This article engages in a theoretical discussion and application of Du Boisian double consciousness to understand the formation of the Muslim American self. Du Boisian double consciousness, and its three elements (the Veil, Twoness, and Second Sight) are used to understand phenomenological processes of Muslim American self-formation as being situated within and conditioned by structural contexts of racialization. By drawing on critical scholarship that highlights the operation of the Muslim racial project in contemporary U.S. contexts, I show how double consciousness emerges through the Othering of Muslim Americans at the macro, meso, and micro levels of society, which then defines them as outside of the U.S. national imaginary, and denies them their equal civic status as citizens of the state. By utilizing double consciousness to understand the Muslim American self as it is embedded in racialized U.S. contexts, this article fills a crucial gap in the literature by theoretically expanding on racialized processes of Muslim American identity formation in the racialized contexts of the United States.
Orientalist discourses have largely shaped how Muslim women have come to be represented in western visual media as oppressed, subjugated or foreign. However, with the advent of social media platforms, Muslim women are utilizing social media spaces to rearticulate the controlling images
promulgated through orientalist narratives. This article examines the complex relationship visual media shares with Muslim women and demonstrates that the lens of orientalism continues to structure the imaginaries that shape visual representations of Muslim women in art, news and film. This
article addresses how visual platforms and social media spaces such as YouTube are being utilized by Muslim women to undertake digital activism that seeks to subvert essentialist narratives. At the centre of this discussion is YouTuber Dina Tokio’s (2017) documentary, titled ‘#YourAverageMuslim’,
which tackles western preconceived notions, and instead offers a redefined version of the ‘Muslim woman’ predicated on resisting three narratives: (1) Muslim-Woman-As-Oppressed, (2) Muslim-Woman-As-Subjugated and (3) Muslim-Woman-As-Foreign-Other. This documentary clearly demonstrates
how Muslim women are using social media platforms in specific ways to shape the discourses around Muslim women. In doing so they are demonstrating their agentic capabilities, taking control of their representations, and speaking for themselves instead of being spoken for by others.
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