What do the TV show “Homeland” and the movie “Aladdin” have in common? They share a disturbing connection — the perpetuation of the villainization of Arab men.
“Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense, it’s barbaric but hey, it’s home.”
Aladdin’s opening song, “Arabian Nights,” sets the racist undertones for the rest of the movie. In the fictitious realm of Agrabah, Princess Jasmine and Aladdin, the film’s protagonists, are English-speaking with no accents and light-skinned. By contrast, Jafar, the main antagonist, is dark-skinned, sinister and power-hungry. He speaks with an exaggerated, thick accent that does not reflect any Arab dialect. The entire movie — from its setting to its characters — is a distorted amalgamation of both Arab and South Asian cultures and highlights the West’s homogenization of the Eastern world.
In “Homeland,” the primary antagonist of season one is Abu Nazir, a Palestinian terrorist and al-Qaeda commander who holds ex-Marine and prisoner of war Nicholas Brody captive, radicalizing him and convincing him to serve as a suicide bomber attempting to kill high ranking political figures. This narrative choice reinforces many harmful prejudices, namely that Arab men are terrorists and they are prone to radicalization. Beyond Nazir, the show has highly stereotyped depictions of Arabs, Pakistanis and Afghans, continuously feeding into stark misrepresentation and prejudice — so much so that when street artists were asked to add authenticity to scenes of Syrian refugee camps in the show, they graffitied “Homeland is racist” in Arabic on the walls.
These types of portrayals have harrowing real world consequences, as they lead to damning perceptions of the morality of Arab men. By upholding their roles as antagonists and framing their actions and their beings through extremist ideologies, these depictions inundate American culture with the imagined threat of Arab men. The cultivation theory highlights that being exposed to too much television and film creates illusory perceptions of reality, mainly caused by the repetition of certain images in various contexts. As individuals are continuously exposed to this type of content, they can not only internalize these biases, but they can also integrate them into their perception of the world and their actions.
The consequences of this media driven dehumanization are not confined to fictional narratives and have detrimental real life consequences. In the media, when talking about the deaths of Palestinians, most often women and children are mentioned, while the Palestinian men that were killed are hardly ever mentioned — a narrative reflected even in international appeals, such as when French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to stop killing Gaza’s women and babies, with no mention of the men. The propaganda against Arab men has been so successful that it is entrenched into the consciousness of the public to the point where they often cannot exist outside the lens of terrorism. This dehumanization was also shown in the tragic shooting in Burlington, Vermont, when three college students of Palestinian descent were shot at close range while wearing their keffiyehs — the symbolic Palestinian scarf — and speaking Arabic. ACLU of Vermont Advocacy Director Falko Schilling said he believes the state hate crimes statute could apply in this case, which prompts a poignant reflection: Would this tragedy have unfolded if not for the media’s relentlessly racist portrayal of Arabs?
The distorted lens through which Arab men are portrayed in Western media has influences far beyond the screen — it influences public opinion, policy decisions and, ultimately and irrevocably, the lives of Arabs. Recognizing the urgency for change, a wave of activism on social media has emerged as a dynamic catalyst for change. Across different platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, creators are reclaiming narratives and amplifying authentic voices. This movement is exemplified by journalists in Palestine and activists worldwide, advocating for justice. Their endeavors stand as a testament to the use of social media as a force for positive change. Only through authentic portrayals that dismantle prejudices and represent true experiences can we hope to move beyond these confines of white supremacy, and create a more inclusive narrative.