Perception of Arabs

The characterization of Arabs in the U.S. media is closely aligned with U.S. foreign and military policy. The media is instrumental in portraying stereotypes or perpetuating racism and prejudice against what becomes the "other." The "other" is necessarily portrayed as inferior or undesirable incomparable to mainstream American values and identity. Berkhofer's model for how media images of the "other" were used against Native Americans is a fitting model to explain the treatment of Arabs in the U.S. media since the 1940s:

Generalizing from one tribe's society and culture to all Indians,

Conceiving of Indians in terms of their deficiencies according to White ideals rather than in terms of their own various cultures, and,

Using moral evaluation as description of Indians.

These same criteria and media tools can be observed in U.S. media portrayals of Arabs since the 1940s. This analysis will examine the various portrayals of Arabs in the U.S. media through three periods (1940s-1960s, 1970s, and 1990s) in order to demonstrate how Arabs and Muslim culture are largely devalued and relegated to the modern "other" in U.S. media.

Arabs were largely romanticized and viewed as exotic and part of an alluring Orientalism during the 1940s. Hollywood films were fast to capitalize on such images of romanticized Arabs in a number of films. As Progler (2004) relates, "Oriental fantasies permeated American entertainment all through th

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rimitive, prisoners of their emotions, trapped in a patriarchal vise, and locked into jihad (interpreted as sanctifying bloodthirsty violence against all westerners)" (Wilkins and Downing 2002, 420). During the oil embargo and the 1970s, anti-Arab sentiment reached a peak in the U.S. prior to the hostilities against Arabs during the first Gulf War and the events of September 11, 2001. Media portrayals continued to undermine Arabs in comparison to Western or American ideals and values. Continued hostilities in the Middle-East between Arabs and Jews led to reaction against Arabs in many quarters of American society. As foreign policy began to oppose Arab interests and increasingly support Jewish interests, media portrayals pictured Arabs in an unfavorable light in order to generate public support for such policies. Xenophobia and ethnocentricity were also responsible for negative views of Arabs in the media in the 1970s. Susan Akram (2002) argues that a significant reason for negative depictions of Arabs in the U.S. media during this era and others stems from the desire of U.S. government officials to popularize foreign policy and American willingness to demonize the "other." As Akram (2002) maintains, "The demonizing of Arab

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