Whitewashed: America’s Invisible Middle Eastern Minority (Critical America, 46) - Hardcover

Tehranian, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814783066 ISBN 13: 9780814783061

Publisher: NYU Press, 2008

Synopsis

Middle Easterners: Sometimes White, Sometimes Not - an article by John Tehranian
The Middle Eastern question lies at the heart of the most pressing issues of our time: the war in Iraq and on terrorism, the growing tension between preservation of our national security and protection of our civil rights, and the debate over immigration, assimilation, and our national identity. Yet paradoxically, little attention is focused on our domestic Middle Eastern population and its place in American society. Unlike many other racial minorities in our country, Middle Eastern Americans have faced rising, rather than diminishing, degrees of discrimination over time; a fact highlighted by recent targeted immigration policies, racial profiling, a war on terrorism with a decided racialist bent, and growing rates of job discrimination and hate crime. Oddly enough, however, Middle Eastern Americans are not even considered a minority in official government data. Instead, they are deemed white by law.
In Whitewashed, John Tehranian combines his own personal experiences as an Iranian American with an expert’s analysis of current events, legal trends, and critical theory to analyze this bizarre Catch-22 of Middle Eastern racial classification. He explains how American constructions of Middle Eastern racial identity have changed over the last two centuries, paying particular attention to the shift in perceptions of the Middle Easterner from friendly foreigner to enemy alien, a trend accelerated by the tragic events of 9/11. Focusing on the contemporary immigration debate, the war on terrorism, media portrayals of Middle Easterners, and the processes of creating racial stereotypes, Tehranian argues that, despite its many successes, the modern civil rights movement has not done enough to protect the liberties of Middle Eastern Americans.
By following how concepts of whiteness have transformed over time, Whitewashed forces readers to rethink and question some of their most deeply held assumptions about race in American society.

About this title

About the Author

John Tehranian is currently Professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, California.

Reviews

With a pastiche of personal experience, media analysis and legal theory, law professor Tehranian makes a case for "government recognition of Middle Eastern descent as a distinct racial category." He argues that Middle Eastern whiteness is a "bizarre racial fiction," for citizens of Middle Eastern descent "do not enjoy the benefits of white privilege," but "are denied the fruits of remedial action." Tehranian traces the acquisition of whiteness by successive waves of immigrants (Irish, Italian, Greek, Slavs, Armenians) through litigation where "assimilatory behavior" or "white performance" provides entry. But Middle Easterners hit a bump in the road, amplified in post-9/11 America: "selective racialization"--the famous or successful are perceived as white, while the infamous "are racialized as Middle Eastern." Tehranian addresses the impact of the "war on terror" on the lives and liberties of Middle Eastern Americans as their "public image transitioned from (possibly white) assimilable ethnics to the quintessential Other." His proposals for reform range from the ameliorative ("reform media portrayals") to the legislative (outlaw racial profiling). Tehranian's book covers fresh legal and social territory; while occasionally repetitious, it is consistently informative and casts off the cloak of invisibility. (Dec.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814783066
• ISBN 13: 9780814783061
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256