Race in the U.S. Course Responds to Race Issues in Real Time
Linda Sarsour recalled the moment in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when her life as a Muslim-American changed forever.
On that day, Sarsour returned home from classes at Kingsborough Community College to Sunset Park, where her mother was watching her kids. Entering the house, Sarsour bumped into her mother, who was rushing to pick up Sarsourâs brother from school. She was stunned by what her mother was wearing â or more precisely what she wasnât wearing.
âI told her, âYou forgot to put on your hijab,ââ recalled Sarsour, whose morning in classes had prevented her from learning of the devastating events unfolding in Lower Manhattan. ââAnd my mom was like, âWe canât wear it right now.ââ
It was only after Sarsour saw the television reports of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center that she understood her motherâs comment: Fearful of being associated with the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, her mother felt it necessary to hide a publicly identifiable symbol of her identity.
âOn that day,â the Brooklyn-born and raised Sarsour recalled, âI went from being just an ordinary New Yorker that looked a little different to being a member of an entire group that was suspected of somehow having a connection to a horrific attack on our city.â
It was also on that day that Sarsour, angry and distraught by the injustice of the spurious association, decided to become an activist.
Sarsour, a co-organizer of the 2017 Womenâs March and former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, recalled the experience in her discussion of the âracializationâ of Muslimsâthe process by which a diverse Muslim religious culture has systematically been reduced to a narrow, stereotyped racial and ethnic profile for the purposes of discrimination and oppression. She stressed the importance of seeing our freedoms as âbound upâ with the freedoms of others during this past Mondayâs class meeting of Race in the U.S., a free public course offered at The New School.
Convened by leading New School faculty members Maya Wiley, senior vice president of social justice; Michelle Depass, dean of the Milano School; and Darrick Hamilton, associate professor of economics and urban policy at Milano and The New School for Social Research, Race in the U.S. brings together prominent scholars, experts, thought leaders, and activists to examine issues including racial stratification, implicit bias, and the complex, intersectional relationships between race, gender, and class.
Following up on last yearâs successful Post-Election America series at The New School, the course carries forward the legacy of The New Schoolâs landmark 1964 âVoices of Crisis: American Race Crisisâ lecture series featuring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And it advances the universityâs storied tradition of critical engagement with urgent social issues â including race â in real time. The course is held every Monday through December 11 from 6:00â7:50 p.m. and airs on Livestream.
Speaking before an audience at Starr Foundation Hall on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Sarsour explored the ways race has been used to demonize the Muslim-American community. According to Sarsour, the events of 9/11 spurred anti-Muslim politicians and activists to set the machine of racialization in motion, targeting people of the Islamic faithâregardless of raceâwith discrimination and violence.
âPeople tell me, âLinda, this doesnât make sense. How can there be racism against a whole group of people who are white, Black, South Asian, East Asian, Latino?ââ said Sarsour. âI tell them, âBecause, by racializing all Muslims, and making us all part of one community, itâs easier for the opposition to create policies that target us based on our faith.â
The impact of racialization is staggering. Sarsour pointed to hate crimes against Muslims and vandalism of mosques following 9/11, including in Sarsourâs own neighborhood; protests against the creation of Islamic institutions (âin the land of religion freedom, there are people who decided it was a good idea to protest places of faithâ); and illegal surveillance of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses by the New York City Police Department (âthe NYPD had created what was effectively a Zagat survey of Halal restaurantsâ).
Sarsour referred to a clip that Wiley played earlier in the evening that featured then-presidential candidate Donald Trump famously calling for a âtotal and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.â She recalled arguing with people who told her that Trumpâs words were âjust campaign rhetoricâ and that âyou canât really do that to a whole group of people.â
âThe guy wasnât even in office for a week and he already started with the Muslim ban,â Sarsour said. âThen critics say, âBut, Linda itâs only seven countries.â Trust me, if you can do seven, you can do 17.â
Sarsour was alluding to the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a 2003 program enacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in which Muslims from other countries were told to register with the U.S. government. Sarsour noted that âno terrorism convictions resulted from the program.â
âThe only impact it had was to separate families, terrorize communities, and put people in chaos,â she said.
Sarsour explained that NSEERS, the NYPD surveillance of mosques, and Trumpâs anti-Muslim ban followed from âa long history of a nation that has targeted certain communities.â The treatment of Muslims, Sarsour said, was âreminiscentâ of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
âThe things people said about the Japanese are the same things theyâre saying about Muslims â literally, you think someone was reading out of the same playbook: âThe Muslims are not to be trusted. Theyâre not loyal to this country. They got a hidden agenda. Sharia law is going to take over America.â They were saying the same things about the Japanese.â
Sarsour said itâs up to the people in the audience to decide whether or not they want to be part of âthe silent majority that sits by while such injustices are perpetrated.â Quoting the Indigenous Australian visual artist, activist, and academic Lilla Watson, Sarsour said, âIf you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.â
Sarsourâs words echoed those of the organizers of the Race in the U.S. course.
âItâs not about giving people the answers to these issues,â Wiley said. âItâs about educating people in the history and the system that gave rise to these issues, so that they can take this knowledge and decide how they want to make positive change in the world.â
Race in the U.S. is sponsored by the Provostâs Office of The New School and the 2017 Henry Cohen Lecture Series of the Milano School. For more information, including an updated list of weekly lecturers, class readings, and archived past lectures, visit The New Schoolâs Medium page.