Thanks for your decency.

Maybe I was kinda lucky. In high school, we had a small Muslim population. Starting early, I had classes with Muslim girls who always wore their veil. Later, they were given the choice to cover their entire face or not. By senior year of high school, our prom king and queen were Samiyah Muhamin and Majahid Abdulhaaq. And this was in little ol' York, Pa. Now, living in the South, I wish many of the kids had the same opportunity to experience that kind of diversity at school.

Things haven't changed, Dean. During WWII, a lot of guys in the gun crew, especially from the deep south, had a derogatory name for the people of almost every country we visited, and the further east we went along the African coast to the Suez and up into the Persian Gulf, the more derisive they were.

And among the Allies, the Sikhs were known to be fearless in battle and damned good men to have on your side in both WWI and WWII. If there's one thing they're not, it's ragheads.

We can't toss our allies aside because of our own ignorance; the enemy were an amalgamation of men from different countries who joined a force called Al Quaeda. Let's not alienate those who have no grievance with us!

Guess I should have written, "the enemy now are an amalgamation"

Thanks. It was starting to get really annoying.

Nice going Dean! What bothers me is that often such request have to come from "our own"(in this case, an American) for them to have effect.

If the same request was made by a sikh or an arab I'm not so sure if the comments board would have had so few entries.

Anyway it's good to see bloggers who (try to) keep their blogs free of intolerance.

Being here in Iraq I have learned that these things they wear on their heads are not rags or towels but, little sheets. So for now on please only refer to them as little sheet heads.

Thanks

Ranger Joe

You know Dean, the killing of 3000 innocent civilians might annoy a few people too. But we have to be PC to the end right?

"Raghead" and "Towelhead" aren't the nicest terms (I don't use either). but it's sure better than what Jews are called in the mainstream Arab press.

My buddy Sal, from Beirut, didn't bomb anybody, and when I asked him what "Al Qaeda" meant, he said it meant "motherfucking shitbags."

Aside from the occasional joke between friends, I don't particularly like to see stereotyping language slung at anyone.

"Never let someone else's stupidity serve as an excuse for your own."

Best advice I ever got.

I suppose this means that you don't like "sand nigger" either.

"Raghead" won't win any points for sensitivity or respect, but it has the virtue of being obvious and thus helps to communicate with the ignorant. Not everyone would recognize a Sikh, but they can all spot the turbans.

How about "wog"?

Jesus, Bowen! Do you have to push the envelope? Crikey. I got better things to do than run around policing people's language, but I'm asking people to mind their manners when they're on my turf, okay?

I'll make one exception: referring to the French as "frogs" is allowed. I have French ancestors and I hereby officially deem "frog" acceptable in Dean's World.

"Limey" and "Yank" will also be allowed without much flutter. For "wog," you'd better be making a joke. It better be a good one, too.

If I see anyone call anyone else a "spoozledorf," though, then the gloves come off.

Now, please just use common sense, okay?

"Spoozledorf"?

That's it, you're banned.

;-)

I thought that was a trick.

It's an acronym. Here's a clue. The first two words are Some People, the next to last one is Rotten, and the last one should be obvious.

Those aren't towels, or rags on their heads. Those are little sheets. You guess the name...

Just kidding; I thought I was funny. If you are offended, all I can say is 'oh, well.'

I prefer the term SANDNIGGER over raghead