DID YOU KNOW the country name “Iran” is the same word as “Aryan”, chosen specifically for that reason in the aftermath of WWI when whiteness was hot, Ataturk all “instead of Islam, modernity!” and the Japanese still printing cartoons where their upright Prussian-uniformed palefaces triumphed over the yellow slant-eyed Russians?

DID YOU KNOW if you call an Iranian expat “Iranian” today they won’t correct you but WILL find an excuse to pointedly call themselves “Persian” in the next 40 seconds?