The Comic Book Arab
by: Jack Shaheen
November - December
1991
The Link - Volume 24, Issue 5
Page 10
A fourth factor is fear. The characterization of Arabs as bandits, desert nomads, greedy sheikhs, and terrorists is a longstanding one. These images have become part of the folklore. Breaking with traditional stereotypes more often brings criticism than praise. Imagemakers fear the loss of the Arab as an everyday villain. Some worry that the Arab’s defection from the ranks of the enemy will cause a villain vacuum. Who, in short, will play their bad guys?
The motion-picture industry survived when they lost blacks, Indians, Germans and the Japanese as stock characters and grew better for it. And lest one think that positive ethnic portrayals cannot appear to a large mass audience, consider “The Cosby Show,” or “Dances with Wolves.” And consider Azeem, the Moor in the film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” Beloved of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood, Azeem is beloved of the movie audience as well. And a devout Muslim, too!
But enough of “why?” Rather, let us consider ways in which this imbalance can be combated. Surely, the most important step is to develop a regular dialogue with the comic book writers, illustrators and executives. Disagreeable portrayals of Arabs should no longer be met with silence, but with personal meetings, letters and phone calls expressing our displeasure and outrage. Concerned humanists need to persuade the industry that racist depiction of Arabs is as morally reprehensible as those of any other ethnic group. Imagemakers must acknowledge that Arabs are real people, worthy of our sympathy, respect and attention, and not the one-dimensional cardboard caricatures they are portrayed as.
Comic book images do not exist in a vacuum. They are read by millions of impressionable children and young adults, many of whom identify with the super heroes and heroines. Those in the comic industry are perhaps more aware of the power of their creations to impress than anyone else. Writes DC comics editor Dennis O’Neil in the postscript to Batman: A Death in the Family:
But these sagas (comic books) are more than just entertainments, at least to many readers; they are the post-industrial equivalent of folk tales and as such, they have gone pretty deeply into a lot of psyches. Some would say they should not be compromised because they touch the innocent part of us that can wonder, aspire, be amazed.
But, like the traditional folk tales, they must evolve. If they don’t, they may become irrelevant to THE REAL WORLD THEY MIRROR [emphasis mine] and thus lose their power to satisfy and amuse; they risk degenerating into mere curiosities instead of remaining vital fiction.
Yet, in DC Comics’ A Death in the Family Arabs are characterized as gun-toting terrorists, awkward, ill-groomed and anti-West. By continually portraying Arabs as villainous, comic books form an obstacle to understanding real Arabs. Mr. O’Neil insists that comic books must evolve to stay “vital fiction.” But the very images of Arabs as terrorists he considers a prime ingredient of the story’s realism. The Arab image has hardly evolved at all. Now is the time it did.
The comic Arab needs to be retired to the Acme Comic Book Graveyard of distorted images. The vision of Arabs as billionaires, bombers and belly dancers has become a tired, worn and dangerous cliche which has no place in a modern, sensitive and thinking America.
Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, a Fulbright scholar, is Professor of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
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