Magbouleh: Chapter paper

1.      Let's link the work of Flores-González and Maghbouleh. How might people from the Middle East and North Africa also be boundary straddlers?

2.      According to Tatum, what role does fear play in speaking openly and honestly about racial issues?

3.      What did you think of the reaction in the clips from the Color of Fear video? Why do you think Victor got so upset?

4.      Why might some people get upset when they're told to "just be American"? Given our nation's history, what assumptions are tied up in people's ideas of what it means to be American?

5.      Writing about Muslim identity, Malik writes "to frame everything in terms of refutation is the opposite of empowerment." Explain what she means.

6.      Maghbouleh notes how the "politics around checking the right box are vexing" for many Iranian Americans. Explain her point.  

7.      Maghbouleh writes that research like hers "recognizes immigration as a site of racial struggle and accounts for US nativism as a battleground where 'in-between' groups are browned." Explain what she means.

8.      What does Maghbouleh mean when she writes that Iranian Americans "sit, categorically, at the outer limits of whiteness"?

9.      According to Parvini and Simani, what are the impacts of counting MENA (or SWANA) as White? Discuss three of those impacts.

10.   Is anyone "really" white or another race? Discuss the racialization of MENA/SWANA people in terms of the ascription and assertion of identities.

11.   3-2-1 exercise: Explain three things you learned in this unit, two things you found particularly interesting, and one question you still have.