Recently I read an article from the Root titled “To be a Black American Muslim Woman Is to be Both an Insider and an Outsider”. In the piece, the author mainly discusses what it is like living as both a black woman and a Muslim in the United states. What stood out to me the most about this article is the idea of never being American enough. In my opinion, America proliferates this notion of superiority when it comes to anything that doesn’t revolve around themselves. This can be seen in religion when someone professes to be anything other than Christian, or even in socio economic cases where minorities are historically disadvantaged.
Given my own personal experiences, and the long-term distain of Islam that America has projected for years, I felt a strong connection to some of the emotions that the author described. One of the strongest feelings I related too was the feeling of tiredness, which was clearly expressed by the author when she said “in short y’all, I can’t win. I can’t break even, and I can’t get outta the game.” I personally feel that the amount of time and energy that is spent rejecting other religions, races, or ways of life are wasted efforts that are entirely due to a lack of knowledge. If more people spent time studying those who they see as “different,” I truly believe that equality could be reached. However, I know that this solution is a long shot and most likely would not happen during my lifetime. Nevertheless, I found the piece to be very interesting, and it can be found through the following link:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/to-be-a-black-american-muslim-woman-is-to-be-both-an-in-1832462118