in America has become a problem, mainly affecting the youth, as they try to balance the expectations of the older generations with the frustrations of the American culture increasingly [spying] you with mounting levels of fear, aversions, and occasionally outright hostility. (Bayoumi 6). Rasha is the first portrait that Bayoumi paints. She is a young Arab who hails from Syria. She is not a citizen, but her family holds a legal visa to stay in the country. Her early years consisted of her going back and forth from Syria, but finally settling down in America just before high school started in 1996. She quickly made friends with two other girls who shared similar experiences and backgrounds as her, and they were a group just like any other high school group. Five months after 9/11, Rasha was awakened abruptly and arrested. Her interrogation was calm, and the interrogators seemed to know there was nothing she could tell them that would help their investigation, (Bayoumi 23). After this, Rasha and her family were sent to a detention center where Rasha, her sister, and her mother were treated horribly by the detention officers. All of this occured when Rasha was 19. Though the officers told Rashas father that they should have expected to be arrested, in times like these, (Bayoumi 24) there was no reason they should have been arrested or detained. Rasha later revealed that she believed a snitch tipped the FBI off that Rashas family were possible terrorists, though it became clear they were not. This was the life, and still is the life that Arab Americans face. At no point during Rashas recollection was there any mention of rights being read, a basic, Constitutional principle established by Miranda v. Arizona. The arrests of Rasha and her family, along with hundreds of other Arab-Americans and Muslims that occurred after 9/11 were the result of mass panic by the American

Bess 3 public. A comparable situation would be the arrests and detention of the Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor. The arrests were not out of necessity or reasonable suspicion, but rather a call of action from the public. The government needed to appear as though they were doing something, and so they profiled people and arrested them. How does it feel to be arrested for no reason? The same people who can answer this question are the same who are able to answer the question of how it feels to be a problem. Another example of prejudices against young Arab-Americans occurs in the work force or in schools. Consider the case of Yasmin, a young girl whose courage is plainly worn like the hijab that adorns her head. When she enters high school, she becomes involved in the student leadership program that is a top-tier program at her school. She picks up the application to run as the study body secretary, and to her shock, she wins. Her victory is quickly squashed however, when she is asked to resign from her position because she cannot attend a school dance due to her religious beliefs. After weeks of fighting with the chairperson of the student body government, Yasmin finally resigns her position with a heavy heart. But, being the girl she is, she does not take the resignation lying down. Instead, she immerses herself in the legalese of civil rights and religious discrimination that occurred at her school. Meanwhile, the student body government goes against its original ruling of all members attending events, by rearranging the schedule, and excusing Jewish students from attending (Bayoumi 91-110), something they wouldnt do for Yasmin. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois discusses how the [skies] were bluest when [he] could beat [his] mates at examination-time, (Du Bois), referencing that his happiest moments came when he was able to transcend the prejudices and discriminations against him and be better than those who were preferred. In Yasmins case, she saw winning the election as a way to live above

Bess 4 [racial prejudice] in a region of blue sky, (Du Bois). This discrimination against Yasmin all takes place just before 9/11 and afterwards, but it is a good example of how ArabAmericans were treated before the incident and how 9/11 only served to complicate matters. The pre-9/11 discrimination came at the hands of the media, who portrayed Muslims and Arabs as villains in films such as James Bond and other pop culture references. The media is a powerful tool, and it is a tool that one Arab-American, Omar, tries to take ahold of in order to expose the truth of the country that is turning against him. Omar is halfArab, half-Chilean, but looks more like his Chilean mother. After 9/11, he begins to identify more with his Arab father, the opposite of many Arab-Americans, who have abandoned their ethnic roots or religion out of either shame or fear or both, (Bayoumi 11). His struggles against prejudice occur when he attempts to obtain a job after finishing an internship at an Arab news station. He is asked why he was involved with the terrorist news station, and he responds with the concept of only knowing one story, and how this can shape peoples perceptions about groups or people of certain racial backgrounds. The one story problem exists for these Arab-Americans, and is the root of all the racial profiling and discrimination against them. The one story the American public has been fed is one of terrorism and violence. After 9/11, the story was only further enforced as the devastation and destruction left Americans searching for someone to blame. Whether it is exclusion from positions in the student government or workforce, or simply being treated without basic, entitled rights, it is clear that the Arab-Americans, and future generations, will be the newest members of society to be able to experience the double consciousness that comes with being a problem in ones own country.

Bess 5 Works Cited Bayoumi, Moustafa. How Does it Feel to be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. New York: Penguin Books (2009). Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A., 1903; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/114/. [Date of Printout].