This hasn’t been a great week.
My pick for the Zimbabwe elections lost to a 90-year old autocrat, white nose syndrome is devastating the American bat population, and the recent attempt to defund the NSA’s domestic spying programs has failed in Congress.
And in spite of all that, I’m going to be discussing issue I’ve been wanting to take an axe to for quite some time now.
Yep- Zionism. Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Islam, morality, news, politics, race, religion, Shame Day, sports
Tagged Arab, Army, bigotry, birth control, children, Culture, Ethiopian Jews, Fascism, Fascist, hasidic, idf, Immigrants, indefinite detention, israel arab, israeli palestinian conflict, loyalty oath, middle-east, minors, mizrahi, mugabe, Nationalism, orthodox, palestine, palestinian, prison, racism, racist, reformed, religon, segregated buses, segregation, sephardic, t-shirt, tsvangarai, ultra orthodox, zimbabwe, zimbabwe elections, zionism
Over the past few weeks, this issue of cultural appropriation has exploded onto the scene, largely in reaction by the Native American community to the casting of Johnny Depp as Tonto in The Lone Ranger, though the resolution of a battle between clothing designer Paul Frank and indigenous right’s group Native Appropriations doubtlessly fueled the conversation.
Now I know you’re all saying, “Gordon, you lightning bolt of the gods made flesh, slow down a second. What on earth is a ‘Cultural Appropriation’?”
Well readers, in and of itself, the term just means the adoption of certain cultural elements by another culture. In most use, however, it’s used to describe one culture essentially taking an important symbol or tradition from another and using it for their own purposes (usually profit- surprise, surprise).
Posted in art, bizarreness, Europe, media, race
Tagged appropriation, arabic, belly dance, cultural appropriation, Culture, dance, logo, middle eastern culture, middle eastern dancing, middle-east, native appropriation, native appropriations, nicki minaj, One Direction, orientalism, paul frank, tattoo, the cleveland indians, The Lone Ranger, yin yang, Your Fave Is Problematic
Today, I’d like to do something I’ve been wanting to for a while. We’re going to go through a list of recent quotes on Arabs and Islam and replace them with the words “Jew,” “Jews,” and “Jewish.”
Most quickly springing to mind is the latest line of tripe from Anne Coulter. While you are (unfortunately) probably already familiar with some of Coulter’s statements (see: “It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact.” or “[Canada] better hope the United States doesn’t roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.”), you may not have heard Coulter’s recent assertion that the wife of one of the Boston Bombers should ““Be jailed for wearing a hijab” (right after saying “I don’t care if she knew about this [bombing]”- just so you know it’s about religion, not justice).
Posted in America, Canada, internet, Islam, language, media, morality, news, politics, religion
Tagged 1930s, 30s, America, Anne Coulter, anti-semite, anti-semitic, Arab, Arabs, Asian-American, Be jailed for wearing a hijab, blood libel, Bob Beckel, bombing, Boston, boston bomber, Canada, Christian Dior, Coulter, cutt off, Eric Bolling, FBI, Fox, germany, Givenchy, ground zero, Hijab, human-rights, Islam, jew, jewish, jews, John Gilliano, justice, manzanar, middle-east, Mosque, Muslim, Muslims, nazi, nazi germany, Olympus Has Fallen, politics, racism, racist, radical, recent quotes, Red Dawn, religion, Robert Beckel, semite, students, surveil, Synagogue, United States, US, USA, wiretap, yarmulke
First off, CISPA, passed by Congress last Friday, is headed to the floor of the Senate. If you haven’t already, get in contact with your senators and send them this message:
Now back to business.
I’ve been meaning to take a crack at this issue for a while. In fact, I’ve even tried a few times to actually write a post on it- I just couldn’t quite find the words to illustrate the problem succinctly.
Then, earlier today, I came across this image [click to open up larger in a new window]:
Posted in America, morality, news, race
Tagged Adventure Time, Africa, africa will always be poor, amaerica, Arab, Arabs, bigotry, CISPA, civil rights, conflict, developing world, drought, famine, GIF, global south, israel, israeli, Middle Eastern, middle-east, millions die no one cries, native americans, one dies millions cry, palestine, palestinian, politics, poverty, racism, rudyard kipling, segregation, Senate, shame, the middle east will always be violent, the white man's burden, third world, Violence, war, you don't eat pork i don't eat pork let's not eat pork together
I’ve made it a habit not to report on a lot of the bigger news events due to the fact that, with so many people writing about them, someone is bound to have already said what I want to, and probably much more eloquently as well. When it comes to something as thoroughly horrific as the Boston Marathon bombing, I’m even more hesitant to do so, especially because of how delicate a topic it truly is.
I write this post with a great amount of trepidation, and with the hope that I can add to the discourse that’s resulted from this tragedy.
The following image appeared in my Facebook feed this past Monday, April 15th, and I immediately shared it upon reading it. I did this as a knee-jerk reaction to the sentiment communicated, and in spite of the fact that, as a friend of mine commented, “it says it in a stupid and borderline offensive way.”
This was posted soon after the bombing, long before the third victim had passed away.
Posted in America, Canada, internet, media, morality, news, politics, religion
Tagged Africa, attention, bomb, bombing, Boston, Boston Marathon, car bomb, collectively, death, explosion, Facebook, grief, human race, humanity, Imgur, introspective, Iraq, Joker, media, media attention, middle-east, MIT, mourn, news, Sandy Hook, Shooting, Steubenville, terrorism, tragedy, war
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Culture War Reporters 
Let’s Talk About The Hijab
I could spend all day railing on the treatment of the Middle East/Arabs/Occupied Palestine/Muslims/etc. The way Arabs/Muslims are singled out for scrutiny and criticism. Casting Indian actors to play Arabs, since Arabs don’t match their own stereotype. The lack of appreciation for the key role the Middle East played in preserving and advancing science and philosophy.
You get the idea.
So rather than trying to tackle a single issue that could be (should be, and has been) covered by an entire academic book, I’m going to hit up super-specific issue.
The hijab. Continue reading →
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Posted in America, Europe, feminism, Islam, media, race, religion
Tagged Aceh, afghanistan, Africa, America, Arab, Asia, bigotry, Christopher Titus, comments, congressman todd akin, Culture, Egypt, Europe, expression, feminism, Feminist, freedom of speech, Hijab, human-rights, indian actors, Indonesia, Iran, Islam, Islamophobia, Jordan, Kevin Hart, Lebanon, Malala Yousafzai, mennonite, Middle Eastern, middle-east, misogyny, missouri congressman, modesty, no shirt no shoes no service, north america, patriarchal, patriarchy., politics, racism, racist, rape, religion, saudi arabia, secular, social standards, stubbenville, Syria, Todd Akin, trial, western, westerner, women's issues, women's rights