Patel immediately starts off speaking about non-white races in America and how many of them are stigmatized in a way that would portray them as terrorists. They do not appear like your stereotypical American and therefore must prove “[they] belong”. It’s worth noting that Patel herself is fair skinned and would appear like your stereotypical American despite her mixed heritage. While this may actually skew some of her opinion in the matter, Patel is also a lawyer who focuses on racial justice litigation, making her likely apt to continue. She hones in on the the Arab, Muslin, and Asian populations that are prescribed the negative label of terrorist, especially in our post-9/11 society. In her own experience when showing her photo ID she was asked “You’re not a terrorist, are you?”
Critical Race Theory states that race is a social construct, very similar to how gender is a social construct according to Risman . She states that those who self-identify in their race also perform in that race, meaning they label themselves and then
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This this performance-actor analogy, she states that seeing race as a performance relieves us of some guilt, as we would fit into the “agents” of the analogy as we cannot chose which role (race) we are given. She provides an example of a journalist acting out of character; a black man whistling classical music (which is a “white person thing”). Acting in this manner nullifies the “mugger” assumption of his race and instead pacifies the race-judging assumptions of the general population. The article is very brief, but ends with that some races have more “damage control” to do than other races; meaning some races have to act whiter in order to fit into society and seem more “safe” or