Descendants of immigrants and refugees from countries in the Middle East and South Asia have often had a hard time living in the post 9/11 United States because they have Muslim names. Take former San Jose State Professor and artist Hasan Elahi.
After September 11, while trying to catch a plane, he was detained and interrogated by the FBI, and compelled to share a lot of personal information with the Feds. He was eventually cleared, but the experience inspired him to launch a project called “Hiding in Plain Sight” in which he photographs every single detail of his daily life — no matter how mundane — and uploads it on his website for the world — and the FBI — to see. It’s a form of “surveillance protest art.”
This story originally aired in April, 2011
