Reconsidering Arab and Middle Eastern Racial Formation: Egyptians (re)Articulate Racial Identity and Positionality

• In Event: 085 - Regular Session. Arab American Identity

Abstract

Scholarship on the racial formation of Arabs and Middle Easterners in the United States tends not to disaggregate Arabs and Middle Easterners reifying the construction of a racialized “Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim” monolith. Arab and Middle Eastern racialization is the result of a complex interplay of race, geography, religion, and foreign policy linked to the “emergence of the United States as a global superpower” (Cainkar 2006). Scholars of Arab and/or Middle Eastern racial formation often emphasize shared experiences of prejudice and discrimination, culture, religion, or national-origin (Naber 2008, Tehranian 2009, Cainkar 2010), rather than phenotype. Despite this extensive literature, however, has often focused on the outcome of racial identification, rather than its process. This paper attempts to address the gap by examining the racial narratives taken from 53 in-depth interviews with Egyptians from September 2012 to September 2014. By focusing on Egyptians narrative of racial positionality, we can better understand the processes through which racial formation results in racial identification. In particular, by (re)articulating themselves as non-white, non-black, Egyptians challenge hegemonic definitions of racial classification based primarily on phenotype (and skin color). Instead, Egyptians rely on a combination of phenotype, culture, and lived experience to narrate a new racial position.

Author

• Bradley J Zopf, University of Illinois-Chicago