Syracuse University Press Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects (Arab American Writing)

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. Review 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 for ethnic studies, race studies, research on class and gender, and comparative research. - Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis 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 (forthcoming). 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.