Last weekend, some right-wing blogs began hyperventilating over a Dunkin’ Donuts ad that featured Rachel Ray wearing a black-and-white scarf that, to them, resembled a keffiyeh, the traditional headdress worn by Arab men:

For example, you have Pam Geller’s breathless overreaction:

Have you seen Rachel Ray wearing the icon of Yasser Arfatbastard and the bloody Islamic jihad. This is part of the cultural jihad.

And Little Green Footballs chimed in with this:

I didn’t believe this story when people first started emailing about it; but sure enough, its true. Dunkin Donuts, the venerable old fried dough seller, is the latest American firm to casually promote the symbol of Palestinian terrorism and the intifada, the kaffiyeh, via Rachael Ray.

I was content to ignore this inanity.  It was Memorial Day weekend after all, and perhaps they were just drunk.  But apparently not, because the ever thoughtful Michelle Malkin deemed the situation worthy of a full blown column to be published far and wide.  After much hand-wringing over what she sees as the increasing prevalence of “hate couture”, Malkin has this to say:

Naturally, liberal commentators on the Internet are now up in arms over Dunkin’ Donuts’ decision to yank the ad and mock anyone who expresses concern over the keffiyeh’s symbolism.

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?

Does she really think that KKK garb is a good analogy here?  To begin, the KKK hood is a distinctive feature of ritual clothing that originated with and is exclusive to the Klan.  The keffiyeh is a traditional Arab headdress that has only recently become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.  It is widely worn today in Arab cultures, and it is not exclusive to supporters of Palestinian liberation.  Plenty of people wear the keffiyeh in a non-symbolic manner.  Hell, even members of the US and British military wear keffiyehs.  Furthermore, a KKK-style hood is an obvious symbol, while a keffiyeh, like the one worn by Rachel Ray in the Dunkin’ Donuts ad, is not; many people simply see a scarf.  I mean, look at what she is wearing in that picture.  That thing has some seriously frilly fringe going on, a feature you don’t typically see on an Arafat-style keffiyeh.  I imagine the number of people who looked at that advertisement and saw anything other than a scarf is staggeringly small.  Of course the irony here is that, by making a big stink about it, Malkin and her ilk have placed the apparently dangerous idea of solidarity with Palestinians in the minds of many who otherwise would have thought nothing of Rachel Ray’s attire.

So, yes, we are laughing at you, Michelle.  Someone wears a frilly scarf and you react with histrionic pleadings for “vigilance” in a “post 9-11 America”?  This whole thing is beyond silly, and it clearly demonstrates that right-wing cheerleaders like you will soon be indistinguishable from caricatures like Stephen Colbert.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.