Do we really want our symbols co-opted before we have even reached liberation?

The other day, I was standing outside a trendy Toronto bar when a boy standing there smoking overheard me lamenting to my girlfriend about how pissed off I was that hipsters had co-opted Palestinian and Arab headscarves as a part of contemporary fashion. He agreed with me, and went further to point out that on top of the cultural faux pas, the red and white and black and white scarves could even be construed as ‘offensive’ to others.

Earlier that week a good friend of mine had informed me that she had seen Palestinian scarves on sale at a store that is equally popular as it is over priced. Later that week another friend noted that her friend had gotten an “Arabic inspired” scarf from another mainstream clothing store. This was not a straight up keffyieh, but instead was a standard scarf with the criss cross pattern all over it, and small tassles at the end.

Do these people know the story of the keffyieh? Do they know that our people use it as a shield against the desert sand, as a scarf against the Mediterranean wind? Do they know that it is now a symbol of Palestinian nationalism? Are they aware that different colors denote sympathies to different political movements? Do they know that Leila Khaled wore a red and white hattah with pride with a gun in her hands and posed for cameras with a look in her eye that said ‘we shall return even if it takes us ten thousand years’?

That boy’s agreement with me outside the bar on a snowy Toronto night that the co-optation of the hattah was despicable did nothing but enrage me. It enraged me because his reasons for being angry at the exploitation of Arab culture and Palestinian national aspirations were because my beloved keffiyeh could be “offending” someone who actually knew what it meant! Gasp! As I stood there trying not to freak out at this pale faced stranger, I took a mental toll of that moment. And I thought…

Well.
I wasn’t previously aware that to co-opt
My cultural symbols
You demand to strip them
Of their meaning
Whitewash them until they become
A commodity
For you
To show
Your friends
How relevant you can be
To society

Oh look!
An “A-rab” scarf.
Wait what’s it called?
Keffi- what? hattah?
A charming
tribal
RAG
A
Way to make a statement
Without making one at all
Because to you it’s just a scarf
With undertones just a bit risqué
Well
To me it’s part of my identity
And if I tell you
If I school you
And if I manage to OFFEND you
Then I WILL HAVE SUCCEEDED
And if I see one more hipster waving a red and white keffyieh in my face
Without being aware of the supposed disgrace
They are aligning themselves with
I will fucking punch them out.
Then take a picture
Put it on a shirt
And that ass whooping will be my contribution
To this post post post modern
Urban
Fashion
Industry.