“What Are You?” Racial Ambiguity, Belonging, and Well-being Among NonVeiled Arab American Women

The present study fills a gap in the Arab American psychological literature by exploring the impact of racial ambiguity and legal invisibility on Arab American women’s sense of belonging and well-being. This exploratory consensual qualitative research (CQR) investigation analyzed interview data from 13 nonveiled Arab American women. The interview probed their reactions to Arab Americans’ legal invisibility in the United States, their perceptions of how White people and Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) perceived them racially, and examined their emotional responses and coping strategies. The study’s results revealed participants’ feelings of invisibility, invalidation, and hurt when they were not recognized as BIPOC, highlighting the participants’ experience of exclusion. The results not only have implications for professional practice, education, and research but also for policy. In particular, this study lends support to Arab and Middle Eastern North African (MENA) advocacy efforts for formal recognition in the United States via representation in the U.S. Census and elsewhere.