Oh man, white muslims again
Brooke of Sheer Fluency has organized a Blog Carnival on White Privilege and the Ummah.
It’s a great topic, but it occurred to me that for plenty of us white folks, myself included, the first step is figuring out what white folks are in the first place. During my discussion with Umar about white Muslims and the comments from different people that followed, a common idea that came up was that white people are a distinct race of people with distinct culture and traits, and by distinct I mean distinct from what is meant by American.
I’ve benefited personally from looking at things this way: that white people are simply Americans who enjoy white privilege. They do not rise to the level of a culture or race distinct from American in the sense that Blackamericans, Arab-Americans or Native Americans may. With the latter, there are certain shared histories, experiences, languages or dialects, specific geographic origins, artifacts of culture and/or a sense of community that binds them together into a distinct people set apart from Americans as a whole.
To set white people as a category equivalent to the rest is to exclude non-whites from what it means to be American or to assume that there is no shared set of American culture, which ultimately perpetuates white privilege. White people are [among] the undifferentiated mass of Americans, with the single and of course very significant difference that they enjoy white privilege. That is not to say that white Americans are all the same, rather that the term “white” doesn’t connote anything in particular about them that “American” does not, except the receipt and quite possibly the exercise of white privilege. White privilege and institutionalized racism are a tremendous negative force in American society, most certainly, and many aspects of American culture have been used as a vehicle for white supremacy. But it still doesn’t transform white-skinned people into a People called White in any meaningful or positive way.
So with that as a starting point, I’ve been surprised to find in some white convert quarters the assumption that white people are a People with a capital “P”. I’ve met white converts who spoke of themselves as Caucasian and meant or implied by that some connection with the muslim peoples of the Caucasus, like the Chechens and so on. No doubt for the white convert finding himself a minority for the first time there may be some comfort in knowing that there are people who look like them who are muslim. But it ends at the resemblance. White Americans do not have much in common with the many muslim peoples of Europe and the Caucasus beyond skin tone. I imagine that the Quranic verse that God created man into various nations and tribes may lead some white converts to go looking for their tribe. But there is no reason to imagine that the nations and tribes God created are immutable, unchangeable or even have any intrinsic value in front of the Creator! For we know with certainty that nations have been raised up and destroyed, that tribes have come and gone, that languages have arisen, changed and disappeared. The message of the verse is the second clause, so that we may know one another. If you, the white American convert, have some particular connection to your European heritage, good for you. But your pre-American ancestry has only as much significance to who you are as you attach to it.
Umar Lee has a fairly complex personal relationship to whiteness and yet has lamented a loss of white brotherhood and white ethnic identity upon becoming muslim, and he’s not alone in feeling that way. Yet I think the feeling is real but the cause is misplaced. American culture is fundamentally alienating: there is a huge number of white men who are totally alienated from any sense of community or culture or belonging, without becoming muslim, without having done anything to consciously remove themselves before feeling that way. In other words, the feeling of loss, disconnection and emptiness at the heart of so many young white people isn’t a disconnection from any mythical white brotherhood but a disconnection from the awful shallowness and emptiness that is modern American life.
Other muslims have begun to use the term whiteamerican, after Dr. Sherman Jackson’s neologism Blackamerican, as though whites were an equivalently distinct subset of Americans. But Dr. Jackson doesn’t use the term Whiteamerican anywhere in his superb book Islam and the Blackamerican, and does not even capitalize “white”, which highlights the lack of symmetry he sees between what is meant by Blackamerican and what is meant by white. For those who haven’t read the book, Dr. Jackson uses Blackamerican to distinguish between the descendants of American slavery and the culture and community they have built over 400 years to the newly arrived black African immigrants who do not receive white skin privilege in America but are in most other respects not connected to the “indigenous” Black community. There is simply no parallel among white people that is worth highlighting. It takes about 30 seconds flat – or at most a generation – for a white European immigrant to go from FOB to whatever could be meant by Whiteamerican. There are effectively no white Americans that are separate from Whiteamericans, so why elevate an artificial construct designed to oppress to the status of an ethnic group? Let whiteness die the death it so richly deserves.
Thus the white convert doesn’t leave the White Race behind because there is no such thing. He is simply by his example broadening what is possible for an American to be. It isn’t much different from what the Amish, vegetarians, hippies or any other subculture have gone through in establishing a space for themselves in American culture. [Enough people do it, and pretty soon you're a distinct marketing segment, and that's when you know you're somebody in America.]
At the same time, the white male convert doesn’t leave white privilege behind, because as long as somebody else is still giving it to you, you still got it, whether you like it or not. I’m not talking about women here. It is very very different for them and I’ll leave them to discuss it. But guys? the white muslim male continues to be treated white the vast majority of the time, at least in my experience. If you get funny looks, it’s because you look funny with that hat on your head, not because they think you’re not a white male. And if they’re still not sure you just say hello and that’s the end of that. I don’t want to say you can’t ever be sized up as non-white at first glance – it’s happened to me plenty of times over the years. But it doesn’t happen much, doesn’t mean much and it’s really not worth making much of. Contrast the dirty look you may have gotten that one time with the numerous sikhs who have been hurt or killed over the years for resembling muslims and you see the difference color makes.
Finally, the American convert doesn’t leave the broader American culture behind entirely either, and the idea that they do, and that their practice of Islam is somehow purer because of it than that of immigrant muslims or muslims in other countries is a very pernicious conceit that was exploded very well in Muslimah Media Watch a while ago.
Ok, so my Fairy Internet Godmother is advising me to stop gazing admiringly in the mirror, and I think that’s wise before I steer off into tedious personal anecdotes. I’m happy to say that muslims the world over have always treated me great, and I’m going to chalk that up to what a wonderful guy I am and leave it at that. Head over to Brooke’s Blog Carnival and get some other perspectives.
[Update: Whiteness up the wazoo at Whiteness Studies: Deconstructing (the) Race]
[Update Update: Further Discussions on White Privilege and the White Muslim
I've enjoyed the discussions taking place at Umar Lee's and Talk Islam. It occurred to me that Umar and I may have been talking in circles without disagreeing with one another, particularly about the issue of loss of white privilege by the white male muslim in the larger society.
When I've been talking about whether or not a white man loses white privilege upon becoming muslim and donning kufi and beard, I've been talking exclusively about *physical appearance* and *first reactions*. In other words, if somebody sees you they don't assume you are a person of color! They may (or may not) recognize you as a muslim and they may (or may not) have a problem with muslims, but they are still seeing you as an American of European Descent. Maybe that's obvious and I've just been belaboring a petty issue.
But I think it's worth noting because white women who wear hijab are very often not seen as being *physically white/of European descent*. For men, all I'm saying is this isn't an issue. Again, minor point, but because it has happened to me and I'm sure to other white boys too *on a handful of occassions*, and we see it happening to our white sisters with great frequency, there is room for the white male convert to get confused and think he's lost the ability to pass as physically white, which he hasn't. THAT'S ALL I'M SAYING. If somebody identifies you *as a muslim* and strolls over and coldcocks you, that is not white on non-white racism. It is Islamophobia. Maybe it's a moot point - you took one in the teeth either way. But obviously I think it's an important enough distinction to spend half a page on.
I promised no tedious anecdotes, but I guess I lied: When I was just getting out of grad school, I applied for a job at a small company run by two white women, one of them Jewish. I was interviewed by both of them together, and they clearly sized me up from my blazer and tie to the long beard and plain white kufi, and after the standard skills-type questions, out came, would I be ok having a couple of women as my boss? Now I wanted to say, shoot, I take orders from my wife all the time, but I knew that wouldn't come off as funny as I thought, so I said something neutral but reassuring about not having any difficulty fitting in to the team or whatever. SO. I didn't get the job. A girl from my same graduating class who I knew quite well did. Now, I knew that girl pretty well, it being a small class, and she was damn talented and a pleasure to work with, so I'm prepared to accept that she got the job on her own merits. But if that wasn't the reason, and that shady question leaves the door open that there might have been more at work, then what was it? It might have been sexism: they didn't want to work with a man. Or it might have been islamophobia: they didn't think a practicing muslim man could work well with women. But it sure wasn't that they didn't want to work with somebody who wasn't white because that girl was Korean.
[Update x3: Somebody Stop Me]
Reading back over my own piece, I feel the weakest argument I made is that white privilege can be extricated in any reasonable way from what it means to be American. In other words, when I said “the term “white” doesn’t connote anything in particular about them that “American” does not, except the receipt and quite possibly the exercise of white privilege” it may be that this is a distinction without a difference, because the dynamic of white privilege for the people on all sides of it is intrinsic to the American experience, that we can’t know anything about you as an American until we know whether you’re a black, brown or white one. This is the “baked into the cake” or “cultural DNA” sort of argument, and I’m willing to entertain the idea, although I’m not convinced.
But in the end, I think it is necessary to assert, even if it is not yet categorically true, that there is an element of shared American culture that is not mediated by race. If not, what hope is there for building a just society?
Maybe I’m derailing things to move to this next example, but you remember that website Stuff White People Like? It had a number of very sharp observations about the habits of a certain set of Americans, and categorized them as “White”. It was instructive to me to see the responses of the people that hated it. A significant number of white people were angry because they didn’t like that stuff, and they are white. Straightforward: there are lots of types of white folks. But a significant number of people of color were angry, because they DO like that stuff, and liking it doesn’t make them white and it doesn’t feel like White Stuff to them.
OK, I’ve got a feeling this is getting silly here but we’re just blogging after all, so I’ll proceed to my grand conclusion:
Since People of Color are able to experience some aspects of American culture in a race-neutral way, therefore there is such a thing as American culture separate from questions of white privilege and white supremacy, therefore it is meaningful to say “aside from questions of WP, I’m just an American”, and therefore the task in front of us is simply to expand the sphere of American culture that is decracinated until Whiteness is dead for good.
QED. But I’m willing to discuss it…
[Update x4: Die Whitey Die]
There’s been a fair amount of meta-commentary on the value and appropriateness of the White Privilege and the Ummah Carnival. Sisters Safiya Outlines and Lucky Fatima have been working overtime defending it against charges of navel-gazing and nafs-indulgence, and so I thought I’d chime in too.
Pain and Confusion over whiteness and American-ness prior or post conversion are big, undeniable contributing factors in the cases of several high-profile white (and poc) converts who are now serving time in the War on Terror. This is true whether or not they were guilty of their crimes. I’m sure they were innocent. But there is no way they would have found themselves in the position they did if they were at peace with who they were as white Americans.
There. I said it. One of the very first blog posts I made, way back in 2002, was about my fellow white boy in Islam John Walker Lindh, and I still think of him a lot, along with yet-to-be-killed-or-incarcerated Adam Gadhan and several others. So I think this conversation is as serious as life and death and that’s why I focused on the aspect I did, rather than delve into the worthwhile topic of the mechanics of white privilege that was the primary focus of this Carnival.
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I’ve never really been a fan of identity politics, but then I’ve always been “the geek”.
Sure. At the same time it’s something you have to grapple with growing up just to make sense of the country around you. My son has it rough – the teachers call him an Englishman. You can hash things out a hundred ways – American, Whiteamerican, euro-American, Malayo-Caucasian, bumiputih, ad nauseum, but the one thing my kid sure isn’t is an Englishman.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I, unlike you, have not decided if I am “white”. White english mother, Palestinian father, my skin is generally white – though can tan.
Its funny really, my mom calls me “white”, my father “arab”. Blacks are confused – so “akhi” are you ‘white’ or ‘arab’? I certainly have a hoosier accent, look like I could be Hoosier …
I do not act “arab” – but then again I am not sure what “arab” is. After all you have nearly 80 different subcultures for the arabs. I also wanted to mention that the American Federal government, when filling out federal applications, classify “arabs” of “Middle eastern decent” as “White”. So does that make me “white”?
My God! What am I? My culture is certainly “American”…but what is “American” and what is “not”? I don’t wear my pants to my ankle, I don’t speak in ebonics, I usually say “wader” and not “water”. I have the midwestern attitude of – relax – it’ll get done!
I like mashed potatoes and gravy, steak, and “American/Freedom” (not french) fries!
>
You mean, they are going through Jahaliyyah withdrawal? I know I went through it, and at times still go through it…
Bin gregory…Do you go through it? Be honest!!!…
The above >
should be =
Abul Layth – Oh yes, I have had that and seen it elsewhere! Someone on FB recenlty made a comment about feelings of a sort of rebelious-teen-years thing in their current state of Muslimness. That is how I see it, sort of two steps forward and a longing look over my shoulder. That old stuff often seems much easier and actually you hear that a lot from non-Muslims.
I wouldn’t call it a withdrawal in the sense of a longing for it, but a profound absence of connection to it, a recognition that mainstream American culture is meaningless to you and meaningless in itself. That can degenerate into nihilism like Columbine, or it can lead to a search for meaning or something else.
Certainly the feeling often strikes teens – I started to feel it around 13 and I was 17 when I converted – but I wouldn’t trivialize it as teenage rebellion. I think the questing, exploration and dissatisfaction felt in that life phase is important, and we don’t so much outgrow it as build the next steps of our life on what we have learned and the decisions we’ve made during that time. And I don’t think it is a specifically American phenomenon, but it does seem to strike harder and more often here, because American culture just lacks a healthy mechanism for guiding that phase in people’s lives. For many, it lacks strong meaningful bonds of community between neighbors and relatives, and it fails to communicate any sustaining spiritual vision to its young beyond consumption . So you don’t have to become a Muslim to arrive at that critique, to feel that you don’t have a place in America, or white America if you like. At the same time I don’t think that it is a necessary consequence of becoming muslim. In the end, I think it’s about carving out that cultural space for yourself that I mentioned above, and I think converts are doing that and will continue to do that.
“wader!” – truly you and I are of one people, my brother. Do you say “melk” instead of “milk” too?
But about your point though, yeah, I mean, all race is socially constructed. I don’t mean to suggest that Arab- or Palestinian-American is any less socially constructed. But from where I’m standing, it is constructed out of more substantial stuff. Asian-American doesn’t mean much to me, but Korean-American or Vietnamese-American kinda do. But when it stops having any special bearing on who you are, then I’d say you’ve become American like the rest of us.
What is it to be “American”? After all doesn’t one submit himself to the constitution and live by what it constitutes as “values”? Isn’t that what it truly means to be “American”? Recall the “pledge of allegiance”…
Or is it that I love the rolling hills of southern Indiana, the laid back, relaxed atmosphere of the hoosiers, or the liberal ways of californians, or maybe even the accents of the Yoopers in Michigan … ? I have for years struggled with what it means to be “American”. Legally, it is one who must abide and support as well as defend the constitution. But socially?
I too accepted Islam at 17, and I certainly believe that Islam – as an entire way of life – is absolute rebellion. I have on many occasions contemplated my acceptance of Islam, and realized that I submitted at 16/17 for no other reason than to rebel against the jahaliyyah around me by wearing tawhid as a badge.
Islam is rebellion against pagan capitalism and its worship of the dollar as well as the “norms” forced upon the masses by the boob tube. It is revolution with a capital R! After all, The Nabi succeeded in destroying idols and subduing the masses by propogation of only four words!
I am rather perturbed with you bingregory for encouraging my nafs to re-evaluate a problem I have had for some time now.
I really do not believe that it is possible for a Muslim to be “American” in the legal sense – i.e. give their bay’ah to principles contrary to Tawhid. Just my opinion though…
Jazakum Allahu Khayran
Gee, when you say you’re perturbed I hope you don’t mean I’ve upset you. I wasn’t out to provoke anybody.
Social or political dissent from the dominant or mainstream society doesn’t make you not an American. America has a long history of vocal dissent, and much of that was from people drawing on religion for inspiration. Although the trope of Islam as a complete way of life has plenty of value, Islam nonetheless operates on top of a multitude of different cultures, hence the recognition of ‘urf in Islamic law. So yeah, I think all those things you mentioned make you an American, from how close your personal space is to your sense of humor to the language you speak to the food you eat to the flowers and trees and hills you see in your head when you dream. Love and appreciation of all those things is what makes you an American and there’s nothing wrong with that. A dear friend shared a hadith with me a while ago: Love of one’s homeland is a part of faith.
I’m still trying to get past the part about white converts identifying with certain Muslims from way over yonder just because said Muslims have fair skin (likely the one and only similarity). I can almost see it, actually, having been mistaken mistaken for various ethnicities (Bosnian more than once, simply because blond hair + blue eyes + Muslim = Bosnian to a lot of Muslims; more recently, a Lebanese guy thought I was Syrian). But still, it is rather strange for someone to say ‘OK, now that I’m a Muslim, the Chechens are my people.” It would be like a Thai converting to Christianity and saying, “Hey, look, I’m a Filipino!”
yeah, to be fair I think it is because of the use of Caucasian as a synonym for white by the US Census, so that leads to people thinking their “race” came from there and then hey look, there’s muslims there! In a related vein, I admit I was fascinated to learn about the Khazars, who some argue are the forefathers of the Ashkenazi Jews, implying that my ancestors are not related to the 12 Tribes of Israel.
You mean it isn’t “wader”??
Bin Gregory, salaam,
You said “implying that my ancestors are not related to the 12 Tribes of Israel.”
Are you a Jewish convert? Just curious.
salam –
Yes, I’m ethnically Jewish on my mom’s side. Safiyyah is my maternal aunt. No, I’m kidding about that last part.
“But it sure wasn’t that they didn’t want to work with somebody who wasn’t white because that girl was Korean.”
See, that’s the thing about bias, privilege, racism, etc. It’s sneaky and pernicious. But really, you can’t be sure, just as you can’t be sure of anyone’s motives. Allhualim what was in their hearts and what was on their agenda.
That’s why it is really important to look at your own behavior and rectify it. Check your own motives and find your own biases. Also, I’m sure (wink) that you could imagine another white male would say that he did not get that job because they needed a poc on staff.
I think you should have thrown in the wifey comment, women eat that stuff up.
Dear binGregory,
“Thus the white convert doesn’t leave the White Race behind because there is no such thing. He is simply by his example broadening what is possible for an American to be.”
Forgive my ignorance. Why is it so difficult to be a white American muslim without having the angst of having to belong to one ethnic label or another. Perhaps too, the issue here is the angst about muslim plurality – for muslim and non-muslim alike.
A Nigerian muslim sister said that I (Malaysian, nicely bronze) cannot possibly be a muslim as I don’t wear the hijab although it was I who invited her for iftar. My english colleagues thought that I cannot be a proper muslim (like my restrained Eqyptian collegues) as I was in full swing during a departmental Christmas party.
Back to white muslim Americans: I am optimistic about Americans accepting the plurality of whatever it is that makes ‘white American’ – as long as being white muslim doesn’t mean you are dressed like an ‘ethnic muslim’ with beard and kufi or, jilbab and refuse to shake the hands of a male colleague.
(Correct me if I’m wrong. Forgive me if I have spoken out of turn)
Why is it so difficult to be a white American muslim without having the angst of having to belong to one ethnic label or another.
Oh it works fine in practice, it just doesn’t work in theory
What can I say, Americans have hangups about race, because of our very ugly national history. I’m quite at peace with it – no really – despite this epic blog post. I’m an American who practices Islam who has the advantage of fair skin. That’s pretty much the condensed version of where I’m at. I won’t pretend it didn’t take me a long time to arrive at that, particularly the American part.
I think lots of converts struggle because Islam as we understand it is such a radical critique of our society that they sometimes forget they are still in it and of it as much as they ever were. Frankly speaking a fair amount of the pathology and dysfunction found in the convert community, and I’m sorry to say there is a considerable amount, boils down to confusion over whether they have left their culture behind. They have not.
Actually Malaysians can enjoy the same headaches by asking themselves the following questions:
1. Do you still consider Lina Joy a Malaysian?
2. Do you still consider Lina Joy a Malay?
2. Do you still consider Lina Joy a Muslim!
Extra credit for imagining what answer Lina Joy might give. (If you also imagine that Tamils and Chinese are mostly Christian and the Malays had kept the Chinese as slaves for 400 years, you start to see what us white muslims are dealing with.)
I don’t really know if Lina Joy is a hard core Chrisitan – you know, trinitarian, Jesus as son of God etc – or whether she just wanted to be able to have a beer and hit the club without being harrassed. Imagine it’s the former for sake of discussion.
So does Lina Joy still benefit from being Malay in Malaysia, despite her Christianity? If Lina Joy walks down the street with a big cross around her neck, would she be treated the same way an ethnic Tamil Malaysian wearing a cross would be? Does she practice her faith any better for having consciously chosen Christianity than American Christians? Does her upbringing as a malay muslim affect the way she understands Christianity?
[...] call me Orang Putih over here, and I’m white back home (let’s not get into that again), but Lo! There is no Putih option. I didn’t even ask about Jewish. I tried to put American, [...]
Asalaamu Alaikum
Bumiputih! Rofl. I’ve never heard that one before..got to share it with the family.
Yup white FEMALE converts lose their WP that’s for sure. They can’t see our skin for our hijab if you kwim? No one ever thought I was arab until I converted, no one ever yelled go back to Pakistan before I converted. White male converts have it so easy. Even in the mosque they are so loved. Women, forget it unless you are single and they want to hook you up with someone from back home who needs a visa…yup..heard lots of stories like that.
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An article about Three Roods Farm by Garrison Benson.
Interesting critique of consumerism, counter-culture and the culture-jamming movement:
[Via]
Vaguely related in ways I can't fully articulate to themes in Yursil's ongoing series on Suburban Capitalist Islam.
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