The Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License has announced an inflammatory and misleading billboard campaign in North Carolina and New Mexico which contains negative images of Arabs and Arab cultural symbols with the message, “Don’t License Terrorists, North Carolina.� The billboard unfairly conflates the question of immigration and national security and casts a shadow of suspicion on Arabs and Muslims, unfairly equating them with terrorism and encouraging an environment that can lead to prejudice and hate crimes. In doing so, the ads utilize false stereotypes and racist rhetoric to promote an anti-immigrant agenda.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I seriously doubt that ski masks, bandanas, automatic weapons, fatigues and rocket launchers are “Arab cultural symbols.” If they are, then we’ve got serious problems that go beyond the billboard.
I’m okay with the idea of not licensing terrorists, but someone should put up a billboard next to it with pictures of Tim McVeigh and the Unabomber and keep the same caption….
Defrag said
Yea, it is pretty sad how influentual people are.
I have known many people of Arab origin.
It is truly a beautiful culture, and one man screwed it up for the rest of ya.
I am Italian, so I can relate with the whole Mussolini deal.