Karl (and some others) used to write about communist chic: clothing (etc) that bore USSR-era logos and political images popular among college students and cold-war style decorators. T-shirts bearing Che or Mao, belt buckles with the hammer and sickle, or even just red-star baseball caps (although these can also refer to the Lone Star Saloon in San Francisco). It’s odd to deck oneself out in the symbols of a regime that killed more people than ten Nazi Holocausts.
It’s in that light that I veiw the current “anti-war” scarf trend. But Mobius takes it quite a bit further, noting the differences between simple support and out-and-out corporate-sponsored cultural theft. I’ve confessed here (to Michael, among others) that I’m a cultural pirate, but I rarely make a profit off of it.
Whether black and white or pink and green, this is an act of cultural appropriation made with the sole intent of turning a profit. I would much rather see Palestinian women manufacturing and selling funky-colored keffiyehs, and in turn feeding their suffering families with the proceeds, than see the director of Urban Outfitters — who mind you, is a major financial contributor to the GOP — profit from the theft of Palestinian culture.
I love that last bit - the nation’s “hip” store (like most other capitalist ventures) would rather support the counter-revolution with its charity. Mmm. College kids like revolution? Let’s sell it to them!
Full disclosure: 25 years ago I got three scarves in NYC - counting one that I got as a Christmas gift from Mary Z. I’ve still got two of ‘em. The best, from Mary, is nearly all black, about 7 or 8 feet long and, at the widest, it’s about 2.5 or 3 feet. It’s very light, it’s very warm and it’s suitable to use as a table runner, an altar cloth (if one is Wiccan), a kilt replacement or, as Mary proved, a very fasionable wrap-around skirt. This was a very expensive scarf. But as gifts go, it was long-lasting.
The other two scarves - costing me $5 each - were keffiyahs purchased from a Middle Eastern gentleman who was running a street-side stand of the sort that sold scarves and gloves in the winter and “I <3 NY” t-shirts in the summer. If memory serves, the stand was on the corner of Christopher Street and Seventh Ave, next to a pizza place that cut through the block and the famous Village Cigars. I used to wear them in the not-so-cold parts of winter in NYC - reserving the warmer all-black for the serious deep freeze. Only one person ever said anything to me about the keffiyahs - and that was my boss: 815 Second Ave, where I worked for nearly 10 years, was across the street from the Israeli Embassy. We saw many many protestors wearing them. I didn’t need to be accidentally linked to such people coming to work daily, especially during the First Bush War. They were retired to altar cloths and eventually became too enfused with incense powder and wax to be used for anythign else. In 25 years I’ve lost one: the more traditional black-and-white one. But I still have the red, black and white one. It still hangs in the icon corner in the living room.
Often, the same upper class and pampered students who sported these expensive pieces of (what Tom Wolfe might call “radical chic”) clothing would be the same ones pontificating in class about “capitalist hegemony” and the “exploitation of labor” etc….the irony never seemed to strike anyone but me, I suppose.
And, I must say, that scarf in your icon corner is very nice.
I bought mine from a vendor in تدمر. I assumed that I overpaid for them since I was clearly a tourist, but when I showed my purchases to my Syrian friend the next day, he was impressed both with the quality of the scarf and the price that I paid.
That being said, I have yet to wear it. I’m wary of that whole cultural appropriation thing. Perhaps the next time I try visiting the Excited States of America I should drape it over my shoulders. Or not.
Karl - wonderful to hear from you! I hope all is going well. You’re right about the upper classes: the ones at my Alma Mater being a good example. I’ve tried telling folks over and over, if you can own a house pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area, you’re in a VERY different class than I.
Peter - being in the states, we have two types of culture: American-made-in-China and Other. I wonder how the keffiyeh would go with my new beard?