How Does It Feel to Be A Problem: Being Young and Arab in America (2008)

Each section of How Does It Feel to Be A Problem begins with a quote from a different poem by a notable African-American author. What are some of the connections Bayoumi encourages us to make between these poems and his young Arab-American subjects? How do these poems tie into the W.E.B. Du Bois quote from which the book derives its title?

What does the word “problem” mean in the context of Du Bois’s quote? How is this idea of the immigrant as “problem” examined and redefined over the course of Bayoumi’s book?

Every chapter of How Does It Feel to Be A Problem follows the same structural pattern: the subject of the chapter is introduced with an in-the-moment scene. Then, the subject’s complex beneath-the-surface story—including recent personal and political events behind that scene—is related. Finally, Bayoumi connects the subject’s story to broader historic events and sociological analysis. Why does he choose to structure each section this way?