2021.5.22

     Today, we again learned about Palestine and Israel. Israel always reasons their act with self-defense. In fact, the amount of threat and allowed attack is proportional. Therefore, it’s actually Palestine that has the proper right to act in self-defense. However, media is making Palestine’s image worse by utilizing techniques and the entertainment industry.

     We watched a movie called “Reel Bad Arabs”. It was a summarized video of how Arabs were expressed in negative ways as well as what kind of dangerously consistent stereotype we have. There were often scenes of Arabic people doing suicide as terrorism, to make the climax of the story in the movies. Although Arabs have their unique culture, rules, and traditions, they were expressed as barbarians that easily commit crimes. Even Disney movies have these depictions. Aladdin’s theme song concentrated on the bad aspect of the Arab culture and that is similar to brainwashing considering the impact these movies gives on children’s mind. One shocking thing was that I, myself also had an unconscious bias toward people there. Looking back at myself, I had an image like “Arab is a country with wonderful culture and tradition as well as bad security”. At the same time, I had a strong image of an oil magnate. These millionaires are often portrayed as dumb and selfish middle-aged males (oversexed). This depiction is common in Japan too. I would feel really bad if Japan was portrayed this way because these images are not all true and even if it is, only negative parts of it are portrayed.

     Why are these happening? In fact, this again connects with ownership. 25% of Hollywood movies portray Arab in a negative way. There is one major company called MGM, the Metro Goldwyn mayor that owns a lot of studios in Hollywood. It is run by Jewish people and is clearly tilted toward Israel. I had never thought about searching about sponsors of popular movies it is shocking to know that