How Does It Feel to Be a Problem is a book by Moustafa Bayoumi published in 2008. The book chronicles the story of seven Americans that had immigrated to the country from Arab nations. Living in New York City, they were deeply impacted by the attacks of September 11, 2001. Instead of being sympathetic to these young Americans, many people began to look down on them as a problem. For escaping countries where they felt unsafe, they only arrive in a country where they are hated.
An English professor at Brooklyn College, Moustafa Bayoumi was raised in Canada. Some of his shorter stories and essay have appeared in publications like The Nation and The Village Voice. His most famous work is How Does it Feel to Be a Problem, a book that he was inspired to write from W.E. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk, which painted a clearer picture into an ethnic minority that many did not understand.
