American Orientalism

Columbia Professor Edward Said, a Palestinian-American theorist, explored issues of Orientalism and why we have a “pre-conceived” notion of the people in the Middle East.

In the video Edward Said- On Orientalism, Said argued that because of the collection of images we see that are preconceived through images such as art and Hollywood, representations of the Middle East are consistently being distorted of the actuality of the people who live there.

Orientalism today is constantly being emphasized in Hollywood and by Journalists. In Hollywood films, Arabs almost always play a violent role. Said even mentioned how it is hard to find movies that are “sympathetic” towards Arabs.  Children movies such as Aladdin even play a role in distorting this image, reinforcing stereotypes and false beliefs within our society.  Furthermore, journalists choose to leave out several key facts to issues involving the Middle East such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which also contributes to our preconceived judgment.

This is a clip from the 2008 comedy film "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay".  Kumar is played by an American actor named Kal Penn.  Penn was born in New Jersey after his parents immigrated to the United States from India.  Because the news media and Hollywood almost always portray as terrorists as a darker skin tone, in the film Kumar is immediately mistaken for a terrorist on the plane.  

This demonization of “Middle Easterns” that we see subconsciously transfer into our lives, causing people to be extremely racist and dehumanizing.  An immediate example is one that Edward Said touched on, the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.  After the explosion FBI reported that a few Middle Eastern looking men were seen around the area.  Because of these one-sided representations, the men were immediately viewed as suspects.  However, it came as a shock to many to learn that the one responsible was not only a US citizen but was also a US Army veteran.  As Hall explains in “The Spectacle of the Other”, we understand the world by “referring individual objects, people or events in our heads to the general classificatory schemes into which—according to our culture—they fit” (Hall 257).  We have falsely paired the Middle Eastern look with terrorism, causing hate and violence.  But what can we do to reverse this racism and stereotyping?  As Said draws upon Anthony Gramsci’s theory, to “overcome the racist legacy of orientation”, we first need to interpret and make sense of it.  We need to give history sense to understand "oneself in relation to others" (Said) and transform itself from a "unitary identity to an identity that includes the other without suppressing the difference" (Said).  That.....both Gramsci and Said believe, is a great goal to overcome "the racist legacy of orientation" (Said).