Veiled Criticism

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/28/7928167/michelle-obama-saudi-arabia-headscarf

An interesting piece about why criticisms of Michelle Obama's decision not to wear a head scarf are racists.

However, in coordination with the Chait piece - which is everywhere today - I have to question the use of the word "racist."

Saudis are not a race.  Even Arabs aren't really a race.  In fact, the more we discuss race from a biological point of view, the more we realize race is an artificial social construct.

It strikes me there is a poverty in the language to describe what Fisher calls racism.  It's a form of ethnocentric ignorance, but that's a mouthful.

So it's tough to conflate ethnocentric ignorance with, say, the legacy of chattel slavery or the treatment of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.  The word starts to lose its edge.