• From the Western perspective:
Stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in the US:
They are mostly presented in many forms by the mass media in the US. Stereotyping Arabs are usually presented in the form of literature, theatre, media and other expressions. These representations had always been negative. In American text books, there are also negative stereotypes for Arabs and Muslims. Rudolph Valentino’s roles in The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926) set the stage for the negative representation of Arabs in the Hollywood films. Both portrayed Arab characters as thieves, charlatans, murderers, and brutes.
Other foreign movies in the 1920s presented similar negative stereotypes of Arabs by attaching them to the theme of power-hungry & brutal, which are defeated by the Westerners. These movies are: The song of love (1923), a cafe in Cairo (1924) and The Desert bride (1928)
Simon in his book “Arabs in Hollywood: a UN reversed image” states that the movie “A son in the Sahara (1924) is the strongest movie of 1920s to attack the Arab culture. Also in 1970s and beyond, these same portrayals prevailed.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, the director of media relations for the American Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee wrote a report called “100 years of Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim stereotyping”. In this report, he presented “The three B-syndromes” which indicates how Arabs in TV and movies are portrayed as bombers, belly dancers or billionaires. These indications were given in reference to the portrayal of Arab men as either terrorists, or wealthy oilmen while portraying Arab women as sex objects. Not only that, the report also included cartoons as used for insulting Arabs & Muslims, and focused on the Arabs living in the US, since they were defini...
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...urbans on camels. Also the movie begins with a shifty Arabic merchant who’s trying to buy stuff of which some are broken. Only the introduction depicted the Middle Eastern man as untrustworthy. Then the image of Aladdin escaping from guards shows or portrays that the Middle East people are greedy.
Perception of bias in the Media 2013 Survey
An American survey conducted by the Arab American National Museum, the National Network for Arab American communities and the National Voices Project. The aim of the survey was to measure the portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the media and its impact on children. The initial findings of the survey represents that the persistent negative bias in the media is the highest for Arabs and Arab Americans, compared with other racial/ethnic/religious groups. Nearly half of the adults (44%) believe that media is biased against Muslims.
...ome to us at an interesting time, before the Revolution, 40 percent of Tehran movie theaters were showing pornography. The function of this office is purification as well as promotion for the arts.” The first part notions the Western stereotype of the Orient since the same as the time when it was discovered, but now the people of the Orient realize the stereotypes and are changing the way they see themselves because of these stereotypes. It is only by correcting these assumptions, stereotypes, and misconceptions of the Orient at the heart of society today, the media can Orientalism be fixed. The Eastern people must be allowed to sympathize in movies and films to humanize them and have intimate interactions. Otherwise, the Orient will be continued to be known incorrectly as a place with people who are without reason, screaming, protesting, and in swarming mobs.
The film Casablanca will always remain an American classic. American people critiqued it as a high quality film over a time period, defining a classic and still today Casablanca remains a top American movie. Michael Curtiz, the director, shows World War II on the home front, using the setting to transfer the view point. The famous and popular Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid play the complex love triangle that leads the film to the stories purpose and theme. Casablanca illustrates liberal criticism through a hometown war rebellion setting, the nationalistic view points, and true love’s tribulations.
This study examines stereotyping of Arab Muslims in the New York Times for the past forty years. Theorists suggest that stereotyping of a minority group effects the public's opinion of that group. Other communication media theorists say that only under extreme conditions will the negative stereotypes reflect the publics' opinions of the portrayed minority group. The parallel theory between propaganda and stereotyping by the mass media is examined. Theorists including Thomson, (1977) & Myers, (1992), related to mass media effects strongly agree claiming that repetitive and non-contradictive images in the media are an effective form of propaganda. The research samples are random article reviews of the New York Times for the past forty years. Using every fifth year and 2 random numbers ranging from 1 to 12 is used to select an article search date. Islam was the search term. The Gudykunst & Kim( ? ) method of analyzing a stereotype is used to evaluate the 8 New York Times articles. The results indicate 95% of the articles were "vague," labeling entire group rather than individual. Out of the total 100%, 70% of the article used unfavorable trait characteristic labeling.
The usage of media is huge in nowadays. People rely on different kinds of media to receive information in their everyday life because they are thirsty for the diverse and informative content. However, inaccurate portrayals of people from different races always appear in the media and audience will exaggerate those portrayals by their inflexible beliefs and expectations about the characteristics or behaviors of the portrayals’ cultural groups without considering individual variation (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012); in fact, it is also called as stereotypes. According to a study by the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University (Stein, 2012), racial stereotyping continues to occur in media and the mainstream media's coverage of different cultural groups is full of biased reporting, offensive terminology and old stereotypes of American society. It specifically emphasizes that majority of the stereotyped characters in media will only bring out the dark side of their cultural groups which many of them might not be true, especially for the portrayals of black community: African American.
... another post 9/11. Furthermore, through both Amaney Jamal excerpt Civil Liberties and the Otherization of Arab and Muslim Americans (chapter four), and Nadine Naber excerpt Arab Americans and U.S. Racial Formations (Introduction), we see just how this clash came about pre and post 9/11. That while the aftermath of 9/11 saw the rise in the racialization of Muslim and Arab Americans, we must not forget that these groups of people were not so much invisible due to the fact that America (i.e. “dominant mainstream” (Jamal 119)) has always viewed those they deem as “other” (i.e. minority) as inferior. Due to this framework, they have racialized any group of people that are not considered American as “other.” However (as stated) following an event like 9/11, the racialization of Muslims and Arabs Americans became perpetuated more so; and at an even more dangerous level.
Andre, Judith. “Stereotypes: Conceptual and Normative Considerations.” Multicultural Film: An Anthology. Spring/Summer 2014. Eds. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren Martilli. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
Shaheen, Jack. “The Media’s Image of Arabs.” Writing on the River. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw,
All in all, Running into offensive stereotypes is common among Arab Muslims. People will not stop making new stereotypes, and the only way to stop them from being spread is by correcting them. Stereotypes are basically wrong information based on an sophisticated perception. It is critical to deal with these situations with reason and intellectuality. People may have different ways to solve these kinds of problems, but it is important to make sure it is in a healthy and effective manner. Stereotypes are wrong information that needs to be corrected, so it is very important to educate society about the misunderstandings associated with the stereotypes.
When watching movies relating to the same topic that were produced in an overall large time span, it is clear that the social connotations associated with this topic are subject to change, whether it is positively or negatively. The depiction of Africa and its inhabitants are no different. Without a doubt, one can say that movies based on Africa and Africans have changed, but only to a certain amount. Many of these films still portray three different kinds of Africa (Thiong’o 1993), all of them being a “dream and nightmare” (Dunn 1996) and Africans as being seen as inferior barbarians (Walker and Rasamimanana 1993). Specifically dealing with the their inferiority, the amount and worth of the speech or dialogue Africans are assigned within
Of course, there were so many stereotyping that appear in the film such as: the Iranian man who is called Osama or ties to terrorist - Black people don’t tip or more Gang bangers have tattoo and sagging pants. More at the beginning of the film, The Asian women who stated that “Mexicans don’t know how to drive they brake to fast”. Don Cheadle who treated his partner as Mexican when she is actually Porto Rican descendant.
People being generalized based on limited and inaccurate information by sources as television, cartoons or even comic books (Tripod). This is a definition that seems to go against many public standards. The above words are the exact definition of stereotypes. Stereotypes as understood from the definition, goes mostly hand in hand with media -- only not the regular meaning of the innocent media we know. Media propaganda is the other form of media that is rather described as media manipulation. In this paper, the following will be discussed: first, how stereotypes of ethnic groups function in propaganda, why does it function so well, and finally, the consequences of these stereotypes on the life of Egyptians in particular in society. A fair examination will be conducted on this example of stereotypes through clarification examples and research results from researches conducted from reliable sources. The real association between Egyptians’ stereotypes and propaganda discussed in this paper shall magnify the association of stereotypes and propaganda in general.
The film Lawrence of Arabia illustrations the experiences of a man’s exploration of places he has never been before, both on the globe and within his own mind. The leading role is sent to the Middle East during World War One, his experiences there are display disputes that are still prevalent in today’s world. The issues dealt with by the Arabians in the movie and the continued problems in present day Middle East are consequences of European domination. This control is executed through the idea of imperialism or, a countries attempt to expand their power, usually done by means of colonization, in an effort to strengthen their own countries livelihood. The conquest of Arabia by the British was the beginning of the political issues today in the
Nowadays, it has been difficult to notice the harm media is doing to society. It has become too normal that we are already used to deny the reality. I have read several readings that have opened my eyes to the reality of media; A Crash Course on Hollywood’s Latino Imagery by Charles Ramirez Berg, (Re)presenting: Muslims on North American television by Amir Hussain, True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu. These readings include an important message about minority races, which I believe society should be aware of. All of the readings that I previously mentioned have something in common, they all examine the way race is portrayed in media. Moreover, they also include how media can potentially shape our perceptions of who we are and who others are. Our young community are the ones that are being most affected by media. Children receive messages in T.V shows, cartoons, movies and books of how different races supposedly are, and they immediately start assuming that those messages are true and continue growing up with that ideology.
In the essay, the writer acknowledges the misunderstandings that come from media images by explaining the contrasts between these images and the teachings of the faith to support her claim that fear is the reason for this misconception. The conception that many people have of Muslims is that they are terrorists, anti-Semites, and fanatics. This conception exsists because television news and newspapers support that stereotype. The broadcast of such stereotypes encourages fear and accusations of the Islamic relegion's teachings. The writer explains that Islam teaches peace, tolerance, and equality. She further states that Muslims shown in the media have violated these teachings ...