Maghbouleh alternated readings from her book with explanations of the complex sociological effects of being in a group that is legally and racially invisible, but realistically set apart based on a variety of factors, such as skin color, cultural norms, and foreign-sounding names. Far from presenting a dry set of statistics, Maghbouleh recounted the experiences of the 80 young people she tracked for her study: for example, Roya was told she must check the \u201cWhite\/Caucasian\u201d box on school forms rather than the \u201cother\u201d box, and Donya, who attended a mostly white school, was called a \u201cgorilla\u201d for having a unibrow. There was also the story of Amir and his older brother, who attended school in the rural mid-west. They were called names such as \u201csand ni**er\u201d and \u201ccamel jockey.\u201d Amir\u2019s older brother was confronted by twenty or so varsity football players who yelled, \u201cYou American-hating motherf***r! F***ing terrorist scum!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMaghbouleh presented these stories alongside documented historical and legal evidence of the disparate treatment of Iranian-Americans. From a 1979 sepia-toned poster in a Texas restaurant depicting the lynching of a turbaned man and stating, \u201cLet\u2019s Play Cowboys and IRANIANS!\u201d to the effects of 9\/11, Maghbouleh provided the backdrop influencing the negative treatment experienced by second-generation Iranian-Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following Maghbouleh\u2019s presentation there was a lively question and answer session, followed by a book signing. The event was a truly educational, riveting, and timely look at where Iranian-Americans find themselves in the social and legal structure of their adopted homeland. Maghbouleh\u2019s book is a must-read\u2014an authoritative and fascinating examination of Iranian-Americans living on the edges of whiteness and traversing its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maghbouleh, Neda (2017), The Limits of Whiteness<\/em>. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Shaghayegh Hanson On May 1, 2019, the Persian Cultural Center hosted author Neda Maghbouleh, who discussed her new book, The Limits of Whiteness. Maghbouleh is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, and her book is a groundbreaking, empirically-based study of the identity dilemma faced by Iranian-Americans who are at once technically<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-shaghayegh-hanson"],"yoast_head":"\n