In a discussion of the harsh Saudi criticism of First Lady Michelle Obama for forgoing a headscarf during her visit, CNN host Carol Costello asked if Obama only faced criticism because she was African-American. (VIDEO: CNN Host Asks If Shooting Of Black Suspect By Black Cop Was Racially Motivated)
“When Laura Bush visited King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, she didn’t wear the headscarf either,” Costello noted. “But there wasn’t backlash as there is right now. Is it another thing that’s sensitive, so to speak, in Saudi Arabia, [that] Michelle Obama is African-American as well as a woman?”
Her guest, World Politics Review columnist Frida Ghitis, didn’t bite. “There’s a range of ethnic varieties in Saudi Arabia,” she pointed out. (Roughly 10% of Saudi Arabians are of African heritage.)