I have some concerns about what appears to be a recurring column in the Great Neck Record, entitled “Chronicles of a Persian Mom.”
Candidly, I am conflicted. On the one hand, the paper, under your tenure, makes an admirable effort to do commendable outreach to a broad cross section of the Great Neck community. I am pleased by your coverage of these.
On the other hand, I am concerned that the cheeky tone of this particular column may go right over the heads of some readers and only serve to underscore untoward generalizations and stereotypes about the Persian community in Great Neck.
All caveats about the author’s freedom of speech, the subjectivity of narrators, what makes a writer Persian or Chinese or Indian, or whatever, aside, I do have to ask why this week’s installment (“Chronicles of a Persian Mom: Summer’s Finale,” Aug. 31–Sept. 6) featured a prominent pullout quotation, in large font italics, which I can only hope the author wrote with her tongue in her cheek, but still left this reader’s face red: “Actually, if you are Persian, skip the picnic. There will be too much food for you to carry back and forth.”
C’mon! I, for one, love me a picnic!!!
—Rebecca Yousefzadeh Sassouni
