Before I embark on reading "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye for class, I wanted to address the topic of Arab stereotyping. After September 11th, this stereotyping reached a whole new level. And I'm ashamed to admit, I contribute(d)to it. No, I did not verbally discriminate anyone or through my actions make any one feel unwanted.. but to this day when I get on a plane and I see an Arab, 9/11 quickly comes to mind. I dismiss this thought for I know that it is immature to relate all Arabs to the terrorists attacks of that tragic September day. But for that quick second, that thought was there. And I feel bad for it. The thing is, I know I am not the only one who takes part in airline passenger profiling. It's sad to think of all the innocent Arabs and Muslims that were taken off planes or not allowed to board because of their ethnicity.
The stereotyping of Arabs goes back way before 9/11. Think of the Disney movie, "Aladdin". Aren't all the characters Arabic? Then why is it that Aladdin and the Princess, who conveniently look so American, are the ones we are rooting for, while Jaffar, with his strong Arabic physical characteristics, is deemed the evil one? Sure, I never really picked up on this as a child, but now that I see this negative stereotyping I can't NOT see it. Children are being exposed to these negative stereotypes before they even leave the house and enter into the real world. No wonder negative stereotypes still exist. You can't get away from them.
I hope that "Habibi" will address such stereotypes, and get its readers to not only acknowledge that such stereotypes exist, but inspire its readers to no longer take part in stereotyping.
Here's a link to some more information on Arab stereotypes in the media: http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/jan98/anti_arab.html.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post!
I would honestly have to say after 9/11 when i got on a plane, i had the same reactions/feelings you did when i saw someone who was arab or muslim in the airport. I think the reasons we had/maybe still have these feelings is because of how much 9/11 really did affect us and our country. Also, to comment on your comment about Disney movies, maybe Disney is negatively stereotyping Arabs but what about beauty? Maybe they made Jasmine and Aladdin look different than Jaffar because Disney wanted to make them "more beautiful" so kids would be attracted to those characters more because they are good and beautiful. To me in Disney movies the good characters are always the more beautiful ones than the evil ones...
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