A million little Osamas essays

A million little Osama's essays The Image of Arabs in American Popular Culture Hollywood is arguably the most important ISA (ideological state apparatus) in modern America. More than from parents, school or church do children get their ideas and values from the celluloid. This imposes on the movie industrys executives the great responsibility of not only entertaining people, but also to be the guardians of the set of values the Western world holds dear: equality, freedom and maybe most importantly, respect for one another. According to Professor Jack G. Shaheen, Hollywood is not taking this responsibility when it comes to one ethnic group: Arabs. For Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People, Shaheen screened over 900 films that have come from the Mecca of American film since 1898 and he came to a dazzling conclusion: Hollywood depicts Arabs as evil villains. They are either crazed terrorists who want to destroy America or wealthy oil-sheiks with large limousines, who aim at taking over America by simply buying it. Shaheens argument is in concordance with the writings of Edward Said, who in Orientalism showed how Westerners view Arab culture as a whole, neglecting the fact that it is as diverse as European culture, and collectively feel threatened by the Orient and its people: the other. When one looks through the eyes of Shaheen at films like True Lies (1996), The Siege (1998) and Rules of Engagement (2000), his conclusion seems valid. These films indeed seem to have been made for the sole purpose of representing the Arab people negatively. As Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said (about The Siege): Given how vulnerable Arab-Americans are to defamation, was this film really necessary? (Shaheen 430). To make a counterfactual link between Hollywoods vilification of Arabs (often wrongly used as a synonym for Muslims) and the hate crimes committed against Arab-Americans after 9/11 may be far...