For the past few months I have seen a very noticeable up-tick in the amount of Arab keffiyehs being worn, especially the white and black style worn by so many Palestinians. While there are tons of Europeans walking the streets of NYC these days due to the weak dollar (and Europeans tend to support the Palestinian cause much more than Americans), that doesn’t totally explain the phenomenon.
It turns out that one of “the” fashion looks this season is to wear a scarf around your neck in a fashion that will make you look to many people either like a Palestinian, a Terrorist, or potentially both. Rachel Ray wore one of these scarves in a Dunkin Donuts ad and now there are lots people who now think that both Rachel Ray and Dunkin Donuts support terrorists.

I know one could consider “Don’t Mess with the Zohan” the first “Terrorist comedy” but does this scarf / keffiyeh look make terrorism “the new black” of the fashion world? And if so, more importantly, why is this cool?
UPDATED ON 5/29: DD has pulled the ad and Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East, said “complaints about the scarf’s use in the ad demonstrate misunderstandings of Arab culture and the multiple meanings that symbols can take on depending on someone’s perspective” and “to reduce their meaning to support for terrorism has a tacit racist tone to it.”
As “Avenue Q” sang, everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes. Did I just prove that point? I’m not so sure. I feel pretty strongly that at least in the West, for whatever reason, if you see a keffiyeh, you think of not so good things…
Via Jessie