|
October 11, 2002
Jack
Shaheen to Discuss Stereotyping of Arabs in the Media
|
Jack
Shaheen
|
Post–September
11 America is a difficult place for an expert trying to fight
media stereotyping of Arabs. Yet Jack Shaheen, an authority on
this topic, is undeterred. Last October, the Los Angeles Times
noted, "Now [Shaheen] has to fight for his cause knee-deep
in bloodlust; the very networks for whom he has consulted have
passed on inviting him to discuss his book. He knows what he's
up against: Who wants to hear about the vilification of Arabs
in film when they did this to us?" Shaheen's reply is that
his message has taken on even greater importance since the terrorist
attacks. "People that know me and are close to me said, ‘Isn't
this a tremendous setback for you?,' " Shaheen said in the
Times piece. "And I said, ‘No, what are you talking
about? Not to make an effort to cease this unending barrage of
images of hate would mean that I have allowed this lunatic fringe
to prevent me and my colleagues from helping to bring people together.'
"
|
|
A former CBS news
consultant on Middle East affairs whose other clients have ranged
from the United Nations to Warner Brothers, Shaheen has been a
regular guest on Nightline, Good Morning America, and The
Today Show. His next stop is Mount Holyoke, where on Wednesday,
October 16, the author of the award-winning Reel Bad Arabs:
How Hollywood Vilifies a People (Interlink Publishing 2001)
and professor emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois
University will discuss stereotyping of Arabs in the media in
Clapp Lab's Hooker Auditorium at 7:30 pm.
Shaheen began writing
about media stereotyping of Arabs in 1978 for the Wall Street
Journal. His book The TV Arab (Popular Press), in which
he discusses the ways television stereotypes Arabs as "billionaires,
bombers and belly dancers," was published in 1984; that book
was followed by another, Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American
Popular Culture (Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding,
Georgetown University, 1997). "Hurtful and harmful stereotypes
do not exist in a vacuum. Continuously repeated, they denigrate
peoples, narrow our vision, and blur reality," says Shaheen,
who contends that hurtful caricatures of Asians, blacks, Latinos,
and others are being perpetuated by the media. In his MHC talk,
he will explain why such portraits persist and will discuss solutions
to the problem of stereotyping. Punctuating the discussion with
an analysis of media clips, Shaheen will focus on how the media
has consistently led Americans to view Arabs as enemies of the
West.
Shaheen's talk is
cosponsored by the Muslim Students Association (UMMA) and Asian
American Sisters in Action (AASIA). "We are all very excited
about Jack Shaheen coming to MHC," says Maha Jahangir '04.
"We hope his discussion will inspire students to talk about
the points he brings up and the negative stereotypes they are
subjected to in the media." Shaheen was brought to campus
with the support of the College Inclusive Fund and the Purington
Lecture Fund.
Shaheen's lecture
comes on the heels of a talk by physicist Peter Galison, who was
the first speaker in the College's yearlong visual studies series.
Associate Professor of Art Anthony Lee, a coorganizer of the series,
sees in Galison's discussion of the differences between writing
and filming the history of the hydrogen bomb and in Shaheen's
discussion of Middle East violence the belief that images seduce.
"Under the cover of seduction, popular images can dispense
huge arguments about race and racial difference as if they are
not arguments at all," says Lee. "These two speakers
are reminding us that it is within our interest to view representations
in a critical way and realize that images, those from the middle
of the twentieth century and those being made today, are doing
lots of work to persuade."
Shaheen, a recipient
of two Fulbright teaching awards, holds degrees from the Carnegie
Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, and the
University of Missouri.
The
counter is
13,162
|
