Whiteness?, race and belonging
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Maghbouleh's writing on the Iranian-American first-generation perception of being 'Aryan' and white allows an insight into the differences in understanding and comfort with physical and cultural identity between first and second-generation immigrants. She outlines a need to be identified within the boundaries of whiteness for those first-gen immigrants, to be understood as "the original white people of the world" (52) in a society where Iranian descent is viewed with suspicion. Contrastingly, a lot of the younger participants she talked with have an aversion to this white identification, based on numerous reasons - from being externally misplaced into an 'Arab' identity to watching their parents experience explicit racism based on their lineage. She suggests that the self-classification into the 'white' category originates from the myth that Iranian people are descendants of the 'Aryan', a prejudiced racial science that was based in Europe. This misguided belief has served as a way for first-generation Iranian immigrants to assert their place within the dominant racial hierarchy in the U.S., aligning themselves with whiteness to mitigate discrimination and gain social acceptance. However, as Maghbouleh points out, this identification is fraught with contradictions, as the racial and cultural realities faced by these immigrants often clash with the Eurocentric definitions of whiteness they seek to emulate.
This connects to Husain’s ethnography of Black and White Muslims in the United States, complicating an understanding of racial boundaries within religious communities. Husain’s study reveals that some White Muslims actively reject or unsettle their identification as white, questioning whiteness as a source of alignment with an Islamic identity that is often marginalised in the U.S. Here, whiteness is not a coveted label but a site of discomfort, viewing themselves as transcending the realms of whiteness through religion. Husain’s observations of Black Muslims illustrate an alternate approach: rather than attempting to disassociate from racial identities, some Black Muslims adopt outward symbols of Islam, like the hijab, to foreground their Muslim identity. This conscious visibility disrupts the U.S. racial logic that marks Blackness as a primary and unyielding identifier, creating a layered form of self-presentation that tries to resist racial profiling and shifts attention towards religious belonging. In both cases, the individuals’ relationship to racial identity is not straightforward; rather, it is shaped by the need to either align with or resist imposed labels to assert a sense of belonging.