Website of Donna Auston, PhD Candidate
James Baldwin once said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage nearly almost all of the time.” Last month, Baltimore erupted, and the rest of America got a glimpse into the ever-present but… Continue Reading “Mapping the Intersections of Islamophobia & #BlackLivesMatter: Unearthing Black Muslim Life & Activism in the Policing Crisis”
Abstract This article is a localized ethnographic exploration of African American Muslims within the context of a broad and diverse national movement surrounding police violence and related issues of racial justice: “Black Lives Matter.” Through fieldwork conducted simultaneously in physical spaces in the Northeast… Continue Reading “Prayer, Protest, & Police Brutality: Black Muslim Spiritual Resistance in the Ferguson Era”
Recalled to Life: On the Meaning and Power of a Die-In I have never died before. In the beginning of December, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Washington, D.C., I made my way down to our hotel’s main lobby with… Continue Reading “Recalled to Life: On the Meaning and Power of a Die-In”
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. –Martin Luther King, Jr. I love my community, deeply. And my definition of love always requires complete honesty to the best of my ability: this is… Continue Reading “When Silence Says it All: Reflections on American Muslim Leadership and the Trayvon Martin Tragedy”
The foundation for a righteous masculinity cannot be built upon the domination of women. Reflecting upon my experiences as a Muslim woman for the last twenty something years, who for much of that time has muddled through the enormity of trying to guide three… Continue Reading “The Ground on Which I Stand: Foundations for a Righteous Masculinity”