Avani Gupta
Professor Albert
FYS 252
December 13, 2023
Is It Really That Hard To Not Be Racist?
In 1921, Paramount Pictures released The Sheikh, a silent movie outlining the romance between a white woman and an Arab Sheikh who kidnaps her after falling in love with her at first sight. Throughout the film, we see her struggling to get used to his harsh, barbaric ways and his softening treatment of her with a happy ending of them in love. Seemingly harmless and entertaining, this movie is rich with orientalist ideas and racism that rivals all the other movies we have watched so far in class.
The Orient is used to describe “Asia or the East, geographically, morally, culturally” (Said 31). Orientalism is, therefore, more or less the portrayal of the East, being the “Islamic world and Asia”, through the eyes of the West which can be described as “territories as far apart as North America, Europe, and possibly Japan” with “no obvious geographical meaning” (Ernst 4). Is it possible then to create Middle Eastern media accessible to English speaking audiences without underlying Orientalist or racist themes? First, let’s examine the traits that make media such as The Sheikh orientalist.
One common factor that immediately stands out as orientalist in movies is the villainization of Arab characters through actions, qualities, and ideals. In The Sheikh, Sheikh Ahmed Ben Hassan is described as a “savage”, or a “desert bandit” multiple times. He is portrayed as barbaric, as are the rest of the Arabs in the movie. The casual portrayal of Arab men as cruel, misogynistic, and hedonistic people who marry by buying slaves and kidnapping women is meant to juxtapose the collected, civilized Englishmen who properly court a woman and respect her as is evident in Ahmed’s conversation about Lady Mayo with his European friend Raoul. At the same time, however, the different lifestyle of the Arabs is meant to be exotic, and the film ultimately pushes for a positive image of Sheikh Ahmed, especially through the reveal of his identity as the son of an Englishman and a Spaniard which then makes his love with an Englishwoman appropriate and palatable to white audiences.
His actions towards Lady Mayo throughout the movie, with the forceful kissing and the kidnapping, are also distinctly deviant from social norms and morals- another method of the villainization of Arab characters. The movie is set in Biskra, although the representation is an unsurprisingly inaccurate reflection of the actual place or its people. This ties into another trait of oriental representation in media; the use of vaguely mystic “Eastern” lands far enough removed from Western reality to not be offensive, but inspired closely enough by real places to bear a flawed resemblance to the Middle East. This Goldilocks distance from the real world creates a perfect setting for Orientalist media. We see this in Disney’s Aladdin set in ‘Agrabah’, a vague and undefined place somewhere in mythical Arabia which creates a convenient excuse for blatant racism as well as the addition of exoticism, eroticism, and mystique without it being considered fetishization of Middle Eastern people.
A defining trait of Orientalism in media is how they’re largely projections of the West’s understanding of the East rather than a representation of the East as it is. As Said says when talking of British colonization in Egypt and the consequent orientalism, “British knowledge of Egypt is Egypt for Balfour” (Said 32). Likewise, it seems that the West’s knowledge of the Middle East is the East, and that seeps into the media created in an attempt to diversify entertainment. This brings us back to the question surrounding the possibility of the creation of media portraying the Middle East accessible to English speakers without Orientalism.
In my opinion, it is absolutely possible to produce such media, provided that the creators follow some basic principles. The most important principle is the intention behind creating movies about the Middle East. While entertainment is a fixed factor, the consideration of the target audience is essential. Is the media aimed at English-speaking audiences or white, Western audiences? Although there is a clear overlap in these pools, the meaning changes entirely when further thought is given to it. The latter inherently implies orientalist media seeing as it is aimed at entertaining audiences that fall perfectly in the category of “Western” despite the arguments over the term’s definition. This is what a lot of current media about the Middle East attempts to do. They create this Arabian fantasy land with fantastical people full of passion and lacking morals as a safe hub separate from the implicitly superior Western lifestyles. The emphasis is on entertainment, not representation. The former, however, emphasizes accessibility to larger audiences that are grouped by language and not race or ethnicity.
Another principle is the identity of characters. As opposed to the oriental trait of Arab characters as evil or the “other”, characters overall could afford to be more fleshed out beyond racial stereotypes. The Sheikh is a prime example of poorly written characters with just one focal trait as their defining quality. For example, Sheikh Ahmed is a barbaric Arab, Lady Mayo is resistant to social rules, etc. Their race becomes a cardinal trait rather than making them full of complexity and dichotomies which would make them seem far more human. This gross oversimplification adds no value to the plot beyond making it easier for the audience to categorize characters in their minds as simply good and evil, which is problematic considering the colored characters usually get the ‘evil’ tag.
A key step in moving away from Orientalism in entertainment is to create original works rather than use previous works as inspiration. It is fundamental to remind oneself, as a creator of media, that the previous works have roots in colonialist and racist views. They were created in times when this was widely acceptable and recycling such media does not serve a purpose beyond maintaining the status quo of racial stereotypes and furthering the regime of representation present currently. The Sheikh, being made in 192, gets away with a lot of the racist undertones and is in fact the aforementioned previous works inspiring new content. Working on instead doing more research, especially field research, with suspension of judgement and no previous intentions of highlighting certain features or qualities is the way to go. This will be enhanced by creating space for Middle Eastern people in the creative process and ensuring their voices are heard and amplified.
Creators also need to step away from the use of Arabia as a mysterious, far away, magical land and instead move toward accuracy in representation. This is something that is often placed lower in the list of priorities for fear of taking away the “magic”, but perhaps that is another question we need to ask ourselves as creators and audiences: why is the priority to entertain even if it is at the expense of perpetuating exotification of the Middle East?
To rephrase, is it really that hard to not be racist? At what point does the static nature of the current representation point to unwillingness rather than difficulty? The possibility of telling stories of the East without Orientalism can become reality, or at least more widely accessible with a change in intentions, and more thoughtfulness behind the content being created and pushed out. As the audience too, we need to actively bring creators and media that already do this to the forefront by increasing consumption and promotion of inclusive, or at the very least non-racist, content. We have to start raising questions about the current portrayal of the Middle East in media, the creators behind it, and challenge their resistance to change in the depiction of non-white people as a large.
Works Cited
“Islam in the Eyes of the West.” Following Muhammad, by Carl W. Ernst, The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Melford, George, director. The Sheikh. 1921.
“The Scope of Orientalism.” Orientalism, by Edward W. Said, Pantheon Books, 1978.
