Arabs According to Media

In the documentary Reel Bad Arabs, Dr. Jack Shaheen demonstrates just how the Muslim culture is negatively portrayed in Hollywood movies. Of the entire showing, three things truly stood out to me that I would have never thought about before. Although I have never seen the movie Rules of Engagement, I knew it was a military movie. I also had no idea that the former Secretary of the Navy was the main screenwriter for the film. In it, Samuel L. Jackson leads an elite Marine squadron into an embassy grounds to escort the United States Ambassador into Yemen. When told to open fire, Samuel L. Jackson’s squad ends up gunning down and killing at least 83 Yemen civilians who are protesting and what seems to be rioting. He is initially viewed as radical for killing so many people but at the end of the movie, or at least later in the film it is discovered that in fact the Yemenites had been the ones who had opened fire first and after being gunned down, the Marines’ efforts were applauded, supported, and even praised. It really surprised me how the movie called for the natives of Yemen to be the attackers and be viewed as the enemies instead of the Americans who were initially thought to have been the ones who fired first. This difference of respect and admiration for each group from both sides was rather eye-opening to see how the Arabs were portrayed as the negative ones.

Another part of the documentary that surprised me was the information about the Oklahoma City bombing. Although I was alive, I was only a year old and thus have no recollection of the event taking place; however I did hear about it and knew that a white, United States citizen was the perpetrator. What surprised me most about this is that according to the news at the time, Middle Easterners were to blame. Investigators of the scene even hired ten Arabic speakers to try and get as much information as they could. I was so shocked because after discovering who the true criminal was, the media and America was truly convinced that it was Arabs who were solely responsible.

Lastly, when the newsreels and television clips came up depicting Islam as a horrible religion, I could believe what I was hearing. As preachers of different religions were preaching, they sounded so ridiculous in the mannerisms they exhibited as they were judging an entirely other religion based off of the foundation of opinion. I’ve always found the idea of argument and debate to be so unreliable and biased. The entire basis of any argument is structured around differing opinions and cannot be surpassed by another opinion due to the personal connection one might hold to it.

I think one reason the American film industry might be so arrogant towards Arabs has to do with how they have been viewed since we were first at war with them during the Arab-Israeli conflict in the late twentieth century. During this conflict we had originally sided with the Israelis and thus viewed the Arab as the enemies. The idea of perspective is something that would come into play in this scenario, as with just about any war. We fought the Arabs and thus viewed them as the savages and scoundrels that are depicted in media and films. During this time, the Arabs may have viewed America as the enemy and could have made films depicting us or Israelis as the primitive and sickening human beings. Not only did films depict them in a negative, Palestinians were mostly completely dehumanized in films due to being enemies during wartime. This poor representation of who Arabs are and what their culture is is what has brought us to the stereotypical society we are now. We now view mostly any Arab as being threatening or risky to be around because we have always seen them as going against the Americans. This leads us to draw incorrect and extreme conclusions about whole cultures. Such is the primary factor in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City. Although tragic, the actions of nineteen men should not be how we judge and entire race of about 1.3 million.

During the documentary and the movie clips presented, I recognized four films: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Aladdin, and Ernest in the Army. Most of these films are or were intended for a full family audience due to harmless and even comedic storylines. However, after viewing them in light of Reel Bad Arabs, I can now say that I am thoroughly surprised that Arabs were used as the bad guys, so to speak, or portrayed negatively. Aladdin probably surprised me the most in that it was a film made by a generically family-friendly company and yet portrayed Arabs as dirty and frightening. I think this mindset could be what taught some children to grow up and mature with the negative values and morals they learned as a child.

I think this documentary showed and exemplified how as a culture we can easily be influenced by the media – news and film in particular. As discussed, an entire culture, society, and system of beliefs is still judged based on what we have seen displayed on our televisions. In addition, we can be very sensitive and easy to persuade as a whole community. People implore one opinion or view of Arabs and next thing, it becomes the common thought. Similar to the Dixie Chicks’ situation, dissent would be viewed as siding with the terrorists, who just so happened to be Arab. The same idea can be applied to the general opinion of even a person: if a selection of people thought the Oklahoma City bomber was quiet and reserved, then that is probably what the common opinion would be.