Army of Dog

Hollywood hates Arabs. At the least Hollywood uncritically reflects the fact that Americans hate Arabs. That’s why we make them the bad guys in all of our movies. How else would you explain the fact that Arabs keep showing up as the bad guys in movies about terrorism? I could understand the meme if most of the people out doing crazy shit like flying airplanes into buildings and blowing up schoolchildren were Arab Muslims, but most of that stuff is being done by little old Irish ladies from what I can tell.

Luckily, Jack Shaheen agrees with me about the whole “Hollywood unfairly portrays Arabs” thing, so he wrote a book called Guilty — Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11. In the book he apparently singles out movies that he thinks are the worst offenders. Films like The Kingdom and television shows like 24 have unfairly created an “Arab-American bogeyman.” If Hollywood were responsible when they make terrorism films, they would have the villain be Italian or maybe a militant Native Hawaiian separatist. Anything but an Arab Muslim.

Here’s a comparison list of Jack’s good films vs. bad films in terms of Arab Muslim portrayal:

I know what you’re thinking, “Brett, all of those films in the ‘good’ column seem to be virulently anti-American, anti-military, and anti-Bush Administration films. Is it possible that a man who describes himself as ‘a committed internationalist and a devoted humanist‘ might, perhaps, be making this ridiculous contention in an attempt to equate narratives that don’t fit a left-wing view of terrorism with ethnic bigotry?” To which I say “RACIST!!!”