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RACE KNOWLEDGE

Racialized Social Legitimacy and Second-Generation Muslim Americans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2017

Michelle D. Byng
Michelle D. Byng*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Temple University
*
*Corresponding author: Dr. Michelle D. Byng, Department of Sociology, Temple University, 761 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122. E-mail: mbyng@temple.edu
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Abstract

This analysis addresses race knowledge or the connection between race identity and the ability to designate what is socially legitimate. It problematizes race inequality in light of neoliberal, post-Civil Rights racial reforms. Using qualitative data from interviews with second-generation Muslim Americans, the analysis maps their understanding of the racialized social legitimacy of Brown, Black, and White identities. Findings address how racial hierarchy is organized by racial neoliberalism and the persistence of White supremacy. They show that White racial dominance continues in spite of claims of post-racialism. Moreover, second-generation Muslim Americans position their Brown and Black racial identity as subordinate to White racial identity, but Brown and Black races are different rather than hierarchically positioned in reference to one another. The respondents bring neoliberal globalism as well as U.S. racial dynamics to bear on their understandings of racial hierarchy and racialized social legitimacy.

Keywords

Race KnowledgeRacial NeoliberalismMuslim AmericansSecond generationRace IdentityRace Stratification
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 273 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2017 

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