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Battling Hollywood Bad Arabs
It was a cartoon program Jack Shaheen's children watched on Saturdays during the 1970s that opened his eyes to the way Arabs and Muslims are vilified in Hollywood.
"My roots were always important to me, but I guess they started surfacing when I saw these ugly Arab characters surfacing on TV," Shaheen, an internationally acclaimed author and media critic, told the Detroit Free Press on Sunday, March 23.
Shaheen, the son of Christian Lebanese immigrants, was alarmed by the negative images of Arabs and Muslims in the media years before the 9/11 attacks.
His fears were that such programs would have a damaging influence on public perception, including his own children.
Shaheen and his kids joined hands to do something about that.
"Anytime they saw a cartoon talking about ugly Arabs about to do damage to something, their job was to tell me," he recalled.
"Then I began watching the shows with them and started writing about it.
"By day, I was a journalism professor and then at night, I would go and do research on this particular area."
When academic quarterlies turned down his very first articles about media stereotyping of Arabs, Shaheen decided to publish them in a book.
Since then, he has written four books and a produced documentary.
Shaheen has also conducted communication seminars throughout the Middle East and given more than 1,000 lectures in and outside the US.
In his book, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, he offers a comprehensive study of nearly one thousand films.
Only a dismal six to seven percent could be considered positive or non-offensive towards Arabs.
"It's hard, because once we begin to get a fixed image of a people or a faith in our minds, it's difficult to shake."
Old Trick
Shaheen believes stereotyping minorities has always been there in the American society.
"When I grew up, it was Native Americans. Blacks. We had the red scare with Communists," he recalled.
"So we have all of these formulas from the past that sort of make their way to the present."
Through years of research, he found certain aspects and traits always attached to whatever group denigrated by Hollywood.
"In order for a stereotype to be successful, they can't be like us.
More
Shaheen, the son of Christian Lebanese immigrants, was alarmed by the negative images of Arabs and Muslims in the media years before the 9/11 attacks.
His fears were that such programs would have a damaging influence on public perception, including his own children.
Shaheen and his kids joined hands to do something about that.
"Anytime they saw a cartoon talking about ugly Arabs about to do damage to something, their job was to tell me," he recalled.
"Then I began watching the shows with them and started writing about it.
"By day, I was a journalism professor and then at night, I would go and do research on this particular area."
When academic quarterlies turned down his very first articles about media stereotyping of Arabs, Shaheen decided to publish them in a book.
Since then, he has written four books and a produced documentary.
Shaheen has also conducted communication seminars throughout the Middle East and given more than 1,000 lectures in and outside the US.
In his book, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, he offers a comprehensive study of nearly one thousand films.
Only a dismal six to seven percent could be considered positive or non-offensive towards Arabs.
"It's hard, because once we begin to get a fixed image of a people or a faith in our minds, it's difficult to shake."
Old Trick
Shaheen believes stereotyping minorities has always been there in the American society.
"When I grew up, it was Native Americans. Blacks. We had the red scare with Communists," he recalled.
"So we have all of these formulas from the past that sort of make their way to the present."
Through years of research, he found certain aspects and traits always attached to whatever group denigrated by Hollywood.
"In order for a stereotype to be successful, they can't be like us.
More
For more information:
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