Recent scholarship has employed racialization theory to make sense of the Muslim experience in the West. Research shows that if Muslims don religious markers—such as a hijab—they are racialized as ‘Muslim’ and associated with negative stereotypes concerning Islam. This (ethno)racialization has also been found to extend to white Muslim converts who wear these markers—sometimes subjecting them to anti-Muslim prejudice. The current study picks up this thread, comparing the experiences of converts who are white with those of people of color. In-depth interviews with 39 American converts to Islam reveal that their experiences of anti-Muslim prejudice differ sharply by race and by presentation of self. Findings suggest that white converts are only subjected to prejudice if they wear Muslim religious markers, not simply for having converted. Black converts who wear these markers are met with both positive and negative appraisals. I discuss my findings in light of what they tell us about the power of religious markers to (ethno)racialize their wearers, and the disruption these markers cause to the racial hierarchy—specifically that wearing Muslim religious markers is met with prejudice because it signals a challenge to the normativity of whiteness.

最近的学术研究采用种族化理论来理解西方的穆斯林经历。研究表明，如果穆斯林戴上宗教标志——比如头巾——他们就会被种族化为“穆斯林”，并与对伊斯兰教的负面刻板印象相关联。这种（民族）种族化也被发现延伸到佩戴这些标记的白人穆斯林皈依者身上——有时使他们受到反穆斯林偏见的影响。当前的研究选择了这条线索，比较了白人皈依者与有色人种皈依者的经历。对 39 名美国皈依伊斯兰教的人的深入采访显示，他们对反穆斯林偏见的经历因种族和自我表现而异。调查结果表明，白人皈依者只有在佩戴穆斯林宗教标志时才会受到偏见，而不仅仅是因为皈依。佩戴这些标记的黑人皈依者会得到正面和负面的评价。我讨论了我的发现，因为它们告诉我们宗教标志对佩戴者（民族）种族化的力量，以及这些标志对种族等级制度造成的破坏——特别是佩戴穆斯林宗教标志会受到偏见，因为它表明挑战白人的规范性。