Is Rachel Ray a Terrorist or just a Hipster?

I don’t like Rachel Williams much either, but this may be going way too far.

Concerned citizens (read: right-wing bloggers) have complained to Dunkin’ Donuts en masse when the company began airing a commercial in which their loquacious spokesperson was wearing a scarf that sort of resembled a keffiyeh. Uh oh.

They of course pulled the ad immediately so as not to offend good American values (read: the customer is always right) and have subsequently earned the praise of the same concerned citizens.

So, what exactly is a keffiyeh? When I first read about this “controversy” the first thing I thought of was classic black and white movies dealing with British army adventures in Northern Africa and other desert locals during the WWII era and prior. Haughty officers with fancy pistols surrounded by lots of underinglings and quaint locals who all wear similar garb. Not exactly a great marketing image these days; granted.

But hey, it’s just a scarf, right? Wrong! Michelle Malkin on townhall.com informs us:

It’s just a scarf, the clueless keffiyeh-wearers scoff. Would they say the same of fashion designers who marketed modified Klan-style hoods in Burberry plaid as the next big thing?

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence — unintentionally or not — they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.

Eesh. Ok, so according to these concerned citizens the keffiyeh symbolizes “radical fundamentalist Islam” (a phrase I will take issue with at a later date) and is synonymous with terrorism and anti-Israel extremism. In short, wearing a keffiyeh is an expression of support for terrorism.

The keffiyeh is often associated with Palestinian nationalism as the scarf has always been worn in rural areas, the areas of Israel that tend to be predominately Palestinian. Of course, a majority of Palestinian men wear the scarf regardless of their political affiliation or involvement in violent activities. Yasir Arafat, the late leader of the more radical Fatah party, embraced the keffiyeh as a sort of personal symbol, but it was more the unique arrangement of the scarf than the item itself that was noteworthy in his case. Also of note for “negative” connotations is Che Guevara, who was also known to have worn a keffiyeh at times.

The scarf, as you can imagine, has a much longer and docile history than the few citations above. The beduin people and other pastoral populations throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa have used the scarf or similar items as practical shields against both sun and sand. No big deal. The scarves were also chic in the 1980s among hipsters bohemian girls. The keffiyeh, like tie-dye and huge sunglasses, has recently been resurrected as a cool thing to wear.

Why is this Rachel Ray ad such a big deal then? The scarf she is wearing isn’t even a keffiyeh, it just remotely resembles one. Our Arabophobia has really gotten out of hand since 2001; the culture of fear cultivated by the current administration continues to affect the way everyday Americans look at the world and the context within which they vote. When a coffee chain is lambasted for a commercial that invokes an image slightly reminiscent of a fashion element that is loosely associated with a population within which a very small percentage of people commit violent and condemnable acts… well, something’s wrong.

Should the French ban the sale of cowboy hats because Texans are responsible such a high rate of capital punishment (not to mention the implications of “cowboy diplomacy?” Hm.

I understand the difficulty of dispelling symbolism and I understand that otherwise harmless things can carry with them serious connotations, but I really don’t think this is anywhere near the level of a swastika or a Klan hood. I don’t blame Dunkin’ Donuts for pulling the commercial, but this outcry really speaks to the potency of cultivating culture wars and proves that there are still people out there who believed what Samuel Huntington had to say. It’s a scary to think that a lot of these people make important decisions for our country.

Now that Dunkin’ Donuts has done away with an anti-Israel commercial and maintains an anti-immigration stance, it seems that conservatives finally have a answer to that obscene liberal haven that is Starbucks. While the hang out with their sugary coffee served by good working Americans, perhaps they can investigate the next keffiyeh controversy on their not-Apple laptops:

Dun dun dunnnnnn….

What do you guys think; just a scarf or threat to national security and well-being?

-Mike

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