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Arab American Narrative in the Media… Challenges and Call to Action!
Are you an Arab American residing in the US, and looking for a platform to promote your work of arts and creativity? This is not a promotional piece that is trying to market a website; it rather tries to understand the issue of Arab American representation and narrative in the US, and the problems we, as Arab Americans, face when we don’t have a credible platform that supports our identity and issues.
Today, the number of Arab Americans living in the US has risen, given the events that took place in the Arab world after 2011. Lebanese constitute the highest percentage of Arab Americans, followed by Syrians, and then Egyptians. For many generations, Arab Americans have been an integral part of American society, and there are a number of popular figures who are originally Arabs, such as, John Abizaid, Casey Kasem, Ralph Nader, Tony Shalhoub, Donna Shalala, and others.
Nevertheless, Arabs have been portrayed in a negative and stereotypical ways through the American media. An Arab is always the bad guy, who is dark skinned, and probably has a messy beard (Delta Force film series starring Chuck Norris is a good example). Even with efforts that try to portray Arabs positively, the result is not usually that impressive. In a recent film by Sean Mullin, entitled “Amira and Sam“, the Arab girl is portrayed as a “bad girl with Hijab.” Again, the film falls in to the trap of stereotypes, thinking it’s doing Arabs a favor, while it is not at all.
“The problem with the Arab narrative is that it’s very weak that others are taking the initiative and telling our stories and experiences through their point of view. The result of course is an orientalist view that misses on the beautiful details of our identity” says Warren David, president of Arab America.
“There is a need for a full-fledged, credible platform that adopts the Arab Americans point of view, and narrates their stories with their own words. I believe that is what young people should be doing with all this technology in their hands,” says David.
With this mission, Arab America launched recently a call to contributor writers and producers who would like to showcase their work, via articles, videos, podcasts, photographs, and share their stories with the world.
According to the Arab America website, “it is the goal to see that Arab America will change the negative prejudicial attitudes millions of Americans have about Arabs and Arab Americans.”
If you are a writer, artist, or a video producer, and would like to have your content disseminated via the Arab America digital platform, visit Arab America’s website. All you have to do is fill the form, and start your journey towards changing the image of Arab Americans in media and popular literature from here.
Samya Ayish
Contributing Writer
Arab America