Nineteenth-century Orientalist stereotypes still shape modern media portrayals

Evidence

Like other Europeans and Americans, he expressed a vision of a romanticized East inhabited by childlike, simplistic, and violent Arabs, Turks, and Imazighen. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this Orientalist vision has continued to have currency. The average person continues to hold visions of “the East,” “the Orient,” and “Muslims” that are situated in these old constructions. It is no wonder, given the constant stream of Orientalism and Islamophobia available in print media, television, and movies. The portrayal of Muslims as the antithesis of good Americans is not only common—it is the norm. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 46

Categorization

• CANDY: The compression of two centuries into a continuing media stereotype is a crisp point: the image predates and persists through modern screens unchanged.
• XREF: connects to: Textbook portrayals of minorities were historically biased, stereotypical, and Eurocentric — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1105