This article is a little old, however it is still very relative to what we talked about in class. The article talks about how the film, “The Dictator”, propagates negative stereotypes about Middle Eastern life today. The film shows a dictator, modeled after Muammar Gaddafi, who jokes about murdering his people in addition to riding around on a camel. Jack Shaheen, author of “Reel Arabs” argues that the movie reinforces older film stereotypes about the Middle East, such as Middle Easterners being portrayed as uncivilized or dirty. While some argue that the movie is meant to be satirical and was meant to help remove these stereotypes, many Arab Americans believe that the satire may be lost, and racist and untrue stereotypes may pop up in it’s place.
This article is connected to this course for a couple of reasons. The main reason is it’s negative stereotypes, which shows examples of what was talked about in “Reel Bad Arabs”. The article also shows that this is not a problem which only existed in the dawn of cinema, with “The Dictator” being released in 2012. Furthermore, it gives many interesting discussion points, such as whether there is a double standard with the portrayal of different races in films, or whether satirical works reinforce negative stereotypes rather than removing them.
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