All the Colors of the Wind? Not in Film or TV (or Real Life)
The Godfather. The Shawshank Redemption. Casablanca. Citizen Kane. The Avengers. Lawrence of Arabia. All of these are amazing films. However, there is something that connects them all together. Most of the main cast of any of these films are white. Morgan Freeman is the one exception and he’s the supporting actor in the Shawshank Redemption. Unfortunately, the scene that gave rise to the image above makes a solid and resounding point. Peter Griffin, the main character of Family Guy, is on his way to unwillingly go bomb a local bridge. The main villain in this episode is, as you probably guessed it by now, a Arab man who is found out to be a terrorist. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, this and some form of the color scale has unfortunately become the norm.
Most people were uneasy with people that looked like “terrorists” after the attacks, which isn’t surprising. The same reaction occurred when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Japanese people or people that were of Japanese were interned at camps in order to make sure that they didn’t send any valuable information “back” to Tokyo. The US Government even made a cartoon called Bugs Nips the Nips where they portray the Japanese as evil and incompetent. None of this racism was ever shown to the Germans or the Italians. In today’s day and age, it’s the same song, different tune. It isn’t the Japanese that are a threat in today’s world, it’s people who look and/or are Arab. One of the first scenes in Total Siyappa is the main character being arrested in the middle of the day all because of a incompetent British police officer hearing the word “bomb” in the conversation that the main character was having. Most movies have a caucasian lead actor. USC did a study and over 70% of lead actors are white. A British blogger has a quote that summarizes what people tend to miss:
“I realized that white people think that people of color only have ethnic experiences and not universal experiences.” — Nikesh Shukla
In Reel Bad Arabs, the fact that men of Arab descent are made out to be the bad guys in almost any film or show unfortunately rings true. In Aladdin, two of the villains are portrayed with However, this horrible portrayal doesn’t stop with the men. Women are made out to be one of two things, belly dancers or oppressed women. In the tv show American Dad, the wife of the Deputy Director of the CIA is captured and gets Stockholm Syndrome and becomes a “terrorist” as well. People tend to forget that the Middle East has contributed much to world history besides the bad things. Our numbers come from the Middle East as does Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity.
History is repeating itself yet again. This happened with the Japanese during WWII. It also happened with the Russians during the Cold War. This song and dance of discriminating against an entire group of people because of what a small
