Racializing Discourses of Illegality

This chapter analyzes how notions of race, religion, security, and language come together to distribute fear and instill suspicion into everyday life. In raising the question, “What Does a Terrorist Sound Like?” the chapter examines four cases of raciolinguistic profiling that associate specific words and languages with Muslims as security risks specifically within the domains of travel (“Travelling while Muslim”) and education (“Studying while Muslim”). It highlights how “Muslim” becomes a de facto racial classification, particularly when Muslim, or seemingly Muslim, bodies speak languages that appear deviant thereby causing insecurity among those in immediate proximity. The chapter concludes by urging scholars to further interrogate the white listening subjects—whether an individual on a plane, or government surveillance policies—that construct Muslims as illegible and always/already suspect, while they are often presumed innocent and their ignorance is left without scrutiny.