MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS EXPERT JACK SHAHEEN TO DISCUSS
STEREOTYPING OF ARABS IN THE MEDIA

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Jack Shaheen, a former CBS news consultant on Middle East affairs and the author of the award-winning book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, will discuss stereotyping of Arabs in the media on Wednesday, October 16, at 7:30 pm in Clapp Lab's Hooker Auditorium. The talk is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.

Post-September 11 America is a difficult place for an expert trying to fight media stereotyping of Arabs. Yet Shaheen 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. "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," Shaheen said in the Times.

Shaheen, whose other clients have ranged from the United Nations to Warner Brothers, has been a regular guest on Nightline, Good Morning America, and The Today Show. He 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 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.

Shaheen's talk is being cosponsored by the Muslim Students Association (UMMA) and Asian American Sisters in Action (AASIA). Shaheen was brought to campus with the support of the College Inclusive Fund and the Purington Lecture Fund.

Shaheen, professor emeritus of mass communications at Southern Illinois University, is the recipient of two Fulbright teaching awards and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Lifetime Achievement Award. He holds degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Missouri.