From an Arab-American: I found it racist and offensive.
Anyone who says "Achmed" is probably saying something racist, because "Achmed" isn’t even an Arabic name. "Ahmad" is.
Anyone who says "Achmed" is probably saying something racist, because "Achmed" isn’t even an Arabic name. "Ahmad" is.
I've noticed that getting offended about stereotypes and word choice is a very American thing to do – and also shared with other cosmopolitan English-speaking areas. For most groups X, "X-Americans" are more likely to take offense than plain X. So you may see foreigners speaking about stereotypes – those applying to their own groups or others, in jest or debate – with a level of frankness that triggers the 'racist! must! object!' reaction in acculturated Americans/anglophones. Of course, YMMV.
Well then, I can't possibly see how that's different from a proportionally small group of Arabs in English-speaking countries being generalized about, made fun of, or being reduced to caricatures by the much larger non-Arab population -- who then accept and act upon those stereotypes when they interact with Arabs (or people resembling).
Sir, have you documented your observations? The world of sociology will surely be shaken by this!
I've noticed this most strongly where X is drawn from {Spanish-speaking countries, anywhere in Asia, Russia}. I don't have enough data points to be sure how still-native Arabs treat stereotypes and non-politically-correct word choices. (I have a hunch they are relatively thick-skinned, plain-speaking, and don't have the same stereotyping/language taboos as Americans/anglophones have, but I could be wrong.)
Yes, having experienced discrimination as a minority immigrant community in the English-speaking world would be one plausible explanation for greater sensitivity among X-Americans than native-X. As would now being in a culture that assigns greater deference to those expressing 'group offense'. It's overdetermined!
It would make an interesting sociological study!
There are lots of reasons why someone might call himself or herself a hyphenated American. I called myself an Arab-American to establish bona fides for my confident statement that Achmed is not a name, nothing more. You don’t actually know anything about me because I said I’m an Arab-American. That might mean I’m culturally American, culturally Arab, some mix of varying degrees of the two, or even fully both. I may simultaneously consider myself fully Arab and better at being American than most 10th-generation Americans. Who are you to say different?
What is the point, anyway? So what if my opinion of this speech is determined by where I grew up? The tasteless racist caricature I’m criticizing is what it is and would be that whether I even existed or not.
If that wasn't clear from the generic wording of my first comment, it should have been clear from the second, where I clarified this is an observation over many nationalities (unrelated to you and your declared identity), and that one contributor to this "offense gradient" could be that it is a reasonable reaction to discrimination faced as a minority.
The point is that I find it interesting how much the tendency to take offense over racial/national stereotypes varies by culture/language, and that the American/anglophone culture seems most likely to take (or worry about giving) offense. This is an observation independent of any judgement about the right level of offense.
(And while it would be interesting to further understand these cultural differences, my quip about a study was a mock-serious response to the parent's sarcasm.)