Surveillance, suspicion and stigma: Brown bodies in a terror-panic climate

Abstract

This paper considers hard and soft surveillance measures, processes of racialised labelling and the allocation of stigma within a post-9/11 terror-panic climate. Using qualitative data from the first stage of a wider study, the paper reports on the perceptions and experiences of those marked as 'hyper-visible' (Khoury 2009); that is, those of middle Eastern appearance, or of South Asian or Arabic heritage and of the Muslim faith, who are presented as members of a suspect community. The paper considers 'browning' (Bhattacharyya 2008; Burman 2010; Semati 2010; Silva 2010) and 'social sorting' (Lyon 2003a) in relation to perceptions and experiences of surveillance. The paper argues that ethnic hostility features heavily in surveillance, and the impact has serious negative consequences for its subjects. Anti-terror surveillance therefore needs to be understood within the wider context of a racially defined citizenship agenda. This would allow us to more accurately understand its impact, and to ask questions about its fulfilling of safety. More significantly, it would also allow for the mapping of mobilised resistance to problematic and discriminatory surveillance. © The author, 2012.