Stereotypes In Hollywood Film Analysis

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, media approaches have altered. On Television shows and movies, in newspapers and on the radio, there has been an increase in hate crimes targeting Arabs and Muslims. Most coverage today follows a script that represents Arabs and Muslims only in the context of terrorism. Evelyn Alsultany wrote a book called Arabs and Muslims in the Media in 2012. The stories explained the new standards in racial and cultural representations after 9/11.

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

People constantly try to gain direction and insight from their evaluations of other people. One such way they do so is through stereotypes. Stereotypes are cognitive constructs involving an individual’s half-truths and distorted realities knowledge, expectations, and beliefs about human groups. As such, racial stereotypes are constructed beliefs that all members of the same race share certain specific characteristics. In America, the media and Hollywood play an integral role in entrenching and dispelling these stereotypes. However, Hollywood and the media create characters according to stereotypes to attract an audience, from which the viewers can reflect on and laugh at the stereotypes recognizable within American society. This paper seeks to discuss the common stereotypes in American society and how the media and Hollywood promotes those stereotypes and their impacts.

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

Since 9/11 Islamophobia has grown in America and it is reinforced by movies coming out of Hollywood, the stereotypes that are shown in movies are there before 9/11 but since then they have only gotten worse and intensified. The Muslims in post-9/11 films are based on their ethnicity or economic status more than on their religious beliefs. Muslims from all over the world have stayed mixed with Arabs and associated with the same character types like the sheikhs, maidens, Egyptians, and Palestinians. Similar to the early Americans calling Indians savages regardless of their tribal differences. American movies have always been prejudiced toward minorities, but have gotten better. Muslims, however

Psychologists performed an experiment and found that, “half the study participants had depression serious enough to warrant further assessment, they found. A quarter reported moderate to severe anxiety” (Amer, 2011). The depression rates are higher than they are in the general public. This proves that the racial-profiling, hate, and discrimination are affecting the Arab-American community. These results can also be extended people from Middle Eastern and Indian backgrounds. “Though many Americans do not disagree, the continuous questioning – and the increasing anti-Muslim sentiment and activity – seem to suggest, according to CAIR-Chicago Communications Coordinator Leena Saleh, that there is an undue “stigma that still surrounds Muslims over a decade later” (Almasri, 2011). To this day, the prejudice and hate that have plagued the Muslim community have not ceased. Until the people are properly educated about Islam and its people, and until the majority stand up against the radical groups, nothing will

investigation of Arab depiction in Hollywood films in light of his audit of around 900

With the long history of Hollywood’s stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims (the history of which is explored throughout this online exhibit), the NVP survey results are not really surprising. Jack Shaheen, Evelyn Alsultany, and other scholars have argued that Hollywood faces less stigma for stereotyping Arabs and Muslims as opposed to other ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Imagine Jewish or African American characters being portrayed in such persistently negative ways as Arabs or Muslims. In reality, Jewish people and African Americans (see also: Who Else Has Been An Other) were portrayed in blatantly racist and offensive manners for decades. In fact, many of the present-day offensive stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims are based on horrible caricatures of Jews and African Americans from more than a hundred years ago.[1] Jewish people were often portrayed as thieves and liars with big hook noses, and African Americans were almost always represented as simultaneously child-like but dangerous to the American (read: white) way of life. But civil rights organizations spoke up and continue to speak on behalf of these groups and have fought for more accurate representations.

To test the relationship between Hollywood Movies and the racism through measuring the extent impact of Hollywood Movies in formatting a stereotype about Muslim on NYIT students.

This act of bigotry was condemned in some quarters, however, the Delta/ASA pilot and the frightened passengers received support from numerous voices among the American commentariat (Cole, 2011). Thus, the discrimination against Muslims in the United States is still evident and the need for more objective portrayal of Muslims in Hollywood films is continually increasing.

Syed Soharwardy asserts that “Media always tried to portray Islam as a religion of terror and all the Muslims as terrorists. The way the talk-show programs and news are produced and presented, it seems that the media has already decided the guilty verdict, regardless what would be the outcome of an investigation” (Soharwardy). So too do members of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee recognize the media’s predisposition toward bias, as is pointed out in this statement, found on their website: “Key industries of American mass culture, Holllywood and television, for decades have been bastions of anti-Arab stereotyping, and have consistently resisted positive or realistic representations of Arabs and Arab Americans. (Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee).”

Muslims are not particularly shown in a good light here in America. In the news all you hear about are Muslim extremists causing harm. In movies Muslims are usually depicted as evil terrorists that are America’s main enemy. Sadly, there are not many Muslims here to combat these ignorant views. Due to the lack of Muslims to defend themselves,

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).

Islam is the second most practiced religion in the world with 1.5 billion followers worldwide. With six million people practicing Islam in America, it is one of the fastest growing religions in this country. However, since the September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001 the Islamic religion has been under much scrutiny publically in America. Many people who practice this religion have been subjected to discrimination as well as verbal and physical attacks by fellow Americans. However a high level of scrutiny is not a foreign concept to Muslims in America as they have struggled for acceptance in this country for centuries acquiring many highs as well as lows. In this paper I will analyze the image of Muslims in America’s history and how