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Stereotyping Has a Lasting Negative Impact, New Research
Finds
ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2010) — Aggression.
Over-eating. Inability to focus. Difficulty making rational decisions. New
research out of the University of Toronto Scarborough shows prejudice has a
lasting negative impact on those who experience it.
"Past studies have shown that people perform poorly in situations where
they feel they are being stereotyped," says Associate Professor of
Psychology Michael Inzlicht, who led the study, published in this month's
edition of the
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"What we wanted to do was look at what happens afterwards. Are there
lingering effects of prejudice? Does being stereotyped have an impact beyond
the moment when stereotyping happens?"
In order to determine whether negative stereotyping in a particular
situation had lasting effects, Inzlicht's team performed a series of tests.
First, they placed participants in situations where they had to perform a task
in the face of negative stereotyping. After the participants were removed from
the prejudicial situation, researchers measured their ability to control their
aggression, eat appropriate amounts, make rational decisions, and stay focused.
Their results show that prejudice and stereotyping have lingering adverse
impacts.
"Even after a person leaves a situation where they faced negative
stereotypes, the effects of coping with that situation remain," says
Inzlicht. "People are more likely to be aggressive after they've faced
prejudice in a given situation. They are more likely to exhibit a lack of self
control. They have trouble making good, rational decisions. And they are more
likely to over-indulge on unhealthy foods."
In one portion of the study, researchers had a group of women write a math
test. They told the women this test would determine whether or not they were
capable and smart in math, subtly injecting stereotypes about women and math
skills "into the air," says Inzlicht. A separate group of women wrote
the same test, except this group was given support and coping strategies to
deal with the stress they'd face when writing the test.
After completing the math test, the two groups performed another series of
tasks designed to gauge their aggression levels, their ability to focus and to
exercise self control.
"In these follow-up tests, the women who felt discriminated against ate
more than their peers in the control group. They showed more hostility than the
control group. And they performed more poorly on tests that measured their
cognitive skills," says Inzlicht.
The pattern remained the same, regardless of the test groups. People who
felt they were discriminated against -- whether based on gender, age, race or
religion -- all experienced significant impacts even after they were removed
from the situation, says Inzlicht.
"These lingering effects hurt people in a very real way, leaving them
at a disadvantage," says Inzlicht. "Even many steps removed from a
prejudicial situation, people are carrying around this baggage that negatively
impacts their lives."
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2 ) http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/07/28/negative-stereotypes-shown-to-affect-learning-not-just-performance
Negative Stereotypes Shown to Affect Learning, Not Just
Performance
New research shows negative stereotypes not only jeopardize
test performance but also inhibit learning
Related News
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Negative stereotypes not only jeopardize how members of
stigmatized groups might perform on tests and in other skill-based acts, such
as driving and golf putting, but they also can inhibit actual learning,
according to a new study by Indiana University researchers.
While the effect of negative performance stereotypes on test-taking and in
other domains is well documented, the study by social psychologist Robert J.
Rydell and his colleagues in IU's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
is the first to show that the effects might also be seen further upstream than
once thought, when the skills are learned, not just performed.
"The effect on learning could be cumulative," says Rydell, whose
research focuses on stereotype threat involving women and mathematics. "If
women do not learn relatively simple skills early on, this could spell trouble
for them later on when they need to combine a number of more simple skills in
new, complicated ways to solve difficult problems. For example, if a young girl
does not learn a relatively simple principle of algebra or how to divide
fractions because she is experiencing threat, this may hurt her when she has to
use those skills to complete problems on geometry, trigonometry, or calculus
tests."
This reduced learning may ultimately hamper efforts to help women enter into
careers in science and mathematics, where they are currently underrepresented.
The study, "Stereotype threat prevents perceptual learning," was
published on Monday (July 26), in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences Early Edition. Co-authors are Richard M.
Shiffrin, Kathryn L. Boucher, Katie Van Loo and Michael T. Rydell, all from IU.
The study was designed to examine "attention and perceptual learning in
a visual search," not mathematical learning specifically, because the
tasks used in the experiments allowed researchers to easily differentiate
between learning effects and performance effects. Through a series of
experiments involving Chinese characters and color judgment tasks, the
researchers were able to show that actual learning had not occurred in the
group of women who had been reminded of the negative stereotypes involving
women's math and visual processing ability. Instead of finding it difficult to
express learning, which is a typical effect of stereotype threat, they had not
learned the same skill that women in the control group, who had not been
exposed to the negative stereotypes, had learned.
The women in the stereotype threat group appeared to try too hard to
overcome the negative stereotype, ultimately searching for the characters in
the experiment in a focused yet unproductive manner rather than letting the
figures just "pop out," as they normally would have after some
training.
"The results seem to fit with the view that the women under threat try
harder to carry out the task, thereby persisting in effortful serial search
throughout training, and failing to find and learn an alternative strategy that
makes search easier and less effortful," the authors wrote.
"Women who are good at the skill they are performing are more likely to
show stereotype threat because they have more invested in disproving the
stereotype and are more distracted by the stereotype," Rydell said.
Rydell said he and his colleagues have conducted additional research
specifically on mathematical learning and the results are forthcoming. They
think the effect of stereotype threat on learning warrants more study by
scientists and more attention by educators.
"(The present study) points to the importance of creating environments
that reduce the impact of stereotype threat during mathematical skill
acquisition by women," the authors concluded in their
PNAS
article. "If creating such an environment is not done, the learning
deficits that result could well be cumulative, causing problems that
continually worsen as development proceeds."
The study was supported by the National Science Foundation. The Department
of Psychological and Brain Sciences is within IU's College of Arts and
Sciences.
---
Stereotypes Examples
Whenever we don't have a good
understanding of a subject, say, of people or countries, then we tend to make
assumptions about them. Stereotype is nothing but those assumptions that have
become common knowledge. Whenever you make judgments about people without
knowing them, you are stereotyping them. Stereotyping makes people generalize
things. More often, they are all false assumptions. Though there are both
positive and negative stereotypes, a majority of them are offensive. People
generally stereotype out of bias against a particular group of people or
religion. Stereotyping becomes a way of conveying their dislike. Of course,
stereotyping stems from a commonly held view of a particular group or race.
This view may arise from an incident or false assumption, and then maybe used
to color the entire community with the same brush. There are various types of
stereotypes. However, the most common ones are racial stereotypes and gender
stereotypes. Race, nationality, gender and sexual orientation are the main factors
of stereotyping. Stereotyping must be avoided at all costs, as it leads to
treating groups as a single entity. Given below are examples of stereotypes
that people commonly use.
Examples Of Stereotypes
Negative Stereotypes
- All blond women
are dumb.
- All red heads
are sluts.
- Christians are
homophobic. They are blinded by God and will recruit you if you go near
them.
- All politicians
are philanders and think only of personal gain and benefit.
- If I wear Goth
clothing I'm a part of a rock band, depressed, or do drugs.
- Girls are only
concerned about physical appearance.
- Guys are messy
and unclean.
- Men who spend
too much time on the computer or read are geeks.
- Men who are not
into sports are termed as gay.
- All librarians
are women who are old, wear glasses, tie a high bun, and have a perpetual
frown on their face.
- Girls are not
good at sports.
- All teenagers
are rebels.
- All children
don't enjoy healthy food.
- Only anorexic
women can become models.
- Women who smoke
and drink do not have morals.
- Men who like
pink are effeminate.
Positive Stereotypes
- All Blacks are
great basketball players.
- All Asians are
geniuses.
- All Indians are
deeply spiritual.
- All Latinos
dance well.
- All Whites are
successful.
- Asians have high
IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These people are more
likely to succeed in school.
- African
Americans can dance.
- All Canadians
are exceptionally polite.
- French are
romantic.
- All Asians know
kung fu.
- All African
American men are well endowed.
- Italians are
good lovers.
Racial Stereotypes
- All Muslims are
terrorists.
- All white people
don't have rhythm.
- All Blacks are
lazy.
- All Asians are
sneaky.
- All Hispanics
don't speak English very well or not at all.
- All Jewish
people are greedy, selfish money hungry people.
- Caucasians can't
dance.
- Russians are
violent.
- All Americans
are cowboys.
- All Italians are
stylish and sophisticated. They are usually painters, sculptors or fashion
designers.
- Germans are
Nazis or fascists.
- All Asians are
Chinese.
- All Asians speak
Pidgin English.
- All Native
Americans love to gamble.
- All Middle
easterners hate America.
- All Italians are
good cooks.
- The people of
Netherlands are all promiscuous and drug addicts.
- All Italians are
mobsters or have links to the mob.
- All white people
are all racist.
- Chinese will eat
anything.
- All Asians are
Communists.
- All Australians
are bullies, racists, drinkers and constantly uses swear words. They are
also portrayed as lazy and stupid morons.
- People from the
Indian subcontinent are generally portrayed as shopkeepers and motel
owners.
- All Egyptian
women are belly dancers.
- The Japanese are
engineering geniuses.
- All South
Koreans are gaming nerds.
- Irish are
alcoholics.
- All Hispanics
are all illegal aliens.
- All Indians and
Chinese are cheap and live a frugal life.
- All Latinos are
on welfare.
- In the US all
South Koreans are stereotyped as dry cleaners and all Mexicans as
gardeners.
Gender Stereotypes
Women
- Women always
smell good.
- Women take
forever to do anything.
- Women are more
brilliant than men.
- Women are always
moody.
- Women try to
work out problems while men take immediate action.
- All women like
the color pink.
- All women like
dolls.
- Women become
cheerleaders.
- Women take 2
hours to shower.
- Women hog the
bathroom.
- Women love
mirrors.
- Women like
make-up.
- Women are fussy
about their hair.
- Women work in
department stores.
- Women like
fashion magazines.
- Women are
discrete about intimacy.
- Women do not
drive well.
- Women never take
chances.
- Women always
talk too much on the phone.
- Women actually
use only 5% of what's in their purse. Everything else is junk.
- Only women can
be nurses.
Men
- Only men can be
doctors.
- Men are stronger
and more aggressive.
- Men are better
at sports.
- Men hate
reading.
- Men always have
an "I don't care" attitude.
- Men don't get
grossed out by scrapes and bruises.
- Men are tough.
- Men are
thickheaded.
- Men like cars.
- Men become jocks
in high school.
- Men take 2
seconds to shower.
- Men like hats.
- Men could care
less if they become bald.
- Men wear
whatever is clean.
- Men usually work
in messy places.
- Men like car or
porn magazines.
- Men brag about
intimacy.
- Men take too
many chances.
- Men always lose
all arguments against girls.
Every race, culture, country, religion
and a community has a stereotype. It is a way of oversimplifying groups of
people. It is one of the easiest ways of establishing identity. By conforming
to a fixed or conventional image, the identity can be recognized and
understood. And, herein lies the problem. It's hard to be objective if one
doesn't reject stereotypes. So, it is better not to use any stereotype and pass
judgments only when you are familiar with others
Stereotypes
by
Saul McLeod
published
2008
Definition:
A
stereotype
is “...a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of
people.” (Cardwell, 1996).
For example, a “hells angel” biker dresses in leather.
One
advantage of a stereotype is that it enables us to respond
rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before.
One
disadvantage is that it makes us ignore differences between
individuals; therefore we think things about people that might not be true
(i.e. make generalizations).
The use of
stereotypes is a major way in which we
simplify our social world; since they reduce the amount of processing (i.e.
thinking) we have to do when we meet a new person.
By
stereotyping we infer that a person has a
whole range of characteristics and abilities that we assume all members of that
group have. Stereotypes lead to social categorization, which is one of the
reasons for prejudice attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentality) which leads to
in-groups and out-groups.
Most
stereotypes probably tend to convey a negative
impression. Positive examples would include judges (the phrase “sober as
a judge” would suggest this is a stereotype with a very respectable set of
characteristics), overweight people (who are often seen as “jolly”) and
television newsreaders (usually seen as highly dependable, respectable and
impartial). Negative stereotypes seem far more common, however.
Racial Stereotypes
Researchers have found that stereotypes exist of different races, cultures
or ethnic groups. Although the terms race, culture and ethnic groups have
different meanings, we shall take them to mean roughly the same thing at the
moment.
The most famous study of racial stereotyping was published by
Katz
and Braly in 1933 when they reported the results of a
questionnaire completed by students at Princeton University in the USA.
They found that students held clear, negative stereotypes – few students
expressed any difficulty in responding to the questionnaire.
Most students at that time would have been white Americans and the pictures
of other ethnic groups included Jews as shrewd and mercenary, Japanese as
shrewd and sly, Negroes as lazy and happy-go-lucky and Americans as industrious
and intelligent.
Not surprisingly,
racial stereotypes
always seem to favor the race of the holder and belittle other races. It is
probably true to say that every ethnic group has racial stereotypes of other
groups; some psychologists argue that it is a “natural” aspect of human
behavior, which can be seen to benefit each group because it helps in the long-run
to identify with one’s own ethnic group and so find protection and promote the
safety and success of the group. There is no evidence for this view, however,
and many writers argue that it is merely a way of justifying racist attitudes
and behaviors.
Katz and Braly (1933) – Racial Stereotyping
Aim: To investigate stereotypical attitudes
of Americans towards different races.
Method:
Questionnaire method was used to investigate stereotypes. American university
students were given a list of nationalities and ethic groups (e.g. Irish,
Germans etc.), and a list of 84 personality traits. They were asked to pick out
five or six traits which they thought were typical of each group.
Results:
There was considerable agreement in the traits selected. White Americans, for
example, were seen as industrious, progressive and ambitious. African Americans
were seen as lazy, ignorant and musical. Participants were quite ready to rate
ethnic groups with whom they had no personal contact.
Conclusion:
Ethnic stereotypes are widespread, and shared by members of a particular social
group.
Katz and Braly repeated their research in 1951 and 1967. The results can be
seen in the table below.
Research Evaluation
The Katz and Braly studies were done in the 1930’s and it can be argued that
cultures have changed since then and we are much less likely to hold these
stereotypes. Later studies conducted in 1951 and 1967 found changes in
the stereotypes and the extent to which they are held. In general,
stereotypes in the later study tended to be more positive but the belief that
particular ethnic groups held particular characteristics still existed.
Also, it should be noted that this study has relied entirely on verbal
reports and is therefore extremely
low in ecological validity.
Just because participants in a study will trot out stereotypes when asked does
not mean to say that people go around acting on them. People do not necessarily
behave as though the stereotypes are true.
The limited information that the experiments are given is also likely to
create
demand characteristics (i.e. participants
figure out what the experiment is about and change their behavior, for example
give the results the psychologist wants).
Finally, there is the problem of
social desirability
with questionnaire research – people may lie.
Further
Information
Katz, D., & Braly, K. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college
students.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28,
280-290.
Prejudice
and Discrimination 
Examples
of Discrimination
The Psychology of
Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination: An Overview
How to
cite this article:
McLeod, S. A. (2008).
Stereotypes. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html
Anita Sarkeesian, Female Stereotypes in Video Games, and You
This past spring, feminist journalist and
Feminist
Frequency blog author, Anita Sarkeesian, initiated a Kickstarter campaign
to increase awareness of negative female stereotypes, or
“tropes,”
in video games. Sarkeesian has had a reputation as an ouspoken feminist media
critic for a few years now, and we all know how such journalists have their
work
Anita
Sarkeesian. Not bad, huh fellas?
cut out for them in this society. Feminism must
at
least be in the top five most controversial subjects of today,
so really none of us should have been too surprised when her campaign was met
with both outright support and hugely disturbed (and, of course, almost
completely anonymous)
backlash.
On her blog website, Feminist Frequency, Sarkeesian condemns depictions of
women and their relatively extraneous relevance in most film and television
(and occasionally comic books), and sometimes criticizes commercial marketing
techniques targeted at young girls. Again, Ms. Sarkeesian is undoubtedly
very
busy in her particular line of work, and now shows no shyness in tackling video
games, a form of media almost totally dominated by young men. Her previous
hard-hitting journalistic web-based video series called
Tropes
vs Women was a big success, and her Kickstarter campaign to fund a
new series called
Tropes vs Women in Video Games is only gaining
more attention, even if all of it isn’t
quite so favorable. Despite
the incessantly abusive comments she’s received via YouTube, the donations
pledged for her new project amounted to almost $160,000, more than 20 times her
initial goal. Wow, talk about girl power.
Applause, fellas?
Now, when it comes to the entertainment industry at large, we all know it
isn’t difficult to come across movies or TV shows meant for women, and it seems
to be getting more and more integrated. The romantic comedy series
How
I Met Your Mother features a variety of male characters and is
really sympathetic toward a female audience. But everybody knows that most
video gamers want to manifest the role of the macho guy with awesome guns who
saves the sexy, helpless woman.
…or do they??
Don’t
forget to write, Lara!!
Ms. Sarkeesian herself seems to be a genuine game fan, and
she
definitely wants a change. In the time of video game characters such as Metroid
protagonist, Samus Aran,
depictions
of women in video games have in fact come a long way since the
damsel-in-distress imagery of the helpless Princess Peach, but Sarkeesian is
playing hard ball. In
Women in Refrigerators, a video blog post from her
previous Tropes vs Women series, she accuses Hollywood of making poor attempts
at liberating women by simply recasting them in “tough male roles.” Most
of us guys probably never thought about it, but she makes a good
point. Even I have to admit I get tired of the same old routine — the
“chicks with guns” thing ran out of steam pretty early for me, and I don’t feel
the slightest bit emasculated to state how tired I am of
unbelievably proportioned
women in animated media.
What
about Chloe? You got a problem with Chloe? Huh, Anita??
The challenge here, I believe, concerns aestheticism according to the target
demographic for video game sales. What would a video game with a
totally
empowered female character look like, and would most people in the current
gaming generation find it any fun at all? Maybe not,
but
as you just learned, the gaming audience
is changing. I’m using my
imagination here, but the idea of a detective game with a protagnoist
resembling Veronica Mars isn’t totally bubbleheaded. A strong woman trying to
get by in Liberty City sounds… interesting, at least. We’re not just talking
about a game that sympathizes with women, I mean a game that really
appeals
to them. It’s like the ESRB’s “Adults Only” rating in videogames: it doesn’t
have much of an audience at this point, but signs are indicating that some day
soon, it definitely will.
As an artistic medium, video games fascinate the hell out of me. I loved
Super Metroid, Manhunt,
Portal 2 and
Uncharted 3. (Many of those titles, by the way, feature a somewhat diverse
array of female characters…iiiinteresting.) It’s heartbreaking to have to watch
my parents roll their eyes as I try to describe the majesty of it all, but
gaming audiences have already begun to branch out into all sorts of different
types, and I think Sarkeesian is living proof. Personally, I can’t wait to see
it and play my part, and in the meantime, all those horribly objectified,
scantily clad video game heroines might be able to visit
Sam’s
Gaming Cupboard for some ideas on how to stay looking modest.
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Comments (10)
Good post, I’m quite on the fence about all this
“objectification” personally. As a female gamer, I like being able to relate to
the characters I play. But then again, I also love playing as Jill Valentine in
the RE5 mercenaries mini-game, in which she’s wearing a…erm…revealing leather
bodysuit. I don’t mind most games, but there are games that make me facepalm
about the female character bodies, like the DOA series.
The physics engine in your console gets a workout
every time a female fighter is chosen.
Hahahahaha
I second the facepalm comment, totally!
I simply want to mention I am just all new to
weblog and absolutely liked your web site. Very likely I’m planning to bookmark
your blog . You absolutely have perfect article content. Thanks a bunch for
sharing with us your blog site.
Thanks very much Sammy, please share!!
J.G. te Molder
Women are objectified, huh? Yeah, like the men are
pudgy, and ugly, and aren’t reduced to glorified fighting and fucking machines.
Say, you want objectification?
Come back to me when 100% of all faceless goons you
brutally slaughter in video games without a single care in the world for her
family and kids, and most likely conscripted in armies without her having a say
in it, are women!
To be fair, I’m pretty sure most of the mobs in
the MMO’s I play are female… though I’m not sure I can tell when it comes to
ogres.
Abbas
I think there’s a difference between appealing to
the sex drive of the male audience and between squeezing the sex factor. I
don’t have much right to criticize Battlestar Galactica’s sex scenes (since
they’re somewhat realistic), but the look of female characters in the Soul
Calibur series insults me. I am a male, and (like most) I like a hot girl, but
the way some matters are done are simply unreasonable,
intellectually-insulting, and aesthetically-flawed.
Native Americans in Video Games: Racism, Stereotypes, &
The Digitized Indian
Tomahawks, bows and arrows, feathered headdresses, a connection to the
spiritual world — these are just a few of the stereotypical elements associated
with the “Indians” of popular culture. Generally, these features, among others,
are mixed together and poured into a cliche “Native American” mould that
characterizes them as either an outdated civilization of savages or
romanticizes them as mystical, nature-loving warriors and shamans. This mould has
only strengthened over time, and has taken form in a variety of entertainment
mediums, starting with literature, then film, then television, and most
recently, video games. A few notable Native American characters that have
appeared in video games include
Mortal Kombat‘s Nightwolf,
a tribal warrior donning feathers and face paint, who wields a bow and arrows,
a tomahawk, and can also transform into a wolf to defeat his adversaries,
Street
Fighter‘s equally stereotypical Thunder Hawk, and
Banjo
Tooie‘s magical shaman Humba Wumba, who lives in a “wigwam” and
becomes oddly sexualized in the following game. We tend to glance over these
highly stereotypical portrayals as fun and harmless, but can these simplified,
misleading images of Native Americans have a negative impact on consumers? Many
of these stereotypes, whether they have some sort of basis in history or not,
are certainly not relevant to the contemporary Native American. In fact, the
common perception of these people as antiquated and exotic could possibly
hinder their ability to synthesize with mainstream society, as it greatly
affects society’s understanding of them as well as their own sense of identity.
That said, it’s interesting to consider the Native American’s place in video
games over the past thirty years as they are certainly under-represented,
occasionally portrayed in a negative light, and almost always plagued by
long-established stereotypes that separate them from the dominant majority,
just as they are in film and literature. So, here is a look at some of the most
memorable characters and controversies that have punctuated the existence of
the “Indian” in video games, accompanied by a discourse on how these trends can
affect attempts at contemporary acculturation and hurt the image of Native
American people.
Can you spot the
similarities?
“How many kids will play this game and then carry what they’ve experienced
into their interactions with real, live Apaches and other Native Americans?”
the Association for American Indian Development asked video game publishing
giant Activision in a public letter accusing the company’s 2006 PC and console
title
GUN
of containing “some very disturbing racist and genocidal elements toward Native
Americans”. The AAID went on to launch an online petition demanding that
Activision “remove all derogatory, harmful, and inaccurate depictions of
American Indians” from the game and reissue a more culturally sensitive
version, threatening to campaign to have the game pulled from store shelves
internationally. Although Activision thereafter issued an apology to anyone who
may have been offended by the game, they justified the content of their product
by pointing out that such depictions had already been “conveyed not only
through video games but through films, television programming, books, and other
media”. The AAID’s subsequent attempts to have the game recalled were barely
acknowledged.
As evident in Activision’s defense of
GUN, many negative
stereotypes about Native American culture are so ingrained in mainstream media
that the near-genocide of an entire culture is rarely treated with the same
sensitivity with which we regard similarly tragic occurrences like the
Holocaust, or African American slavery. The AAID argues that video games like
GUN
undermine the severity of the atrocities committed against First Nations tribes
by the European settlers and marginalize this violence in a way that negatively
affects the image of contemporary Native Americans. Millions of people play
video games, and entertainment can leave long-lasting impressions on consumers,
making it important to be able to criticize misconceptions and separate fantasy
from reality. The impact of media on our mentality towards people and events
certainly cannot be underestimated, so it is understandable that an
organization such as the AAID should be concerned about what kind of images
audiences are exposed to, but were their claims about
GUN‘s
potentially damaging effects warranted?
To the AAID’s credit,
GUN certainly does exploit
numerous Native American stereotypes, reinforces several misleading aspects of
imagined Indian culture such as “Indian scalping” (which seems to exist only
for the sake of increasing the game’s level of violence), and creates misconceptions
about Indian traditions involving the killing of sacred white animals. The game
also demands that players slaughter large numbers of Apache Indians in order to
progress through one particular mission in the game. However, the material is
not as slanted as the AAID suggests. In addition to killing Apache warriors,
the main character Colton White also kills white men and white women, and
actually befriends various Indians in the game, even helping the Apache and
Blackfoot tribes defend themselves against unjust and corrupt whites. In fact,
he eventually discovers that he himself is of Native American heritage, and
switches sides to take down a malignant railroad tycoon named Magruder. So,
while GUN certainly does reinforce a number of misleading Indian stereotypes,
it is easy to see why the AAID’s plea was ignored. Ruthless violence against
Indians is advocated throughout the game, but brutality is also encouraged
towards many whites, hispanics, and so forth. Additionally, much of the
violence towards Indians is contextualized as part of the attempt to protect
migrant Chinese rail-workers from Apache raids as they work on a new train
line. The story itself is one of redemption and revenge, and the story is never
so simple as “wiping out the Apache” as the AAID would lead us to believe.
Essentially, Colton’s adopted father Ned brought ruin upon the Apache tribe
when he introduced them to a party of Confederates, including the
aforementioned Magruder. As might be expected, the tribe was massacred by the settlers
when they came in the way of “progress”. Seeking repentance for his mistake,
Ned thereafter dedicated himself to a mission of revenge upon the Confederates.
When he dies in Mission 3 of the story, the torch is passed to Colton.
Violence against Apache
warriors in GUN.
Over the course of the story, Colton encounters many racist characters,
including the sheriff Patrick Denton. However, these characters don’t
exclusively hate Indians but are intolerant of all different races, creeds, and
religions, not only spewing racist comments about Native Americans, but also
about the Chinese, Irish, and Mexicans (they are essentially bigots). The story
is never really framed from the racist-towards-Indians angle that the AAID
claims, even considering the misconceptions about Native American culture that
occasionally surface. Thus the issue is debatable. Regardless of the stance one
takes on
GUN‘s treatment of Indians, the controversy
surrounding the game makes one wonder about the portrayal of Native Americans
in other video games. After all, the AAID’s reaction to GUN was not the first
time the issue of racism towards Natives has stirred up controversy in the
industry.
Introducing one of the
most offensive games ever created.
Twenty four years before
GUN raised the eyebrows of
Native American activists, a game called
Custer’s Revenge was
released for the Atari 2600. Whereas
GUN‘s racist undertones are
debatable,
Custer’s Revenge is blatantly racist, extremely
vulgar, and highly offensive, especially to Native American women. Made by
now-defunct video game developer Mystique, which developed a number of
pornographic video games throughout the 1980
′s,
the game is widely regarded as one of the most racist games ever developed.
Mystique’s games were programmed in the United States, so one would think the
creators would be imbued with a sense of cultural sensitivity for the people of
that region, but this was certainly not the case with
Custer’s
Revenge. The game has players taking on the persona of a character
named “Custer”, who is quite clearly inspired by George Armstrong Custer, a
United States Army cavalry commander who fought in the Indian Wars, directly
taking part in the slaughter of thousands of Native Americans before ultimately
bringing about his own death and the defeat of his forces when he led them
against numerically superior Indian forces at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Based on the game’s title, one would assume that he will somehow exact a
post-humous revenge on the Indians for killing him and his men. And how exactly
will Custer carry out his vengeance? By repeatedly raping an Indian women, of
course. Oh, and by the way, “Revenge” is actually the name of the woman he
rapes. His revenge thus takes the form of a brutal objectification of Native American
women.
General
Custer: naked, erect, and ready to offend thousands of people for years to
come.
Yes, in the role of Custer, a man who took part in the killing of thousands
of Native Americans in real-life history, players must weave through volleys of
arrows in order to rape a naked, large-breasted Indian woman tied to a cactus.
Of course, you would never know that she’s Native American were it not for the
stereotypical feather in her hair and a teepee billowing smoke in the
background. It’s interesting how these symbols can so easily establish the
context for an otherwise generic — if disturbing — premise, isn’t it? Racist,
misogynistic elements aside, the game itself is simple: dodge, rape, repeat.
And the game gets more challenging each time you rape the Indian woman, and you
will need to rape her many times indeed to get a good high score. That’s the
experience in its entirety, and the game’s box exclaims that “she’s not about
to take it lying down, by George!”, clarifying the intentions of the
developers. The game’s designer, Joe Miller, claims that the purpose of his
game was to get people “smiling” and “laughing”. Needless to say, many people
were not as amused as Miller was when the game hit store shelves in 1982.
Custer’s
Revenge was met with considerable criticism from the enthusiast
press and targeted by Native Americans, women’s rights activists, and various
other groups for its racist and misogynistic content. American feminist Andrea
Dworkin said that the game “generated many gang rapes of Native American
women”, lawsuits abounded, and the game was eventually pulled off of the
market. But only after selling around 80,000 copies, meaning that 80,000 people
either laughed while they raped a naked, bound Indian woman against a spiky
cactus, or cringed. Or something in between.
Racism and Misogyny in
Action (uncensored).
Of course, the sexual objectification of Native American women in popular
culture is not something that started with
Custer’s Revenge. The image
of the exotic “Indian Princess” is widespread, although usually not in such a
graphic and violent manner. In the Disney films of
Pocahontas and
Peter
Pan, in television, in literature from the early nineteenth century
— this image is not something new or isolated. There is a book by M. Elise
Marubbio titled
Killing the Indian Maiden that looks in depth at
these images as they appear in film, explaining how and why the “white
male-dominated” film industry constructs Indian women as “subservient,
simplistic, self-destructive” and desirable “Others”. The video games business
is also a white male-dominated industry, and thus many of the ideas in
Marubbio’s book can be applied to it as well. It’s worth checking out if you
want to learn more about the driving forces behind these characterizations.
The sexualization of Native American women in video games did not stop with
Custer’s
Revenge, although it never again reached the same absurd level of
offensiveness. The sexualization has continued into the new millennium, visible
in Mature-rated games like
Bonetown,
Darkwatch,
and even the all-ages game,
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.
Characters like
Darkwatch‘s Tala (also known as “Stalking Wolf”)
are definitely a step up from the woman victimized in
Custer’s
Revenge, but are largely still the objects of white men’s lust. For
example, by using her sex appeal, Tala seduces the story’s main character,
Civil War veteran Jericho Cross, having sex with him in order to further her
own needs. Tala is not only a temptress, but also a shaman with mysterious powers,
adding typical “native mysticism” to her sexualization and laundry list of
other stereotypical ‘Indian’ traits. Indeed, there is something about the
mystical, exotic “Other” that holds deep appeal with audiences, and this appeal
can be extrapolated beyond the boundaries of sexual objectification. That is to
say that our attraction to the popular images of Native American culture is not
limited to the eroticization of its females, but can be extended to our
fascination with character archetypes such as the spiritual shaman, the noble
savage, the skilled warrior, and so forth. With regard to these romanticized
stereotypes that we find so enchanting, Michael A. Sheyashe, the author of
Native
Americans in Comics, writes that video games “target a young and
impressionable audience and leave them with no idea who we are as Natives or
what our viable culture is all about”. His statement rings true when we look at
all the games out there that make their characters “Indian” by simply handing
them bows and arrows, slapping war paint on their faces, putting feathers in
their hair, or giving them mysterious spiritual powers, in addition to other
superficial qualities that are not at all relevant to contemporary Native
American culture. The naked woman of
Custer’s Revenge is the sad
extreme of these romanticized misconceptions, and the warriors dancing around
fires in
Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs to bolster
their powers is an example the typical.
Tala,
as featured in Playboy’s ‘Videogames’ Hottest Chicks’ Issue.
One of the first encounters I had with “Indians” in video games as a child
was took place via the
Turok series. The first entry in the series,
Turok:
Dinosaur Hunter, was released in 1997 and was one of the first
blockbuster video games to feature a Native American as the central
protagonist. The main character was a warrior named Tal’Set, who was charged
with stopping the evil Campaigner from using a powerful, ancient weapon to
control the universe. In the series mythos, each generation the title of
“Turok” is passed down to the tribe’s eldest male, who must then guard the
barrier between Earth and the Lost Land; the same barrier that the Campaigner
wishes to break. The Lost Land is a primitive otherworld of sorts that is
inhabited by dinosaurs, animals, and is entirely segregated from the struggles
of modernizing humanity. It seems so typical that Native Americans would have
this connection to another mystical, spiritual world, doesn’t it? This native
mysticism is bolstered in
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil,
which introduces an “Energy Totem” and magical talismans that grant special
powers to the new Turok, Joshua Fireseed. Simply put,
Turok
embraces the same stereotypes that have clung to the Indian culture constructed
in popular media for the past several hundred years. A mystical connection to
the spiritual world, superb tracking and sneaking abilities, bows and arrows,
tomahawks, feathers — the staples of “Indianhood” are in full bloom. An
important part of the series involves facing off against dinosaurs in the Lost
Land, and who better to overcome nature’s greatest beasts than those whom we
perceive as nature’s greatest hunters? The
Turok series, while
colouring Native Americans as cool and powerful, reinforces stereotypes that
paint Indian culture as something ancient and segregated from the rest of the
world. The games never delve into the cultural background of the characters
beyond their bows and arrows, hunting, and the usual mill of superficial
features. Tal’Set, Joshua, and the other Turoks are “Native” simply because of
the stereotypical qualities that we accept as the basis for being such.
Various
Turok game covers. Check out those savage beasts and savage hunters.
Although it was great to see Native American characters at the helm in a
series of million-seller video games for the first time,
Turok
never gave its protagonists personalities that extended very far beyond the
conventional, run-of-the mill Indian stereotypes that have persisted for
centuries. Recently, however, a game titled
Prey was released that
attempts to explore its Indian characters at a deeper level. Like
Turok,
Prey
casts a Native American as the protagonist. However, Cherokee tribe member
Tommy Tawodi is very different from Tal’Set and Joshua Fireseed. Unlike those
characters, Tommy ditches decorative feathers and war paint, puts on a shirt,
and dresses in contemporary fashion.
Prey makes it clear that
Tommy and the other Cherokee are characters of the modern world — not members
of an exotic, extinct culture of the past. Tommy is interesting compared to
most Indian characters in popular entertainment in that he wants to break away
from the traditions of the Cherokee, dislikes life on the reservation, and is
spiteful of those around him who are caught up in cultural customs and
humdrum. The game begins in a rundown bar on the tribe’s reserve. As Tommy
walks out of the bathroom and players see lines of gambling machines, one can’t
help but connect the setting to contemporary Indian stereotypes, but Tommy’s
dialogue soon establishes the setting as something intended to raise questions
about Native American identity. After a short period of time on the reserve,
Tommy and the other Cherokee are abducted by aliens and brought to a mysterious
ship.
Experience Prey’s story
up to and including the abduction.
The plot sounds a bit ridiculous, but the atmosphere and storytelling are
solid. As one might anticipate, Tommy’s “mystical Indian heritage” comes into
play aboard the ship, as Tommy is able to use his previously unrealized
spiritual powers to destroy foes with a magically enhanced bow and arrows,
sense impending threats, see paths that others cannot, and so forth. These
abilities reek of conventional “native mysticism”, but Tommy must ultimately
accept the value of his people’s unique connection to their ancient beliefs and
spirituality. Tommy’s spiritual abilities, while typical of the “mystical
Indian” image, are clearly intended as a way of allowing for innovative
gameplay and not merely as a superficial inclusion, so the realm of senseless
stereotyping is generally evaded in this regard. The game’s story is closely
tied to Tommy’s perception of himself as a Cherokee, ending with Tommy in a
state of bliss about his Cherokee heritage. The personal journey during which
Tommy gains confidence in his identity as a Native American is both unique and
charming considering the typical flat portrayal of Indian characters in popular
culture. Tommy’s voice actor, Michael Greyeyes, laments that Hollywood
“typically relegates different indigenous cultures into either a single
pan-Indian construct” (eg. radical protestor, anglicized casino businessmen) or
“most commonly, as a historical figure — typically from a Plains culture”, and
states that he was excited to voice Tommy because he breaks away from these
stereotypes. Greyeyes excitement was well-founded, as Tommy is neither a
typical Indian stock character nor an outdated “noble savage”.
Prey
takes a step away from typical Indian stereotypes by offering a complex
character who is not the typical Indian of popular culture. The game draws
heavily on Cherokee myths and falls back on a few cliches, but ultimately
offers a refreshing attempt at telling a story about Indians for a mainstream
audience. One can only hope that this trend will continue, and that Native
American protagonists continue to break from traditional character roles and
time-hardened stereotypes.
Tommy
Tawodi: A new kind of Native American hero.
Based on your own experiences with supposed “Indian” culture in interactive
entertainment, what do you think about the portrayal of Native Americans in
video games? Are recent games, such as 2010
′s
Red
Dead Redemption, making progress in depicting Indians that aren’t
trapped by traditional character archetypes? Persistent stereotypes, presented
through film, literature, video games, and other media, can damage society’s
perceptions of visible ethnic groups, and there are numerous misconceptions
about Native Americans that are held up by the stereotypes existing in video
games. Are we headed in the right direction?
Stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stereotypes of Arabs and
Muslims in the United States have been presented in various forms by the mass media
in the American culture. Stereotypical representations of Arabs are often
manifested in a society's media, literature, theater and other creative expressions. These representation, which have been
historically and predominantly negative, often have adverse repercussions for Arab
Americans and Muslims
in daily interactions and in current
events. In American textbooks, which theoretically should be less-creative
expressions, similar negative and inaccurate stereotypes are also found for
Arabs[1]
and Muslims.[2]
Racist Arab Stereotypes
For centuries the Arab has played
the role of villain, seducer, hustler and thief -- the barbarian lurking at the
gates of civilization. In the late 20th Century new images emerged: the
fanatical terrorist and the suicide bomber. Arabs have become the all-purpose
villains or buffoons across all American media, including books, films,
television, and computer games.
The Sheik
The Sheik has long flowing robes,
a beard, sunglasses, pockets stuffed with petrodollars, and he drives a giant
SUV.
The Bedouin
The Bedouin is a nomad who treks
the desert sands on a camel and sleeps in a tent.
The Terrorist
The Terrorist is a mad dog who is
happy to sacrifice his life to kill women and children, and because he'll get
79 virgins in heaven.
The Maiden
The Maiden is a beautiful
princess who wears a veil, is waited on my numerous female attendants and is
guarded by eunuchs.
The Burka
The Burka is a robe with only a
mesh opening for the eyes. Arab women have to dress this way so they don't
excite men who cannot control their sexual urges if they see a wrist or an
ankle.
The Arab "Street"
Angry people who take to the
streets shouting "Death to America" while shaking their fists and
beating themselves with chains.
The Haggler
All sellers in the market are
hagglers who ask outrageous prices for their goods, but they will cut their
prices to the bone in the face of any resistance. In Appointment With Death
(1988) Lauren Bacall says, Arabs "have a nose for bargaining."
The Bellydancer
Belly dancers dance provocatively
and are sexually available.
This proliferation of negative ethnic stereotypes is damaging to society in
many ways, but the stereotypes can be especially harmful to children who aren't
also being exposed to positive ethnic images.
Arabface in Film and TV
Hollywood has consistently
stereotyped Arabs since the earliest films, but filmmakers did not create the
stereotypes, they inherited and embellished Europe's pre-existing Arab
caricatures. Thomas Edison made a short film in 1897 in which "Arab"
women in harem outfits dance to seduce a male audience. The short clip was
called Fatima Dances and was the first film to use the belly dancer stereotype.
French filmmaker Georges Méliès produced several films in the early 1900s that
made use of existing Arab stereotypes; dancing harem maidens, fat potentates,
bearded camel-jockeys, and palace eunuchs.
American media has evolved to
depict a more balanced view of most cultures, but Arab stereotypes remain
one-dimensional. Hollywood has always relied on stereotypical depictions of
"bad guys" and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Arabs became the
bad guys of choice in American action films. It's not surprising that so many
people think of Arabs only as terrorists and murderers because of how the media
usually presents them. Some in the Arab American community call this the three
B syndrome: Arabs in TV and movies are portrayed as either bombers, belly
dancers, or billionaires.
Planet of The Arabs is a montage of Hollywood's relentless vilification and
dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims. Inspired by the book "Reel Bad
Arabs" by Dr. Jack Shaheen
Negative portraits of Arabs are
found in numerous popular films, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Back
to the Future (1985), and True Lies (1994). While producers, executives and
others in entertainment industry deny perpetuating stereotypes, negative
attitudes towards Arabs are self-evident in the depictions. Until the media
makes greater use of positive aspects of Arab culture and peoples within normal
everyday contexts negative stereotypes will continue to be the dominant images.
A good example of cartoons
depicting Arabs in a negative manner is the Disney animated feature film,
Aladdin (1993). In its attempts to make the film more appealing to the Western
world, Disney Americanized the names and appearances of the lead characters.
The film‘s light-skinned lead characters, Aladdin and Jasmine, have Anglicized
features and Anglo-American accents while most of the other characters are
dark-skinned, swarthy and villainous, with Arabic accents and grotesque facial
features.
Disney is by no means the only
offender. Arab stereotypes are a staple of Saturday morning TV cartoons that
depict Arab women as belly dancers and harem girls, and Arab men as marauding
tribesmen, violent terrorists, and oil sheiks.
Scores of comedies have presented
Arabs as buffoons. Many popular stars have mocked Arabs: Laurel and Hardy in
Beau Hunks (1931); Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in Road to Morocco (1942); the Marx
Brothers in A Night in Casablanca (1946); Abbott and Costello in Abbott and
Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950); the Bowery Boys in Bowery to Baghdad
(1955); Phil Silvers in Follow that Camel (1967) Marty Feldman in The Last
Remake of Beau Geste (1977); Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty in Ishtar (1987).
Arabs trying to abduct, rape, and
or kill fair skinned Western maidens has been another very popular theme that
dates to the earliest days of filmmaking. In Captured by Bedouins (1912)
marauding tribesmen kidnap a Western girl, try to seduce her, and then demand a
ransom for her return. Their plans are thwarted when the girl's British officer
fiancée sneaks into their camp and rescues her.
Several films with the same theme
were popular in the 1980s; desert sheikhs abducting and threatening to rape
Western maidens; Brook Shields in Sahara (1983), Goldie Hawn in Protocol
(1984), Bo Derek in Bolero (1984), and Kim Basinger in Never Say Never Again
(1986).
Israeli Film producers Menachem
Golan and Yoram Globus bought the American film company Cannon Films in the
1980s and produced a string of 26 virulent anti-Arab films like Hell Squad
(1985), Invasion USA (1985), The Delta Force (1986), Delta Force II (1986), and
Killing Streets (1991). These films pioneered the stereotype of Arab terrorists
in action films and most of the Arabs were played as broad caricatures by
Israeli actors in "arabface."
In Executive Decision (1996)
terrorists hijack a Boeing 747, en-route to Washington, DC. They beat and kill
innocent people, including a flight attendant and a US Senator while demanding
the release of a terrorist leader who was previously captured by US
authorities. But after the leader is released it is revealed that the actual
mission is to blow-up Washington DC and contaminate the entire Eastern Seaboard
of the USA with a nerve gas that was hidden aboard the aircraft. When one
terrorist objects to the new mission as something that Allah would not approve
of, he is promptly killed by the terrorist leader.
In The Siege (1998) New York City
is terrorized by a series of bombings carried out by a fifth column of
Arab-American blue collar workers and students. They detonate a bomb in a
Federal Building, a crowded theater, and a city bus. These actions cause the
imposition of martial law and widespread violations of the civil rights of
Arab-Americans. The abuses ignite a backlash of protests from the
Arab-Americans that other terrorists seek to exploit by bombing their own
people in the midst of a protest. The terrorists' plan to cause and exploit
divisions among Americans is foiled, but in many ways the film itself serves
the same ends by sowing fear and suspicion along racial lines.
In Rules of Engagement (2000)
producers broke new ground in American cinema by attempting to justify the
slaughter of children. The film slowly reveals details that bring viewers to
the point where the machine-gunning of a crowd of Arab demonstrators outside of
an American embassy seems reasonable because the American commanding officer
believed some in the crowd were firing at his soldiers. When the smoke clears,
83 civilians lie dead and 100 have been wounded, including many women and
children, but no weapons are ever found. After an international outcry, the
commanding officer is charged with the murder of innocent civilians.
Innocent victim -- or terrorist?
Rules of Engagement first elicits our sympathy for a young girl who has been
crippled when American soldiers fired on Arab civilians. But a later flashback
from the point of view of the Colonel who is on trial for ordering the troops
to fire on the civilians shows the same girl along with other men, women and
children firing weapons. Is the flashback an accurate representation of what
actually happened or just the way the Colonel remembers it because he is on
trial for murder? The film never answers that question, but the court
vindicates the Colonel.
No evidence was found to support
the Colonel's version and no other soldiers saw the weapons. Had the court
considered the geography where the incident took place they might have reached
a different verdict. The American soldiers were on the roof of a tall embassy
building and shielded by low walls. They saw snipers firing at them from a roof
across a courtyard. Civilians were demonstrating in the courtyard in front of
the embassy. The Americans began taking casualties, and the Colonel believed
the demonstrators were firing at his men, but was it reasonable to think that
those casualties were due to shots coming from the crowd below instead of from
the snipers on the rooftop across the courtyard? Even if the Americans were
being fired upon from the courtyard area, no one in that location would have
had a clear shot at them. But when the order to return fire was finally given,
the soldiers fired on the crowd below instead of on the snipers who were
directly across from them.
The rules of engagement for
American soldiers say that if a civilian of any age points a weapon at them
they are allowed to kill that person in self-defense. However the film raises
some very important questions that were never even considered; what if a small
number of people with guns fire from within a much larger crowd that is
unarmed? Is it reasonable to mow down the entire crowd to kill a few gunmen?
The film seems to be saying that it's OK as long as the innocent civilians are
Arabs. How many innocent Arab civilians can be sacrificed for each
"terrorist?" The film seems to be saying as many as necessary. Would
the answers to those questions be different if the innocent civilians being
used as human shields were Americans instead of Arabs?
Hundreds of thousands of innocent
civilians have been killed in the Middle East in the last decade and many of
these deaths have been excused as unavoidable collateral damage by American
political and military leaders. If American intelligence believes a wanted
terrorist is hiding in a residential area, they have no problem with launching
a missile strike that takes out a few civilians in order to get one bad guy.
The American people -- if they hear about the deaths at all -- don't care how
many Arab civilians become collateral damage in the "war on terror"
and this attitude is the inevitable result of the long history of dehumanizing
stereotypes of Arabs in American media.
Rudolph
Valentino's roles in The Sheik (1921) and The Son of the Sheik (1926) set the stage for the exploration and negative
portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood films. Both The Sheik and The Son of
the Sheik represented Arab characters as thieves, charlatans, murderers,
and brutes.
Other foreign movies of the 1920s
share a common theme of power-hungry, brutal Arabs ultimately defeated by
westerners:
Simon singles out A Son of the Sahara (1924) as "the strongest subconscious attack on
the Arab culture of all the Arab movies of the 1920s."[4]
The same themes prevailed into
the 1970s and beyond:
- Black Sunday (1977), based on a successful 1975
novel by Thomas Harris, concerns an Arab terrorist plot to bomb a stadium
during the Super Bowl.
- The Black Stallion (1979) opens with Arabs mistreating a
horse aboard a ship, then attacking a boy with a knife and stealing his
life jacket.
- Back to the Future (1985) went so far as to name a specific country, referring to
antagonists in the film as "Libyan
nationalists".
Billionaires,
bombers, and belly dancers
A report titled "100 Years
of Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim stereotyping" by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, director
of media relations for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, specifies what some in the Arab American
community call "the three B syndrome": "Arabs in TV and movies
are portrayed as either bombers, belly dancers, or billionaires" in reference to Arab men
being portrayed as terrorist or as wealthy oilmen and Arab women being
portrayed as sex objects. Also the report mentioned that even cartoons have
been insulting to Arab and Muslims and how the people who live in the US and
interact with its community are the most affected by these stereotypes because
they will be treated differently at many points. The report also explains that these
stereotypes don't only cause psychological harm (culture, insult) but also
helps feed into actions that are physically harmful by dehumanizing a group
first before attacking it.[page needed] According to
Mazin B. Qumsiyeh:
Thomas Edison made a short film in 1897 for his patented Kinetoscope in which "Arab" women with enticing
clothes dance to seduce a male audience. The short clip was called Fatima
Dances (Belly dancer stereotype). The trend has shifted over the years and
was dominated by the "billionaires" for a short while especially
during the oil crises in the seventies. However, in the last 30 some years, the
predominant stereotype by far has been the "Arab bombers."[5]
In a piece in the Los Angeles Times published July 28, 1997, Laila Lalami offers a 12-step guide to making a successful
Arab-bashing movie, including such items as "the villains must all have
beards", "they must all wear keffiehs", "they must all have names like Ali,
Abdul or Mustapha" and "have them threaten to blow something
up."[6]
After the September 11th
terrorist attacks, Arab-American actors have found themselves even more likely
to be type-cast as a terrorist.[7]
Jack Shaheen, Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University, documented these trends in his book The TV Arab (ISBN 0-87972-309-2), which identifies more than 21 major
movies released over ten years which show the U.S. military killing Arabs with
Arabs depicted as being terrorists or enemies of the United States. These
include:
In Reel Bad Arabs (ISBN 1-84437-019-4), Shaheen writes that "television's
image of the Arab is omnipresent [and] is becoming a part of American
folklore." He also writes that Arabs have "consistently appeared in
American popular culture as billionaires, bombers, and belly dancers."[8]
Arab Muslims are fanatics who
believe in a different god, who don't value human life as much as we do, they
are intent on destroying us (the west) with their oil or with their terrorism;
the men seek to abduct and brutally seduce our women; they are without family
and reside in a primitive place (the desert) and behave like primitive beings.
The women are subservient — resembling black crows — or we see them portrayed
as mute, somewhat exotic harem maidens.[9]
The movies which Shaheen
identifies as the three worst in terms of negative portrayal of Arabs in modern
films are:
Profiling of
Muslims and Arabs in the United States in the aftermath of the 9/11 Attacks
In the aftermath of the September
11 attacks in which 15 of
the 19 hijackers were of Saudi Arabian origin and all were of Muslim faith,
Arabs and Muslims complained of increased scrutiny and racial profiling at
airports. In a poll conducted by the Boston Globe, 71 percent of Blacks and 57
percent of Whites believed that "Arabs and Arab-Americans should undergo
special, more intensive security checks before boarding airplanes."[10][11] Some Muslims and Arabs have complained of being
held without explanation and subjected to hours of questioning and arrest
without cause. Such cases have led to lawsuits being filed by the American
Civil Liberties Union.[12] Fox News radio host Mike Gallagher suggested that airports have a "Muslims
Only" line in the wake of the 9/11 attacks stating "It's time to have
a Muslims check-point line in America's airports and have Muslims be
scrutinized. You better believe it, it's time."[13] In Queens, New York, Muslims and Arabs have
complained that the NYPD is unfairly targeting Muslim communities in raids tied
to the alleged Zazi terror plot.[14]
See also
Bibliographies
& Videographies
References
- ^ American School Textbooks – How
They Portrayed the Middle East from 1898 to 1994 American
Educational History Journal, Volume 35, Number 1 and 2, 2008, edited by J.
Wesley Null
- ^ review of Interpreting Islam in
American Schools
- ^ Movie details and plot summary New
York Times - Movies
- ^ Scott J.
Simon. "Arabs in Hollywood: An
Undeserved Image". Emerson College. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ 100 Years of anti-Arab and
anti-Muslim stereotyping by Mazin B. Qumsiyeh
- ^ Why Hollywood Owes Me Money by Laila Lalami
- ^ Khalil,
Ashraf (4 October 2007). "But can you play a terrorist?". Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ The Portrayal of Arabs in American
Media
- ^ a b Patrick Harrington interviews,
Jack Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs
- ^ "Terror Probe Changes Face of
Racial Profiling Debate". FOX News. 1 October
2001. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11
hijackers were Saudi". USA Today. 6 February
2002. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ MacFarquhar,
Neil (1 June 2006). "Terror Fears Hamper U.S.
Muslims' Travel". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ "Fox News Airs Suggestion for
'Muslim-Only' Airport Line". The Huffington Post. 16 August 2006. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
- ^ Henrick
Karoliszyn, Samuel Goldsmith (10 October 2009). "Muslim advocates charge NYPD
is racial profiling". Daily News (New York). Archived from the original on 12
October 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
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