HAMMONDS 1

Shelby Hammonds
Professor Owens
English 1001
3 March 2015

Being a Consistent Threat To Society

The book How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America by
Moustafa Bayoumi tells several stories of how discrimination can easily come about. Bayoumi
questioned seven different Arab-Americans to hear the stories of how their lives changed post
9/11. He turned each of their experiences into a book, hoping they could change societies view
on discrimination forever. While living in New York, which has the largest Arab-Muslim
population, Rasha, Sami, Yasmin, Akram, Lina, Omar, and Rami each faced some sort of
discrimination from religion to persecution and racism. All these young adults want is an equal
opportunity at life, like being able to go out to the club, getting married, going to college,
expressing themselves however they feel or simply just riding the bus across town. Bayoumis
book allows us readers to emotionally experience the world that swirls around them and all the
unseen problems they face on a day-to-day basis. Moustafa Bayoumi successfully opened the
eyes to many close-minded Americans who tend to believe every Arab/Muslim is a terrorist or a
threat to society.
As an Arab/Muslim from Switzerland, who was raised in Canada, but currently subsists
in Brooklyn, New York Bayoumi has expierenced it all. He is an award winning author and an
English professor at Brooklyn College. He also has had several pieces of writing appear in many
magazines such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The National and The New York

Magazine. His most recognized piece of writing is his book How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?
Being Young and Arab in America, which many college freshman are required to read. Many
people may question Bayoumis purpose for writing this book or disagree with the content within
the pages. But in all reality it covers a very controversial topic everyone should be aware of,
discrimination.
Compared to the several other stories in the book Rasha had a very traumatic experience.
She faced discrimination at its finest. One late February night, in 2002, the FBI invaded Rasha
and her family at their home in Brooklyn, New York. They were accused of suspicious terrorist
activity and taken to jail for at least three months. The emotional toll the imprisonment had on
Rasha was clearly stated throughout her chapter. Bayoumi wrote, For awhile she stopped eating.
She would lie on her bed sometimes for two or three days continuously . . . She slowly snapped
out of her depression, but she couldnt stop feeling angry (26). Rashas depression eventually
became anger and she began questioning everything she had once known. The fact that what us
Americans did caused a young women to want to physically harm herself is heart wrenching. A
lot of people do not realize how these people feel and what they go through just to have freedom.
But is freedom really free?
The second story Bayoumi places in his book was Samis. Sami was one of the many
main stream Arabs we have here in the United States. He is not strong in the Muslim faith; he
does not like Arabic music or Arabic programs, and definitely does not enjoy visiting Egypt. He
joined the military months before 9/11 not expecting it to change his views on his own culture.
Bayoumi began to explain the emotional experiences Sami faces:
People were walking around on cement in 120-degree heat, without shoes. They
lived simply in makeshift houses. He found that the destitution was causing him

pangs of regret, and he wanted to give the people he passed something. . . riding
in other open vehicles, he would surreptitiously hand off two-liter bottles of water,
cases of MREs, and wrapped Tootsie Rolls to people they passed. As his feelings
of dread waned, his notions of kinship with the Iraqis were awakened. He told me
later, I wanted to give them that kind of dignity. . . it would show some kind of
humane feeling toward them. . . we were not just here to murder everybody. That
we were here to help. (63)
Sami started to regret his decision of going against his own people and began to get very
defensive of the Arabs. Many of the other men did not understand and continued their hatred
toward them. They would say, Fuck those guys. Get ride of them all, Sami would shake his
head, and they would call him a terrorist(63). I can only imagine how this would make Sami
feel; just because he came from an Arab background they considered him one of them. Bayoumi
provided us with this information to show us that not all Arabs are the same and that they have
feelings just as much as the next person.
Given the statistics in Bayoumis preface, his goal is to really get Americans to
understand how many Arab/Muslim face discrimination. A lot of the information he provides us
with is very shockingly high and unbelievable. Bayoumi explains the information he has
collected to prove his point:
Bias crimes against Arabs, Muslims, and those assumed to be Arab or Muslim
spiked 1,700 percent in the first six months after September 11 and have never
since returned to their pre-2001 levels. A USA Today/ Gallup poll from 2006
shows that 39 percent of Americans admit to holding prejudice against Muslims
and believe that all Muslims- U.S. citizens included- should carry special IDs . . .

Mass arrests following the attacks increased generalized suspicion against Arabs
and Muslims in this country. The government demanded that nonimmigrant males
from twenty-four Muslim-majority countries register their whereabouts in this
country, leading to deportation proceeding against almost fourteen thousand
people. (3-4)
Bayoumi uses his preface to grab the attention of all his readers. He also does a fantastic
job at it as well. The statistical information he has provided us with continues to support as to
why his book was very successful. Getting to the hearts of all the Americans who are afraid to
step out of their box and accept people who do not have similar skin color as them. These
numbers will continually grow as years go by because more and more problems are bringing
brought to the table.
Moustafa Bayoumi did an excellent job at reaching his goals of his book. He took seven
interviews and turned them into stories, each story had a meaning and purpose behind it. The
stories were not just stories, but first hand experiences of discrimination. Bayoumi states, It
seems barely an exaggeration to say that Arab and Muslim Americans are constantly talked about
but almost never heard from.(5) This quote stuck out to me the most because it is so true. We
are consistently talking and whispering about Arab/Muslims but never get to know them for
whom they are. Will the thoughts and questions remain the same or will we ever see a change ?
Will Arab/Muslims always be a problem? Are they a terrorist? Will the stares and whispers ever
stop? No one will ever see a change unless we makes the change. Our world is becoming a mean
hatful place. The truth is us Americans are a consistent threat to society, unless we change the
way we view things and people.

Works Cited

Bayoumi,Moustafa.HowDoesItFeeltoBeaProblem?:BeingYoungandArabin
America.NewYork:Penguin,2008.Print.