Jack Shaheen (1935-2017)
Media depictions of Arabs and Muslims as backward and violent pollute the minds of many and help fuel continuing militarism in the Mideast by the US government.
The critical importance of those denigrating images and stereotypes was what made Jack Shaheen’s work so vital. A longtime FAIR friend, Jack died on Monday. A humanist to the core, he warned about the creation of
the character whom we hate and we detest, who is subhuman, who is different from you and me. That’s vilification.
His books include The TV Arab (1984), Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2001—and made into a 2006 documentary) and Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11 (2008). They offered a parallel critique of popular culture to Edward Said’s work in books like Orientalism, which focused on Western literature’s frequent depiction of “the East” as “the Other.”
Following FAIR’s 1992 expose, “Can You Believe What CBS Says About Arabs?“—which revealed network personnel sitting by as former diplomat Henry Kissinger slurred Arab people—CBS hired Jack, a professor of media studies, as a consultant. In time, he consulted for Hollywood films, including Three Kings and Syriana. At a recent talk at a conference on pro-Israel lobbying, he said that the original scripts for those movies were extraordinarily problematic, but, especially with him on the set, he was able to get 90 percent of what he asked for.
In his speech earlier this year, Jack stressed the damage done following 9/11 by TV shows like 24, as they filled the void created by the virtual invisibility of Arabs and Muslims in mass entertainment media. He also stressed the importance of academics and activists engaging media producers early on in the creative process—something he practiced with a unique gentle tenacity. In addition, he highlighted how crucial it is for there to be more presence and participation of Arabs, Muslims and others unfairly depicted—that they should be creating film and other media.
Jack’s interest in Arab stereotypes was sparked by his outrage at seeing his children talking about “bad Arabs” after watching Saturday morning cartoons (Angry Arab, 7/11/17). Prior to focusing on depictions of Arabs, he had done academic work on media, especially about children’s programing, and co-edited a book, Nuclear War Films.
His work broke new ground, and he often cited the support of his wife, Bernice. His love of films was fostered as a child, when his mother, a Lebanese immigrant, worked as a cashier at a movie house in Pittsburgh. His collection of thousands of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim depictions is now housed at New York University. FAIR offers condolences to Jack’s friends and family.
This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News with permission from FAIR.