Chat Room Logs

Here is a log for a chat that I had with two individuals about Arabs in the USA. Gea from Brazil and MRscramento from Morocco.

Local resources for Arabs in and around Reno, Nevada

This post will include a list of different community and religious centers for Arabs (both Christians and Muslims) in and around Reno, Nevada.

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Shaheen, J. G. (2001). Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood vilifies a people. Interlink Publishing Group.

Shaheen (mass communication, Southern Illinois Univ.; Arab and Muslim Stereotypes in American Popular Culture) has written a meticulous, passionate, and very articulate description of the persistent and prolonged vilification of Arab peoples in mainstream Western movies. Offering primarily reviews of the 900 films he has seen or researched over 20 years, he documents a century of offensive stereotypes and shows how the image of the "dirty Arab" has reemerged over the last 30 years, even as other groups have more or less successfully fought to eliminate the use of racist stereotypes. The appendixes include lists of the best and worst depictions of Arabs in popular films, alternate titles, a list of epithets thrown at Arabs in films, and a list of the fictional locations used in films. Although the work is aimed at a college-level audience, the clear writing and lack of jargon make it accessible to a much wider readership. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries, as well as for other libraries with collections dealing with racism or Arab culture.

Under this post I will list movies that will help me explore the opposing viewpoints about Arabs in the United States and develop my own critique about the way Hollywood present the Arab culture in the US.

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

In this note, I will post relevant articles that I found in the University of Phoenix Online Library about the topic of Arabs in the United States as well as Arabs and Family Therapy. I believe that learning about a culture is the first step in learning to appreciate the culture, the challenges that people in this culture experience when living in the United States. I also believe that by increasing my awareness to this culture, I will be able to overcome some of my own imprinted biases about this culture.

Cultural Challenge

The object of this is assignment is to push myself to examine a multicultural issue that might be a personal challenge for me as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Using my Self-Awareness analysis as a starting point I identified that one of the area of cultural challenge might be working with Arabs population is a therapy setting.

This blog will detail my learning about Arabs in the United States and will serve as a weekly reflective journal.

In the next few weeks, I will try to stretch myself. I believe that learning occurs in many venues, reading, both academic and fictional literature, and poetry can educate us to other cultural or ethnic groups. Films can expose us to issues with we have not been personally involved. Attending religious or cultural events can expose us to community that we do not encounter in our daily lives.

This blog will be integrated with the academic learning that is occurring in class CNSL557 - Social and Multicultural Foundations.