Since the first group of settlers
arrived in America, the United States has inherently created a separation
between races. It first began with the
white settlers against the Native Americans; then it was African American
slaves and their white owners, which extended all the way into the 1960s before
the Civil Rights protests; and finally, America today mostly targets people of
middle-eastern descent, following acts of terrorism by Islamic extremists. However, what may be surprising is how long
racism towards Arabs has existed. Movies
that premiered in the middle of the twentieth century stereotyped Arabs as
dangerous villains similarly to how they are typecast today. One would think that depicting an entire race
of people as villainous is unjust; however, as the documentary “Reel Bad Arabs:
How Hollywood Vilifies a People” illustrates, the popular culture’s general
view of a group of people can become so imbedded in societal thinking that such
a view is no longer considered “racist” or found on false grounds. The acceptance of an erroneous view based on
a few isolated cases is extremely worrisome for humanity’s future, as it closes
people off from gaining a sense of understanding of the cultures surrounding
them.
While watching the documentary,
there were many key moments that stood out.
Initially, the comparison revealed between the manner in which Hollywood
portrays Arabs and the nature of anti-Semitic propaganda during World War II is
extremely disturbing. As Jack Valenti,
former President of the Motion Picture Association of America stated,
“Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA”. This further demonstrates the connections
between the entertainment industry and the political sphere, and the potential
for the evolution of propaganda. Could
the United States act as horrifically and tyrannically as Nazi Germany? Constant reinforcement of the image of Arabs
as the enemy could support such a ridiculous concept. Additionally, after seeing disgusting
portrayals of Arabs in countless, unrecognizable movies, I was shocked to see
the beloved Disney movie “Aladdin” also portrays middle-easterners in a
negative light. As stated in the
documentary, “Aladdin recycled the Old Hollywood stereotype of ‘Arabland’”. Why would a children’s movie feel the need to
feed into the stereotype of a people and expose that stereotype to young
children? Seemingly innocent, movies
like Aladdin contain subliminal messages that sadly, are effective at times. Moreover, the explanation of the Oklahoma
City bombing and the media outcry was extremely aggravating. While an Irish Catholic man was responsible
for the terrorist attack, the media immediately stated that the government
believed without a doubt that, “middle eastern terrorist groups” were at
fault. This divulges America’s stance
towards middle easterners and the immediate and unquestionable association
between terrorist attacks and Arabs.
Despite the fact that an Irish Catholic was the mastermind behind a
horrible occurrence, it is not the red haired and freckled Irish that must
undergo “random” extra security precautions; overwhelmingly, it is the people
that dress in traditional Arab garb and have names such as “Muhammad”. These three moments discussed in the film
gave me a new perspective on the effects of the media and entertainment
industry on society.
As mentioned earlier, these flawed
and generalized stereotypes of Arabs have existed for much of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. Movies such as
“Exodus” from 1960 and “Death Before Dishonor” from 1987 have all casually
depicted Arabs as the “bad guys” that must be defeated. When a society has been exposed to such an
illustration of a people for a long period of time, it is extremely difficult
to retract those deeply ingrained beliefs.
People primarily receive their information from the media through means
of the Internet, television, and even the cinema. Sadly, there are many people that believe
everything they see on television or at the movies, and because of this they
become ignorant to the truth. What does
that say about America as a society?
Many take what information they are given and absorb it for what it is,
no questions asked. Has society become
so intolerant of others that members of that society will not even express the
slightest bit of doubt in the way another group is portrayed? Unfortunately, that appears so. We have become a people that agrees with the
masses for fear of not being socially accepted.
That is the main reason the film industry gets away with its misleading
representation of the Arabian culture- no one wants to be the sole person to
speak out against a group much larger and much more powerful than him or her.
While I had only seen about five or
six of the films used as examples in the documentary, I recognized many others. Some of the movies I have seen include
“Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Aladdin”, “Father of the Bride 2”,
“Back to the Future” and “Rules of Engagement”.
Each of these films portrays Arabs as terrorists or a stereotyped image
of being “sleazy” or “dirty”; however, some were more visible than others. The movies based around a war conflict
obviously were much easier to pick out, but movies such as “Father of the Bride
2” and “Back to the Future” expressed a similar and equally effective idea,
just in a less apparent manner.
Unfortunately, I have fallen into the trap of the film industry and
seeing a middle-easterner as a villain has become expected. It might actually surprise me if I saw a
“war” movie and the “good guys” were NOT fighting against middle-eastern
looking “bad guys”. Upon viewing this
documentary, I have been exposed to a new perspective. You can bet that the next time I go to see a
movie in which there exists a conflict between two groups, I will pay greater
attention to the portrayal of the group the viewer is supposed to want
dead.
To conclude, as a society we must
focus less on the fiction displayed on our television screens and more so on
the truth. Is it true that several times
a group of Islamic or middle-eastern people have purposely caused tragedy on
American’s and other innocent people’s lives?
Yes. Are the actions of a
minority representative of an entire population? Absolutely not. Just because a small, Islamic extremist group
wants for death of Americans does not mean that all 1.9 billion Islamic people
of the world wish for death to Americans.
This documentary opens the eyes of its viewers whether they wish to
stubbornly hold their beliefs of Muslims or not. The facts cannot be denied and it is
ridiculous to profile all Arabs as leeches of society. It would be extremely interesting to see how
people would react if movies stopped placing Arabs into a specific mold. Popular culture has an enormous effect on the
way a person views others, as many people take depictions in movies and
telelvision as mirrors of reality. That
can be said for any stereotype- in a “high school scene”, for example, blonde
cheerleaders are normally unintelligent, the handsome jocks are popular, and the
student that wears glasses and likes science is a nerd. Once popular culture stops enforcing that a
person must fit into a certain frame based upon they way one dresses, talks, or looks,
then society will gradually adopt a similar principle and stereotypes will
become obsolete. If only.
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