****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
seven twenty-somethings: all arab american, all brooklynites, each one struggling it out in a post 9-11 world. there is so much heart to these stories...so much gumption and grace. how to live from a place of dignity, trust, when you are under constant surveillance? under suspicion? subjected to discrimination at work, school, while riding the bus up brooklyn's fifth avenue, to get taco bell for your three sisters?stories connect us to each other, writes dr. bayoumi. "in the ways that polemics and polls cannot, they reveal our conflicts within ourselves and our vulnerabilities to each other."in these stories we learn of a young arab american marine who enlists, and is deployed to iraq where he eventually begins questioning the war & his involvement in it. "am i out here for somebody's personal gain?" he asks. "none of these people making decisions have anybody there. they're playing with house money. they're playing with the youth of this country."then there's rasha, a young woman who is detained post 9-11, with her entire family and without reason...there's yasmin a force, a firebrand, who takes on the administration of her school, calling them out on their discrimination...there are stories of hurt and betrayal and love here. of humanity."how does it feel to be a problem?" w.e.b. dubois asked over a century ago. and now, dr. bayoumi asks anew, asks at a time when muslim communities around the nation continue to "feel under the blunt hammer of suspicion."i loved this book, an essential, powerful read. five stars are not enough.
