Muslims Need They're Own Cosby Show - They're the New Negroes

See, if I said that, I'd be called a bigot.  But I didn't say that.  Katie Couric and Chicago Tribune writer Clarence Page did.  So, you know. consider ourselves enlightened.

CBS anchor Katie Couric startled some listeners when she suggested a Muslim "Cosby Show," but the idea actually has merit. It's hard to be afraid of the people we see on TV sitcoms every week.

Such are the recent news items that led Couric in a recent year-in-review discussion to suggest a sitcom response to the "seething hatred" against Muslims.

"Maybe we need a Muslim version of 'The Cosby Show,'" she said. "I know that sounds crazy. But 'The Cosby Show' did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of things they don't understand."

Unfortunately, Couric's comment expresses something my own cynical side has noticed ever since the terrorist attacks: Muslims have become the new "Negroes," the new occupants of the bottom-rung scary-minority status long occupied by us African-Americans.

As a white man, I think I wonder how little time is left before I become the "new negroe"

Sigh.  This is enough to give me the burka blues.