The Arab-American Experience: Identity Negotiation in How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?

"The Arab-American Experience: Identity Negotiation in How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?": The purpose of this article is to examine the formation of the hyphenated identity of Arab-Americans as narrated in Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (2009). The book is a collection of real life experiences of seven young Arab-Americans living in Brooklyn after the 9/11 (September 11, 2001), terrorist attack on the United States. This article considers these stories as case studies of the way Arab-Americans perceive their race and ethnicity and deal with perceived bias. It explores the ways in which Arab-Americans negotiate their identity through various paths of assimilation or increasing awareness of various aspects of their ethnic identity. Moreover, issues young Arab-Americans have with assimilation, inclusion and bias after 9/11, and the ways they cope with these issues are discussed.