Why The Stereotypes?

From Our Blog

"Orientalism involves a way of seeing the other (the Arab) that justifies an ongoing system of domination. Edward Said’s landmark analysis of the problem, Orientalism (1978), is now forty years old, and yet the phenomenon it describes feels as entrenched and normalized as it was when he wrote it."

Dr. Jack Shaheen Established an Entire Field of Study 1935-2017

Written by Professor Evelyn Alsultany My personal experience with Dr. Shaheen is a testament to his generosity and kindness as a scholar and mentor as well as his accomplishments and legacy for the field of Arab American Media Studies. This narrative itself emerges from a moment during one of two interviews I was fortunate enough to conduct with Dr. Shaheen, once via Skype at an Arab American Civil Rights conference in Dearborn, Michigan, organized by the National Network of Arab American Communities in 2015, and once at the University of Michigan in 2016.

Who Else Has Been An Other?

The term “Othering” refers to the processes by which societies and groups exclude those whom they want to subordinate. Othering creates contrasting differences that involves producing narratives and images about a group of people that demonizes or dehumanizes them. It provides the justification to treat these Others as inferior.

Othering is a recurring historical phenomenon that is not unique to Arabs. Various groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and white ethnic Americans have been stereotypically represented at different time periods, such as the eras of U.S. colonization and slavery, WWII, and the Cold War.

There are three common ways in which an Other is created. Here we identify three particular ways, animalization, naturalization and infantilization, delineated in Ella Shohat and Robert Stam’s book Unthinking Eurocentrism. By providing a framework of common modes of Othering, our hope is that visitors will be able to more readily identify the process of Othering through these categories.

> Representing the Other as Animals
> Representing the Other as Closer to Nature
> Representing the Other as Child-Like

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Steretypical Image

The Races of Men. Illustration from the World Book Encyclopedia, 1928 Courtesy of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle WA. Imagery that exaggerates differences between racial and ethnic groups is a recurring historical phenomenon that is not unique to Arabs and Muslims.

Stereotypical Image

Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Niggers, 1939. Courtesy of the Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan. This novel was renamed And Then There Were None in the late 40s and all instances of the slur were removed from the book. The use of the pejorative was due to the nursery rhyme “Ten Little Niggers” (“Indians” and “Soldiers” in later editions) which serves as the methods for the ten murders in the plot.

Stereotypical Image

Playing cards with racist stereotypical cartoon decorations. “Niggers and Caricatures,” Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan.

Stereotypical Image

2003 Bandito Dice Game. One of the dominant stereotypes for Latinos is played up on this dice game. This is just one of many examples of stereotypes still in use within the last decade. Image from Authentic History Center http://www.authentichistory.com

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Racist images on promotional calendars from 1906 and 1938. Objects in THEM: Images of Separation, traveling exhibition, Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan.

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Dixie Boy crackers packaging. Jim Crow Museum, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan. One of the most common racial stereotypes is picturing the Other as child-like and uncultured.