Welcome to Layalina Productions

The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 11, May 08-May 21, 2009

Moving Beyond Arab Stereotypes

Marwan Karbalan argues for Gulf News that key issues facing the Arab world remain misrepresented in America. While the Obama administration is showing understanding of Arab-Israeli issues, most Americans lack sympathy for the Arabs, mainly due to media representation of the issue, he posits.

A recent UCLA study asked a variety of Americans a series of questions about the Arab-Israeli conflict and what they had understood from TV news.

When referring to the Arabs, Karbalan points out, “words such as occupation, poverty, desperation and racial discrimination were never mentioned in the news.” Additionally, the settlements on Palestinian territories are often portrayed as “simply building houses and farms."

If we try to distribute responsibility for painting this distorted picture in the mind of many Americans, Karbalan argues, the US media may shoulder the greatest part for being unfair in its coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“We must not forget, however, that the Arab world, which spends billions of dollars on running satellite channels that compete with each other for pacifying and containing Arab public opinion, is also responsible,” he adds.

Karbalan points out that few in the Arab world have in fact thought of buying or even establishing TV networks or other kinds of media in the US with the aim of trying to explain Arab causes in a fair and objective manner. “Winning the hearts and minds of Americans is an Arab responsibility not anybody else's,” he concludes.

Sameh Hadeeb concurs in Palestine Telegraph that the media fails to present an accurate picture of what goes on in the Middle East and that Hollywood may have contributed to hatred towards Arabs. Reaching over a hundred countries, Hollywood is probably the largest entertainment medium in the world with a capacity to influence people’s perceptions.

Arab American academic and author Jack Shaheen has researched and written extensively about how people of Middle Eastern decent are continuously depicted in negative roles in Hollywood cinema over the past decades. Shaheen describes how out of 900 movies featuring Arabs, “about 12 had positive portrayals of Arabs, 50 offered a balance and the rest depicted Arabs as villainous characters.”

Sharif Nashashibi, chairman and co-founder of Arab Media Watch, a non-profit watchdog which strives to promote objective coverage of Arab issues, argues, “Arab stereotypes in Hollywood allow for the dehumanization of Arabs…So if people time and time again see films that portray Arabs as violent, backward, hateful, fundamentalists, this eventually dehumanizes the Arabs.”

Miriam, whose parents are of Arab descent, says she is an avid movie-goer. "I don't see any similarities between myself and the Arabs I see in the cinema. I'm a 16 year old ordinary girl living in a western country. But you never see that,” she says.

Back to articles