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Tareq Siniora
Professor Holly Batty
Eng 114A
8 December 2014
Stereotypes against Arabs

There are numerous stereotypes that exist and most if not all race groups are victims of
these stereotypes. For example all Chinese are straight A students or he is black, so he is most
definitely aggressive and dumb the list just keeps on going. Even though many stereotypes exist
none are depicted as bad as the Arab. There are many stereotypes Arabs are victims of. In this
essay I will show you a couple of political cartoons that depict the typical racism Arabs are
subjected to in their everyday life.

In my opinion stereotype and racism come hand in hand, both deny people of their
humanity. Also ever since the media was born it made matters worse for the Arabs. Firstly the
stereotype that is used by the majority of the world is that whenever they think of an Arab they
immediately view him/her as Muslim which of course is very incorrect in fact many Arabs are
Christians. Another stereotype which is also widely used is that all Arabs are wealthy and they
have enough money for their great great grandsons to live a prosperous life without them ever
even working; this certainly is erroneous, and many Arabs are homeless and spend days living on
a piece of cheap, dry bread. An additional stereotype about Arabs is that they all live in tents
and ride camels to work; my friend and I were subjected to this type of racism. When we made
friends with a person at the orientation. He actually thought that we ride camels in our daily life.

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The most important stereotype that is used to depict Arabs is that they are terrorist. Arabs are
constantly portrayed as the bad people; this is especially true after 9/11, when a group of
extremists, and terrorists committed a gruesome act, but that does not mean that every Arab is a
terrorist. The fanatic group responsible for this horrible act does not represent us Arabs. The
image built is one that Arab people may never escape.

Without any hesitation the power of the media has to influence stereotypes is clear. In
whatever form it may have the media has its ways to manipulate peoples minds and thoughts. In
this first cartoon an American man is reading the newspaper about an Attack on America and
thinking HOW CAN SOMEONE HAVE SO MUCH BLIND HATRED TOWARD AN
ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE, and he is blindly accepting the reality that is given to him
without ever questioning it, and afterwards he wears a shirt saying DEATH TO ALL ARABS
contradicting himself and to all is the key words that they are not targeting the real terrorists
Arabs but all Arabs. From another point of view; the American man is subjected to stereotype
too. He is portrayed as fat and an unintelligent man.

In this second cartoon it sums up many stereotypes against Arabs in one picture. We also
can see how the media vilifies the Arabs. It is in a movie set in Hollywood; where the director is
of Jewish ethnicity. The scene is called GOOD AMERICAN GUYS VERSUS BAD ARAB
GUYS again the Arabs always depicted as bad people. In addition look how the bad Arabs is
portrayed, he is in a desert with a beard and a moustache and explosives wrapped around his
body. Paying attention to detail you can see that next to the film title it is written TAKE $, this
shows us typical Hollywood. In the majority of these movies the American is always portrayed

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as good but this is far from reality. Why does not the media represent the Americans as bad for
many of their atrocities their people once committed? The Arabs are targeted because it is much
easier for people to accept it. With people constantly being fed these images of Arabs it becomes
a lot easier to manipulate their way of thinking.

From all these stereotypes, a lot of unpleasant events occurred to the Arabs, the most
significant is that their humanity was stolen from them; also some unfortunate Arabs were
victims of hate crimes ,especially after 9/11. Isnt that terrorism? Why did nobody say its an act
of terrorism and label it as hate crimes? Isnt it inhumane to murder these innocent humans for
something a group of extremists who does not represent them have done? There is bad in every
corner of the world done by people from every race, but it is unjust to categorize one whole
ethnicity for the action of a group of people.

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The Appendix

First cartoon:

Second cartoon:

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Work Cited

First picture: https://now.mmedia.me

Second picture is by Carlos Latuff a Brazillian freelance political cartoonist.

5 Common Arab Stereotypes In Television And Film article on About News by

Nadra Kareem Nittle a Race Relations Expert.

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