I knew immediately who I wanted Liz to be.
I engage in combat by getting out of bed in the morning."
I don’t believe in color-blind casting.
Ursula Coyote/The CW; Inset: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Roswell, New Mexicois my show, but Liz’s story is not my story.
We assign a -phobia suffix as if to excuse it.
Homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia.
My mother, Shereen Abdel-Meguid, is a proud Egyptian-American Muslim woman.
I was fourteen years old on Sept. 11, 2001.
I didn’t “look” Muslim.
I was a blue-eyed, dirty blonde bookworm.
I didn’t look like the bad guy.
I looked like safe, boring, Dubya-approvedAmerica.
So for a long time, I was quiet while kids around me equated Muslims with violence.
And why would they?
To them, Muslims all looked like machine-gun touting caricatures.
He already knows he’s hated.
“I’m a son.
I’m a brother, a cop.
My life is ordinary…
I’m just a guy from Roswell.
That’s it.”
I had been quiet for a long time, but something compelled me that day to push back.
Things changed at school for me after that.
Someone filled my gym locker with sand.
Someone wrote “towelhead” in my yearbook in thick marker.
I threw the whole yearbook away.
But I didn’t regret speaking up.
This is the experience that I bring toRoswell, New Mexico.
Things are about to change for him.
It’s his journey, and it is mine.
We’re working on it together.
Roswellairs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
