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Arab Stereotyping: a Multi-Disciplinary Perspective The Modern American Volume 2 Issue 3 Article 5 2006 Arab Stereotyping: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective Rachel Saloom University of Georgia School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/tma Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Saloom, Rachel (2006) "Arab Stereotyping: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective," The Modern American: Vol. 2 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/tma/vol2/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Washington College of Law Journals & Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Modern American by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Arab Stereotyping: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective This article is available in The Modern American: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/tma/vol2/iss3/5 ARAB STEREOTYPING: A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE By Rachel Saloom* myriad of stereotypes exist about the Middle East. the power of the Israeli lobbying force. 5 While these are not the Media is a powerful force that shapes society's views only factors that contribute to biased media coverage of the -and opinions on many issues. However, media cover­ Middle East, they represent many reasons why the imbalance in age of the Middle East, Arabs, and Islam is a very contentious coverage exists. Cultural bias is embedded throughout many subject. This article focuses on the images of the Middle East, stereotypes of Arabs. In fact, Michael Suleiman, a leading Arabs, and Islam in the Western media and how those images scholar on the Arab-American community, argues that, within and stereotypes affect society. First, this article examines how American culture, a mindset exists that encompasses negative the American media views the Middle East from a thematic per­ images of Arabs.6 He attributes this to an Orientalist frame of spective. Secondly, it analyzes case studies of two European reference, whereby negative stereotyping of Arabs is ingrained countries in order to elucidate how the media in these countries within American society. 7 This is not to say that all Americans deals with the Middle East. Finally, it scrutinizes in detail the hold these stereotypes, but they are present on a cultural level. portrayal of Middle Eastern women in the Western media. The Arab-Israeli conflict and the ignorance of the context of In many instances, stereotypes have a negative connotation the conflict also fuels misperceptions and biases. There is a because they assume every member of a group has the same tendency to cast the conflict within terms of "good guys" versus characteristics. Stereotypes homogenize people which results in "bad guys," where the Israelis play the role of the good guys and biased depictions. While a stereotype can be positive, the issue the Arabs are consistently the bad guys. 8 The U.S. operates of negative stereotyping is much more problematic. Moreover, within this Zionist frame of reference. Beginning with President cultural stereotypes often lead to various prejudices against the Wilson, the framework that drove foreign policy in the Middle stereotyped group. Edmund Ghareeb, a Middle East media spe­ East was pro-Zionist.9 Wilson's advisors had a strong effect on cialist, notes that stereotypes provide a method of "shorthand" his policies. 1° Kathleen Christison notes that following the Bal­ for identifying groups. 1 In fact, many different groups have four Declaration during the peace conference that rearranged faced stereotyping and the biases associated with it. The stereo­ colonial alliances after World War I, Wilson's advisors pres- typing of Arabs is an important case sured him on behalf of the Zionist study in understanding stereotyping and cause. 11 Their efforts essentially made ethnic prejudice as a whole. him a strong Zionist and led to the U.S. Today, in America, the stereotyp­ support of a Jewish homeland. 12 ing of Arabs is very prevalent. A gen­ Misperceptions and Orientalist atti­ eral American view of Arabs is that tudes towards Arabs also perpetuated they are "backward, scheming, fanatic this Zionist framework. During the terrorists, who are dirty, dishonest, Roosevelt administration, public opin- oversexed, and corrupt."2 It is ex- ion helped sustain the status quo poli­ tremely important to note, that often- cies toward Palestine. 13 Christison also times the generic Arab stereotype is one of an Arab male. There importantly notes the presence of what she describes as "policy is a very different image of the Arab woman that this article also inertia." 14 She explains that the pro-Zionist frame of reference addresses. was so entrenched, that by the time Roosevelt started to question Many ideas about Arabs are rooted in Orientalist thought. some of the policies, it was too late to bring about any real Edward Said defines Orientalist thought as "an imaginative and change. yet drastically polarized geography dividing the world into two The pro-Zionist frame of reference continued during the unequal parts, the larger 'different' one called the Orient, the Truman administration, culminating in the vote that led to the other, also known as 'our' world called the Occident or the partition and creation of the state of Israel. While at some points West."3 The creation of "the other" in this context leads to a President Truman may have been conflicted about the situation, binary where the West is privileged over the Orient. Everything the framework for continuing current policies was too strong to that is from the Orient is different and exotic but at the same stop. Truman became a staunch advocate for the creation of time savage and unruly. These competing ideas and biases set Israel, but his advocacy was not based purely on the Zionist the framework for how the West views Arabs. frame of reference. During his administration, strategic calcula­ In the American context, Ghareeb outlines five reasons why tions also played a role. the media is biased in its coverage of the Middle East. 4 His rea­ Furthermore, Christison explains that during the creation of sons include the Arab-Israeli conflict, general cultural bias, me­ Israel and the time afterwards, the Israel-centered mindset dia ignorance about the history and origin of the Arab-Israeli rooted itself in American thinking. 15 This occurred to the extent conflict, the impact of the media's tendency to think alike, and that American culture began thinking of Israel as part of "the 24 THE MODERN AMERICAN being" of the U.S. 16 Thus, part of the foreign policy apparatus him. 24 This example of homoerotic imagery in popular culture also became part of the American psyche. It is important to note is yet another method of feminizing the enemy and thereby that biases also existed against Jews at that time. However, stripping him of his manhood. Americans viewed Jewish people as Westerners, while they saw However, perhaps one of the most prominent areas of Arab Arabs as non-Westerners and inferior. Therefore, when Jews stereotyping occurs in relation to oil. Americans held Arabs were compared to Arabs, Americans viewed Jews as superior. responsible for the oil embargo that was a result of the 1973 Additionally, stereotyping of Arabs occurs through the war. The prevalent American perception of Arabs was that they stereotyping of the leader of an Arab country. In the 1950s, were getting rich and using oil as a weapon against the U.S. Gamal Abel Nasser, the leader of Egypt, was portrayed as a Melani McAlister, an expert in the field of American percep­ communist threat and nicknamed the "Hitler of the Nile."17 tions of the Middle East, states that editorial cartoons of this Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat, the Chairman of the Palestine Lib­ time depicted Arabs as beady-eyed and greedy with long, eration Organization, was often viewed as a crooked-nose terror­ hooked noses. 25 Ironically, this characterization mirrored previ­ ist or animal. Regarding depictions of leaders, a couple of is­ ous anti-Jewish sentiment. For example, one cartoon depicted a sues are worth discussing. For instance, Arafat has been dehu­ sheik whose long nose had turned into a gas nozzle. 26 Addition­ manized in illustrations portraying him as a rat. Although ally, the U.S. viewed the Arab oil embargo as "blackmail." Arafat has rightfully been criticized for many bad acts, this de­ Newspaper advertisements suggested that Arabs were using oil humanization often has a spill over effect. as a means of attack against the U.S. 27 During this time, depic­ In discussing the stereotyping of Arab leaders, Carol Cohn tions and stereotypes of Arabs shifted from older images of the explains what she calls the "unitary masculine actor problem." 18 harem and camels, to the bloodthirsty rich Arab trying to eco­ In the context of the first Gulf War, this phrase refers to the nomically strangle the U.S. A cartoon ran in the Chicago Trib­ American notion that Saddam Hussein represented the entire une in 1981 that depicted an Arab seated behind a big desk, country of Iraq. She cites President George H. W. Bush's usage wearing dark glasses and a malicious grin. In front of him is a of the word "he," when President Bush actually was referring to sign that spells "OPEC," while oil rigs are visible through a win­ the entire country of Iraq or the Iraqi army. 19 Cohn describes dow. The desk also has a second sign that says, "Buy Ameri­ this rhetorical practice as a way of converting the state into a can." However, the "n" is scribbled out.28 This image is illus­ single male actor.
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