Dandyism In America

Recent events have given rise to dialogues of the systematic inequalities Black and Muslim communities face in the United States. From events like the 2013 shooting of Trayvon Martin to the more recent ban of individuals from seven Muslim majority countries, it is evident that there exists a hierarchy within the boundaries of the United States that advertently hurts those of “color.” At the crossroads of religious discrimination and racism, Black Muslims are victimized in part due to the parallel racial norms they are subject to. However, by using the aesthetics of dandyism, some Black Muslims in America aim to challenge US racial hierarchies. Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer examines how the symbolic sartorial practices of dandyism in Black American

Mutahari composed the Mutual Services of Islam and Iran, in which he argues that religion is about individual mentality rather than traditions in order to downplay the racist Arab argument that Iranians have reasons for mobilization due to their pre-Islamic Zoroastrian heritage; rather, he points out that Iranians have a deep attachment to Islam (Abedi and Fischer 1990: 187-189). He also debunks any perceived notion that there is a special relationship between Arabs and the religion of Islam with the use of a Quranic verse that states that people are formed from the same pair (Quran 49:13), in conjunction with a quote from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam, that states that Iranians accepted Islam wholeheartedly in comparison to the Arabs who bickered initially during the time of the revelations (Abedi and Fischer 1990: 192). Granted there is no significant transformation of style or practice that Iranians use to symbolize their place in Islam, they faced a similar alienation from their Arab counterparts and such debate was necessary to redeem Iranian from the accusations of reverting back to

Khabeer makes the argument that Black Muslims are victims to a multifaceted set of discriminations as they live in the intersection of racial and religious profiling. In a time where movements like “Black Lives Matter” and “Muslim Lives Matter” are prevalent, it is not hard to realize that Black Muslims are at large risks. Will they be stopped and frisked by the police on the corner of the street? Is their names reason for detainment at the airport? Dr. Khabeer uses a clip from the music video of Jidenna’s “Classic Man” that shows a stereotypical Black and Latino man pushed against a wall by police officers until Jidenna, as a Black dandy, intervenes. This clip shows that he was not subject with the same outlook; rather he was treated with respect mostly due to his style of dress. Similarly, due to geopolitical influence and post 9/11 sentiment, it is “no longer hot to look like a terrorist” (Khabeer, 2017) as burquas, hijabs etc. became the easy to spot target for hatred, causing many to remove the religiously affiliated attire when out in public (Jolls et al., 2002). Although there is no proof that a change in style will protect one from judgment, the use of the dandy attire is way in which these Black Muslims armor themselves against criminalization by avoiding the thug and terrorist