Mehdi-Palang has already provided some of the links for these videos. I thought posting the whole documentary, Reel Bad Arabs, based on Professor Jack Shaheen’s book of the same name certainly couldn’t hurt. As Mehdi has already stated, out of 1000 films reviewed by Shaheen that had Arab & Muslim characters (from the year 1896 to 2000) 12 were postive depictions, 52 were even handed and the remaining 900 or so were negative. I have also posted a lecture by Shaheen himself, in which he speaks at length on the subject of Hollywood ’s vilification of Arabs and Middle Easterners more generally. This doesn’t just affect Arabs, and it’s sad that some would find it more acceptable if only it did. It affects all of us and how the representation of our culture and identity has been hijacked by bigots with motives which are anything but pure.
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Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Lecture by Professor Jack Shaheen author of Reel Bad Arabs:
“Hollywood’s Reel Bad Arabs: Problems and Prospects” by Dr. Jack Shaheen. Professor Jack Shaheen is an internationally acclaimed author and media critic. An Oxford Research Scholar and former CBS news consultant on Middle East Affairs, Shaheen’s lectures and writings illustrate that damaging racial and ethnic stereotypes of Asians, blacks, Native Americans and others injure innocent people. Dr. Shaheen is the recipient of two Fulbright teaching awards and holds degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Missouri. He is the author of five books: Nuclear War Films, Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture, The TV Arab, the award-winning book and film Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, and most recently, Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11. Professor Shaheen has given over 1,000 lectures all over the US and in three continents. He has numerous publications in journals and he is the recipient of several awards. This lecture was sponsored by The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR).
