An inquisitor dubbed “Grizzly” pursues a line of questioning based on the presumption that Chuck, as someone of Muslim background, has some sort of “authentic” inside knowledge about terrorism: “he figured I would have special insight into the phenomenon—knowledge of the relevant fatwa, or some verse in the Koran—just as a black man, any black man, should be privy to black-on-black violence or the allure of a forty ounce” (115).

XREF: Connects to broader discourse on racial essentialism and the burden of representation placed on marginalized individuals.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 305