Arabs’ Media Image, in the Eyes of Readers

The response to Howard Rosenberg’s July 30 column, “Negative Stereotyping Distorts Arabs’ Image” was extensive, with roughly 95% favoring Rosenberg’s point of view. Here is a sampling.

I read your article today and am afraid that you have mixed two different concepts in a dangerous manner. One of them being the way in which all forms of the media create and maintain images of certain groups or individuals. I agree that the popular media have portrayed the Arabs as aggressive and sometimes inhuman. But, comparing the opening scene of a television drama to the current conflict that is taking place in Israel/Palestine seems not only ridiculous but absurd. I have lived in Israel for a little more than one year and I am afraid that during that time most news/media have portrayed the Arabs as helpless victims. A careful examination of the situation will illuminate that both Jews and Arabs have made mistakes, been aggressors and been victims. It will also show that it is nothing like a television drama series or what is sensationalized in the Western media.

GARY GARRISON

Doctorate student, Tel Aviv University

I’m an Arab American of Jordanian heritage and immigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago. I have since earned my degree and served honorably as a United States Air Force officer for eight years and continue to serve as a traditional reservist. When I’m not serving I hold a civilian job as a network engineer where I’m a contributing member of society and a citizen in good standing. I say all of this not to boast but rather to make a point that there are many more Arab Americans out there who are equally if not more successful and respected members of society.

I don’t view myself as anything special but rather as the norm. I’m just as productive and dedicated to peace as the Arab American grocery store owner, the Arab American scholar, the Arab American serviceman, the Arab American public servant, and the many more Arab American citizens of this country that go on daily unnoticed and unrecognized in the media.

We (Arab Americans) tend to take a backstage approach in defending ourselves. It is unfortunate that the few that do speak out are looked upon negatively by many media organizations and the like.

CASEY AJALAT

Boston

I have just finished reading your column about the demonization of Arabs in the American media. In my own life, I have found it very easy to become friends with moderate Jews, while I would not even imagine having any kind of relationship, let alone friendship, with extremist Arabs or Muslims. Interestingly, I have found the same feelings expressed by my Jewish friends with respect to extremist Jews and Israelis.

Isn’t that something wonderful? Our moderate views are what brought us together, not a shared ethnicity or faith. And shared ethnicity or faith did not form a basis for having friends among our own groups if they diverged from moderate views. There’s no such thing as an all bad race, faith or nationality. If there’s anything in the world deserving of negative stereotyping it’s the extremists found in all faiths, races and nationalities.

HESHAM (SAM) SABRY

Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

There is no denying that Arabs are misunderstood and maligned in the American press and public opinion. According to a Gallup poll from July 2001, 41% of Americans say that in the Middle East situation, their sympathies are more with the Israelis, while 11% say their sympathies are more with Palestinian Arabs. Nine percent say they are sympathetic to both sides, 18% are sympathetic to neither side and 21% have no opinion.

I am not of Arab or Jewish descent and furthermore, as a Christian, I, too, held strong pro-Israeli sympathies as I grew up. Then, because of my husband’s military assignment in the Middle East, I moved to Amman, Jordan during the ‘80s and lived there for two years. I made Arab friends, traveled throughout Jordan and to Israel and Syria and began to develop new insights based on what I saw there. My old prejudices gradually melted away.

Even if we do not understand or care to examine the Arab-Israeli conflict too closely, as Americans, let us take care not to paint Arab Americans with the same kind of brush.

SHARON E. HOCKENSMITH

San Dimas

Your article caught me by surprise, but a pleasant one I would say. If it was not published in a respectable newspaper I would have thought it was written by an Arab disguised under what looks to me a Jewish name. I do applaud your courage to write such an objective article at a time when Arabs and Muslims are bashed right and left not just by “respectable” columnists but also by the administration at the highest level. What made this possible is the negative stereotyping of Arabs and Islam that has left the conscience of the nation numb to the extent that the American public does not care. I wonder if the people who are running this campaign against the Arabs and other minorities in America have ever thought that the same weapon can be turned on them in the future? And if they feel safe now aren’t they worried about their children and grandchildren?

JAWAD KARIM Internet

The negative stereotyping of Arabs is normally a taboo subject. No doubt you will be inundated by hate mail, criticizing you for betraying Israel, Jews, all who stand for the American way of Life. Ask most people how many Arabs they know and usually they don’t know any. If you ask them if they know any Christian Arabs they will quickly tell you that all Arabs are Muslims and thus all terrorists. It’s time everyone take a breath and realize that there is no justification for stereotyping anyone of any race, nationality or religion. The entertainment industry is powerful enough to demonize anyone they wish, and whatever they wish will soon spill over into popular sentiment regardless of its reality. Arabs are simply people who, through no choice of their own, were born into that race and/or nationality. May God help those who do so much harm for demonizing someone who is born into it and suffers at the hands of others because of it. FR. JAMES BABCOCK Placentia

Refreshing article. I’d like to add some comments about stereotyping from my own experience, if I may. Being Lebanese-born and having lived in the U.S. for the past 22 years, I can tell you that airports are probably the worst place for an Arab American to be. I have been stopped and questioned while boarding a plane and while walking inside the tunnel toward the plane. Of course this is after the security check I have learned to expect. I understand the security personnel’s duties and have accepted the extra searches beyond the security gates. It is the people’s reaction that is usually the worst. On two occasions in the last year, I have been waiting for boarding when, for security reasons, the terminal had to be evacuated and all passengers had to leave the gate area and proceed toward the security gates.

The lines were horrendous, but the worst part was the blaming looks people gave me while waiting in line to go through security. If your article makes some of these people think twice next time before giving the Arab-looking man next to them a blaming look, then you would’ve made the experience a little more bearable to law-abiding citizens like me. NASSER ABBOUD Internet

It must be very easy to blame the media for fabricating distorted images of the Arab world. It must be very easy to embrace the idea of moral relativism and resort to condescending liberalism. It must be very easy to escape reality and pretend that we are living in a dream world where all of the people are civilized and where we (USA) have no foreign enemies, just people with different opinions.

But then again you’re a TV critic so to expect you to deal with realities of our world is as fruitless as expecting George W. Bush to score highly on an IQ test. But your article was so one-sided and dishonest that I feel it deserves a response.

Let’s start with Pakistan, Howie, where unmarried girls get stoned to death if they are caught talking to the members of the opposite sex. What about the Taliban in Afghanistan, who blow up the Buddhist statues. What about Iran, that constantly calls for the destruction of Israel and backs Hezbollah that launches attacks on Israeli villages in the North. Oh yeah, don’t their clerical leaders regard the U.S. as a “Great Satan”? Very tolerant, ha? And on and on and on .... But you’re going to say that I only brought up extremes. If you really believe that then why don’t you travel to some of these places and mingle with the ordinary tolerant masses and introduce yourself as Howard an American Jew and see how warm your reception is at the hands of the ordinary people. Do us all a favor and don’t patronize us with your dishonest liberalism.

MARAT GALPERIN

Internet

Thank you for your article on Arab stereotyping. I agree with it 100%, except for one minor detail: “ ... But Muslims and Arabs seem to be the only people stereotyped 100% of the time.”

Wrong!

I have observed who the bad guys are portrayed to be in the movies. Nine times out of 10, the bad guy is German or Germanic, i.e. has a German accent, has blond (usually short-cropped) hair and steely, cold-looking blue eyes. This unemotional being is invariably trying to “take over the world.”

The 10th time, the bad guy will be an Arab.

DOLORES SCHATZ

Internet