In 1995 the Oklahoma federal building was bombed, this was the most destructive act of terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. During the news coverage of the story, a reporter said that the FBI had several Arab translators on call, while another reported, “this bombing has Middle Eastern written all over it.” These statements are usual after an attack on the US, its obviously Middle Eastern terrorists right? Well actually in this instance it was a white, Irish Catholic man named Timothy McVeigh. Why is it that we always automatically assume that an attack on United States soil was caused by angry Arabs? This is always assumed because of the way Arabs are portrayed in the world of cinema and other media. In movies the Middle East is always depicted as a vast desert where only primitive beings who cut off the hands of thieves and kill each other for no reason, this depiction has been used ever since the invention of film. Not only has the depiction of the place been the same, but also the people have been depicted more or less the same way ever since the early European exploration of the Middle East. The identities of the Middle Eastern men in American movies are always either depicted as the angry terrorist, the sheik, the oppressor of women, or just a silly comic relief character. Women are no different, they are always depicted as either a terrorist, an oppressed woman under her oppressive husband, or even just background hooded figures. Hollywood has always vilified Arabs because they are an easy target, and the first people who come to mind when they think of bad guys.
In the documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, there are several movies presented that show all of the stereotypes against the Arab people. For me the most shocking point of that documentary is that one of the most beloved movies of all time, from one of the most “politically correct” family companies in the history of Film released a completely racist movie in 1992! This film is Aladdin, a Disney film. The movie starts out with the song Arabian nights, which hits you full force with the racism with the lines “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” Although this line was changed in later versions of the movie, it still shows the Middle East as a violent, barbaric place.
Throughout the movie the audience is led to believe that these marines are evil and open fired on civilians; there is even a little girl who was a survivor of the massacre, this little girl is what we were supposed to empathise with. Later in the film it turns out that the crowd of people were actually firing at the marines, who had no other choice but to open fire on the people. The big twist was that even this little girl who we once felt sorry for was actually one of the shooters firing at the marines. This example is amazing because of the fact that it depicts every single Arab (including children) are violent jihadists.
These depictions of the Arab people are similar to the depictions that the Nazi’s gave to the Jews in WWII. These depictions showed racist depictions of the people’s appearance of the people where instead of having large noses that the Nazis chose for the Jewish people, the Arabs are that but with a turban and robes. The redundant dehumanization of Arabs in movies has made every American believe the false version of what life is like in the Middle East. In reality the Middle East is full of loving people such as fathers mothers and children. But one may ask what about the oppression of women, aren't they forced to wear their Hijabs? Women in the Middle East wear their hijabs, not because they’re forced to, but simply because they choose to practice their religion; in fact, not all women in the Middle East wear the Hijabs, they wear them because they choose to.
Why is it that these stereotypes still exist? Why does Hollywood continually vilify the Arab people? I believe that Hollywood may be afraid to show Arabs in a good way because they have been redundantly copied for all of these years that they don’t know any other way to portray them. Hopefully in the future film makers will portray people from the middle east in an equal way, rather than the backwards way that they are portrayed now. The only way that we can bring humanity back into the names of the Arab people is to stop the negative stereotypes we set upon them and to show them in a way where they are not angry Jihadists, but instead we need to portray them as human beings.
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