links for 2010-05-18

"Arab Americans across metro Detroit cheered as Rima Fakih of Dearborn was crowned Miss USA tonight in Las Vegas.

"Fakih, of Lebanese descent, is believed to be the first Arab American and Muslim to become Miss USA.

"The 24-year-old brunette from Michigan beat out four blondes and 46 other women for the 2010 Miss USA title after nearly stumbling in her evening gown.

"In the interview, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should.

"Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard was first runner-up after handling a question about Arizona's new immigration law. She said she supports it."

"The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous 'Atlantic triangular trade', and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism."

"People aren’t illegal. Someone’s immigration status can be illegal. But a person can’t actually be illegal. ‘Illegal immigrant’ reinforces ideas about immigrants and immigration with which I am deeply uncomfortable. I have no doubt that many people with anti-immigration beliefs actually think that undocumented immigrants should be ‘illegal’ and I see no reason to reinforce or tacitly support that idea with my language use. As this law in Arizona shows, this country has no problem with making it very clear that some people are not welcome and that they will be ejected by any means possible."

Then I realized I had been skimming over the source of their inspiration without noticing it. My own unconscious white supremacy had kept me from recognizing what these prototypical feminists kept insisting in their writings: They caught a glimpse of the possibility of freedom because they knew women who lived liberated lives, women who had always possessed rights beyond their wildest imagination — Iroquois women.