Page - 200 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Kenneth Starck | Perpetuating Prejudice 200 6. Analysis and Commentary: Toward Tolerance and Respect The evidence of negative portrayal of Arabs is compelling. Arabs, both those who have settled in the United States and others, have been portrayed in a generally negative light by the media ever since research has focused on the topic. The early stereotype of, say, a struggling immigrant peddler, keeps re- emerging to be reincarnated constantly and variously from a camel-riding, nomadic Bedouin to a wealthy oil tycoon, from a profligate “petrosheikh” to a threatening, bearded terrorist. The reasons for such treatment are not altogether clear, though it should be pointed out that media do not operate in a vacuum. Media are influenced heavily by the environment in which they operate. They are influenced by other circumstances including most especially government policies. This is a point underscored by Said (1981) in his discussion of the coverage of Islam. A full analysis of why this is the case with regard to Arab Americans is beyond the scope of this paper. Still, it is worth informed speculation. One reason certainly is simply the nature of the immigrant, that is, a person who not only comes to visit but to stay. Such people can represent a threat, economically, socially, culturally. In this regard, the Arab immigrant may be little different from other immigrants to the United States, say, Germans or Japanese. But there are other factors involved in the case of Arabs. These would seem to be largely political which in turn are related to economic and foreign interests. The Arab-American voice came late to the U.S. political process. It was only in the 1960s that Arab Americans caught on to the notion of organizing them- selves in a way to care for one another and to have a voice in the political process. As noted earlier, it took the Six-Day War of 1967 to provoke Arab Americans to political and social action. It is a shame that, as the research affirms, so little seems to have changed over time in the media portrayal of the Arab-American community. Could the research be suspect? Perhaps in some instances, say, where Arab organizations have sponsored the research. Or perhaps some investigators let their judg- ments be guided by the emotional and ideological nature of the topic. Even taking such factors into account, the evidence is overwhelming. An unmistakable and easily recognizable example of how media can portray the same facts in decidedly different ways occurred in reporting results of a nationwide Pew Research Center poll of Muslim Americans. The report found that Muslim Americans were “largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world” (“Muslim Americans” 2007). Yet some media reports, including the Associated Press, focused on the finding that Muslims younger than 30 were more likely than older Muslim Americans to