Stereotypes in ‘Operation Condor’

It’s difficult to believe that Laila Lalami thinks that more than a thousand years of the magnificent Islamic culture needs protection from a Jackie Chan movie or films like it, so I’m assuming her clever piece on 12 steps to creating cinematic Arab villains was tongue-in-cheek (“Arab-Bashing for Fun and Profit,” Counterpunch, July 28).

Even so, she blew it. She had the forum and missed the opportunity to be an equal-opportunity raiser of consciousness. What about the idiot stereotype of the Asian honed so perfectly by Chan in each new film? And someone must have been offended by the punching bags dressed up as women.

Heck, everybody in a Chan movie is an idiot stereotype. There’s plenty of room, so if we chose to be offended, let the sensibilities run as wide as they do deep and be offended by all of it.

KAREN SODIKOFF

Del Mar

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Laila Lalami seems to have missed the boat entirely regarding the Jackie Chan film “Operation Condor.” Most of the points Lalami makes about stereotyping of Arabs do not apply to the Chan film, nor could they, as virtually every ethnic group depicted in the film receives similar treatment. This is the manner of Chan’s movies.

Despite their action quotient, they are, at heart, comedies that poke fun at everyone, including the Chinese. Most of the humor, in fact, comes at Chan’s own expense, a tribute to his sense of comedy. Let us not forget that poking fun at people in a non-malicious way is what comedy is ultimately all about. It allows us to not take ourselves too seriously.

WADE MAJOR

Malibu

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It is hard to believe that a person who holds degrees in linguistics from USC and the University of London, as does Laila Lalami, could fail to understand the basic requirement for drama, which is conflict. Whenever you have conflict you are going to have a protagonist and an antagonist.

Further, it should be clear to anyone that Hollywood is an equal-opportunity stereotyper. Whatever ethnic, age, sex, religion, political affiliation or any other groups you belong to, you have been and will continue to be stereotyped by Hollywood.

Expecting action films, such as the one cited by Lalami, to have sensitive depictions of any group might be a little unrealistic. There are many instances in which people of diverse cultures are depicted in positive terms, especially children’s programming.

Finally, if any group deserves royalties for the way we have been portrayed in the popular media it is fathers, especially single fathers. I have been a single father for 12 years now, and I have never seen a realistic depiction of our circumstances. I suspect I never will, because it is mostly boring and, at times, a little depressing, while always a fulfilling experience. Come to think of it, that’s enough compensation. Keep your royalties.

LAWRENCE C. CAIRD

Palmdale

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If I may borrow some of the illogical reasoning used by Laila Lalami, since the bad guys in the vast majority of the thousands of western movies made in this country have been white males, where are my royalties? Exactly what is Lalami’s point? No bad guy can be Arab? That’s ridiculous. There’s no bad Arabs? Equally ridiculous. There’s bad everything, just as there is good everything.

Here’s my point. Every bad guy has to be something. They have to be either male or female. They have to be either Arab or Italian, Asian or German, Latino or Icelandic. They have to be short or not short, fat or not fat, mustachioed or not mustachioed, blond or not blond.

They all have to be from somewhere, look like something and be somebody. That means that sometimes they are your thing, just like sometimes they are my thing. Quit whining every time your group is a bad guy in a movie, and just enjoy the movie.

MICHAEL HELWIG

Canoga Park