Again, the change was made (‘To be fair’ became ‘In this instance’) for purposes of clarity. The original sentence was being misunderstood (case in point that anyone would think I was being condescending).

bonty- you know very little about me or my family… if you knew more I think you’d be singing a different tune. I guess that doesn’t really matter though.

It’s the title that this debate centers on. The title is ironic. She was called a towelhead in school and teased by her classmates for being Arab. To me, that’s the most interesting part of all of this — the title and the fight over it speaks to the lack of understanding of identity constructions in a country living under white supremacy.

So, only whites call Arabs “towelhead”, eh? Or is it more likely that it is only politically correct to accuse whites and whites only of racism? Aren’t you engaging in the same kind of shallow surface analysis that you complain about? Whites are probably the least racist ethnic group in the United States. You don’t have to look very closely to see the truth of that. Hang out at any ethnically mixed high school for a day or two. And be sure to find out what people are really saying in Spanish, Cantonese, Arabic or whatever.

The only change that has been brought to light is laid out by Bonty above in the comments, 8/28/08 4:46:00 PDT – hope that helps.

There should be a rule that bloggers follow for some common courtesy: please don’t change or modify a post if people have already commented on those things you want to change. (In other words, change those things you wish you hadn’t written).

If you’re going to make such major changes (if they’ve been referenced and debated, they are major), then please note it somewhere on the post as a courtesy.

I can’t follow anything that has just been said here in the comments.

You may not have noticed, but it isn’t me that’s hung up on the author’s identity – it was you. I only discussed it because I thought it was amusing that you would criticize the post for speculating about how the author’s experiences with her father might affect her attitude toward Arabs, and then do some armchair psychology of your own about bi-racial children.

I certainly agree that the debate is about the title, which is why I think it’s so funny that you keep pressing this irony issue – the poster obviously wasn’t offended by the title. His point, which perhaps you didn’t grasp, was that the controversy over the title demonstrates the degree to which Arab Americans have not been assimilated into our culture, and thus are more likely to be viewed externally, as the subject of inquiry, as opposed to acting internally as creators of their own unique story. Hence the post’s reference to the casting of an Indian-American actress to play the protagonist: this would be much less likely to happen if Arabs had a voice in Hollywood.

You’re reading the tea leaves even more when you say that the post was being nationalistic, or even uninteresting, in discussing the author’s half-Arab background. The point was obviously not to say that a half-Arab can’t comment meaningfully. It was to note, descriptively, that such a person faces the added difficulty of having even less immersion in an alien culture, and might have more difficulty forming a view about that culture. I find that to be quite an interesting point, and I think you’re reading the tea leaves to facilitate your idea that somehow, the post is endorsing the view that half-Arabs (or half-Anythings) have nothing to contribute.

It may be fun to adopt an extreme, unreasonable interpretation of one phrase in a post and proceed to use it to lambast the whole thing as “MSNBC”. Unfortunately, it’s not productive for anyone else actually trying, in good faith, to understand the point of the post. No big deal though…perhaps we’ll agree the next time around.

He was writing about something that he knew nothing about. Simply reporting MSNBC or Fox News style, which is always a waste of time to listen to, not in the very least because of the lack of any analysis and inability to say anything by the time we’re all done.

I don’t understand why you’re hung up on the author’s upbringing, which seems to be trying to say that she has no credibility on having Arab identity. Many Arabs in the U.S. were often seen as “white” and were labeled as such until 9-11 when the difference was constructed.

It’s the title that this debate centers on. The title is ironic. She was called a towelhead in school and teased by her classmates for being Arab. To me, that’s the most interesting part of all of this — the title and the fight over it speaks to the lack of understanding of identity constructions in a country living under white supremacy.

This post (and especially in its original form) was not only boring but uninteresting. Again — MSNBC-style. Zero analysis along with that Liberal need to be “balanced” (eg. “to be fair…. she’s only half-Egyptian”) What does that have to do with anything? That’s where the author thought the debate should revolve? On what counts as Arab? On what counts as a category? Hasn’t that been the overarching problem all along?

It seems to me we need to get over this type of thinking ourselves before asking others to do it. Many “Arabs” didn’t seem to have a problem with these sortings when they thought of themselves as white. I would argue that many of us still don’t care about other injustices that have nothing to do with Arabs, Islam, or the Middle East.