To piggy-back off of my previous blog, I have narrowed my classical argument paper about minority's portrayal in films and television to stereotypes that have been generated about Arabs and Muslims in not only media, but in society as well. Ever since 9/11, there has been an nation-wide generalization that most, if not all, members of the Muslim religion are secretly terrorists, or harbor anti-American sentiments. Degrading images of Arabs all across the media, (the internet, for example, has numerous pictures of cartooned-versions of Islamic terrorists screaming gibberish before exploding into a colorful burst of orange and red) offer devastating implications of the stereotypical Arab. Over time, these images have served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture in general. This has lead to many Americans creating a narrow and one-sided view of Arabs and their culture. Hollywood, and media in general, has inspired people from all over the globe to depict an entire race as hostile, unwanted, giving no warrants about the social, political, and basic human consequences of letting these stereotypes be.
A film, "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People," communicates to its viewers that change is necessary and that those who injustly stereotype a diverse and varied people such as the Arabs are only ignorant of the reality and richness of a country's history and culture. There re a few that may say that the creators of movies such as "Reel Bad Arabs" only pick-and-choose interesting antedotes meant to arouse entertainment value or sentimentality over more humanistic ventures. However, a movie's sole purpose should never be to enterntain. Movies, films, TV shows and other areas of media also harbor the ability to educate its audience. For those who may not know much about the Arabic people or any other minority, movies such as the one below can become a source of enlightenment.
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