The irony

While a considerable number of Muslims in the U.S. are African American, and most of the African Americans are engaged in limited income jobs, Muslim immigrants in the US have relatively higher household incomes -- partly, a consequence of liberalization of U.S. immigrant policies in the 60s that opened the doors to skilled and educated immigrants. Consequently, many in the immigrant Muslim population did not face the same level of economic, political, and institutional discrimination termed "structural racism", as faced by many in the African American and now predominantly in the Mexican immigrant communities in the U.S.

Here, then, lies a promise in the recent spate of racist attacks against Muslims in the US. There is a parallel in racism meted out to Muslims, African Americans, and Latino immigrants. It is hoped that many in the American Muslim immigrant community will use the present climate of Muslim xenophobia to challenge the trap inherent in their own class privilege and the status as a high achieving "model minority" that often creates a distance from those less privileged in the community.