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Recently, there has been a huge debate about Senator Lindsey Graham's statements (regarding the DNA test and Iran) being racist. I'm a native Iranian, but I live in South Carolina and I hear these remarks from my friends — even my American friends — that he offended the Iranian people by his statements. I read a summary of his statements here from CNN. The apparent insult was:

On Tuesday, Graham joked during an interview on "Fox & Friends" that it would be "terrible" if a DNA test revealed that he has Iranian heritage. His comment came in response to Senator Elizabeth Warren's decision to take a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry claims.

But it's still not clear to me: Is he really pointing to the Iranian people, or to the totalitarian regime of the Islamic Republic? Can someone explain to me why these comments went viral and considered racist?

Also, I can't understand why he chose Iranian people to make a joke in relation to Warren's DNA test case? Because there is no connection between Iranian people and Native Americans. I appreciate any ideas or suggestions.

Let's get academic about it. I think the term racism is often used to address a basket of discriminatory positions.

The folks over at Oxford Dictionary on Racism

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a
different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

So then we follow up with Race

Each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics.

A group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc.; an ethnic group.

So then we need to infer intent. Since it's clear the comment:

"I'll probably be Iranian. That'd be, like, terrible."

The comment definitely isn't speaking about Iranians in a positive tone or sense. I'm not going to include the rest of the exchange because the hosts on the show quickly re-contextualize his comment:

"Well, they have great people, just bad leaders," co-host Brian Kilmeade said.

That's not a re-contextualization from Mr.Graham, but from the news anchors. So now they're guiding him, in defining the meaning of his quote. Or leading him to a better answer / position.

So, he's discriminating against a people but we haven't proven one part of the accusation:

based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

We need to determine whether Mr.Graham indeed holds this value. Because he is clearly holding a very deep discriminatory attitude towards Iranians.

An interesting additional quote...

"Everything I know about the Iranians I learned at the pool room," [Graham] said. "I met a lot of liars, and I know the Iranians are lying."

However... Graham has been really solid in his defense of Islam and it's clear he comes from a well meaning position.

In terms of definitions, Mr.Graham is likely a bigot

a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices

...and it's clear Mr.Graham is "obstinately devoted" to his perception of Iranians.

Bigotry and Racism often get lumped together, so it's possible the definitions get mixed up. The accusation of Racism, is often more of an assessment of a person's openness to others, rather than some direct sense of racial superiority.

Is Graham's quote racist? Maybe not by definition. But the common use term of Racism is very complex and nuanced, and it's likely many people would consider it racist. If you replace the word Iranian with any race, it's VERY bad...

"I'll probably be Black. That'd be, like, terrible."

Or Consider....

"Everything I know about the Blacks I learned at the pool room," [Graham] said. "I met a lot of liars, and I know the Blacks are lying."

This simple word replacement really does demonstrate the intent. In my view, it's not racist by definition, but the tone is spot on.

Remember definition of race is actually quite ambiguous... and depending on your definitions of race... and racism... Mr.Graham is indeed making a racist remark.

Then there's a larger context: Elizabeth Warren released DNA tests in response to a claim Donald Trump made about her. There's an unsettling inference from Mr.Graham's joke. He's saying "If I took a test, I might discover I have DNA from a group of people I consider unfavorable." Implying, that Warren's test is a link to an "unfavorable" group of people.

Update:
Race has come up in the discussion and I need to point out that race,isn't a real scientific distinction and it's purely a fabrication of the culture. Which means, that the broad definitions of race, will often help define how the term "racism" is directed and used. Since race and racism are linked, there's a real chance, they're interconnected. Which means the application of racism is likely tightly coupled to one's perception of race (including Mr.Graham's).

To quote my source...

Science today tells us that the visible differences between peoples are accidents of history. They reflect how our ancestors dealt with sun exposure, and not much else.

Viral because it's a inappropriate stupid remark, not racist (by my definition) because "Iranian" is not a race of people.

Could Iranian-Americans be offended? - sure, because the Senator is implying that a DNA test proposing that he had some Iranian blood would be offensive to him.

The first part of his comment basically came down to something like: "Every American has at least one ancestor that makes them not truly 'white'." Meaning that Warren isn't anything special by having one Native American ancestor 150 years ago, and that it seems like 'luck' determines the 'odd' ancestor. The second part was trying to engage in self-depreciating humor, saying that with his (bad) luck, he'd take an ancestry test and find out he had an Iranian ancestor. This is only funny because he believes Iranian/Persian to be the worst possible result.

When he walked back his comment, he mentioned the Iranian government/regime was bad, not its people. But the 'joke' doesn't work if he was referring to political affiliation, not ancestry, so it's a bit confusing what he actually meant.