The Cinematic "Arab

Sociological theorizing on race emphasizes the importance of recognizing both the ideological and structural dimensions of racial projects. Ideological dimensions manifest themselves in narratives, stereotypes, and representations, while structural dimensions are identified through laws, policies, and concrete micro and macro level practices. In the U.S., the sociology of race that dominated the second half of the twentieth century centered its work on ideologies, while paying less attention to structural practices, therein supporting the claim that since ideas about and attitudes toward race have changed for the better, we now live in a post-racial society. Using this framework of ideologies and practices, as well as Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s articulation of racial projects, I demonstrate the ways in which Arab Americans have been racialized and account for why this process has produced some consequences that differ from those of historically racialized groups. For example, its outcomes are not firmly tied to domestic socio-economic subordination, due in part to the racial project’s different timing, objectives, and trajectory. I further argue that although their history with race is different from that of East and South Asian Americans, the "War on Terror" racial project that ensnared Arab Americans eventually expanded to include South Asians via its ideological extension to Muslims, the deployment of the socially constructed notion of the “Middle Easterner,” and its ocular representation as a “type of brown” terror threat. This ideological and representational convergence manifests itself in government policies and macro- and micro-popular practices that simultaneously target Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians, and persons perceived to be members of these groups. The "War on Terror" racial project is a newer, different, and global racial project that intersects with the historic project of domestic white supremacy.

International Migration Review, 2011

Jack G. Shaheen, in his two latest books Reel Bad Arabs and Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11, extensively discusses the inhuman depiction of Arabs on Hollywood screen. He points out that a large number of Hollywood films has perpetuated a demeaning image of Arabs and contributed in generating several cultural misconceptions about them. Similarly, in his analysis of three particular Hollywood films produced in the seventies (The Exorcist, Rollover, and Black Sunday), Tim Semmerling contends that the misrepresentation of Arabs in these films served to stabilize Americans’ feelings of superiority and control that started to shake after the oil crisis in the seventies. Prior to Shaheen’s and Semmerling’s works, Edward Said, in his milestone books, Orientalism and Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, examined the essentialist approach that western media has invariably adopted vis-à-vis the social, political and economic realms of the Arab world. Said believes that the idea about the Orient as the exotic and inferior

2007

The 9/11 terrorist attacks and heavy-handed state and popular response to them stimulated increased scholarship on American Muslims. In the social sciences, this work has focused mainly on Arabs and South Asians, and more recently on African Americans. The majority of this scholarship has not engaged race theory in a comprehensive or intersectional manner. The authors provide an overview of the work on Muslims over the past 15 years and argue that the Muslim experience needs to be situated within race scholarship. The authors further show that September 11 did not create racialized Muslims, Arabs, or South Asians. Rather, the authors highlight a preexisting, racializing war on terror and a more complex history of these groups with race both globally and domestically. Islamophobia is a popular term used to talk about Muslim encounters with discrimination, but the concept lacks a clear understanding of race and structural racism. Newer frameworks have emerged situating Muslim experiences within race scholarship. The authors conclude with a call to scholars to embark on studies that fill major gaps in this emerging field of study—such as intersectional approaches that incorporate gender, communities of belonging, black Muslim experiences, class, and sexuality—and to remain conscious of the global dimensions of this racial project.

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

The 9/11 terrorist attacks and heavy-handed state and popular response to them stimulated increased scholarship on American Muslims. In the social sciences, this work has focused mainly on Arabs and South Asians, and more recently on African Americans. The majority of this scholarship has not engaged race theory in a comprehensive or intersectional manner. The authors provide an overview of the work on Muslims over the past 15 years and argue that the Muslim experience needs to be situated within race scholarship. The authors further show that September 11 did not create racialized Muslims, Arabs, or South Asians. Rather, the authors highlight a preexisting, racializing war on terror and a more complex history of these groups with race both globally and domestically. Islamophobia is a popular term used to talk about Muslim encounters with discrimination, but the concept lacks a clear understanding of race and structural racism. Newer frameworks have emerged situating Muslim experien...

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 2009

Against the Current, 2013

Critical Philosophy of Race, 2021

Here, the claim that Middle Eastern (MENA) persons are racialized is a response to complexities that define the United States (US); namely, the language of race is seen as antiquated or misleading, and thus it fails to capture MENA American experiences, leading some to call for different terminology (i.e., xenophobia or Islamophobia). The author argues that we should call social-political violence committed against MENA people racism because to name it otherwise is to ground the experience in an incomplete description which affords lighter moral responsibility and omits historical conflict. The article first elaborates the problem of racial conflict in the US and the specific problem of MENA racialization. It then responds with a historical argument that emphasizes key genealogical markers in the co-emergence of orientalism, colonialism, and racialization. The article closes by contrasting the idea of race with competing terms to defend its use on descriptive and normative grounds.