Flying While Muslim and Driving While Black: examining the differences in racialized surveillance and policing for African American Muslims

Abstract

ABSTRACT The term ‘Driving While Black’ encapsulates the experiences of African American men and women with racial profiling while driving. ‘Flying While Muslim’ captures what it is like to encounter racialized surveillance in airports because of one’s Muslim identity. In this article, we examine how being Black and Muslim guides the types of racialized policing and surveillance that men and women encounter. The interviews reveal how race, ethnicity and gender inform the types of policing and surveillance individuals experience. We also highlight the connections between the history of policing and surveillance of African Americans to current policing in the War on Terror, which have influenced the War on Drugs.