The movie gave a lot of insight to how Arabs are being treated in the world and how the stereotypes in filmography are contributing to that. The movie explains how Arabs are either portrayed as buffoons only there to provide entertainment or cruel terrorists with no humanity. This draws a direct parallel to how we were describing the stereotypes in Aladdin. The movie describes how Aladdin actually uses a combination of all the stereotypes ever portrayed, from the dangerous desert, the torture threats, the barbaric manner and more, which is very interesting considering it is a childrens movie. The thing I find most upsetting is how this mindset is ingrained into everyone’s mind as we grew up. Books in the past also had bad renditions of Arabs and Muslims, but what really changed the outlook on Muslim citizens was 9/11, which got basically the whole country to blame Muslims and resulted in numerous hate crimes like being fired, profiled in airports, and even rounded up and detained while doing nothing wrong. It is hard to change our outlook because of how Arabs are portrayed with no humanity, so it is hard to give them some. I find it really powerful how the movie compares the stereotypes and treatment of Arabs to other minorities that have already been called out, like Jewish, African American people, Asians, and more. Nowadays, people get “canceled” or in trouble for speaking poorly on other minorities, so why is it not the same reaction when Americans and other people speak poorly on Arabs and force these stereotypes on innocent citizens? Because of the internal bias everyone has, and I think “Reel Bad Arabs” really illuminates that.
