If I'm a Foo and Foo's have always owned, sold and even killed Baz's on a whim. And their whole history, culture and law reinforces and even encourages them to do so.
And now someone tells me that my progenitors were assholes to do so. Do I have right to be legitimately offended? And if so - does this make racism ok?
I don't know. If this kind of Foo situation is analogous to racial discrimination in your mind, perhaps you haven't studied many situations of actual discrimination. There's no need for hypothetical situations, we have innumerable actual examples to choose from.
It is not just about racial discrimination. It is about balance of power in general and how that impacts what is legitimate, regarding to ones position.
There is also a certain point where combating racism transforms into fighting with ghosts.
From the original story - the Achmed and his extended family kinda fit - since people from general area of mediterran and middle east tend to pay more attention to their relatives - and so this story could also work with Giuseppe from Sicily or Zorbas the Greek, Jovo from Serbia or someone else. It's main point is hardly that muslims are scoundrels who prey on every opportunity to shaft their fellow human. You could argue that it is racist by proxy (He picked an Arab name - so it has to be racist). To me it is the same case of native American woman trying to ban Brave new World since some people in the book whose race isn't even mentioned, live in low tech reservations.
The way I see it it is a caricature. A mild one at that.
Take a look at my hypothetical scenario.
If I'm a Foo and Foo's have always owned, sold and even killed Baz's on a whim. And their whole history, culture and law reinforces and even encourages them to do so.
And now someone tells me that my progenitors were assholes to do so. Do I have right to be legitimately offended? And if so - does this make racism ok?