Common Sense Conservatism
How Michelle Malkin Got It Wrong
Although it will win me no friends, disagreement in this case is warranted, regardless of the common political thread that binds us.
In her Townhall.com blog post Wednesday, conservative commenator Michelle Malkin took TV personality Rachael Ray to task for wearing a black and white keffiyeh in an Internet Dunkin' Donuts commercial. Malkin says even the clueless should know that the keffiyeh is the murderous symbol of Palestinian terrorism and anything even remotely resembling it is worthy of exclusion by stylists and celebrities who should know better.
Bowing to her commentary, Dunkin' Donuts pulled the commercial and issued an apology to any patriotic Americans knowledgeable enough to be offended by the the poorly chosen garment. Malkin, pleased by the public mea culpa from the company and the public controversy her words created, offered her satisfied approval:
It's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists. Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness.
Malkin's accusations of Ray as an unwitting terrorist-sympathizer are as preposterous as the Salem witch hunts were in the seventeenth century. The Anti-Defamation league has an entire database dedicated to symbols of terrorism, and surprise, surprise -- the keffiyeh scarf isn't one of them.
Don't get me wrong: I get Malkin's point. She correctly points out that the keffiyeh has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since PLO leader Yasser Arafat began donning one in the '70s and '80s. It's important to mention that his had a chain-link design, not a paisley pattern like the one decorating Rachael Ray's in the controversial ad. Companies like Urban Outfitters have fanned the flames by printing anti-Israel slogans on the keffiyeh and selling t-shirts portraying young Arab men holding guns and wearing the scarf in front of the word "victim."
Although I typically don't side with liberals (and I don't in this case, either), I have to say that Malkin takes her point too far. Putting bullets or anti-Israeli language on any garment -- whether it's a scarf, a hat or even a bib -- is in poor taste and is likely to draw protest.
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Cameron Diaz Photo © Noel Vasquez/Getty Images
Rachael Ray Photo © John Medina/Getty Images
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Comments
Good article, Justin.
I like a lot of what Malkin writes, but she went off the deep end this time. Your comment about her “heart being in the right place” might be giving her too much credit…IMO there’s an undercurrent of bigotry in her overwrought comments. But one thing we can agree upon is that her head was firmly wedged where the sun don’t shine.
Malkin gets it wrong? No surprise there, that woman is a complete idiot. I remember analyzing several of her articles for a course in rhetoric last semester, and the entire class would burst out laughing going over them. She was a joke long before this issue came around.