Comments on: Arab actors and Hollywood

By: Nadia

Nadia — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 23:59:22 +0000

Ah, thanks for clarifying.

By: Hollywood's Arab Catch-22 - Global Grind: Social Issues

Hollywood's Arab Catch-22 - Global Grind: Social Issues — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:34:21 +0000

[...] themselves inâ€”either swallow their pride and play offensive roles, or find other professions. Read More at The Arabist Published Oct 05 2007, 01:36 PM by bruddy Filed under: actors, 9/11, iraqwar, stereotypes, [...]

By: SP

SP — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:08:52 +0000

My point was that the TV producers chose a Pakistani kid and chose to focus on his being Muslim as “alienness” instead of choosing an Arab kid and making it about “Arabness” - but perhaps it didn’t make such a difference given that most viewers (and reviewers, clearly) are unlikely to distinguish between the two. I wonder if they considered it more of a challenge, to make a Pakistani sympathetic in today’s America. By giving him an ‘Apu’ accent and making him a naive, child-like character, they are certainly tapping a more sympathetic ‘immigrant character’ type than a classic ‘reel bad Arab’ type.

The show is interesting on all sorts of levels, idiot commentator Mike’s preconceptions aside.

By: Mike Nargizian

Mike Nargizian — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 05:37:28 +0000

Yeah Nadia while SP was trying to point out further “hypocrisy and prejudice” he/she exposed his/her own ignorannce! That’s pretty classic, lmao!
I don’t buy the idea that Arabs are always villified in Hollywood… how about in the movie A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas and Gweneth Paltrow where she actually speaks Arabic to the head cop who is shown to be an honorable “good guy” in the movie…

Btw, just as an aside…….. is the way Arabs are treated in Hollywood better or worse than the way Jews are portrayed in the Egyptian and Syrian movies? or television series?
Just curious about that one?

By: Nadia

Nadia — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:53:05 +0000

SP, why would they pitch him as an Arab if he’s not one? Afhganistan is considered part of the middle east now, maybe India and Sri Lanka will be next.

By: Hollywood Shuffle remix « Alif Sikkiin

Hollywood Shuffle remix « Alif Sikkiin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 18:42:17 +0000

[...] 4th, 2007 · No Comments The Arabist has excerpts from an L.A. Times piece on the type-casting of actors of Middle Eastern heritage as [...]

By: SP

SP — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:01:46 +0000

Have you been reading about this new show called Aliens in America, about a painfully dorky high school kid in Wisconsin and the Pakistani exchange student (who combines all the cliches) who comes to live with his family? Lots of reviews mistake “Pakistani” for “Middle Eastern” but it’s interesting to see how the show chose to pitch the kid as “Muslim” and not “Arab.”

http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/the-magic-muslim