More Keffiyeh Drama Fo' Yo' Moma

Dunkin' Donuts Yanks Rachel Ray Ad

Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.’’

(In case you’re wondering, the stylist who selected the offending scarf was not Gretta Enterprises boss Gretchen Monahan, who appears on Ray’s TV show as a style consultant.)

For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.’’

Source: Boston

Thoughts, in no particular order:

• We're letting the "right wing nut cases" rise to new levels of ridiculousness.
• Nobody really complained when Urban Outfitters and Delia's caved under pressure and proved unable to carry their respective versions of the keffiyeh for more than a week. Maybe those who appreciate the keffiyeh deserved this slap in the face.
• This is another step in exoticizing Middle Eastern culture.
  
• The prospect of a remote association with "terrorism" (though in my book I'd call the Palestinian struggle one being led by freedom fighters) terrifies corporate America.
• The commercialization of various Palestinian symbols dilutes their meaning and value.
• Popularizing the culture of resistance might be just what we need - think of the 60s when everybody was a hippy and the will of the people actually mattered!

Update (05/29, 7:00pm):

Message from the ANSWER Coalition
Boycott: Don't Shop at Dunkin' Donuts!
Say No to Anti-Arab Racism

The ANSWER Coalition and others are calling for a worldwide boycott of Dunkin’ Donuts. The boycott intends to send a powerful message to Dunkin’ Donuts and other corporations that engage in racism or pandering to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racists.

Please lend your name to the boycott by clicking this link and send a letter to Dunkin' Donuts. Be sure to circulate this call to your friends on list serves and social networking sites.

Here’s the background:

Dunkin’ Donuts has capitulated and withdrawn an advertisement for its products following the allegation by a right-wing hack, Michelle Malkin, that the spokeswoman in the ad was pictured wearing a kaffiyeh, a scarf which is a staple of clothing traditionally worn by Palestinian men.

The scarf pictured in the ad is not actually a kaffiyeh. But the anti-Arab racism of the right-wing, pro-Bush ideologues like Malkin is so extreme that they launched their campaign because they “thought” the scarf was this traditional Arab garment. Dunkin’ Donuts pulled their ad apologizing that the scarf might even resemble a kaffiyeh.

In Malkin’s twisted world anything “Arab,” even a scarf, is “terrorist.” This is the same line of thinking promoted by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, when thousands of Middle Eastern men living in the United States were rounded up and falsely imprisoned. Some were even tried on phony “terrorism” charges. It is the same line of thinking that was used to promote the racist war drive against Afghanistan and then Iraq.

The fact that a giant corporation like Dunkin’ Donuts quickly pulled the advertisement is a sign that the pervasive racism, chauvinism and xenophobia peddled by right-wing bigots is a real danger. This is a classic tactic of fascist intimidation and demonization of an entire population.

We demand that Dunkin’ Donuts immediately apologize to the Arab-American community for this disgraceful surrender to racism. Until that apology is issued we will refuse to shop or buy any products marketed by the Dunkin' Donuts Corporation.

Please lend your name to the boycott by clicking this link and send a letter to Dunkin' Donuts. Be sure to circulate this call to your friends on list serves and social networking sites.

Baghdad: 6 million people, 117 degrees and no water

By Richard Becker, Western Regional Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Friday, August 3, 2007

A crime against humanity committed by the occupying power

For the past 24 hours, Baghdad has had virtually no running water.

Major parts of the city of six million people have lacked running water for six days, while daily high temperatures have ranged from 115 to 120 degrees. The tiny amount of water dripping through the pipes is causing many of those who must drink it to suffer acute intestinal illness.

According to reports, not enough electricity is available to run Baghdad’s water pumps. This in a country with vast energy resources.

Corporate media outlets—to the extent they have reported this horrific and mind-boggling story at all—have treated it as a failure on the part of Iraqis.

In reality, it is an appalling war crime committed by the occupying power, the U.S. military. It threatens the lives of tens of thousands of people in the short term and unthinkable numbers of people unless it is rectified immediately.

According to Article 55 of Geneva Conventions (1949) to which the U.S. government is a signatory: "To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate."

Article 59 states: "If the whole or part of the population of an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal."

To say that a huge city deprived of running water is "inadequately supplied" would rank as one of the great understatements of human history.

Of course, the shortage of water—the most vital of all necessities—does not extend to the U.S. personnel and contractors occupying Iraq.

The U.S. government tries to relieve itself of its obligations by pretending that Iraq’s "sovereignty" was restored in June 2004. But that is just another hoax.

Since its illegal invasion and conquest of Iraq in the spring of 2003, the real state power in the country has been the U.S. military.

This latest catastrophe to afflict the Iraqi people is another poisonous fruit of imperialist occupation. Not even in the worst times during the U.S. blockade of Iraq from 1990-2003, did such a disaster occur.

The U.S. regime in Iraq must provide the people of Baghdad with relief in the short-term to avert unprecedented disaster. The U.S. occupation must come to an immediate end. The officials responsible for the terrible crimes committed against the Iraqi people must be held accountable. The U.S. government owes Iraq vast reparations for the death and destruction imposed on that society by an illegal war of aggression.

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