If you've been to almost any major metropolitan area recently, you've undoubtedly noticed trendy young hippies sporting rockin' checkered scarves around their necks and thought, "I wish I were that cool!" Well now you CAN be--for the low, low price of trivializing and commercializing a vibrant cultural (and national) tradition. These scarves, which are sold at, among other places, Urban Outfitters, are reproductions of the traditional Palestinian male headdress (kaffiyeh) that became symbols of the Palestinian nationalist struggle. But recently, this emblem of a distant culture has transformed into a chic badge of upper-middle-class fashion-forwardness. It's one thing to sport a gimicky trend to seemlessly blend in with the cool kids in midtown Manhattan; it's entirely different to cheapen the meaning and value of a cultural and political legacy that will, rest assured, outlive any cover of Vogue.
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