Transcript [00:00] Do you remember when this, this, or this [00:02] would get you canceled? For years we [00:04] warned against cultural appropriation, [00:06] taking something from another culture, [00:08] stripping it of its history, and turning [00:10] it into a costume. Apparently except [00:12] when it looks like this, this, and this. [00:15] Suddenly it's solidarity, which is [00:17] pretty convenient because the keffiyeh [00:18] isn't just a neck accessory invented by [00:20] Western pro-Palestine activists for [00:22] their weekly drum circle. It's a [00:24] traditional Arab headscarf with roots [00:26] going back centuries across the Middle [00:28] East. The name itself is believed to [00:29] come from Kufa, Iraq. The black and [00:31] white version only became associated [00:33] with Palestinian nationalism and then [00:35] terrorism decades later. During the [00:37] violent Arab revolt in the 1930s, [00:40] terrorists wore keffiyehs to conceal [00:41] their identities. Other men were [00:43] encouraged to wear them to camouflage [00:45] the fighters. Sound familiar? Then came [00:47] Yasser Arafat, the fedayeen, and other [00:49] terrorists like PFLP hijacker Leila [00:51] Khaled, who helped turn the black and [00:52] white keffiyeh into the extremist symbol [00:54] we recognize today. Since then, the [00:56] keffiyeh has been long associated with [00:58] movements responsible for terrorism, [01:00] killings, and hostility. So just to [01:01] recap, taking another culture's [01:03] hairstyle, appropriation. Wearing [01:05] another culture's traditional clothing [01:06] as a costume, appropriation. But taking [01:09] a Middle Eastern garment, turning it [01:10] into the uniform of a Western political [01:12] movement, and wearing it to anti-Israel [01:14] protests, Palestinian solidarity and [01:16] allyship. Western activists love to call [01:18] Israelis colonizers while wrapping [01:20] themselves in a culture that isn't [01:22] theirs. But here's the conversation [01:23] you're not ready for. Taking someone [01:25] else's history, commercializing it, and [01:27] turning it into a fashion statement, [01:29] there's a word for that, colonialism.
For years, wearing another culture’s clothing as a costume was condemned as cultural appropriation.
But when Western activists wear keffiyehs at anti-Israel protests, it’s celebrated as “solidarity.”
So why does the rule suddenly change?
The same activists calling Israelis “colonizers” are turning a traditional Middle Eastern garment into the uniform of a Western political movement.
Funny how cultural appropriation stops being a problem when Israel is involved.
