For the brief moment I was handcuffed, I couldn’t control myself and I just started crying,” Elamin said as she reflected on the reality that non-black Muslims from the restricted states were not handcuffed. Her religious identity as a Muslim led to her detainment, while her racial status as a black woman spurred the decision of Customs and Border Control to handcuff her, and treat her like a criminal. She stood at the dangerous crossroads of anti-black racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia, which prompted a more violent brand of treatment from immigration officers.

XREF: Connects to Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality framework — overlapping identities produce distinct, compounded forms of oppression.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 456