Bahar Ostadan begins her article The particular culture shock of a New York City corporate office with the following words,
As someone who passes as white, I’ve observed unrestricted xenophobia in the conference room, the office kitchen and the sports bar down the blockafter that sub-head she lets us know how much better she feels in a middle of the current Algerian revolution.
A few paragraphs later, the lass tells us she is an Iranian-American.
Her screed is the usual I'm cool because I am not white and therefore so aware of the foibles of the people who are lucky enough to surround me.
Except, she displays a glaring lack of self-awareness.
First, she describes herself as "someone who passes as white," and is thus a Person of Color.
Second, is her identity as an Iranian-American.
So she tells us what she has in common with Rosa Parks and something she shares with Adolph Hitler.
Iran and Aryan mean essentially the same thing and at the time of Cyrus the Great Persians were about as uber white as you could get. But, that was then, this is now and white is so not cool. At the end of the day, this is the narrative du jour and who knows what it will be in ten years?
I can understand why Persians might resent the US. The overthrow of Mosaddegh and backing of the Shah were not events that covered our country in glory. Maybe she prefers the current regime, but lives here because she loves being around boring incurious co-workers. I will give her that to a point, but, heck. there are a lot of countries out there. Other than nerds like moi, we can't be interested in all of them.
That Bahar revolts in Algeria and works in Manhattan does make her interesting, but not overly so. Trying to get minority points is so boring.
