WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Has the crowd dispersed now?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "No, its still out there, but unarmed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Just chanting. You know, standard 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 'Death to America' stuff." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 From True Lies to American Sniper, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 From 24 to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 western media is full of images of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 evil brown people who need to be wiped 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from the earth by noble righteous white men, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 heroically fighting for freedom and justice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And sure, it's so commonplace by this point 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that maybe you don't even bat an eye at 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 old-fashioned American Islamophobia 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in our media. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "[laughter] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [characters speaking in Arabic] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [protestors chanting in Arabic] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "This is a hijack!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [passengers screaming] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Sit down! Sit down!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Nobody move! Nobody!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "All right!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Engage hostile targets as they appear!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Waste the motherfuckers!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "You have killed our women and our children. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Bombed our cities from afar... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "like cowards...and you dare 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "to call us 'terrorists"?!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Here, my desert blossom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Keep the change! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Have you ever considered joining a harem?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Oh my God. They found me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I don't know how, but they found me." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Nooooooo!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What?! Back to the Future!! 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Even that beloved comedy classic 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 takes a moment to toss in a few scary brown men 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to menace and terrorize our white heroes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Unfortunately, we can't hop in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Doc Brown's DeLorean 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and undo all the harmful representations of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Muslims, Arabs, and Middle Easterners 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that have haunted our stories since, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 well, basically since the Crusades. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But we can make sure that history 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 doesn't keep repeating itself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Ok, ok. Maybe that's not entirely fair. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In some ways, things have changed. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Once upon a time, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 non-white actors could hardly 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 get any work in Hollywood at all. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 These days, shows like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Homeland and movies like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Executive Decision are providing some brown 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 actors with ample opportunity to portray 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 scary terrorists who get gunned down 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 while screaming something absurd like 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Death to America!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It doesn't even matter if you're not actually 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of Middle Eastern descent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you're vaguely brown, you can stick around 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (to play bad guys). 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Oh, are you an artist, Mr. Thurkettle?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "No, uh, sir. I work for a little company" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "called Texan Oil." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Well, there is no oil here, Mr Thurkettle." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Just sand." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Now sure, not every Middle Eastern character 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in films is a villain. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the 1920 box-office smash, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The Sheik, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the dashing hero gets the girl in the end. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But the Arab world of the film is presented as 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 exotic and dangerous, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the sheik himself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the one, good, heroic Arab, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is played by Italian-American heartthrob 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Rudolph Valentino. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You see, since he's not really Arab, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he's allowed to get the girl in the end. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you think this kind of racist coding 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to signify the difference between 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "good" Arabs and "bad" Arabs went away with the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 advent of talkies, think again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Have you ever noticed how in Disney's Aladdin, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the good guy might as well be 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a tanned American surfer dude, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but the bad guys look and sound a little more... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 uh, Arab? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "You are late." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "A thousand apologies, oh patient one." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "You have it then?" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I had to slit a few throats, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but I got it." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 While Hollywood has historically given 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "good" Arab roles to non-Arab actors, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it has also given not-so-good Arab 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and South Asian roles to white actors, too -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 denying brown people work and decent 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 on-screen representation in one fell swoop. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's basically the world's worst Catch-22. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For example, take Mr. Habib, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the scheming Middle Eastern villain in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Father of the Bride 2, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 who's played by Eugene Levy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "The Habibs would like to buy the house, George." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "It's exactly what they've been looking for!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "We've lived here for 18 years." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I don't know if we can get everything--" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [vaguely Arabic soundingibberish] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Those aren't even 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