We Too Sing America - by Deepa Iyer (Paperback)

About the Book

"Many of us can recall the targeting of South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh people in the wake of 9/11. We may be less aware, however, of the ongoing racism directed against these groups in the past decade and a half. In We Too Sing America, nationally renowned activist Deepa Iyer catalogs recent racial flashpoints, from the 2012 massacre at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to the violent opposition to the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and to the Park 51 Community Center in Lower Manhattan. Iyer asks whether hate crimes should be considered domestic terrorism and explores the role of the state in perpetuating racism through detentions, national registration programs, police profiling, and constant surveillance. She looks at topics including Islamophobia in the Bible Belt; the "Bermuda Triangle" of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hysteria; and the energy of new reform movements, including those of "undocumented and unafraid" youth and Black Lives Matter. In a book that reframes the discussion of race in America, a brilliant young activist provides ideas from the front lines of post-9/11 America. "--

Book Synopsis

"Powerful...Iyer catalogues the toll that various forms of discrimination have taken and highlights the inspiring ways activists are fighting back. [She] is an ideal chronicler of this experience."
-The Washington Post

NOW IN PAPERBACK The nationally renowned racial justice advocate's illumination of the ongoing persecution of a range of American minorities

In the lead-up to the recent presidential election, Donald Trump called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States, surveillance against mosques, and a database for all Muslims living in the country, tapping into anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hysteria to a degree little seen since the targeting of South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh people in the wake of 9/11.

In the American Book Award-winning We Too Sing America, nationally renowned activist Deepa Iyer shows that this is the latest in a series of recent racial flash points, from the 2012 massacre at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to the violent opposition to the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and to the Park 51 Community Center in Lower Manhattan.

Iyer asks whether hate crimes should be considered domestic terrorism and explores the role of the state in perpetuating racism through detentions, national registration programs, police profiling, and constant surveillance. Reframing the discussion of race in America, she "reaches into the complexities of the many cultures that make up South Asia" (Publishers Weekly) and provides ideas from the front lines of post-9/11 America.

Review Quotes

Winner of the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award

"Powerful...Iyer catalogues the toll that various forms of discrimination have taken and highlights the inspiring ways activists are fighting back. [She] is an ideal chronicler of this experience."
- The Washington Post

"A critical history of the specific race and faith discrimination South Asian and Arab communities struggled through and are still reconciling in our post--9/11 era...Thank you, Deepa Iyer for your courage-and for this book."
- Hyphen Magazine

"At a time when Black and Brown communities are under attack, Deepa Iyer reminds us in this timely and moving book that building meaningful and lasting allegiances, shaped by young people, is the urgent task ahead of us."
-Vincent Warren, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights

"Fills an unfortunate gap in knowledge of the effects of post-9/11 bigotry and violence on South Asian, Arab, and Muslim communities. It is personal, political, and powerful."
-Hari Kondabolu, comedian and writer

About the Author

A leading racial justice activist, Deepa Iyer served for a decade as the executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), focusing on community building in post-9/11 America. She teaches in the Asian American studies program at the University of Maryland.