Because this is too funny not to share.

[feuervogel]

Over on facebook, Friend A posted a link to this article with the lead in

what? we all know Persians aren't really Arabs. Duh! The Prince of Persia movie that just came out had a white guy as the lead.

Because I wasn't sure Friend A knows that Persians really aren't Arabs, I commented to that point. Then the following exchange occurred.

Friend B: I thought Persians were extinct?
Me: They're called Iranians now.
Friend B: ok...so what are dinosaurs called?
Me: Oil.

(Yes, that's a bit of a simplification and elision on my part re Iran/Persia, but it's facebook wall commentary, not the encyclopedia.)

He just *handed* me the perfect line, and I had to take it. I never bring the funny, and "Oil" has 2 likes now. I just had to record this for posterity: I had a snappy comeback.

Comments

[faithful-summer.livejournal.com]

I have a friend whose father was from Iran and mother was American. She still prefers to use the term "Persian" to describe her ancestry. I wonder if that's common.

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

I am given to understand that it is quite common, but can give no evidence whatsoever for this understanding. :P

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I remember around the late 70s early 1980s, a lot of people began using "Persian" for distance from the political upheaval and the hostage crisis. To avoid hostility here in the US. However, as I was maybe 6 I remember this very vaguely.

[feuervogel]

I can't remember what the two Iranian guys in my high school class (there were TWO! and apparently some sort of cousins...) referred to themselves as. One of them I was kind of friendly with; the other was kind of a dick.

[theinfamousj.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who is Persian ethnically. She points this out in contrast to those who are Arab but living in Iran, as there are those. According to her - and I know nothing of Iranian politics - the majority of the country are Arabs with a Persian minority.

[feuervogel]

That was not my understanding of ethnicity in Iran, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicities_in_Iran says

According to the CIA World Factbook, Iran's ethnic groups consist of: Persians 51%, Azeris 24%, Gilakis and Mazandaranis 8%, Kurds 7%, Arabs 3%, Lurs 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%.