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"In addition to the shock from the immense tragedy of the event, they were frightened for their own safety," Emerson says. "One of the students, a young woman of Egyptian descent, said, 'It was bad enough when Oklahoma City happened, but this is so much bigger.' She's fearful on campus. She's fearful for just being in the U.S. And she doesn't understand the prejudice she's experienced, because she supports America."

Emerson has spent several years probing the dynamics of racial categorizations in America. His recent book Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, was the result of extensive research of white Christian attitudes towards African Americans and other minority groups. He says the impulse to label and scapegoat a group of people is common, especially in extraordinary situations like this.

"The same thing happened with Japanese Americans during World War II," he explains. "In that case, we didn't just hurl insults at them, we put them into concentration camps. It's the same thing now. There's a general sense of what an American is, and that is typically people of European descent. Even nonwhites will often, on some level, possess that belief. We implicitly buy into the idea that all nonwhite people are essentially just allowed to be here—until there's a problem, and then all of sudden it's 'You're not an American; you're an Arab who happens to be in America."

Emerson realizes that the people who actually act out of these distorted notions are on the extreme fringes of society. But so are the Muslim terrorists who wreaked havoc on our nation, he says. "From the perspective of the majority group, it's easy to say, 'Oh, it's only a few ignorant people; it's not a big deal.' But it's a huge deal from the perspective of those minority groups who are being targeted."

For Emerson, dealing with his anger over these events in a "Christian way" has meant turning the focus away from his own emotions and making a commitment to reach out to Muslims and Arabs who are now feeling alienated in their own communities. It's a need the church can fill, he says. "One way for us to respond is to reach out to these people, to let them know that we're behind them, that they do not have to be afraid."

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45