Over the last 24 hours I have not been able to stop thinking about these two images which are about a decade apart. One of these is @rachaelray and the other is @RepRashida Here’s why: 
@rachaelray @RepRashida Just over a decade ago @rachaelray appeared in a commercial for @dunkindonuts iced coffee sporting the scarf in the image. After it aired, Dunkin Donuts was attacked by right-wingers in the blogosphere (this is a thing that existed before twitter)
These right-wing, islamophobic voices claimed Ray was wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh and that by including it in their ad, Dunkin Donuts was messaging support for terrorism. They threatened to ...get this ...boycott.
Dunkin Donuts caved in the most cowardly way. They said it wasn’t a kaffiyeh or meant to be (even though the kaffiyeh was growing in popularity both in fashion & pop culture) and they pulled the ad lest anyone get the wrong message and think it might be.
huffpost.com/entry/dunkin-d…
huffpost.com/entry/dunkin-d…
Just for the record, @dunkindonuts , that move was weaker than your coffee, and that’s pretty weak.
@dunkindonuts Fast forward a decade later. The first Palestinian-American woman is elected to Congress. Yesterday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib gave a speech on the floor of Congress wearing a kaffiyeh over her shoulders, speaking boldly and proudly about Palestinian rights.
For years, we Palestinians have faced efforts to erase us, physically from our land, from the history books and from the realm of culture. This racist and islamophobic effort is aimed at silencing us and making everything about us off limits for discussion.
You can not take our food and our fashion and discard our humanity but yet they try.
The reason they do this is to make you think we are less than human, because if we are less than human we don’t deserve human rights and thus all criticism of Israel’s human rights abuses against us Palestinians can disappear.
This is a message to the haters and racists and it should be heard loud and clear:
We, Palestinians, are not going anywhere. We will not let you erase, disparage, distort and lie about us, our culture, our symbols or our rights. And you will hear this message on the floor of Congress and beyond. Until. We. Are. Free.
