Watching “Reel Bad Arabs” helped me come to a very real realization: Though it often goes unnoticed, deliberate racism in popular Hollywood movies portrays the Arab race very negatively, and has elicited numerous stereotypes. What’s startling is how early on these stereotypes are taught to children. Among the most famous Disney movies is the story of “Aladdin.” In Aladdin, the Arabs are portrayed as evil villains in search of higher power. Children are trained to view Middle Eastern people as the “Bad Guys” of the world. The use of stereotypes and racism is evident in Aladdin and many other films as well. Even other family films like “Back to the Future,” depict Arabs as problem causers and destructive. In the movie, Michael Fox’s character yells in panic because the “Libyans” are coming. The so called Libyans proceed to shoot at the “good guys” in the film, and end up killing the Doc. I am amazed that I have seen so many of the movies mentioned in the Documentary, yet I still never even thought about the message that was being sent regarding a whole race of people. The title of the documentary says it all, Hollywood Vilifies a People, and “Reel Bad Arabs” does not do the Middle Eastern people justice in personifying their people.
The American Film industry may be so cavalier toward the situation because it is not brought up very frequently. The census of 2000 revealed that only 0.42% of Americas population were Arab. With such an insignificant number of Arabs in America, film makers do not fear portraying Arabs negatively because threat of protest is not prominent. However, these films still have socio-political consequences for highlighting Arab culture negatively. Kids learn from a young age that the Arab people are the villains, the terrorists, or even simply arrogant goofy and naïve. These images stick with us as toddlers because we don’t know better.
I was surprised to find how many movies mentioned in the documentary I Had actually seen. Many big name movies were mentioned, including films that have been viewed by a majority of Americans. It was amazing how blatantly racist these films were when I truly paid attention. It is hard to believe that I missed it the first time, and how different my reaction was the second time. I couldn’t believe what the Arab characters did. At one point in the documentary, an actor talks about his experience in auditioning for Arab roles. He goes on to recall that he was joking about the character he was auditioning for and sort of making fun of the part. His mockingly silly Arab mindset actually ended up getting him the role. This just shows how crazy the film industry can be.
Even in real life, racism toward people of Arab descent is evident. Back in High School, I had a girlfriend who was half Iraqi. She did not have to cover her head or anything of that sort she looked like everyone else. Still, when classmates learned about her background they would ask ignorant questions like, “Did your relatives kill people?” or make ridiculous statements like “thanks for 9/11.” She never cared that people made these judgments based on her background, but it just goes to show how people see middle eastern people as a whole.
There is a lot to be learned after watching “Reel Bad Arabs.” Popular culture has the power to shape conceptions of self by introducing adults and children to a falsified version of an actual people. In other words, how a type of people is portrayed in film, is often how the audience of such films will portray that type of people in reality, even though film makers use stereotypes and assumptions in developing their characters. Therefore, the conceptions that films shape are often misleading and can harm ones understanding of people. The fact that film and media can get away with doing so just shows how powerful and influential their products are.
At one point in the documentary, Jack Shaheen, author of “Reel Bad Arabs” talks about how if any other race or religion was treated like Arabs in film, it would not be tolerated. The more I thought about this the more I realized how true it was. If it were any other type of people, a filmmaker would be ridiculed for being a racist or anti-Semite. But why should the reaction toward Arabs be any different? It shouldn’t.
To summarize, while there have been, and still are, Arab bad guys and terrorists, there is no reason to overlook the rest of the Arab population who are regular people. Hollywood and the movie industry have taught us the wrong things about the Arab people. Perhaps it is not even intentional, but we begin to learn the stereotypes as toddlers. And sadly the concepts do not change whether the movie we watch is rated “G”, “PG-13”, or ever “R.” While many are starting to realize that this portrayal is not right, I personally would doubt if any changes were going to be made to Arab characters in movies in the future. People’s opinions have been shaped by history. Terrorist attacks that make headline news and the war in the Middle East. All people see in the media is the negative side of Arab life. The reality is that even America has its ugly side. Watching this documentary will definitely change the way I watch movies. Now I will more easily identify subtle stereotypes and I will not let movie characterization change my opinion of real people. It is almost laughable to see how Arab characters act in films. Once people can look past the humor, negativity and stereotypes we can begin to understand who Arab people really are.
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