Role of Hollywood in
vilifying the Arabs and Muslims
After watching the video ‘Reel Bad Arabs : How Hollywood Vilifies a
People’ of Dr. Jack Shaheen
on his book by the same title and reading the assigned
materials I’ve learned a lot about the real Arabs, their origin and had a sneak into their history. Edward Said’s
take on ‘Orientalism’ was also an eye opener
for me. For the first time, I started questioning: to what extent has everything I watch, hear/listen to or read,
maneuvered my opinion about the Arab and the Muslim. I felt like a robot in a
huge world factory, who is fed data to believe and act in a particular way.
Both Said
and Shaheen touch on the ways Hollywood and
the media paint a villainous picture of the Muslim communities, particularly
those from the Middle East. Both argue that Hollywood has vilified the Arabs
for long and instilled Islamophobia in our psyche. Never have I ever watched a
movie that shows Arab as a peace loving, affable person. Whenever I see a
Muslim wearing his white attire and a hat in the subway, subconsciously a chill
runs down my spine. My fear intensifies if he is carrying a bag. I am consumed
by the thought that it is better if he gets off at the next station and that he
doesnot leave the bag. After learning that my mental image of that innocent
person could be simply a stereotype perpetuated by Hollywood and other sources,
makes me sick to my bones and I’m disgusted about my own thoughts.
Cinema is
not only for entertainment, most movies
also carry socio-political messages that can revolutionize a society. It is
easy to see how movies have projected Arabs as barbaric people, how they are
the Others and deserve to die. Their popular representation is no different
than Nazis. Generation after generation we have been told that these
communities are perpetrators of horrific acts. Arab men are rich, heartless
people who mistreat women, they hijack
planes, terriorize people, they are suicide bombers,etc. This is the immediate
image that comes to mind when most people think of Muslims or MiddleEasterners.
On the
other hand, Hollywood and the White House and eventually the Parliament House
in Ottowa are connected. Such fear
mongering and cultivation of hatred for the Orients among the West by the Big
screen has impacted several policies that are discriminatory towards these
specific groups of people. Just consuming the one sided perception demonize
Muslims and cause consequent racialization and othering of their communities. Kids
who grow up watching such racially profiled movies grow up to be racist policy
makers, workers and neighbors. As a result, Muslims witness discrimination,
stigmatization of their religion and violent confrontation in the society. Post
9/11, it has become even more prominent.
So far, Muslim or Middle Eastern people have
been represented in the Western World as violent and most likely to be involved
in acts of terrorism. As a result, Middle Eastern Muslim population has to put more effort to redefine
themselves as equally human if not better than rest of the people in the world.
There have been handful of movies which paint the real picture of these people
and some Arabs are trying to correct this misrepresentation through their
books, comedy skits.
In the
age of technology, there is no limit of
resources we can access to educate ourselves and break the stereotyping
of not only Muslims but the Others in our society. It is upto us to stand up
against fabrication of facts that weaves this faulty dehumanization of specific
groups of people. We can boycott such racially profilling movies and initiate
talks among our family members and peers so that moving forward no kid inherits
racialization.
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